Genitals and ethnicity: the politics of genital modifications

@article{Johnsdotter2010GenitalsAE,
  title={Genitals and ethnicity: the politics of genital modifications},
  author={Sara Johnsdotter and Birgitta Ess{\'e}n},
  journal={Reproductive Health Matters},
  year={2010},
  volume={18},
  pages={29 - 37}
}
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83 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
4
Background Citations
28
Methods Citations
2
Results Citations
2

83 Citations

Promoting genital autonomy by exploring commonalities between male, female, intersex, and cosmetic female genital cutting
TLDR
A desire to prevent alternative sexualities helps explain the origins of MGC’s medicalization starting in the nineteenth century, as well as the roots of the failed attempt to similarly medicalize FGC.
Current critiques of the WHO policy on female genital mutilation
TLDR
Comparing recent comparative studies of medically unnecessary genital cutting of all types, including those affecting adult women and teenagers in Western societies, individuals with differences of sex development (DSD), transgender persons, and males, are highlighted.
Reasons behind female genital cutting-a literature review
  • Medicine
  • 2014
TLDR
Female genital cutting is a multifaceted process, which is constantly negotiated in a diversity of social settings, and a variety of socio-cultural myths, religious, hygienic and esthetic concerns can be found behind the decision to subject a girl to the practice.
Genital Cutting as Gender Oppression: Time to Revisit the WHO Paradigm
  • B. Earp
  • Political Science
    Frontiers in Human Dynamics
  • 2022
The World Health Organization (WHO) condemns all medically unnecessary female genital cutting (FGC) that is primarily associated with people of color and the Global South, claiming that such FGC…
Female Genital Mutilation. Overview and Current Knowledge
TLDR
The prevalence of FGM and its variation over time in the different regions of the world is examined, and current knowledge of the determinants of the practice and its effects on health and sexuality is presented.
Projected Cultural Histories of the Cutting of Female Genitalia: A Poor Reflection as in a Mirror
Current public debate on “female genital mutilation” often renders the impression that it is possible to draw an unambiguous line between acceptable and condemnable practices of female genital…
Re-thinking the Zero Tolerance Approach to FGM/C: the Debate Around Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery
TLDR
Drawing on the burgeoning medical, social science, and humanities literature surrounding labiaplasty, the paper documents the narrowing of aesthetic standards governing ‘normal’ genital appearance and finds that, in addition to adult women, thousands of adolescents have undergone these operations whose long-term health consequences are unknown.
Ethical and Sociocultural Aspects of Sexual Function and Dysfunction in Both Sexes.
Meaning well while doing harm: compulsory genital examinations in Swedish African girls
TLDR
An empirical example of how politics in western multicultural societies may negatively influence the sexual health and rights of a target group is offered, in this case, girls and young women whose families originate from countries where circumcision of girls is practiced.
The Problem of Female Genital Cutting: Bridging Secular and Islamic Bioethical Perspectives
TLDR
It is argued that alignment between secular and Islamic views can be found in a harm-reduction strategy by demonstrating that the impetus to reduce harms is found within Prophetic statements on FGC.
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References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 55 REFERENCES
From clitoridectomies to ‘designer vaginas’: The medical construction of heteronormative female bodies and sexuality through female genital cutting
TLDR
This discussion reveals how various cultures and people–including women themselves–use FGC to influence and enforce Western medically constructed female embodiment(s) of heteronormative femininity and sexuality.
Female genital mutilation in the West: traditional circumcision versus genital cosmetic surgery
TLDR
The Scandinavian legislation on female genital mutilation is presented and the implications of the laws are explored, contrasting trends of plastic genital surgery in the West with claims that female circumcision may be a practice generally abandoned in Scandinavia.
Transcultural Bodies: Female Genital Cutting in Global Context
TLDR
"Transcultural Bodies" provides an ethnographically rich exploration of FGC among African diasporas in the United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia and analyzes changes in ideologies of gender and sexuality in immigrant communities.
Female genital mutilation and obstetric outcome: WHO collaborative prospective study in six African countries
Pleasure and orgasm in women with Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C).
TLDR
The present study reports that FGM/C women with sexual dysfunctions can and must be cured; they have the right to have an appropriate sexual therapy.
Female Genital Mutilation and its Psychosexual Impact
TLDR
It is suggested that circumcision has a negative impact on a woman's psychosexual life and causes loss of interest in foreplay and dyspareunia.
Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery: Freakish or Inevitable? Analysis from Medical Marketing, Bioethics, and Feminist Theory
Female genital cosmetic surgery (FGCS) refers to new treatment/enhancement technologies that have engendered much controversy. Examining FGCS through the lenses of bioethics, feminist theory and…
Changing a harmful social convention: female genital mutilation / cutting.
This "Innocenti Digest" examines the social dynamics of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C). In communities where it is practiced, FGM/C is an important part of girls' and women's cultural…
The long‐term reproductive health consequences of female genital cutting in rural Gambia: a community‐based survey
TLDR
The relationship between FGC and long‐term reproductive morbidity remains unclear, especially in settings where type II cutting predominates, and efforts to eradicate it should incorporate a human rights approach.
The consequences of female circumcision for health and sexuality: an update on the evidence.
TLDR
It is shown that female circumcision is associated with some health consequences but that no statistically significant associations are documented for a number of health conditions, and the available evidence does not support the hypotheses that circumcision destroys sexual function or precludes enjoyment of sexual relations.
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