A Small Focus in Gender Violence

This week in Gender Comm we studied the chapter of power and violence. On Tuesday we broke up into groups and discussed different sections of the chapter (something we do on the regular). I found myself in the group that covered genital surgery as well as gender murder. A topic of particular interest to me was the circumcision differences between men and women. For instance a male circumcision seems almost pointless. Its kind of like a tradition that has been going on under the guise that it is heather. Our book however tells us that it is not. Not only that but it doesn't make sex more or less pleasurable. To me it's kind of like the difference between a belly button that's in and one that's out. When we look at female circumcision it becomes a whole different topic. In the book we read about a few different female circumcisions which are Sunna, excision or clitoridectomy, and infibulation. On a side not as I type this my browser is showing me that it doesn't even have these words in it's dictionary. That's kind of just a show of how little is known about these surgeries. Personally I don't want to get into describing each one because its pretty painful just to think about. In general these types of surgeries are much more painful then male circumcision and usually prevent females from experiencing sexual pleasure. That is just downright evil on a the most basic level. I believe they are done out of fear. Men fear that women will be promiscuous and they do these things to "protect" the idea of a sacred marriage. That's were it ties into this idea of power and control. These things are built around fear and feed off of it. It's not to say that women don't struggle for power and control in a relationship and then abuse it but men seem to be the majority in this case. Either way it comes down to say that we all have to freedom do with our bodies as we please. We don't however have the right to force others tho treat their bodies in certain ways. Especially when those ways are based in fear, power, and control rather than the overall well being of the person. Doing something because it's the tradition is not an excuse either. If someone wants to mutilate their body in that way that is their choice and no one else's. If you are interested in this topic and want to learn more click on this link to view a great document by the World Health Organization: Eliminating Female genital mutilation