Been meaning to pass this on
For those of you to whose attention this has not already come, Dr Petra Boynton problematises Clitoraid (and includes some excellent further links on the matter).
Just a few points of my own: I suspect that, awful as FGM is, the women in question probably have other matters that they see as having priority over getting their clitorises restored.
The good Dr has already pointed out the paternalism and positioning of the women as helpless victims in need of rescue and the trampling over indigenous activity against FGM.
In a conversation about something entirely different last week, someone said to me about a proposed action 'That's such a surgeon's solution' - meaning a simple, one-shot, gives you a clear and definite answer, procedure. Detached from any relevant contextual factors.
And if even one did not have the qualms generated by Clitoraid being a project sponsored by one of the highest woo-woo sects inhabiting Woo-Wooonia, the idea that you can remedy or even much ameliorate something that is embedded in a culture and its attitudes to gender, sexuality and the body, by performing individual operations is, well, problematic.
I was thinking (as I do) about why this seems to me almost the antithesis of the work that the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital is doing. Which might be something to do with them not considering that they are producing a quick fix -
The nurse aides are all ex-patients who, due to the nature of their injuries, have been unable to return to their home towns. The hospital encourages them to regain as much independence as possible and providing them with work is one of the best ways to achieve this.
The hospital trains groups of women who are recovering from their operations, in tailoring skills to help them to find work making dresses and uniforms after returning home. Through this they develop flexible skills and more confidence so they can leave the hospital smiling, assured their futures are bright and full of opportunities.
They're also working on the longer-term strategy of midwifery training to improve care in childbirth so that this horrible injury becomes less frequent.
I.e. it's embracing an 'All More Complicated' philosophy.
Which seems sadly absent from exhortations to 'adopt a clitoris'.
This entry was originally posted at http://oursin.dreamwidth.org/1208164.html. Please comment there using OpenID. View
comments.