On Tue, 8 Feb 2005, Michael Pollak wrote about FGM:
> This doesn't make everything easy. It can still be quite a traumatic process
> and face violent opposition. But western ethnocentrism does not seem to be a
> central problem anymore. Not where the actual activism is going on in
> Africa.
I agree, it's not a practical problem in Africa. However, I still hear calls from Western feminists that people in the U. S. should "do something" about these vile practices (sanctions, cutting diplomatic relations, etc). That's what I'm ambivalent about: Westerners strong-arming other societies to bring them in line with our cultural practices. (And note the term ambivalent here: I am not rejecting the argument that this is a human rights issue, but I'm noting some reservations and underappreciated complexity.)
Miles