[lbo-talk] Re: circumcision

JBrown72073 at cs.com JBrown72073 at cs.com
Tue Feb 8 20:00:26 PST 2005



>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

Yeah, these heathens should do genital mutilation the civilized way, pay gazillions to plastic surgeons for labial reduction and breast implants, and give women episiotomies during childbirth so they can be sewn up nice and tight (it used to be called "husband's knot.") And what about the liberal version of clitoridectomy, aka Freudianism. Don't remove the organ, do a head trip on women instead. In the interests of feminist internationalism, U.S. feminists need to get our heads on right about our own conditions and spare others the lady bountiful act. Then we might be capable of some real solidarity with women fighting the same types of things elsewhere because we could grasp it from the inside. (Not to say none of this has happened, but it's not happening enough.)

Jenny Brown



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