On Tue, 8 Feb 2005, BklynMagus wrote:
> Willingly? Are women who practice genital cutting not
> under tremendous social pressure and traditional
> demands to engage in this practice? Couldn't these
> pressures and demands be seen as coercive, thereby,
> diminishing women's right to choose?
Let me see if I have this straight: they're under tremendous social pressure, so this isn't really their choice. We, on the other hand, came to our choice individually to vilify this practice; our position is not due to social pressure. To use a sociological term, they're just cultural dopes, blindly accepting their way of life, and we're not. Isn't this a little condescending?
Consider the possibility that we're as "socially programmed" as the women in these African societies, and our disgust about FGM is a social product, just as their support of the practice is.
Miles