#fgm

[fems-pov]

There's a reason why radical feminism resonates more with women from 3rd world countries—

White feminists from the west say that being a woman is a feeling, a costume that anyone can wear (including males)

women in less developed countries do not have that luxury; by the nature of our oppression, we know too well that being a woman isn't a feeling, it's a biological fact.

For us, our oppression is tied to our biological reality-such as reproductive rights, unsafe abortions, and female genital mutilation.

Denying our biological reality would be denying our oppression.

230 million girls go through female genital mutilation,

Yet we are the ones who “reduce women to our genitals?”

[erebusvincent]

Women’s oppression is tied to genitalia and reproductive capacity, and is something no man can ever experience regardless of how porn addicted and degenerate he is.

Here's an FGM survivor's response to that girl on TikTok who claimed "people focus on FGM so much because they want to tie women's oppression to genitalia so they can exclude transwomen."

[catfemsblog]

they’ll call radical feminism ”white feminism“, while not realizing that liberal feminism is a western concept.

most women in developing countries are radical feminists, since they experience sex based oppression every day.

the talibans are not banning "whoever identifies as a woman“ from going to school, the clergy in iran is not oppressing women because of their gender identity, girls in africa are not getting their genitals mutilated because they identify as women.

wherever you’re the oppressor or the opressed one in a patriarchal society is not assigned at birth it is observed.

[soaplantro]

cw life and things you know how it is

In a (by no means original) stroke of transfeminine faux-pettiness, I have decided to commit to referring to my clitoris as such, particularly for the provocative corollaries - eg, the forcible removal of my "clitoral hood." This reframing highlights subtly enforced gaps in the widespread discursive sexing of human bodies, dichotomies which serve to naturalize and trivialize the harmful consequences of sex assignment when the severity of harm exceeds normal (expected) limits, thereby prohibiting robust explication of popular leftist ideals such as bodily autonomy, equality, sex/gender liberation, and so on.

[marzipanandminutiae]

many people know about the 1950s doctor who was obsessed with lobotomies (Dr. Walter Freeman)

fewer people know about the 1860s doctor who was obsessed with clitoridectomies, Isaac Baker Brown

he claimed the operation could cure pretty much all forms of mental illness in women- and then-undesirable behaviors that weren't mental illness at all, like masturbation. it's not known how many women and girls he mutilated, but some were teenagers on whom the procedure was performed without their (or their parents') knowledge or consent

Baker Brown cited a text by Hippocrates as support for this practice- a text which in fact concerned surgical removal of genital warts

he was kicked out of the Obstetrical Society of London in 1867 because of his lax approach to consent, but clitoridectomies remained in sporadic use as a mental health treatment in the US and UK until the mid-20th century. thank heaven they don't seem to have ever been commonplace exactly, but...one person subjected to this is one too many

(note: I use language exclusively referring to women here because, as far as we know, his victims were all what we'd now call cis women and girls. obviously not everyone with a clitoris is a woman, and not every woman has a clitoris)

[bodily-autonomy-body-neutrality]

Hey radfems, i got a thinker for you.

You know about the concept of bodily autonomy right?

Very important in feminist discussions - around abortion, fgm, forced prostitution, etc.

The concept that it's your body, and only you should get a say in what to do with it.

Now the difficult question:

Does this concept apply to trans people?

as in, can you accept that trans people should have ultimate control over their own bodies, and get to do whatever they want with it?

does your concept of bodily autonomy stretch that far, or are you already finding a million reasons why bodily autonomy for pregnant women is immutable and important, but bodily autonomy for trans people is evil, going to lead to the downfall of civilisation, and should be taken away?

do you believe in bodily autonomy?

or do you believe in bodily autonomy only in cases where you approve of the choices being made? do you believe in bodily autonomy for cis women only?

do you believe that trans people are so brainwashed or deluded that they don't, shouldn't get to have bodily autonomy?

and how would you feel if someone said the same thing about you? you've been brainwashed by the radfem cult and therefore others should be allowed to make decisions about what you do with your body? wouldn't you be mad about all the assumptions being made - including that you are too stupid to recognise you're in a cult, that the cult wants the downfall of society, and needs to be prosecuted? wouldn't you feel patronised and scared for your community?

why is it different when you talk about trans people?

do you believe in bodily autonomy or not?

(if you think you should have bodily autonomy but trans people should not, you may just hate trans ppl..........js)

[rapeculturerealities]

‘Over my dead body’, say Gambian mothers amid efforts to lift FGM ban | FGM | Al Jazeera

In  2015, the Gambian parliament took the historic step to pass the Women’s (Amendment) Act of 2015, which criminalised FGM and made it punishable by up to three years in prison – a significant shift after years of advocacy.

But recently, on March 18, politicians voted 42 to 4 to advance a controversial new bill which would repeal the landmark FGM ban if it passes following further consultation and expert opinion from specialised government ministries.

[no-passaran]

Very important and heartbreaking news.

(Organizations to support at the end of the post)

March 19th, 2024

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/03/19/gambia-female-genital-mutilation-cutting/

Gambia moves towards ending ban on female genital mutilation

Gambia’s National Assembly has voted to advance a bill that would overturn a ban on female genital cutting, putting this tiny West African country on a path to being the first nation in the world to roll back such a protection.

Many of the women who filed into the National Assembly building on Monday to witness the proceedings had experienced the horror that comes with cutting, which has been practiced for generations here. One woman said she was taken by her family at age 8 to a ceremony in which she was pinned down and cut. Another learned on her wedding night that her vaginal opening had been sealed. A third experienced years of infections and later infertility after being cut without her parents’ permission.

The women listened stoically as members of parliament — the vast majority of them men — pounded their gavels in support as Almameh Gibba, the lawmaker who introduced the bill, described it as intended to “uphold religious rights and safeguard cultural norms and values.” (...)

Already, the United Nations says that about 75 percent of girls and women in Gambia between the ages of 15 and 49 have been subjected to genital cutting, which is often described by opponents as female genital mutilation, or FGM. Globally, more than 200 million women and girls are estimated to be survivors of female genital cutting, which can involve removing part of the clitoris and labia minora and, in the most extreme cases, a sealing of the vaginal opening. Medical experts say the procedures, which do not have medical benefits, can cause a range of short- and long-term harms, including infections, severe pain, scarring, infertility and loss of pleasure.

An activist cries and gets support during a debate among Gambian lawmakers on lifting the ban on FGM. (Carmen Yasmine Abd Ali for The Washington Post)

“It is a rollback on women’s rights and bodily autonomy,” said Jaha Dukureh, a Gambian activist whose little sister died as a result of a botched procedure and who found out on her wedding night, at 15, that she had been sealed as a baby. “It is a rollback in terms of telling women what to do with their own bodies. This is all this is.” (...)

Outside the National Assembly on Monday, women and men holding signs that read, “Girls need love, not knives” squared off against Muslim clerics who were preaching to dozens of veiled girls from Islamic schools. They cheered as one cleric told them [female genital mutilation] was justified by religion.

Inside the building, where only five of Gambia’s 58 lawmakers are women, the discussion Monday was dominated by men. Among the survivors in the audience was Sainey Ceesay, the founder of a nonprofit focused on destigmatizing infertility, who said she only recently decided to start talking about what she experienced at 8 years old. At that time, women had gathered her and a group of other girls at a house in Banjul, the capital, and used a razor to cut off her clitoris.

Ceesay, who said she suffered for years from trauma and infections and was unable to conceive, is still holding out hope that the ban will not be repealed. “At least as of today, FGM is still illegal in Gambia,” she said with a quiet sigh.

Fatty, the cleric whose support helped push the bill forward, (...) explained that it was about following the teachings of the prophet, about purity and about reducing the likelihood of cancer. (Doctors say there is no basis for this claim.)

“It is something not to reduce feeling, but to control, to balance the feelings of a woman,” he said in an interview.

When asked to clarify whether he meant women have too much desire in the absence of cutting, he nodded his head and wagged a finger.

“Too much,” Fatty said. “Too much. We can say in sex, women’s power is more than men’s power. … Women can do sex longer than men. So that is why Islam came to balance. They can be together and their desire can be balanced.” (...) [Many Islamic countries do not have FGM.]

(...) Many women note that because cutting often happens when girls are no older than in elementary school, they are never given a choice in the matter. (...)

Fatou Baldeh, an activist and FGM survivor (...), said she tries to “hold grace” for the women who continue to advocate for the practice, knowing many have not been educated and have only their own experience to go by.

But sitting in the parliamentary chambers Monday as she listened to the men debate, Baldeh said she was seething.

When one activist started wiping tears from her eyes with tissues, a lawmaker demanded that women who were crying leave the chambers, and the speaker agreed, asking them not to make a scene.

Baldeh said she wanted to scream listening to the men trivialize the pain women had experienced. But she resolved to stay in the chambers, knowing the importance of the women being present, forcing the men to look at them as they cast their votes.

“We have a right to cry,” she said. “But we knew the importance of staying. So we kept our tears in.”

An activist cries during the parliamentary debate on FGM. (Carmen Yasmine Abd Ali for The Washington Post)

Full support and encouragement to the brave Gambian activists fighting to end FGM.

Support organizations and activists:

Safe Hands For Girls (survivor-led organization focused on ending female genital mutilation and child marriage, and helping women and girls who have gone through or are going through these experiences): website, X/Twitter, Instagram, YouTube.

Jaha Marie Dukureh (activist, founder of Safe Hands For Girls): X/Twitter.

Women in Liberation and Leadership (Gambian NGO): website, X/Twitter.

Fatou Baldeh (activist, in WILL) on X/Twitter.

Network Against Gender-Based Violence Gambia: X/Twitter, Facebook.

(Racists, transphobes, and other hate groups do not interact)

[womenaremypriority]

if you didn’t know, the country of Gambia is currently considering repealing the ban on FGM. This would be the first country to do this and could potentially have devastating effects on other countries that have banned FGM as well. Yesterday the government postponed a vote for further deliberation. These are the most recent articles I found.

Here are a couple photos of protesters in favor of the ban, I want to acknowledge the Gambian women actually doing the work on the ground. The ban was only from 2015, not long ago too.

[wikipediapictures]

Female genital mutilation

“A campaign against female genital mutilation – a road sign near Kapchorwa, Uganda.” - via Wikimedia Commons

[aux-squiggle]

STOP CUTTING KIDS

feel free to download and share around

inb4: I know OIIE also recommends raising intersex kids as girls or boys (I don't think any child should be raised as a "gender" and it should be no different between a girl and a boy) and they also recommend taking intersex/difference of sex development out of the ICD which is controversial amongst intersex people.

BUTTTTT OIIE's "supporting your intersex child" pamphlet is EXCELLENT and gives a lot of information on how to protect your child from genital mutilation, especially since doctors like to be sneaky or lie about what they're doing. I'm not intersex and not an expert on how DSD/intersex should be addressed altogether, I just know the unconsensual cutting up of children's bodies is evil and more people need to know how to speak up in case they or someone they know has an intersex child.

inb4 pt 2: before someone comes for my neck for "equating circumcision and FGM" I AM NOT, thank you. I just care about all three categories fo child genital mutilation at the same time. Making the same format posters for the 3 issues doesn't mean I think they are the same, otherwise I would just link to one advocacy group.

[dieletztepanzerhexe]

i read an essay by claude levi strauss that enraged me so badly that i had to log on tumblr to write this post. it was a paper about female genital mutilation, although he describes it as "female circumcision". according to him, in france during the late 80s there was a bunch of trials related to fgm that bropught a lot of public's attention to this issue. apparently a girl died as a result, but he didn't hesitate to point out that she didn't die "just" from getting her clitoris cut off - but from medical complications! such a big difference, right!!! so after that, according to him, immigrants involved in these trials hired anthropologists to testify at court that cutting off little girls' genitals is part of their culture and preventing them from freely practicing it in france is literally #racism #cultural genocide #oppression etc etc.

like a purebred redditor he also brings up "boys get circumcised too" argument, nevermind that removing foreskin on a newborn baby that will still be able to eperience sexual pleasure later in life is not the same as cutting off all genit with a rusty razor on a 7yo fully aware of what's going on girl who will be left mutilated for life!!!!

males being males i guess

[lets-talk-spirituality]

Let’s talk about: The Sacral Chakra

The sacral chakra, the second chakra located between the root and solar plexus, governs the reproductive system, pelvic floor and gluteus muscles, deep lower abdominals, and lower stomach area.

When people say they have a deep knowing, they are referring to the seat of sacral chakra energy. The sacral chakra is what houses our energy of creation, our legacy. It is the portal through which we materialize things we sense in other dimensions. It is where the kundalini awakening begins. It is where life begins. The only place where beings from other dimensions can translate into our dimension.

The sacral chakra is tied to the color orange, so consider eating oranges or surrounding yourself with orange to help feed some energy back into this chakra system.

Womb Trauma: Anatomically Female Body Karma

From histories of forcible impregnation, rape, forced abortion, miscarriage, stillborn, death in childbirth, death for not producing the right gender child, forced incest, incestual impregnation, and more horrors, the female body holds karma that male bodies do not.

There is something that happens when your DNA and another’s mix within you. Female bodies must integrate the DNA of the one who’s child she carries. Being forced to hold children from traumatic circumstances has created vast gendered karma that a lot of us women and modern aware men are attempting to work through as a team.

Women’s bodies have been used to bring evil into this world, have been used as a portal of the worst kind. It has brought a depravity and savagery to the human race. Men fear this power we hold, the power of the portal. And that fear is the basis of patriarchy and its need to protect women. It is why they subjugate us and hate us, something I’ve been thinking so deeply about recently. That is why male bodies have always protected female bodies. It’s not only about children, it’s what those children can become, can do.

For some women, choosing not to have children in pursuit of other passions is their own desired way of clearing the karma. For some, choosing to be a stay at home mom is their way of clearing the karma. That is why it’s not fair to judge women for their reproductive capabilities or decisions. Having the physical ability to give birth or not does not take away the creative power of the womb, even if it doesn’t “work” the way the patriarchy thinks it should.

Prostate Trauma: Anatomically Male Body Karma

Biologically male bodies do not have wombs, but they do have a prostate which is an important part of their reproductive system. This prostate holds the male seed of power and pleasure. It is no mistake that homophobic fears have been instilled within the human consciousness as a way to divorce men from ownership of their own pleasure in sex. It allows them to put all their sexual desires onto women. But what is lost is a core piece of their humanity.

I think it’s important for men to practice learning sexually about themselves with exploration on their own, without the crutch of porn or a partner. I believe men who may try prostate milking for themselves would allow a well of pleasure to free them from sexual addictions and other desires that are really a desire to connect more deeply to their own sexual center. It may result in crying. A lot of healing I’ve done through sexuality and orgasming has led to a breaking down of my defenses and I cry like a baby, so I can imagine many men who try to connect to themselves this way will at first feel grief for the self abandonment. The goal would be to hopefully reconnect yourself enough to where that outpouring of self love is ecstatic and not shameful or heartbreaking.

One of the cruelest parts of patriarchy is the way it shames men for sexual urges and completely disconnects them from their own agency as owners of sexual desires for purely their own exploration and pleasure, not tied to the masculine pursuit of fucking/subordinating sexually women (I have anew feminist theory I’m working on where I’m starting to think all sex is subjugation for women in a patriarchal structure, but I haven’t fledged it out, anyway, even in a female dominant sexual position I’d argue it’s still female subjugation because the change in power dynamics is the exact thing that makes it erotic, which therefore upholds the power imbalance) or procreation.

Circumcision Trauma: Horrors for all genitals

I remember asking my grandmother about female circumcision as a child because a model on America’s Next Top Model was mutilated as a child. She told me it was the removal of the clitoris in women. Female circumcisions are performed in the Middle East, and other places as a way to control female sexual pleasure. Because many Abrahamic religions teach that women are the root cause of male sexual desire, it is thought to be “clean” and “pure” to make sex literally only about procreation and not about pleasure.

Male circumcisions also reduce male pleasure by desensitizing the head of the penis. Male circumcisions are no longer medically necessary but are upheld for aesthetic or religious purposes. They are extremely common in America and it is a huge first trauma to a male child.

Both of these traumas are unnecessary and cruel in my opinion and there is healing to be had around genital mutilation for all circumcised women and men and for those who had their genitalia altered, such as those with ambiguous genitalia.

**I have heard my females friends talk negatively about uncircumcised penises and how they are gross, look weird, etc. If you are someone who has negative feelings towards the natural male penis, I urge you to heal this. Do not uphold the idea that child genital mutilation is okay because of your own ingrained concept of what a male penis should look like. If you reproduce, consider what it means as a human to believe you have the right to make choices about someone else’s body in such a profound way. It’s a violation of boundaries and personal rights**

Signs of a blocked sacral chakra:

- reproductive issues, menstruation issues, hormonal imbalances

- sexual performance issues, such as low libido (low for your normal, I know some people are asexual), inability to orgasm, pain during penetration and dryness for women, inability to stay hard for men

- fear around being seen or sharing yourself with someone

- literally blocked when it comes to writers block or some other block in your creative process,

- in men specifically, homophobia which was used to keep men away from the power of their prostate

- fear or disgust with sex or genitals

Ways to heal the sacral chakra:

- hip opening stretches/yoga

- orgasming to sacral chakra solfeggio sounds, for male bodies, prostate milking and orgasming can help clear held trauma

- strengthening your pelvic floor, lower abdominals, glutes, hip flexors through exercise

- twerking and somatic dance, belly dancing, pole fitness, any exercise that makes you feel sexy, is sensuous and can help you allow yourself to be in the sexual power of your body

- painting or engaging in some other form of art that requires you to transform immaterial matter into material, such as turning a thought into a painting or a song, creating a business, taking something and transforming it into something else

- for those with wombs, womb healing is a big thing that can help you heal very deep ancestral karma we carry in our sacral chakra.

- look into ways to heal your cycle, become more intune with your menstrual cycle and its rhythms, consider getting off birth control or approaching hormonal and reproductive health more holistically (if it works for you! Stay on birth control if it works for you! Get off if it doesn’t)

- working through any sexual trauma you may have, it’s very challenging but it’s rewarding, but follow what feels good and right for you in the moment, don’t push through something if it feels wrong, don’t override your system to give into sexual requests of partners

-connect to your body through exercise, begin to really feel your muscles and your material form, learn how to use breath to engage muscles and how to move your body, learn your body deeply, become the expert on yourself

- drink a glass of orange juice a day and imagine it cleansing your sacral chakra

-kegle exercises!

- being naked, or learning to embrace your body in its rawest forms

- massage and other forms of self love that involve touching yourself, so like a face mask, putting on lotion, painting nails, hair masks, hair brushing, things that make you connect with your body

- sweat! I love sitting in dry saunas to just sweat, it helps to cleanse your body including your sacral chakra and other more grounded chakras like root and solar plexus too.

[haggishlyhagging]

The legitimations used to erase male responsibility for African genital mutilation of women also can enable Hags to focus more sharply upon the justifications for gynecological genital mutilation. In Africa, clitoridectomy and infibulation are alleged to be justifiable because they are ways "for teaching women to endure pain." As we have seen, pain—and the dread of it—is also the Great American Gynecological Way of teaching women to be pre-occupied and pre-possessed. Other reasons given for mutilation in the African situation are religious belief and "custom." American women, like their African sisters, are also lulled into pain-full captivity by the prevailing beliefs and "customs."

African women, moreover, are mutilated for "aesthetic reasons," since the men of the tribes practicing these sado-rituals do not want their women to have anything "hanging down." Maiming for the alleged purpose of enhancing female beauty is standard practice in American cosmetic surgery. An example is mammaplasty, defined in Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary as "plastic reconstruction of the breast, as may be performed to augment or reduce its size." A variation on this is mastopexy, which is performed to "correct a pendulous breast." This involves removal of breast tissue and filling the space with a silicone bag-gel prosthesis, often with additional maneuvers to reshape the breast so that it points upward. Women shocked by the pain and danger of infection inflicted upon millions of African women for "aesthetic" reasons should consider the parallels with the increasingly popular American way of deadly beautification.

-Mary Daly, Gyn/Ecology

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

The right to bodily integrity, like all human rights, is non negotiable.

It cannot be applied just in-part, or in some areas, or to only certain members of society.

It cannot be superseded by any religious faith, nor by the wish of a parent, women’s preferences, or by cultural expectations.

The right to one’s body, belongs to the individual.

No “ifs” or “buts”, no asterisks, and no compromises.

Much of the modern world has come to understand this when it comes to girls’ bodies, as FGM continues to be criminalised and rightly punished, falling out of favour, and slowly into the history books.

In most countries FGM is universally illegal, no matter the extent, or context.

Even just a prick is forbidden, because really, the extent of violation needn’t matter, if that procedure is being done on an unconsenting baby.

But not for boy babies.

And I don’t care what people say about circumcision’s so-called “medical or hygienic benefits”, because the medical benefits are virtually non-existent, and we don’t cut off body parts to avoid cleaning them.

Do we cut off our head to stop us getting dandruff?

What about lopping off our feet to rid the world of athletes’ foot?

I mean, why not go the whole way, and cut off the whole penis, if you’re not a fan of cleaning it?

The fact is, there are very few good enough reasons to remove half the nerve endings of a baby boy’s penis, as well as its most sensitive parts.

There is no reason to subject a boy to the risk of erectile dysfunction, desensitisation, PTSD, sexually transmitted disease, or even death…

No reason to tie a baby boy’s limbs down, and as he screams, slice away at his penis, without anaesthesia.

Nobody’s first few days of life should be welcomed by that, and no journey of parenthood should begin with child abuse.

So when will we treat circumcision with the same universality as FGM, where we say “no”, regardless of the severity, scale, or context?

When will a boys bodily integrity supersede religious faith?

When will we give our boys the same rights as girls?

When will we ban infant male circumcision?

-

National medical organisations against circumcision: https://circumcision.org/circumcision-policies-of-international-organizations/

--

https://sci-hub.scrongyao.com/10.3149/thy.0401.71

Baby boys can and do succumb as a result of having their foreskin removed. Circumcision-related mortality rates are not known with certainty; this study estimates the scale of this problem. This study finds that approximately 117 neonatal circumcision-related deaths (9.01/100,000) occur annually in the United States, about 1.3% of male neonatal deaths from all causes. Because infant circumcision is elective, all of these deaths are avoidable. This study also identifies reasons why accurate data on these deaths are not available, some of the obstacles to preventing these deaths, and some solutions to overcome them.

[pandesouth]

Libfems should ask trans women what their thoughts are on FGM. Since women who openly discuss it run the risk of being suspiciously terfy. It’s safer that way. And libfems only support feminist matters that have been approved by their trans masters. These powerful trans women who are not only integral to feminism, but are actually pioneers of it. If women can’t be trusted to talk about the horrors of FGM, then trans women should be leading these conversations.

I’ve had discussions about this issue with “trans women”. And let me tell you. They do not give a fuck. They could care less. FGM is the biggest fucking nonissue to them. These primarily Caucasian men were saying shit like they would rather be a female in countries where FGM is prevalent than a trans woman. That little girls who experienced FGM had privilege because they get to stay alive and not die from trans genocide. These are the men libfems cater to? The pioneers of feminism that “cis women” need to bow their hands for.