Re-thinking the Zero Tolerance Approach to FGM/C: the Debate Around Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery
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SOCIOCULTURAL ISSUES AND EPIDEMIOLOGY (J ABDULCADIR & D BADER, SECTION EDITORS)
Re-thinking the Zero Tolerance Approach to FGM/C: the Debate Around Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery Janice Boddy 1 Accepted: 28 October 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Purpose of Review To examine the ‘zero tolerance’ policy for female genital cutting (FGM/C) in the international health community in light of the growing popularity of FGCS (female genital cosmetic surgery) worldwide. Recent Findings ‘Traditional’ FGM/C performed in Egypt and Sudan and cosmetic labiaplasty performed in Europe, the Americas, and Antipodes by medically trained gynaecologists and plastic surgeons are based on similar aesthetic logics: labia minora that protrude beyond the labia majora are deemed ugly, masculine, and ‘abnormal’. Drawing on the burgeoning medical, social science, and humanities literature surrounding labiaplasty, the paper documents the narrowing of aesthetic standards governing ‘normal’ genital appearance and finds that, in addition to adult women, thousands of (mainly Caucasian) adolescents have undergone these operations whose long-term health consequences are unknown. Summary Western heteronormativity, gender binarism, ageism, and the colonial association of protruding labia minora with animality contribute to body image insecurities and fuel the labiaplasty phenomenon, despite the ethical challenge that the procedures are clearly defined by the WHO as type II (a–c) female genital mutilations. Keywords FGM/C . FGCS . Labiaplasty . Cultural aesthetics . Body image . Gender
Introduction In February 2018, I was invited to address faculty and students at Ahfad University for Women in Omdurman, Sudan, home to the independent Babikir Bedri Scientific Association for Women’s Studies (BBSAWS). For decades, these two organisations have been at the forefront of efforts to stop female genital cutting (FGC, a term I prefer for its moral neutrality over WHO’s FGM/C), practices that have a lengthy history in Sudan and are deeply entrenched in everyday life. Until recently, being infibulated defined Sudanese female identity and informed a woman’s sense of self [1–7]. Over the past 30 years, changes have taken place, with more and more families abandoning infibulation (WHO FGM/C type III) in favour of a milder form of cutting locally known as ‘sunna’. Ahfad was justly proud of its This article is part of the Topical Collection on Sociocultural Issues and Epidemiology * Janice Boddy [email protected] 1
Department of Anthropology, 19 Ursula Franklin Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2S2, Canada
role in raising awareness of the harms of FGC and, in partnership with several INGOs, bringing the prospect of abandonment into open debate [8, 9]. The movement was seeing results. Annual campus celebrations of ‘zero-tolerance day’ (February 6th) took place the week before I spoke. My topic that day was the rising popularity in the West of female genital cosmetic surgery (FGCS), specifically the procedure of labiaplasty: the trimming or removal of the labia mino
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