"Genital Cutting and Transnational Sisterhood" is a much-needed response to the ethnocentric and arrogant Western perceptions surrounding female genital cutting (FGC), often referred to as either female genital mutilation or female circumcision, but including a variety of practices of varying history, severity, geographical distribution and consequences. In five provocative essays, the contributors to this timely volume challenge representations of FGC through a range of perspectives: history, human rights, law, missionary feminism, cultural relativism, anthropology, and the intersex movement. Balancing feminist ideals with culturally conscious approaches, they dispel sensationalized and widely accepted concepts that influence Western media, law, and feminist thought on FGC, including the ignorance and oversimplification of African history, cultures and religions, and an exaggeration of the extent and geographical distribution of the various procedures performed. The assumption that FGC does not occur presently in the United States is also considered. From Alice Walker and Pratibha Parmar's documentary film "Warrior Marks" to mainstream media and prime time television, "Genital Cutting and Transnational Sisterhood" critiques the sources that perpetuate the harmful myths that all African women have been mutilated and promote doing so to their children, that those who perform it are barbaric, and that families who allow it are abusive. With sensitivity and clarity, the contributors to "Genital Cutting and Transnational Sisterhood" provide necessary and alternative suggestions for the eradication of the most harmful procedures--which they feel can only occur when the leadership of African women in the ongoing campaigns is acknowledged and supported, and when income generation for African women and education of the U.S. public, rather than criminalization, become primary strategies.
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"For anyone seeking to understand FGM and the controversy surrounding it, for anyone looking for ways to act against FGM, this book is an excellent guide... By learning about the cultural contexts of those practices categorized as FGM, Western feminists can better choose how to be helpful to African women's projects of eradication. And by learning more about the historical and contemporary practices of genital mutilation in our own societies, feminists can better collaborate with African women, recognizing commonalities while respecting differences." -- Judith Van Allen, Women's Review of Books
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
THE ISSUE OF "female circumcision" has generated heated public debate in Europe and the United States over the last several years. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
female genital operations, genital cutting, intersex people, intersex infants, arrogant perception, female excision, female genital surgeries, intersex children, circumcised women, female circumcision, female genital mutilation, ambiguous genitals, ambiguous genitalia, cutting practices, genital surgery Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, New York, Alice Walker, Warrior Marks, Washington Post, Journal of Women, Johns Hopkins, Possessing the Secret of Joy, Seble Dawit, African American, Celia Dugger, Los Angeles, Pratibha Parmar, Prisoners of Ritual, Alice Domurat Dreger, Efua Dorkenoo, Harcourt Brace, North African, United Nations, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Claire Robertson, Facing Mount Kenya, Frees African, Hanny Lightfoot-Klein, Judith Butler New!
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
THE ISSUE OF "female circumcision" has generated heated public debate in Europe and the United States over the last several years. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
female genital operations, genital cutting, intersex people, intersex infants, arrogant perception, female excision, female genital surgeries, intersex children, circumcised women, female circumcision, female genital mutilation, ambiguous genitals, ambiguous genitalia, cutting practices, genital surgery Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, New York, Alice Walker, Warrior Marks, Washington Post, Journal of Women, Johns Hopkins, Possessing the Secret of Joy, Seble Dawit, African American, Celia Dugger, Los Angeles, Pratibha Parmar, Prisoners of Ritual, Alice Domurat Dreger, Efua Dorkenoo, Harcourt Brace, North African, United Nations, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Claire Robertson, Facing Mount Kenya, Frees African, Hanny Lightfoot-Klein, Judith Butler New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 72
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- Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker on 7 pages
- Facing Mount Kenya by Jomo Kenyatta on 6 pages
- Female Genital Mutilation (Minority Rights Group international report) by Scilla Elworthy on 5 pages
- Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism by Chandra Talpade Mohanty on 4 pages
- The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World by Nawal El Saadawi on 4 pages
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