Forced genital cutting in North America: Feminist theory and nursing considerations
"This article will examine forced nontherapeutic genital cutting (FNGC) through the lens of feminist theory and in relation to the concept of social justice in nursing. I will address the underlying assumptions of feminism and how they apply to the two currently legal forms of FNGC in North America: male infant circumcision and intersex infant/child genital cutting."
Does Female Genital Mutilation Have Health Benefits? The Problem With Medicalizing Morality (Quillette Magazine)
"Four members of the Dawoodi Bohra sect of Islam living in Detroit, Michigan have recently been indicted on charges of female genital mutilation (FGM). This is the first time the US government has prosecuted an “FGM” case since a federal law was passed in 1996. The world is watching to see how the case turns out. A lot is at stake here. Multiculturalism, religious freedom, the limits of tolerance; the scope of children’s—and minority group—rights; the credibility of scientific research; even the very concept of 'harm.'"
Questioning Circumcisionism: Feminism, Gender Equity, and Human Rights
"For decades feminists worldwide have addressed and combated the harmful practice of female genital mutilation, while largely overlooking male circumcision as genital mutilation. The practices of male and female circumcisions are the result of mainstream ideologies that shape our understandings and consciousness of sexuality and health. The larger framework within which circumcision operates is referred to as “circumcisionism.”
Foreskin is a Feminist Issue
"When I spoke out against infant male circumcision, one response that I encountered was an angry reaction from some feminists. They accused me of detracting from the horror of female genital mutilation and weakening the case against it by speaking about it and infant male circumcision in the same context."
From Finland
"I am a 32 year old woman from Finland, which has a neonatal circumcision rate of zero (1). I have been following Your Whole Baby for several months now and would like to tell you why. Last summer something happened for the first time in my life: I saw a circumcised penis."
If You Prick Us: Masculinity and Circumcision Pain in the United States and Canada, 1960–2000
“Like other feminist scholars, I conceptualise gender not as universal or static, but rather as constructed through social processes and taking distinctive forms in different contexts.3 What ideals and norms are associated with masculinity and femininity and how they are enacted and regulated in particular places and periods influences myriad other aspects of social life, including medicalised cultural practices like male circumcision. Conversely, social and cultural practices influence gendered norms and behaviours in ways which hold possibilities for social change. Since the late 1800s, masculinity in Anglo‐America has, mostly – but not always – been associated with imperviousness to pain. Delineating the circumstances under which male pain is recognised, as well as what responses the recognition of boys’ and men's pain inspires, can open new ways to think about gender and sex and about the relief of human suffering.”