I came across, Possessing the Secret of Joy (Alice Walker), while in college and it has been a book that had a lasting effect on me. I have been an advocate against genital mutilation every since I put is down. Over the years, I have been trying to educate myself more on the subject. In 2009, I purchased a copy of, Warrior Marks: Female Genital Mutilation and the Sexual Blinding of Women (Alice Walker and Pratibha Parmar) to learn more about the subject. Warrior Marks, like Reinvention, is one of those books that I have to nibble on. Over the last few days, I have not been able to put this book down it has really drawn me in. It's one part of this book that is solely dedicated to the interviews Walker and Parmar conducted during this time for their documentary.While scanning through the interview section, I came across a thought that hit me like a ton of bricks and that makes me want to take a year to only research this topic. Walker stated that there is NO evidence whatsoever of the female African slaves that were brought to America practicing genital mutilation for a period of time. From all that I have read on slavery (which has been enough) I have never came across anything that has even remotely addressed genital mutilation during slavery.
I am interested to know what you all think about this topic. Please leave your comments sharing your thoughts especially if you have came across this topic in your own reading/research.
More later...
1 comments:
I feel two ways about this subject.
First, I'm 100% against genital mutilation. It is dehumanizing and no different than castration, except when castration happens culturally, it is normally because a man has done something to "deserve" it. Women have done nothing other than being born with a vagina. It takes away a woman's sexual enjoyment, essentially telling her that taking part in the act and actually liking it is wrong. It's heinous.
Then there is a part of me that says, genital mutilation within different cultured is a custom that has been around for hundreds of years and since it is all that is known, it is not seen as something bad. I am was born with freedoms that many of the women subject to genital mutilation will never know. It's easy for me to be shocked about it, because if it happened here, it would be seen as a crime. There it is seen as a custom.
Strange dichotomy. Still, it's great that you're advocating against it. The more people who speak up and shed light on genital mutilation the better. I plan on picking up Possessing the Secret of Joy soon. Thanks for the thoughtful post.
Post a Comment