FGM in USA

[bugmenot]

I know very little about it, but I understand it was made illegal in 95 or 96.

Before then, was it mainly just African immigrants having it done? I sometimes wonder how many American girls (Caucasian, born in USA, etc.) would have been subjected to the horrible procedure.

Please correct/educate me.

[A&A]

Up until 1976, Blue Shield (insurance company) paid for female circumcision in the USA.  The magazine Cosmopolitan even recommended adult female circumcision as a cure for "female frigidity," and thousands of women consequently followed their advice.

A good book on this subject is Secret Wounds, by Hanny Lightfoot-Klein.

[QueenOfTheMeadow]

Originally Posted by A&A 

Up until 1976, Blue Shield (insurance company) paid for female circumcision in the USA.

A good book on this subject is Secret Wounds, by Hanny Lightfoot-Klein.

Wow!  I had no idea.

[bugmenot]

Originally Posted by A&A 

Up until 1976, Blue Shield (insurance company) paid for female circumcision in the USA.  The magazine Cosmopolitan even recommended adult female circumcision as a cure for "female frigidity," and thousands of women consequently followed their advice.


A good book on this subject is Secret Wounds, by Hanny Lightfoot-Klein.

Eek!

So, in other words, females between approximate ages of 17-37 could be, and females older than 37 have a higher chance?

Does anyone know, or have access to, solid stats?

Horrible.

[Mitchell756]

It is true that many american women were circumcised for non religious reasons. Before the FGM bill went into effect any parent could have had their daughters circumcised in the United States. It would have been a parental choice that no one could have prevented, in the same manner that it continues to be for boys. I find it very interesting that many women whose parents could have easily had them circumcised but chose not to are not willing to give that same protection to their sons.

Here are several links on this subject:

Author and activist Patricia Robinett on male and female circumcision in the U.S.A:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50BaM7H2GLI

Testimony from a women circumcised for non religious reasons as a child in the U.S.A:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx3nGs7mQug

The next two videos describe the history offemale circumcision in the United States. Even though they attempt to take a more lighthearted history lesson on this subject the information contained in them is accurate.

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvX5J7lAv4g
Edited by Mitchell756 - 1/13/13 at 2:18pm

[hakunangovi]

Thank  you for posting those video links.  I applaud the two women in the first two.  They both have tremendous courage and it is obvious that both have suffered tremendous psychological stress over what was done to them.  It is mind boggling that the medical community was so whacked as to sanction FGM, and it still is in that it still promotes the circumcision of males.

[Mitchell756]

I suspect that the reason why crcumcision is still performed among boys so often but never caught on for females is the desire among many women to be able to perpetually view the glans penis. For males there is not a strong attachment or desire to be able to the glans clitoris. If there was as strong a sexual attraction towards the glans clitoris among males as there is among females for the glans penis then the situation would likely be very different for women in the United States today.

[bugmenot]

Originally Posted by Mitchell756 

I suspect that the reason why crcumcision is still performed among boys so often but never caught on for females is the desire among many women to be able to perpetually view the glans penis. For males there is not a strong attachment or desire to be able to the glans clitoris. If there was as strong a sexual attraction towards the glans clitoris among males as there is among females for the glans penis then the situation would likely be very different for women in the United States today.

I've had a few (not many) conversations about circumcision, and it seems like a lot of women in the USA prefer a circumcised penis, because they think it looks cleaner, neater, or something along those lines. I assume what they mean is that the circumcised penis looks more aerodynamic and doesn't have what they see as "loose skin" attached on it.

Of course, you also have a percentage of people who do not equate FGM to male circumcision. They see a clitoris as one body part attached to one set of humans, and they see a penis, which is attached to another set of humans. They don't realize, or they don't WANT to realize that all genitalia starts out the same, and that the clitoris is really a penis that never developed...or a penis is an overgrown clitoris, whichever you prefer.

As we know, FGM was started so that sex and masturbation wouldn't be as enjoyable (hey...that sounds familiar.. ) so I'd imagine very few women had it done...

I wonder if anyone I know had it...not that I really care, but it would be interesting to know.