Female Genital Mutilation: When Culture and Human Rights Conflict Jade Conner Female genital mutilation is the very crux of patriarchal dehumanization and oppression of women and children. The value, or lack thereof, placed on the bodies of females is representative of women’s global subordination. Ownership of women’s bodies is invaluable to patriarchy. There is no act more telling of this than the mutilation of young girls’ genitals from an early age and ultimately throughout adulthood. Girls and women are stripped of their womanhood. They live their lives with their inferiority displayed on their bodies and burned into their memory. The price that patriarchy has set on female chastity has become paramount in the lives of many, if not all, women on this planet. Despite its status as a human rights violation, this archaic and dangerous practice has yet to be eradicated. Through my research, I sought answers as to the origins of the practice and the beliefs that perpetuate it. I believe that female genital mutilation serves no purpose outside of the domination and regulation of female sexuality, and I will demonstrate that throughout this essay. What Do We Call It? There is much debate over the term that should be used to describe this cultural practice. Female genital mutilation, or FGM, is generally the accepted term in much of the research that I have done. Female genital cutting, or FGC, and female circumcision are two alternate names that have been used to describe this procedure. One reason to use alternate titles for FGM, on an international level, is that labeling the women who have undergone the procedure as “mutilated” stigmatizes them after having survived it. According to Suzanne Williams, Francine Pickup and Caroline Sweetman in Ending Violence Amendment
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