Arrogant Perception, World Traveling, and Multicultural Feminism: The Case of Female Genital Surgeries

Isabelle R. Gunning

In the spring of 1990, I reencountered a practice that for many years I had found distressing, female genital surgeries. 1 In their essence, the surgeries involve the cutting or burning away of the female sexual organ, the clitoris, as well as the removal, in whole or part, of the other external female genitalia. As I started my research, I continued to feel anger and revulsion at the practice and a strong desire to see it eradicated as quickly as possible. In thinking about eradicating the practice, I confronted two major problems: (1) what right did I, a Western feminist, have to criticize as right or wrong the practices of an entirely different culture? and (2) should and can law, with its attribution of right and wrong, exoneration and punishment, be used to eradicate a cultural practice? This chapter will use the culturally challenging practice of genital surgeries as a way to explain and analyze my proposed method for understanding culturally challenging practices. In addition, the piece argues that the law, specifically human rights law, can be used in the eradication of such practices but, I argue, the development of such laws must be the result of a multicultural dialogue and consensus.

FEMALE GENITAL SURGERIES

Genital surgeries encompass a range of operations performed on the female genitalia. There are generally three types of operations: (1) pharaonic or infibulation, (2) intermediate, and (3) sunna.? The pharaonic type is the oldest, most prevalent, and most drastic of the operations. In both its classical and modernized forms it involves the removal of the entire clitoris along with the labia minora and labia majora. The intermediate and sunna forms are less radical procedures that allow more of the genitalia to remain intact. The practice of female genital surgeries is explained in
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ways: ensuring the virginity of a woman before marriage and inducing for divorced women or married women whose husbands are away; 3 birth 4 initiation into and celebration of womanhood; 5 hygienic reasons; 6 and rell100l1Srequirements." Concerns about and objections to genital surgeries have been raised on a number grounds, many of which are health-related. At the time of the surgery children "complications [like] hemorrhage, infections, septicemia, retention of urine or " and deaths have occurred.f In addition, as a result of the surgery, intercourse childbirth can be both painful and difficult, either or both requiring some tearing or cutting of the infibulated tissue." Concerns have also been raised on sexual health grounds, and one might intuitively presume that female genital surgeries, especially the more severe forms that involve removal of the clitoris, would rob a woman of all sexual sensation and pleasure.l? Critiques of the practice have also addressed the broader sociological role it plays in the subordination of women-that the physical (and concomitant psychological) attack on female sexuality serves as part and parcel of a patriarchal plan of control over women's reproductive and productive powers.

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THE WORLD-TRAVELING

METHOD OF UNDERSTANDING

Culturally challenging patriarchal practices like genital surgeries require a complex vision of independence 11 and connectedness. The distance that arrogance creates must be bridged, but the interconnectedness built must be complex and must preserve independence. ARROGANT PERCEPTION AND DISTANCE

genitalia. ition, (2) lent, and . involves ora. The ~e of the ained in

The negative impact of universalism or ethnocentrism in the analysis of culturally challenging practices has been characterized (in a different context) by one feminist scholar as "arrogant perception." 12 For the arrogant perceiver there is distance between oneself and the other that makes her different. The distance, while it emphasizes dissimilarity, is not devoid of similarity. Feminist scholars who have focused on the dependent hierarchical relationship between men and women have concentrated on extending the distance in an effort to break the dependence and "defectiveness" of the "other": a loving eye is required to replace the arrogant perception so as to preserve and accentuate the independence of the "other." 13 While it is appropriate to understand and respect the separateness of the "other" by rejecting arrogant perception, there is a pitfall of too much independence. If "I" and the "other" are totally independent, there is no basis for shared values or perspectives . WORLD-TRAVELING AND INTERCONNECTEDNESS

One feminist scholar has described a method by which feminists of various colors can learn to identify their interconnectedness even as they respect independence:

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"Worlds" are any social situation, ranging from "an incomplete visionary utopia" to a subculture or community within a larger dominant community to a "traditional construction of life." 15 "Traveling" is the shift from being one person in one world to a different person in another world. But the "difference" is part of a coherent whole; one does not act or pose as someone else.
world-traveling.l"

WORLD- TRAVELING

MODIFIED

TO METHODOLOGY

The recognition of both independence and interconnectedness is essential for crosscultural understanding. I suggest a three-pronged approach to creating that recognition. In order to understand the independence of the "other" one needs to be clear about one's own boundaries. This requires understanding oneself in one's Own historical context, with an emphasis on the overlaps, influences, and conditions one is observing in the "other." Recognizing interconnectedness requires two additional approaches. The first is to understand one's historical relationship to the "other" and to approach that understanding from the "other's" perspective, that is, to see the self as the "other" might see you. Second, one must see the "other" in her own cultural context as she sees herself.

THE WORLD- TRAVELING METHOD AND GENITAL SURGERIES

SEEING ONESELF IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The most interesting aspect of seeing oneself (meaning a Westerner) in historical context is exploring a fact that is often omitted, if not actually denied: that genital surgeries have been performed in Western countries as well. Ben Barker-Benfield's article Sexual Surgery in LAte Nineteenth Century America is fascinating because he places genital surgeries-both clitoridectomies and female castration-firmly within their historical and social contexts. 16 Two important points emerge from an examination of genital female surgeries in our own historical context. The first is the recognition that the practice of reconstructing female genitalia through surgery is a universal one and crosses cultural boundaries. It is a part of our own history. The second is that, although the specific American version of genital surgeries has largely been discontinued, the attitudes and assumptions about gender roles that provide the justification for female genital surgeries remain largely in place in our contemporary Western culture. SEEING YOURSELF AS THE "OTHER" SEES YOU

In an examination of how Westerners are perceived by women in Third World nations, the two most important issues are imperialism and racism. In addition to understanding the new relationship between Western and non-Western cultures and appreciating that the non-Western perspective on Western cultures is almost always

Arrogant Perception, World Traveling, and Multicultural Feminism ncomplete ommunity being one :erence" is

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influenced by prior negative racial and colonial policies, one must take the micro view and see oneself as the other sees one. Seeing yourself as the other sees you involves appreciating the fact that just as a Westerner may view the surgeries as a cultural challenge, the street runs two ways: non-Westerners too can view Western practices as culturally challenging. SEEING THE "OTHER" IN HER OWN CONTEXT

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historical
iat genital

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In taking a fresh look at one's own cultural norms and assumptions, one could explore any number of cultural practices. The practice that seems especially relevant in a discussion of genital surgeries is the practice of cosmetic surgeries, particularly breast augmentation.'? How bizarre and barbaric must a practice like implanting polyurethane-covered silicone into one's breasts be perceived by one not accustomed to the practice. The easy part of understanding female genital surgeries in their own organic social environment, for the Western feminist, is understanding them as part of a complex system of male domination of women. Not unlike Western societies, women in cultures where genital surgeries are performed find that "their social status and economic security [derive] from their roles as 'wives and mothers." 18 Aside from the bad (often "economic") consequences that will likely befall one if one remains uncircumcised, one would be essentially bad or unclean.l? "The mosr difficult part in understanding female genital surgeries as an outsider is comprehending how women within the cultures can support such procedures. Clearly there are a lot of coercive pressures .... But there are also positive ways of viewing the procedure that cause many women to embrace it.... It is important to point out that within many of the cultures that continue to perform female genital operations, like the Sudan, the surgeries, although performed largely on young girls, constitute a central part of a celebration of womanhood. The surgeries are performed by women, largely midwives 20and are a part of the creation of a special and exclusive 'women's space.'21 A young girl often has the surgery performed along with other youngsters, her sisters, or other girls in the area of the same age group.22 She is .never alone during the ceremony. Whatever pain is endured by the girl has to mingle with the joy of being like the other women, becoming clean, and experiencing "the most important day of a girl's life." 23In this context, supporting the surgeries can be viewed as rational and empowering. When one sees that "other" within her own context, one sees women making a number of choices within the context of their complex social fabric. Different women struggle for their own vision of what is best and possible, both within and against the constraints of their culture. The question then is, can the law respect and accommodate the complexity of these issues and the required multicultural dialogue and remain an effective tool for change?

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WORLD TRAVELING AND THE USE OF LAW

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN GENITAL SURGERIES RIGHTS AND FEMALE

There are no international treaties that directly address the issue of female genital surgeries. However, several human rights norms have been suggested as the basis for a law that might currently outlaw the practice. This section will review the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments. Because the surgeries are performed on young girls, human rights norms that protect the rights of children are often cited as a basis for arguing that the surgeries constitute a human rights violation. Principle 2 of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in I959, states, [T]he child shall enjoy special protection, and shall be given opportunities and facilities, by law and other means, to enable him to develop physically, mentally, morally, spiritually and socially in a healthy and normal manner and in condition of freedom and dignity.r" Even though young girls, ridiculed by their friends for being uncircumcised, may want to be circumcised and even pressure their mothers to have some operation done,25 one can still argue that a child is too immature to knowingly consent.P On the other hand, it is clear that many parents, entrusted with their children's care, could easily interpret the language in the Declaration of the Rights of the Child as supporting the surgeries. They could argue that by circumcising their daughters they are enabling the~ to "develop physically, mentally, morally, spiritually and socially in a healthy and normal manner" in accordance with the dictates of their culture.F The singular focus of this approach on the physical harm, while compelling, raises issues exposed by the world-traveling analysis: culturally challenging issues are complex and organic, not one-dimensional. How might African women (the "other") perceive the presentation of the children's rights argument? One reasonable suggestion has been made that African women (in particular) are likely to feel that they are being called "incompetent and abusive mothers." 28 Such a perception impedes the multicultural dialogue that is necessary to address this issue. A second human rights argument against the practice has been described as the right to sexual and corporeal integriry" Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, "everyone has the right to liberty and the security of person." 30 However, this argument is not supported by the Ianguage of the treaties. The rhetoric of the human rights treaties regarding security of one's person on which the right rests is quite broad. In some of the treaties that give any elaboration of what "security" might mean, the language refers to prohibiting arbitrary detention and arrest, that is, physical seizure as opposed to invasion. Two other unsuccessful arguments rest on the international prohibitions against torture and slavery. The prohibition against torture is most clearly enunciated in the

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male genital the basis for he strengths norms that the surgeries he Rights of tes, and faally, morally, ,f freedom

Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.31 The slavery argument rests on the international norm against slavery.32 The final and most popular human rights objection to the surgery is that it violates the right to health. Article 15 of the Universal Declaration provides that "[e]veryone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself." One major drawback of focusing on health is that proponents could avoid the hard problems of changing cultural norms and focus very narrowly on health issues. The result would be that the surgeries would be done in hospitals by trained doctors, not eliminated. Even if one could choose the "right" human rights norm, given the world-traveling analysis's concern with cultural complexiry.+' would it be appropriate to use the human rights system to outlaw or even criticize a specific culture's norm? Again one must confront the issues of whether human rights law is representative of multicultural or shared values and whether the punitive aspects of the system as a legal system preserve multicultural respect.
WEAKNESSES AS STRENGTHS IN HUMAN RIGHTS LAW

rncised, may

operation msent.26 On Idren's care, the Child as ughters they and socially eir culture.27 elling, raises ues are comie

he children's women (in and abusive 1S necessary

:ribed as the of )f person." 30 The rhetoric ich the right ion of what etenrion and
eclaranon

tions against .ciated in the

There are two ways of reformulating the problem of preserving respect for different cultures in the human rights law context. The first is the argument that the way the human rights system has preserved mutual cultural respect has been to avoid criticiz, ing cultural activity. The second is that the human rights system has never avoided the imposition of one set of cultural values, that is, Western values, and that it is inappropriate to think it ever could. If human rights law does affect cultural activity and impose values, should it continue to criticize any single "other" culture or retreat from doing even as much as it currently does? From the perspective of cultural relativity, since all cultures are equally valid and to be respected, it would seem that retreat is in order.t" The relativism perspective is one that has enjoyed renewed popularity this century because it provides a pointed criticism of Western colonialism.P Relativism questions the universality of the existing human rights norms. The current human rights doctrine is only one cultural way, the Western way, of ensuring and preserving what all cultures value: human dignity. The existing human rights approach centers on the individual's rights; it does not address the more communal nature of many, especially African, cultures. For human rights proponents there are two major responses to the relativism critique. One, universalism, simply contradicts the notion that there can be no universal norms that transcend all cultures.J" The other, the positivist view, states that as long as diverse nations sign and ratify human rights treaties they have willingly consented to be governed by the enumerated standards and cannot exempt themselves whenever it suits them.'? The world-traveling methodology suggests that there is not an "either/or" proposition. One is not stuck between choosing "universal standards" and "everything is

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relative." It is not that there are "universals" out there waiting to be discovered. But through dialogue, shared values can become universal and be safeguarded. The process by which these universal standards are created is important. A dialogue, with a tone that incorporates world-traveling concerns and respects cultural diversity, is essential. From that dialogue a consensus may be reached; and we must understand that as people and cultures interact they do change and learn from each other. Even if an international treaty banning the practice can be realized, it may be wise not to pressure or embarrass national governments to pas~ laws at the domestic level. We may want more open health or educational efforts that allow African feminists and women to continue the process of change within their own cultures. The process of creating shared values could (hopefully) lead to a firmer and more widely held norm against the practice. In this situation one could imagine that the use of law in its traditional form with punitive and coercive measures would be appropriately invoked. In this scenario, punishment of individuals for violating shared norms would be apt when punishment of cultures for violating external norms was not. The difficult question regarding my preferred scenario, where the process of dialogue leads to a firmer and more broadly shared value against the surgery, is, when do we know we have such a shared norm against the surgery that punishment and ceercion can be used? There is no easy, abstract answer to the question. In practical terms, we will know "after the fact." Only after nations have introduced or reintroduced domestic legislation, and their citizenry largely abide by and welcome it, can we be more assured that the norm is shared. Culturally challenging practices like female genital surgeries represent crucial areas of multicultural dialogue for feminists applying international human rights law to the specific concerns of women. Improvement in the quality of women's lives and in their status in all the world's cultures must be coordinated with respect for the diverse views among women on how these goals will be achieved. My three-pronged analysis, (I) seeing oneself in historical context; (2) seeing oneself as the "other" might see you; and (3) seeing the "other" within her own complex cultural context, is designed to aid in the process of respecting independence and interconnectedness.

NOTES
I. The range of excisive operations performed on the female genitalia described infra are characterized either as "female circumcision" or "genital mutilation." I use the term "genital surgeries" in an effort to strike a neutral tone. 2. Asma El Dareer, Woman, Why Do You Weep: Circumcision and Its Consequences I-5

(1982).

3. L. F. Lowenstein, Attitudes and Attitude Difference to Female Genital Mutilation in the Sudan: Is There a Change on the Horizon, I2 Soc. Sci. & Med. 4I7 (1978) (citing anthropological studies involving surveys/interviews with primarily Sudanese people).

Arrogant Perception, World Traveling, and Multicultural Feminism

:covered. But uarded. The lalogue, with I diversity, is t understand other. may be wise mestic level. an feminists er and more ine that the s would be or violating ernal norms cess of diary, is, when shrnenr and In practical or reintroome it, can

359

ucial areas ;hts law to ives and in ect for the ee-pronged ie "other" al context, !ctedness.

d infra are ·m "genital uences 1-5 tion in the anthropo-

4·Id. 5. Id.; Ellen Gruenbaum, Reproductive Ritual and Social Reproduction: Female Circumcision and the Subordination of Women in Sudan, in Economy and Class in Sudan 310 (Norman O'Neil & Jay O'Brien eds., 1988). 6. Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children: Female Circumcision, Childhood Marriage, Nutritional Taboos, Etc., World Health OrganizationlEastern Mediterranean Regional Office, Technical Publication NO.2, Reprint of a Seminar, Khartoum, 10-15 February, 1979 at 44 (presentation by Dr. A. H. Taba). 7·Id. 8. Gruenbaum, supra note 5, at 311. 9·Id. 10. See G. Zwang, Female Sexual Mutilations, Techniques and Results (1979), cited in Hanny Lightfoot-Klein, Prisoners of Ritual: An Odyssey into Female Genital Circumcision in Africa 81 (1989). Raqiya H. D. Abdalla, Sisters in Affliction: Circumcision and Infibulation of Women in Africa 26 (1982). Both report frigidity in circumcised women. 11. I use the term "independence" to suggest enough distance between oneself and the "other" so that the "other" is recognized as engaged in and entitled to the same process of self-definition as oneself. 12. Marilyn Frye, In and Out of Harm's Way, in The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory 52-83 (1983). 13. Id. at 75. 14. Maria Lugones, Playfulness, World-Traveling and Loving Perception, 2 Hypatia 3 (1987). 15. Id. at '-10. 16. Ben Barker-Benfield, Sexual Surgery in LAte Nineteenth Century America, 5 Int'l J. Health Services 279 (1975)· 17. See, e.g., Ruth Rosen, Draw the Line at the Knife, L.A. Times, Nov. 17, 1991, at M5 (comparing breast implants with footbinding, dowry deaths, and clitoridectomies). 18. Gruenbaum, supra note 5, at 311. 19. Lightfoot-Klein, supra note 10, at 161. 20. Gruenbaum, supra note 5, at 310. 21. Id. at 313. 22. Lightfoot-Klein, supra note 10, at 73, 141. 23. Id. at 72-73. 24. Declaration of the Rights of the Child adopted 20 November 1959; G.A. Res 1386 (XIV) U.N. Doc. N4354 (1959). These sentiments are underscored in the Draft Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was adopted by the U.N. Open-Ended Working Group on the Question of a Convention on the Rights of the Child: 1979-1988. 25. See Kay Boulware-Miller, Female Circumcision: Challenges to the Practice as a Human Rights Violation, 8 Harv. Women's L.J. 155, 167 (1985). 26. Allison Slack, Female Circumcision: A Critical Appraisal, 10 Hum. Rts. Q. 437, 469-70 (1988). 27. See Boulware-Miller, supra note 25, at 166-67. Here, Bouleware-Miller discusses two problems with the children's rights approach: (I) it ignores the parents' desires and ideas of child-rearing, and (2) it focuses on physical harm to the exclusion of issues of social acceptance. 28. Id. at 166.

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29. Id. at 169. 30. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, G.A. Res. 217A (III) U.N. Doc. N1810, (1948), Article 2.

at 71

31. U.N. Doc N39/708

(1984).

32. Slavery Convention, concluded Sept. 25, 1926,46 Stat. 2183, T.S. No. 778, 60 L.N.T.S. 253 (entered into force Mar. 9,1927). 33· In addition to the concerns raised by the world-traveling analysis, there is also the issue of self-determination guaranteed by several human rights treaties. 34. Ruth Benedict, Patterns of Culture 45-46 (1934)., 35· Katherine Brennan, The Influence of Cultural Relativism on International Human Rights Law, Female Circumcision as a Case Study, 7 Law & Ineq. J. 367, 370 (1989). 36. Id. at 371-72. 37. Id. at 372-73.