Culture impacts how a person handles daily events and life changing events such as undergoing puberty, moving out of the house, and getting married.  Based on this week’s readings and videos, we can see how culture impacts feminine beauty across the world and the differences between countries.  Personally, I didn’t know foot binding, female circumcision, and women enduring surgery on their vaginas were common in today’s world.  It saddens me to hear women are enduring pain to try to fit in with society’s beauty standards, especially the number of women who undergo plastic surgery thinking men will find them more attractive and worthier of their attention.

            Until this point in my life, I thought only males were circumcised, so it was interesting to learn some females have this procedure done.   Based on the readings, there are two theoretical perspectives that can be applied to female genital cutting, epidemiological and feminist.  Fuambai Ahmadu utilizes the feminist theory to explain her findings on sexual experiences among circumcised females.  During the paper, she concludes that there’s no relationship between not having a clitoris and sexual performance, and the people who claim there is a connection are creating a myth.  She states there are women who are married to men who are saddened by circumcised women; however, these same women are discouraged by men who are circumcised (Ahamdu, 2007).  By using the feminist theory, we can see the double standard that occurs between genders regarding circumcisions.  Another approach is using the epidemiological theory to view how the population is affected by circumcision.  Lynda Newland studied female circumcision in West Java with an epidemiological and feminist perspective.  For example, she conducted a survey showing 98% of men were circumcised in Madura while 94.7 of their female counterparts were circumcised.  This is very normal for Islamic By looking at the population of people, we can show how the actions of others impact what future people will do.  Also, according to her research the United Nations determined that the practice of female circumcision was a harmful to women, and the United States went as far as cutting off countries who perform this procedure from financial help.  I found this interesting because a majority of the male population in the United States is circumcised, yet Congress didn’t see this procedure on males as a violation.  The epidemiological and feminist theory can explain this by the United Nations and the United States trying to fix this “problem” among the female population.   Newland compares females and males to  discuss the reasoning and experiences of female circumcisions (Newland, 2006).  Overall, female genital cutting has caused various discussions on the outcomes of this procedure.

            Another cultural feminine beauty procedure is Chinese foot binding.  This is a common practice in China which determines a women’s social status as well as being more attractive to man who’s looking for a wife.  See discussed the process of foot binding through a story discussing the experience of three young girls who had their feet bound at the same time.  She utilized the interpretative theory which asks how the meaning of an event determines human health.  According to See, days before the foot binding women from the village congratulate the girls undergoing the process because their culture sees this event at a turning point in a young girl’s life where she crosses over to womanhood.  Those who don’t participate in foot binding are neglected by their culture and sold as servants.  The health of the girls throughout the process is horrifying.  Based off this experience, the toes are expected to break, the feet give off a foul smell as they’re becoming infected, and sadly many girls die.  In the story, See discusses the pain the girls felt and how the process ended up killing one of the sisters, which could’ve been prevented had the process been stopped (See, 2005).

Finally, many women feel the need to undergo surgery on their vaginas, so they can vaginas that are viewed as “normal” in society.  Leach documents the feelings of various women regarding the appearance of their vaginas and how society has made them feel like an outcast. Personally, I didn’t realize this was an issue in society because I have never heard of anyone undergoing surgery on their vagina to fit in with cultural standards.  This film can be applied to the overall body of women because there are many women who don’t feel confident in their own skin.  Society determines the ideal female body, which includes the appearance of the vagina.  Yet again, the feminist theory can be applied to the situation because the filmmaker discusses the standards women are held to and the process they go through to achieve those standards.  This week was an eye opening experience for me because I didn’t realize the physical and emotional pain women continuously go through to fit in with society.

Ahamdu, F. (2007). Chapter 12- Ain’t I a Woman Too?. Transcultural Bodies: Female Genital Cutting in a Global Context. Rutgers University Press. 

Leach, H. (2009). “The Perfect Vagina”. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/groups/145051/videos/4704237

Newland, L. (2006). Female circumcision: Muslim identities and zero tolerance policies in rural West Java. Women’s Studies International Forum. 

See, L. (2005). Chapter 1- Footbinding. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. New York: Random House Publishing.