People always said that beauty is a subjective. There is no specific traits and characteristics that truly defined what is beauty. Everyone has their own definition of beauty. Thus, this is why there are different beauty standard for different culture. Some culture might view is as beautiful but not by others. This is what make every culture are unique and special. To be honest, this week topic really caught my interest. This is because I actually experience FGC myself.
Growing up as a Muslim in Malaysia, FGC is actually norm to our society. From this week lecture, I believed everyone aware of there are different type of FGC that practices by different cultures. In my cultures, the practice here involves nicking the tip of the clitoris and teasing out a piece of the tissue using a penknife or razor on children as young as one or 2 months old and a drop of blood is considered as a requirement for the fulfilment of the ritual. Traditionally, it was conducted by midwives. However, nowadays, many people preferred to be conducted by medical doctors. This type of practices was deeply connected to Islam, Malay ethnicity, and Islamic cleanliness. According to Abdul Rashid’s article, 87.6% were in the opinion FGC is compulsory in Islam. However, the Mufti’s, who are responsible in issuing religious edicts, say it is not a religious requirement. Even though the Mufti already stated that it is not compulsory, FGC had been practiced from a long time make it weird if one did not perform it. I remember my mom questioning my sister for not performing FGC for her daughter. As for the health aspect, I, myself, have undergo FGC and there is no health issue regarding it.
Based on Lisa’s article about her foot binding, I can see that, it is highly related to marriage. They believed that small feet are beautiful and would determine how marriageable the women are. According to Lisa, “My small feet would be offered as proof to my prospective in-laws of my personal discipline and my ability to endure the pain of childbirth, as well as whatever misfortunes might lie ahead. My small feet would show the world my obedience to my natal family, particularly to my mother, which would also make a good impression on my future mother-in-law… my feet would be something that would hold my husband’s fascination during the most private and intimate moments between a man and a woman”. The foot binding practices connected to Chinese culture. To those that did not practices the foot binding, they likely to “either sold as servants or they become “little daughters-in-law” -big-footed girls from unfortunate families who are given to other families to raise until they are old enough to bear children”.
In my opinion, when it comes to this kind of practices, it is depending on their culture and their belief where to practices it or not. Some of these practices are tradition that had been carried out for many years. I believed the take away massage this week is very important. “You do not have to always agree with practices in other cultures, but it is always helpful to understand them in their cultural context”. Like I said in the beginning, everyone has their own view and definition of beauty. Some might agree with us and some might against. This is way it is important to understand other point of view before we state what is right and what is wrong.
Reference:
Lecture 6.1 – The “Ideal” Feminine Body: Chinese footbinding, female genital cutting, and female genital plastic surgery
PDF: 6.1. See, Lisa. Chapter 1 – “Footbinding” In Snow Flower and the Fan
Rashid, A. & Iguchi, Y. (2018). Female genital cutting in Malaysia: a mixed-methods study. British Medical Journal, 9(4), 1-10.
Thank you for sharing your story about your own experiences with your culture in terms of FCG. What you had to say about the topic was truly very interesting and meaningful. I liked how you talked about the fact that what is considered beautiful in some cultures is not considered beautiful in others and I completely agree with that. For example, shaving your legs and armpits is considered normal and beautiful in the United States, where as leaving those areas unshaved is considered the norm for other countries. In my blog post this week, I talked about the fact that while for something like shaving your legs or not, there is a choice for the women even if society chooses to judge your decision. Therefore, as someone who has experienced FCG and who did not get a choice in that matter, would you have chosen that for yourself or risk not getting it despite the negative consequences from society questioning your decisions?
Reading your views on female genital cutting, having had personal experience with this specific cultural beauty practice, was very fascinating. Do you think you would carry on this tradition now that you know your older sister has decided not to? I ask this because my older female cousin was the first to get a tattoo in the family, and this was very controversial at the time. When I decided to start getting tattoos a few years later, my family’s response was a lot more nonchalant. “Of course, our external self is connected to our internal self, and therefore everything we do to ourselves to look a certain way also has significant effects on our health and wellbeing” (Lecture 6.1). I am curious about the health and wellbeing of those who did not have a choice in their participation in FGC as a young child. You mentioned that you did not have any health issues in regards to this practice, and that you consider this practice as being normal, so I would be interested to hear the views of someone who also has personal experience, but feels differently.
Hi Atiah. Thank you for sharing. I agree with your statement that beauty is subjective. Beauty standards are greatly influenced by cultural factors. This would mean that different cultures have different views on what is considered to be desirable which might be completely different from other cultures. For example, in my post I talked about how people in Myanmar value long or giraffe neck which is achieved from wearing brass rings to lengthen her neck(The List ). People in other cultures might think this is a form of torture but this is the culture of this area. Thank you for sharing your story of FCG. As you mentioned, because FGC was practiced for a long time and it would seem weird if one did not perform it, why do you think your sister chose not perform FGC for her daughter? I completely agree with your statement that it is important to understand cultural practices. As this weeks lecture stated , while you don’t agree with the practices of other cultures it is helpful to understand them in their cultural context ( Lecture The ideal feminine body).
Thank you for sharing your experiences, I really appreciate you doing that. I’m also glad you brought up the part about not always agreeing with a culture’s practice, but understanding the cultural context it occurs in. This is something that anthropology struggles with, we want to be respectful and be understanding of other practices but it can be really hard to respectful when something happens that you don’t agree with. Understanding why something is the way it is can make it a bit easier to accept it, but not always.
Hi Atiah, thanks for sharing your perspective about this week’s lecture topics, and for feeling comfortable enough to discuss your own experiences with FGC. You bring up some interesting points in your blog post. Often, we approach concepts like FGC with an ethnocentric perspective, assuming our own Western ideals and practices are ‘the best’ and looking down on the traditions and ideas of other cultures. In the field of anthropology, we strive to overcome some of that egotistical arrogance/ignorance and try to practice cultural relativism (i.e. understanding practices within their own cultural context, and not judging them against the criteria of another culture) (Cole n.d.). This becomes tricky to balance, however, especially in humanitarian work. For those who favor the model of universal human rights (which is slanted towards Western ideals) over cultural relativism, female genital cutting is verbalized as ‘female genital mutilation’, and it is seen as an act of violence against women and girls. Well-meaning humanitarians who are not aware of the various types of FGC or the cultural standards that are tied to these variations may crucify the practice of FGC as a whole, making blanket statements and generalizations about the harm and ‘oppression’ FGC forces onto individuals. What argument would you make to someone who views FGC as a practice that is infringing on the human rights of women around the world? Would you support all the types of FGC as being culturally valid and upholding women’s human rights, or just the FGC practices that you have experienced and are culturally connected to? Just food for thought…great post!
References
Cole, Nicki Lisa. n.d. “Definition of Cultural Relativism in Sociology.” ThoughtCo. Accessed August 11, 2019. https://www.thoughtco.com/cultural-relativism-definitions-3026122.