Cultural Relativism Essay -- Gender Roles, Female Genital Circumcision

In February 2007, the fourth annual concourse of Zero Tolerance Against female Genital Mutilation/Cutting was held. Their meeting brought together scholars and lay people a exchangeable, alone whose main concern was the issue of female person Genital Cutting (FGC). However, this conference was unlike others in that the focus of discussion wasnt how to eliminate this practice, notwithstanding rather, whether it should be eliminated at each (Goldberg 121). When Fuambai Ahmadu, a Ph.D. fellow and first contemporaries American from Sierra Leone, took the floor, everyone listened. Ahmadu was raised in America and as an adult, travelled back to Sierra Leone to take part in the ritual of Female Genital Cutting. She chose to participate in this initiation and what she feels is an important part of her societal identity. While she defended her choice, and her position on FGC, m any were outraged. They couldnt understand how an African woman could defend this mutilation. Ahmadu responde d I may be different from you and I am excised, but I am not mutilated. Just like I will not accept anybody calling me by the N word to define my racial identity, I will not claim anybody call me by the M word to define my social identity, my grammatical gender identity (Goldberg 123).The subject of Female Genital Circumcision is one that has been hotly debated for decades. Those who fit the practice cite its potential long-lasting consequences. They state numerous physical, ruttish and sexual side-effects. Possibilities range from infection to, sepsis, infertility and death. Author Benita Shell-Duncan explains in an obligate on FGC that, in 1959 The United Nations adopted The Declaration of the Rights of the Child which states that distributively child shall be given the opportunity to develop phy... ...ry 100 circumcised males in the world there are 21 circumcised females. Routine circumcision is unethical to verify the least, whether its a girl, an older boy, or a baby. So before we all gasp in horror at what is going on abroad maybe we should look at what we are doing right here in our own country (Squires, par. 16).It is easy to condemn a practice that we do not understand. After closer analytical exami community, one can overtake that there is no difference between the practice of female venereal cutting and the practice of male circumcision. It is completely unfair and ethnocentric of the air jacket to deem FGC inhumane, while Male circumcision runs rampant. Just because we are a developed, first-world nation with the ability to perform the procedure in state of the art hospitals, does not make it any less traumatizing. A rose by any other name is still a rose (Hammond).