Compare and contrast female genital modifications in the Western and African contexts.
Introduction
Female genital modification entails the temporary or permanent changes or alterations to the female reproductive organs. These alterations have been around since time immemorial as part of rituals or for cosmetic purposes. In various cultures, these modifications have symbolic connotations such as in many African communities female genital modification was part of an initiation rite for young girls into adulthood. In the contemporary societies globally, particularly Western societies, these changes in the female genitalia are procured for aesthetic reasons or enhancement of the female sexual functions. This paper will offer an insightful comparison between female genital modifications in the Western and African contexts. It will seek to show the perceptions associated with the female genital changes in both contexts while focusing on their enforcement of heteronormativity.
Virginia Braun’s article, In Search of (Better) Sexual Pleasure: Female Genital “Cosmetic” Surgery, in the Sexualities journal, explores female genital modifications in the western context. The author dwells on the female genital cosmetic surgery that is highly prevalent in the modern western societies. According to the article, many women are procuring the cosmetic surgeries due to the need to boost their sexual desire and body image. It has become both a surgical practice and cultural product. Surgical procedures such as labiaplasty, liposuction and labia majora augmentations are meant to enhance the aesthetic value of the female genitalia. Many pundits cite these procedures as part of a trend where women are acquiring “designer vaginas” with body image in primary focus. Attainment of frequent, pleasurable and satisfying sex has become a symbol of the liberalized woman. Virginia Braun’s article backs this with several excerpts from women magazines that portray many women acquiring improved sex after removal of the psychological barriers through FGCS. Controversy has raged regarding these developments with the author noting that much of these surgeries are all made with male pleasure being secondary to them. This is because the FGCS has led to the prioritization of female pleasure at the expense of the discussion surrounding male pleasure. It ceases being a liberatory mechanism for women, but rather a procedure construed in the patriarchal nature of many contemporary societies. The FGCS somewhat reinforces oppressive social cultures on women.
Mathabo Khau in his article Female Sexual Pleasure and Autonomy: What has inner labia elongation got to do with it? Focuses on the female genital modification in the African context. The author dwells on the inner labia elongation and the societal concepts surrounding the genital beauty. The article further pores into the violations women, and girls face as they carry out their gendered and sexual roles in a hetero-patriarchal society. The author focuses on the Basotho women and the internal labia elongation. Khau notes that the internal labia elongation was used as a rite of passage ushering young girls to womanhood. The initiation was coupled with transmission of sexual knowledge from elder women to the young initiates. It is through this socialization that girls acquired sufficient knowledge, skills and attitudes which aided in their future sexual relationships. Beauty, was another reason that the author notes for the elongation of the internal labia by the Basotho women and girls. The elongation further enhanced sexual pleasure for the male sexual partners. Female pleasure in this context focusses on pleasuring their male counterparts. Khau notes that the elongation too, was used as a means of controlling the Basotho women’s sexuality. The elongation was important in reducing the female sexual desire as well as enhancing sexual restraint. This ultimately made it a means of natural contraception that helped put in control the number of young pregnancies in the Sotho society. The heteronormativity concept, in this context, is enhanced with acts involving a mutual labia elongation by Basotho women frowned upon in Christian settings. The mutual elongation, however, was carried out with the sole aim of cementing heterosexuality. Many women whom the author interviewed understood sex from the “penile penetration” angle and not from other sexual acts or engagements.
In the Western context as established, female genital modification majorly focusses on the aesthetic and pleasure value. The process is carried out as female genital cosmetic surgeries, and it is done at the behest of the individuals. It is prudent to note that the Western women pay and decide on the FCGS procedures to undergo based on their preferences and expectations. These procedures ultimately achieve positive wellbeing such as improved sexual lives and reduced sexual psychological barriers. Consequently, many of these Western women in this case are portrayed as individuals entitled rightfully to enjoy sex. Focus on the surgical procedures such as vaginal tightening, clitoral hood reductions, and G-Spot amplifications mainly centered on the heightening of the women’s sexual desire cement this point. The Western context on the other hand enhances heteronormativity through FGCS procedures aimed at improving the female genitalia for the sake of heterosexual activities. Braun notes that the women in the Western are illustrated as inherently entitled to achieve sexual pleasure and heterosexual. This is a bias that the FGCS has managed to perpetuate with this by designing of bodies to fit certain heterosexual activities rather than designing sexual practices to fit certain body types.
The African context as per Khau’s article dwell on the modification as a form of rite, and a means for women to be effective in pleasuring their male sexual partners. The process in the African context dwells on the internal labia elongation. The labia elongation as postulated by Mathabo Khau starts at the ages of eight years that brings to question the free will associated with the act. Amongst the Basotho women, the elongation rite was associated with fear, pain, silence and shame. Many women carried out the rite with fear of losing suitors in a patriarchal society that deemed women with well-elongated labia as proper wife-materials. Pain also was associated with many efforts the girls and women took to elongate their labia. Many women suffered privately as they tried to conform to the cultural norms. Shame, on the other hand, was associated with women who had rather short labia and the regular inspection of labia by elder women relatives. Having a short labia among the Basotho was looked upon and associated with potential sexual promiscuity. The regular inspections as narrated by the author made many girls feel dehumanized with the publicizing of their supposedly private parts. Importantly, in the African context, heteronormativity is enhanced through taboos associated with homosexuality. It is also pegged on the definition of sex in the subject society, Basotho, who understand sex as any coital activity between man and woman with “penile penetration” involved.
Conclusion
Female genital modification in both the Western and African contexts present a sharp difference in cultures globally. The modifications are carried out with the intent of pleasing self or sexual partners. In the Western context, a woman’s pleasure and self-image are primary. This has been made possible through the fueling of the “designer vagina” trend amongst the contemporary society women. Their African counterparts are still bound to rites that have been passed down generation to generation. Whether consensual or not, these modifications clearly point out the struggles have to undergo in order to fit in this patriarchal society. The male sexual pleasure or sexual role is not brought in question. It is women that have to bear the brunt in sexual relationships in both contexts.
References
Braun, V. (2005). In Search of (Better) Sexual Pleasure: Female Genital “Cosmetic” Surgery. Sexualities, 8(4), 406-424.
Khau, M. (2012). Female Sexual Pleasure and Autonomy: What has inner labia elongation got to do with it? Sexualities, 15(7), 763-777.
