tutijutud

Lugesin ühe oma essee jaoks ka ühte magistritööd genitaalsest ilukirurgiast. Ma ei tea, kui väga Lindyle avaldamine meeldib, nii et kopeerin siia ainult abstract’i, päris huvitav teema, hoolimata sellest, et kogu see jutt teemal “ka meie ühiskond sunnib inimestele erinevaid väliseid norme peale” tundub juba debiilsuseni läbinämmutatud (ja enamus inimesi nagunii seda hoomata ei suuda):

In the West, an increasingly specific genital ideal, that of the ‘clean slit’, is being circulated in the media and women are being persuaded to alter their genitals as a result, particularly through hair removal but also, increasingly, through female genital cosmetic surgery (FGCS). At the same time, female genital cutting (FGC) continues to be widely practiced in non-Western countries despite international efforts to curtail it. These two procedures are presented very differently in medical discourse although, in the transcultural context, they are now rubbing up against each other. Viewing them together is useful since it enables a more critical reflection of Western medical practice, while simultaneously allowing a more reflexive consideration of FGC. Women who practice FGC are denied medicalisation and deemed burdened by culture (and patriarchy), whereas Western women’s bodies are increasingly medicalised and modified by cosmetic procedures, which are presented as rational and liberating. A consideration of FGCS and FGC together reveals similar motives for altering female genitals across cultural divides, as women negotiate the expectations and social pressures placed on them to conform to ideals of appropriate femininity. This confluence exposes the cultural nature of both individual choice and medical praxis in the West, and conceptually brings the two practices closer together.