ter of preserving her family’s honor into her own hands for which she feels powerful. In actuality, this woman is being deceived by her society. A woman’s genitalia should have no prevalence to her families honor.Another example:Sierra Leonian woman: “…male domination has nothing to do with [it]. Circumcision is part of the process of initiation into our secret societies. We women continue to do it to ourselves. Men fear our medicine…”(Lecture 10/18/00)Why does this woman think she needs a secret society? Because it denotes power over men by having a secret of which they do not know. This is a form of oppression.Women are placated into believing that by authoritating their bodies they control their lives, not having men control their lives. This is also a constituent of oppression. One shouldn’t have to surgically alter an otherwise healthy organ for aesthetic or “cultural” purposes in order to be “in control” of their lives.In procedure itself the two practices themselves are very different. However, breast augmentation and F.G.M. are very “similar” relative to the societies and cultures in which they are present. Authors Lackoff and Scherr (1984) sum up the cross- cultural comparison very well:“The pain tends to be of a long, even lifelong duration: rather than the quick prick of a needle, we have the squeezing out the tight laced corset, the stab of the pointy toe, the asphyxiation of the collar and tie, or the scrape of the razor blade day in and day out. The pain is perhaps less agonizing at any one moment in our beauty rituals than theirs, but over time it evens out.” (Davis, p.41, 1995)In summation regardless of the exact ritual, people are willing to brave pain and actual health risks in order to adhere to cultural norms of how the body should look through body ...
