Cultural Relativism

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Recommended: Argumentative Essay on circumcision

In February 2007, the fourth annual conference of “Zero Tolerance Against Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting” was held. Their meeting brought together scholars and lay people alike, all whose main concern was the issue of Female Genital Cutting (FGC). However, this conference was unlike others in that the focus of discussion wasn’t how to eliminate this practice, but rather, whether it should be eliminated at all (Goldberg 121). When Fuambai Ahmadu, a Ph.D. fellow and first generation American from Sierra Leone, took the floor, everyone listened. Ahmadu was raised in America and as an adult, traveled 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 social identity. While she defended her choice, and her position on FGC, many were outraged. They couldn’t understand how an African woman could defend this mutilation. Ahmadu responded “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 have anybody call me by the ‘M’ word to define my social identity, my gender identity” (Goldberg 123).

The subject of Female Genital Circumcision is one that has been hotly debated for decades. Those who oppose the practice cite its potential long-lasting consequences. They state numerous physical, emotional and sexual side-effects. Possibilities range from infection to, sepsis, infertility and death. Author Benita Shell-Duncan explains in an article on FGC that, in 1959 The United Nations adopted The Declaration of the Rights of the Child which states “that each child shall be given the opportunity ‘to develop phy...

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...ry 100 circumcised males in the world there are 21 circumcised females. Routine circumcision is unethical to say the least, whether it's a girl, an older boy, or a baby. So before we all gasp in horror at what is going on overseas 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 examination, one can see that there is no difference between the practice of female genital cutting and the practice of male circumcision. It is completely unfair and ethnocentric of the West 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).

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