‘Beauty’ and ‘The Beast’: Analogizing between Cosmetic Surgery and Female Genital Mutilation (2012)
This study is a Descriptive research regarding All FGM/C with the following characteristics:
Author(s): Theodore Bennett
FGM/C Type(s): All
Health area of focus: None.
Objective: To analogize between cosmetic surgery and female genital mutilation
Study Population: NA
Findings: The key conceptual similarities between FGM and cosmetic surgery are that both sets of procedures can be considered to be physically harmful,that they both target females and that they are based on particular patriarchal cultural understandings about femininity and female sexuality. The two sets of procedures can be seen to be similar because they both necessarily involve the cutting and shaping of the body in physically harmful ways. As they are both surgical (or quasi-surgical) procedures,their mere performance can be seen as potentially ‘unhealthy and dangerous’. Furthermore,the fact that neither set of procedures is aimed towards healing the patient,or somehow treating a condition/disease,means that their performance is not only ‘risky’ but is also medically ‘unnecessary’.
Geographical coverage
Region(s):Not specified
Country(ies):Not specified