Trigger warning: FGM at Cornell University

[Brickbat]

"Doctor" trims girls' clitori, then checks back every year with vibrators.

http://www.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2010/06/16/female-genital-mutilation-at-cornell-university

The link takes you to a column by Dan Savage, who quotes from the original report on a bioethics blog (link to that in Savage's column):

But we are not writing today to again bring attention to the surgeries themselves. Rather, we are writing to express our shock and concern over the follow-up examination techniques described in the 2007 article by Yang, Felsen, and Poppas. Indeed, when a colleague first alerted us to these follow-up exams—which involve Poppas stimulating the girls’ clitorises with vibrators while the girls, aged six and older, are conscious—we were so stunned that we did not believe it until we looked up his publications ourselves.

Here more specifically is, apparently, what is happening: At annual visits after the surgery, while a parent watches, Poppas touches the daughter’s surgically shortened clitoris with a cotton-tip applicator and/or with a “vibratory device,” and the girl is asked to report to Poppas how strongly she feels him touching her clitoris. Using the vibrator, he also touches her on her inner thigh, her labia minora, and the introitus of her vagina, asking her to report, on a scale of 0 (no sensation) to 5 (maximum), how strongly she feels the touch.... Poppas has indicated in this article and elsewhere that ideally he seeks to conduct annual exams with these girls....

So. Angry.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Gah!!!!!!!! What. The. Hell?!?!?!? I think I am seriously close to puking right now.

[WhiteTara]

2. why in heaven's name is someone

"trimming" TRIMMING?!?! a girl's clitoris? I am so sickened by people's beliefs that the female body is something so ugly and foul that it needs breast plumping, clitoris trimming, douches strong enough to kill skunk scent and all the other woman hating activities.

[FiveGoodMen]

3. He should certainly be on the receiving end of a similar procedure and follow-up

Shorten it...

Test it...

Shorten it again, until it doesn't work at all.

I can think of a few other things that should befall this piece of shit, but I'm running out of epithets and colorful tortures to apply.

[burnsei sensei]

4. Communal cohesion is not

created by the sexual abuse of girls.
These practices are illegal.
Whatever doctor chooses to engage in them should have his license pulled.
The parents should also be liable for criminal charges.
The sexual space in a person's life is individual.
The community has no interest in it.

[FiveGoodMen]

5. "The sexual space in a person's life is individual. The community has no interest in it."

And yet religious communities seem to think of nothing else. Ever.

[burnsei sensei]

7. They wrongly equate sexuality

with spirituality, or more correctly, they confound them.
Sexuality is fragile.
It is the kind of thing that cannot withstand criminal abuse, age or stress.
Even homelessness, disability, and intense poverty can all have the effect of de-sexualizing a person also.
Spirituality is as different from sexuality as salt is from pepper.
At least as far as I'm concerned. Spirituality survives all the stresses I mentioned above. It is something that, if viewed properly, is a source of strength and cannot be compromised by the actions of community.

[aikoaiko]

6. The clitoris needs no trimming.

I was hoping this was some type onion satirical piece....but no.

[rug]

8. This is taking place in the middle of Manhattan.

[riderinthestorm]

9. Jayzus! The "sexualization of girls" thread, and now this one.

Does anyone NOT understand NOW the role religion plays in demeaning girls/women?

This is at a major university. Respected university. And some people do NOT yet understand how pervasive patriarchy is in our culture? This is one of the most exquisitely painful examples I've seen ever, coming right on the heels of that other thread.

A major US university is condoning an experiment with FGM.

Words fail.

[Brickbat]

12. This is patriarchy, but not religion. This cutting is done because the clitori were judged to be

"too big."

[Brickbat]

10. Kick, because goddamn.

[Melissa G]

11. I feel so Angry about this!!! I have no words. n/t

:grr:

[Brickbat]

13. Kick for the morning crowd.

[Brickbat]

14. Kick for the day crowd.

[Lance_Boyle]

15. FGM, or surgical reduction of abnormally large clitoris?

An abnormally large clitoris (micropenis) is a deformity correctable by plastic surgery. Unless there is information that says these procedures are being done at Cornell for religious or cultural purposes rather than medical purposes, I'm inclined to withhold judgment. It also seems that testing to ensure proper function following surgery would constitute appropriate follow-up.

That said, I believe the consensus on micropenis is that children born with it are better off raised male, so these surgeries might be criticized on that angle.

[Brickbat]

16. FGM.

These are girls, with clitori judged "too big" (some, but not all, had virilizing congenital adrenal hyperplasia), who are subjected to sexual touching by a male doctor every year. I see nothing appropriate about any of this.

[Lance_Boyle]

21. Disgusting mischaracterization in the OP. This is decidededly NOT female genital mutilation.

Micropenis is a physical deformity. Parents electing to have this condition corrected in their children are far separated from the nuts who would clip every clit for religious or cultural purposes. Shame on the OP and on the rag from which the OP sourced this "story."

[KamaAina]

23. The "rag" is a well-established alternative paper in Seattle

http://www.thestranger.com

[tmyers09]

24. "Sexual Touching"?

I highly doubt it is intended as such.

[Poll_Blind]

17. There are so many things about that that are just nasty.

The first, biggest, one IMO is judging that a girl's clitoris is too big and needs to be surgically reduced in the first place.

All the other distasteful branches of this disgusting tree really spring from that trunk.

PB

[Poll_Blind]

18. BTW, were are the reports of the doctors shortening overly-large penises?

Oh, right. See the problem?

PB

[Coventina]

19. I have no words. Revolting beyond the capabilities of language.

I actually feel sick.

[geardaddy]

20. I hope he's being prosecuted.

:grr:

[Lance_Boyle]

22. This physician performs surgery on deformed children of indeterminate gender

to produce normal-appearing and normal-functioning body parts. Would you prefer that those children born of indeterminate gender live out their lives as "chicks with dicks" or as "boys with micropenis?" It is absolutely DISGUSTING that the OP and the wonderfully scientific source from which this bogus complaint are taken should put this misinformation out as "news."

Shame on the OP, the OP's source, and all of you spoonfed outrage junkies who bought into the make-believe "story."

This is no more "female genital mutilation" than adult gender-reassignment. It is done in the hope of providing a normal life for a child born with a physical deformity. I'm waiting to see all of you oh-so-righteous detractors protest removal of hemangioma in infants next. After all, if it's the way they were born it's perfectly natural and they should just live with it, right?