From clitoridectomies to ‘designer vaginas’: The medical construction of heteronormative female bodies and sexuality through female genital cutting

Abstract

This paper contributes to an ongoing critical discussion of sexuality and female genital cutting (FGC) offered by feminists, human rights activists, and academics. While most research to date focuses on the current practice of FGC in the African context, this limited understanding prohibits consideration of other instances and types of FGC. Three distinct historical and cultural contexts of FGC are addressed in this paper: (1) the practice of medical clitoridectomy in Victorian England and the use of clitoridectomies in North America in the mid twentieth century, (2) the ongoing Western use of genital surgery, and (3) the current trend of elective genital plastic surgery to create “designer vaginas” in the twenty-first century. This discussion reveals how various cultures and people–including women themselves–use FGC to influence and enforce Western medically constructed female embodiment(s) of heteronormative femininity and sexuality.