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Current Sexual Health Reports

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03.05.2019 | Sociocultural Issues and Epidemiology (J Abdulcadir and C Johnson-Agbakwu, Section Editors)

Sex, Grief, and Psychic Trauma: Considering History and Politics in the Psychosexual Treatment of Women with FGC

verfasst von: Sophia Koukoui

Erschienen in: Current Sexual Health Reports | Ausgabe 2/2019

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Abstract

Purpose of Review

This paper stems from a presentation given at the “Second International Expert Meeting on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C): Sharing data and experiences, improving collaboration,” which took place at Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Ste. Justine, Montreal, Canada, in May 2018. It aims to shed light on the psychosexual health of women with female genital cutting (FGC), drawing from both scientific research and clinical work. This paper also addresses the inherent challenges to healthcare delivery for “cut” women and seeks to illuminate the social and historical realities that form the backdrop to the clinical encounter.

Recent Findings

While there is a vast body of literature on the psychological determinants of sexual health, studies on “cut” women’s sexual health have yet to delve into its psychological correlates. In addition, healthcare delivery for women with FGC poses a number of challenges, which impinge upon patient experience and health-seeking behavior.

Summary

Ethical considerations in care delivery for women with FGC must delve into the hegemonic nature of the patient-practitioner interactions and politics of Otherness. Interdisciplinary research and praxis on FGC will prevent biological reductionism and the pathologization of these women. It will afford more integrated, comprehensive, and ethical care for women with FGC.

Regarded as the founding father of modern gynecology, Dr. Marion Sims performed experimental gynecological surgeries on enslaved Black women he “purchased” specifically for his experimentations, performing as many as 30 surgeries on one woman alone. In addition to the brutal legal assault of foregoing any form of consent and egregious encroachment to human dignity, he performed all his experimentations without anesthesia [4]. Dr. Sims is also the inventor of the modern speculum, also devised from prototypes he tested on enslaved Black women.

This quote and all others that appear in this paper are drawn from interviews conducted with women with FGC. All subjects gave free and informed consent and this research was approved by the Université du Québec à Montréal Psychology Department Ethics Committee.

From a structuralist perspective, FGC has served to regulate social interactions and maintain social cohesion. By being a marker of marriageability, through its presumed ability to safeguard virginity and faithfulness, FGC has coded gender interactions, cultivated values of sexual modesty, and forged community ties and a feeling of shared group identity [11].

From a historical, sociological, and epistemological perspective, the belief that FGC invariably leads to trauma is partly based on Western beliefs and attitudes about the practice. It posits certain assumptions that create a bias in psychiatric morbidity research on FGC [17••], one which some scholars deem “scientific imperialism” [18, 19]. The semantics of suffering, distress, and trauma seemingly become entangled, leading to a tendency to pathologize “cut” women.

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Titel: Sex, Grief, and Psychic Trauma: Considering History and Politics in the Psychosexual Treatment of Women with FGC
verfasst von: Sophia Koukoui
Publikationsdatum: 03.05.2019
Verlag: Springer US
Erschienen in: Current Sexual Health Reports / Ausgabe 2/2019
Print ISSN: 1548-3584
Elektronische ISSN: 1548-3592
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11930-019-00199-7

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Sex, Grief, and Psychic Trauma: Considering History and Politics in the Psychosexual Treatment of Women with FGC

Abstract

Purpose of Review

Recent Findings

Summary

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