Male And Female Circumcision Argumentative Essay

Male circumcision and female circumcision are two highly debated subjects in today’s world because people, cultures, and societies have various viewpoints on both of them. What could be considered as the ‘norm’ in one culture may not be the case in another. Edward Wallerstein once said, “Circumcision is a unique phenomenon. Its origins in antiquity are obscure, its original objectives unknown, its spread to all continents a source of speculation; yet this operation, this first ritual surgery devised by humans, is still in use” (Wallerstein). He accurately sums up the general ideas, debates, and ethical questions that surround the topic of circumcision. The idea is to uncover the reasons that people practice male and female circumcision and

Male circumcision dates back to the Egyptians and is the removal of part of or the entire foreskin—either with or without anesthesia (Puri, Kumar, and Ramesh 69-74). Female circumcision is done predominantly in African countries. It generally consists of four types of cutting ranging from least drastic to most drastic type: “Type 1 is removal of the clitoral prepuce (compared to male circumcision), Type 2 the removal of potentially the entire clitoris and some or all of the labia minora, Type 3 ‘infibulation’ involves removing the clitoris, labia minora, and external labia—leaving a very small opening for urination and menstruation, Type 4 or ‘introcision’ involves cutting the perineum” (Rushwan

My only participant that was fully knowledgeable about female circumcision had previously learned it in this class. She in particular had a very interesting take on it. Her opinion was that it was another way to “oppress” women. “It is a way for men to control women’s sexuality and by controlling their sexuality--they consequently control them in general.” Her comparison between male and female circumcision was that male circumcision is not done to oppress males, it stems from a totally separate idea. All of the other interviewees had either never heard of it or just briefly heard of the name. I gave them a general explanation of what female circumcision entailed and why it was practiced in some cultures. However it was pictures of the process that really affected them. Instantly they answered that female circumcision was worse than male circumcision and some described it as “horrible” and should “definitely be stopped.” Although all of them were stumped when I asked why this should be stopped but male circumcision is okay. This made one of my participants think about the parallels between the two and stated, “I have never really thought about the two as similar but when you really get to thinking about it they are similar in the fact that they either have absolutely no or extremely little health benefit, they cause a lot of pain, and they are