rabbit_write_21 (mp3 download 3.2mb)
I came across an article in a 1973 issue of Playgirl promoting female circumcision, oh hai crazy– how are you? In this video I read some of the highlights and discuss female and male circ.
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Below, some pull quotes:
“Not long ago a friend of mine was circumcised. My friend is a woman….It sounded good. Greater sexual sensations, closer communication with one’s partner, higher levels of orgasm.”
“An awesome 75% of women are hindered from feeling the full extent of sensations, due to a condition which is most commonly known as “hooded clitoris”
“I told her I thought the idea was great and was having it done myself. With a blank expression she managed a feeble smile, picked up some cat-food and fled.”
Also note:
Playgirl was meant to be their feminist publication, and I think the author thought she was writing a very feminist piece. Also, Blue Cross Blue Shield and other health care covered female circumcisions until 1977–four years after this was written. One more time: AHHHHH!!!!!!!
10 Comments
Interesting. I thought at the end you were going to say that the sadness consists of the desire of women in this article to have more sexual pleasure–like a melancholy that they feel they have to go in for surgery in order to have ‘easier’ orgasms. What if they had gone to their doctors or sex educators and instead of surgery they would have been taught techniques to make sex more enjoyable?
I would be very interested in the rest of the history of this phenomenon–was there anyone in the 70s or later challenging the logic of female circumcision for sexual enjoyment? Are there women walking around today who had this done in the 70s and what do they think now? Are there long-term effects?
Good work, sex sleuther.
Thank you, interesting. I remember this fad. I think Playboy and Penthouse also covered it. How far it spread beyond their feverish (and male-dominated) pages I don’t know, but I don’t think anything in particular caused its demise – interest just faded.
People say that female genital cutting is always and only done so suppress female desire, but in fact the reasons given are as varied and irrational as for male genital cutting, and I have added this to the list of female circumstitions, now 48 in 9 categories at http://www.circumstitions.com/FGC-stitions.html
female sexual anatomy will always be compared to that of a man. so much has been lost because of this.
Minerrva,
Yesss to this! There are just so many threads to follow here, but that is an especially important one. In the article the doctor even warns her that communication and closeness to a partner is what is needed for a fulfilling sex life. Great point.
Thanks for the info Hugh!
Rachel,
There is reason that we would equate female genitals to male ones—they aren’t all that different! In the womb we call begin as female. A clitoris can remain that way or bud into a penis. The reason I point this same-ness out in the video is of course to show that female and male circ can be quite similar. I’m not sure what loss you find in comparing male and female genitals? We are really not that different–it’s a great thing!
sorry, didn’t do the best job in clarifying. i meant to say i find it sad that women are framing their ideas about sexuality and sex around the whims and wants of men, so much so that they would alter the anatomical structure of their bodies to be more like the now trending circumcised male. a side note on that—so much is lost here, where the orgasm’s length and development is not fully explored between two partners.
Rachel, yeah I think a *huge* issue here is–what is going on sexually with women that this could become a trend? I think you are right, part of this must be framing out orgasms around men’s–thinking we must reach orgasm by vaginal penetration only. I think this pressure to orgasm (like a man) from penetration only still exists, but is ridiculous! Very few women can orgasm this way.
I think one thing that we can do is to encourage young women to know their bodies more. Know how to masturbate, how to get yourself off. When I was growing up, I expected my first orgasm to come from a partner. And thinking this way only feeds this vicious cycle.
Hi!
I really liked your points of few on this blog. They are fresh and interesting from the mass that’s out there!
I just opened my new blog: http://biworldofdaniel.blogspot.com/ .
LOL m in love with you..you’re outspoken..I know many are…but ur different…and cool…and u have wonderful eyes…well..m glad ppl like u r out there…now i got a hope for my future ^_^..
love
anonymous
It’s not entirely correct to say that removing the female prepuce is the same as removing the male prepuce. They are, indeed, homologous structures, but their innervation is very different.
Similar to how the glans penis and glans clitoris are homologous, but the glans clitoris has not only more nerve endings, but also a greater variety of types of nerve endings allowing a great range of types of physical sensation.
In the case of the prepuce this is flipped: the male prepuce is more substantially and more complexly innervated than the female prepuce.
It’s funny this subject is up for discussion. Here are the same-ness in women and men. Women who wants to be a man can have surgery to convert to being a man, if by any chance this woman decides she(he) wants to be a woman again she(he) can have surgery to convert back to being a woman. A man who decides he want to be a woman can have surgery to be a woman, but this man can Never change back into being a man(in a manly way). So in some ways we are alike, just indifferent when it comes to parts of nature.