Learning from ‘‘Female Genital Mutilation’’: Lessons from 30 Years of Academic Discourse
Abstract
This document presents a paper on Learning from ‘‘Female Genital Mutilation’’: Lessons from 30 Years of Academic Discourse. At the intersection of feminism and postcolonial theory is an acrimonious debate over female genital cutting (FGC). The authors subject this debate to an analysis in order to separate productive from destructive discursive strategies. The authors find that both FGC and the literature about the practice are frequently mischaracterized in consequential ways. Especially prior to the mid-1990s, scholars frame FGC as an example of either cultural inferiority or cultural difference. In the 1990s, postcolonial scholars contest the framing of FGC as a measure of cultural inferiority. However, they often argue that Western feminist engagement with FGCs, writ large, is ‘imperialist’. The authors contend that both accusations of African ‘barbarism’ and of Western feminist ‘imperialism’ are empirically false and inflammatory. Furthermore, reifying ‘African’ and ‘Western’ perspectives erases African opposition to FGC and Western feminist acknowledgement of transnational power asymmetry. The authors conclude with a discussion of the role of outrage in academic scholarship.
Added by
CAWTAR
| 2017-12-22 12:15:20
Document Type
Papers
Source
Journal Ethnicities
Keywords :
Academia// Africa// Cultural imperialism//Discourse//Female genital cutting//Female genital mutilation//Feminism// Postcolonialism//Race//Ethnicity