Intervenciones sobre los genitales femeninos: Entre el bisturí del cirujano plástico y el cuchillo ritual

Abstract

While enormous and growing sums of money are spent each year in genital cosmetic surgeries, ritual female genital interventions increasingly meet strong political and social opposition. Which interpretative models have been adopted to define some interventions as "cosmetic" and the others as "criminal"? Is there a colonialist attitude implicit in banning ritual female genital interventions? This appear to be the case after a joint examination of the health risks associated with the breast implant, the symbolic meanings of the ritual interventions, the strategic reinvention of traditional practices, and the use of the binomy health/pathology as a "controlling process". This paper challenges the assumption that who is exposed to the plastic surgeon's scalpel enjoys freedom and autonomy in an oppression-free society, while who is subjected to the ritual knife is a passive victim of traditional patriarchal societies.