JUDGING OTHER CULTURES: THE CASE OF GENITAL MUTILATION NUSSBAUM JUDGING OTHER CULTURES: THE CASE OF GENITAL MUTILATION

Martha Nussbaum (born 1947) University of Chigago: Philosophy, Classics, Law, Divinity, Poli Sci “I don't like anything that sets itself up as an in-group or an elite, whether it is the Bloomsbury Group or Derrida.”

Female Genital Mutilation Facts Female Genital Mutilation (FGM): constitutes persecution in USA, and is basis for political asylum causes lifelong health problems between 85 and 115 million women have had this operation male equivalent of infibulation is “removal of entire penis, its roots of soft tissue, and part of scrotal skin.” (668-70)

Female Genital Mutilation Facts Three common types of FGM: Clitoridectomy - amputation of clitoris Excision - amputation of clitoris and inner lips [labia minora] Infibulation - amputation of clitoris and some or all of labia minora, incisions made in labia majora to create raw surface so they can be stitched together to cover urethra and most of vagina.

Ethical Relativist Arguments 1. It is morally wrong to criticize practices of another culture unless one is prepared to criticize comparable practices in one’s own culture. Nussbaum: Yes, but we do criticize our own, & we cannot ignore pleas for help, even if distant. (671)

Ethical Relativist Arguments 2. It is morally wrong to criticize the practices of another culture unless one’s own culture has eradicated all evils of a comparable kind. Nussbaum: Surely false. Analogues: apartheid, holocaust, etc. Location [social or geographical?]is irrelevant.

Ethical Relativist Arguments 3. FGM is morally on a par with dieting and body shaping in American culture Nussbaum: False. There are 8 differences between FGM and dieting/body shaping: i) FGM is carried out by force, whereas dieting is voluntary (672) ii) FGM is irreversible

Ethical Relativist Arguments 3. …continued iii) FGM is usually performed in unsanitary [dangerous?] conditions iv) FGM is linked to lifelong health problems v) FGM is “performed on children far too young to consent”

Ethical Relativist Arguments 3. ...continued vi) FGM involves “limits to the notions of consent and choice” since women are poorly educated, male dominated, lack independence, intimidated [religious authority?]

Ethical Relativist Arguments 3. …continued vii) FGM causes irreversible loss of capacity for “valued sexual function” [i.e., experiencing sexual pleasure. See also point 4, below.] viii) FGM is “unambiguously linked to customs of male domination.” Sex turned into means of male pleasure only.

Ethical Relativist Arguments 4. FGM involves loss of unimportant capacity to which Westerners attach too much significance… “suggesting women are primarily sexual beings” Nussbaum: There is a difference between fasting and being starved, and “Many women have reported enjoying sex a good deal, and there is no reason to think them all victims of false consciousness.”

Final words “Without abandoning a broader concern for the whole list of abuses women suffer at the hands of unjust customs and individuals, we should continue to keep FGM on the list of unacceptable practices that violate women’s human rights, and we should be ashamed of ourselves if we do not use whatever privilege and power has come our way to make it disappear forever.”