Absolutely Horrifying [Trigger warnings for sexual abuse, female genital mutilation.]

[TRIGGER WARNINGS APPLY FOR THIS ENTIRE POST]

ETA: The rage_free post has more links available on this matter.

First, I'm going to link to the article on Jezebel and quote its title: Cornell Surgeon Used Vibrator to Stimulate 6-Year-Olds

Read it again. No, it's not a hoax or a joke, and no, this is not a report on something from the Victorian Era.

Alice Dreger and Ellen K. Feder from Bioethics Forum have unearthed a 2007 study in which a doctor from Cornell University defends the practice of surgically cutting girls' clitorises. Disturbing, but his follow-up treatment is even worse.

The paper in question appeared several years ago in the Journal of Urology. "Nerve Sparing Ventral Clitoroplasty: Analysis of Clitoral Sensitivity and Viability" by Jennifer Yang, Diane Felsen, and Dix P. Poppas described in dry clinical terms how Poppas believes he has developed a way to remove part of a girl's clitoris without damaging their ability to have sexual sensation. Though the practice sounds a lot like female genital mutilation (and in strictly literal terms, it is) Poppas is not cutting into their genitals to make women less sexually inclined - he's doing it because someone decided that their clitorises were too big. Usually, this someone is a physician. With the parents consent and at the physician's suggestion, Poppas cuts into the shaft of the clitoris and removes a section, without, he hopes, damaging the nerves.

The trouble with big clitorises is that, apparently, there is a link between large clitorises and lesbianism. What, precisely, constitutes a "large" clitoris, I have no idea, but it may very well be that the goal is to prevent young girls from becoming homosexual later in life. We'll conveniently ignore the fact that sexuality exists independent of one's body parts. As Dan Savage points out, there's also seemingly a correlation between larger penises and homosexuality in men; however, no one's yet suggested we shorten men's penises to prevent Teh Gay(TM).

Sickening, huh? Oh, but it gets worse. Way worse. How could it get worse, you ask between colorful metaphors? Like so:

At annual visits after the surgery, while a parent watches, Poppas touches the daughter’s surgically shortened clitoris with a cotton-tip applicator and/or with a “vibratory device,” and the girl is asked to report to Poppas how strongly she feels him touching her clitoris. Using the vibrator, he also touches her on her inner thigh, her labia minora, and the introitus of her vagina, asking her to report, on a scale of 0 (no sensation) to 5 (maximum), how strongly she feels the touch. Yang, Felsen, and Poppas also report a “capillary perfusion testing,” which means a physician or nurse pushes a finger nail on the girl’s clitoris to see if the blood goes away and comes back, a sign of healthy tissue. Poppas has indicated in this article and elsewhere that ideally he seeks to conduct annual exams with these girls. He intends to chart the development of their sexual sensation over time.

Words fail me. I feel so sick reading that, and all I can think is that those poor girls are going to have to struggle to overcome the psychological damage that has been dealt to them for the rest of their lives. Not only that, but they're expected to undergo these humilating "examinations" in front of their parents annually and all because one part of their body didn't fall under someone's definition of "normal" or "natural."

Why does this pervert -- and yes, I am going to call him a pervert -- still have his license? Why is he still allowed to perform these assaults (because that's what they are; not "procedures" or "examinations")? What the fuck were people at Cornell thinking when they allowed this to occur?

It's female genital mutilation and it's sexual abuse. There's no evidence to support the supposition that growing up with a large clitoris will cause a girl psychological harm, but there's plenty of evidence that Poppas's procedures will traumatize these girls.

If some surgeon went around asking if he could shorten the shaft of the penises of young boys, he'd be sent away. Yet, it's perfectly okay by Cornell University of a doctor does that to a girl's sexual organs. So tell me again how we're in a post-feminist era and we're all equal now. I'm waiting.

Hat-tip to ginmar.

Writer's Block: Rescue mission

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...wat? Seriously, is there, like, any sort of quality control for these questions?

And what the hell kind of arsonist sets fire to a place and can't get away?