FEMALE GENDER MUTILATION: NOT A PROBLEM FOR THE FEMALE GENDER

 

Female gender in the society has lived so long on being told what to do and what not to do and the norms, laws and ethics does more than penalize offenders, it goes as  far as gender internalizing all the factors involved. A popular saying  states that “We can’t eat our cake and have it” If the same society that claims female promiscuity is on the high side is also the one clamouring  for the stop of female gender mutilation, then, there is a motif in play.

According to DHS 2008, only 11.2 percent of women are concerned about female gender mutilation compared to 17.3 percent of men. The research went ahead to outline the benefits of female gender mutilation as preserving virginity and preventing pre-marital sex and more sexual pleasure for the man. The most appealing part of the research is that women tend to only succumb to this practice because it grants them societal acceptance and this is because our sexual views differ per gender.

Differences in Sexuality
Men Women
Orientation Physical
Compartmentalized
Physical oneness
Variety
Sex is high priority
Relational
Wholistic
Emotional oneness
Security
Other priorities may be higher
Stimulation Sight
Smell
Body centered
Touch
Attitudes
Actions
Words
Person-centered
Needs Respect
Admiration
Physically needed
Not to be put down
Understanding
Love
Emotionally needed
Time
Sexual Response Acyclical
Quick excitement
Initiates (usually)
Difficult to distract
Cyclical
Slow excitement
Responder (usually)
Easily distracted
Orgasm Propagation of species
Shorter more intense
Physically oriented
Orgasm usually needed for satisfaction
Propagation of oneness
Longer, more in depth
Emotionally-oriented
Satisfaction often possible without orgasm

Family Life 2003

 

Record has it that, even till the 90’s women born in the South-western part of Nigeria has all been mutilated at birth or after. Does that mean these women, in a large percentage does not enjoy sex? My gut says no, because if it were so, the society will not have been a part of it in the first place.

Mutilation or not, a woman’s first priority is never sex, that is a man’s desire often times. Women have bigger problems and men hiding behind little factors like this is covering up their own shady dealings that needs to be corrected. Promiscuity will be reduced if fathers can assume their place to train female children, it will reduce if they are not demeaned based on their gender for seeking power, or if men can not feel they have a sense of strength from accumulating women in numbers because of material or financial leverages.  

“Ideologies claiming that women should be pure and chaste can lead to female genital mutilation, honour killings, and restrictions on women’s mobility and economic or political participation. Ideas that men should be macho can mean that sexual violence is expected and not condemned. In many places, to be considered a ‘proper man’ or ‘proper woman’, you need to act one hundred per cent heterosexual, and stay in line with gender stereotypes.” (Ikkaracan and Jolly 2007: 3)

We therefore, need the society to fight for us over norms,ethics and laws that tend to drown us before we were born and not fight to keep or not keep their sexual desires around us. God bless Nigeria!

 

About Yewande Adedokun 261 Articles
A vast creative writer with great experience in different fields of writing and a partner in a major content management firm. Conveniently a UX, Content, Script and Copywriter with various works on different content platforms such as Opera. Contact Yewande for any content project.