The subject of this article is controversial and content may be in dispute. When updating the article, be bold, but not reckless. Feel free to try to improve the article, but don't take it personally if your changes are reversed; instead, come here to the talk page to discuss them. Content must be written from a neutral point of view. Include citations when adding content and consider tagging or removing unsourced information.
This article is written in Canadian English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, centre, travelled, realize, analyze) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Anthropology, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Anthropology on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.AnthropologyWikipedia:WikiProject AnthropologyTemplate:WikiProject AnthropologyAnthropology
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Ethnic groups, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles relating to ethnic groups, nationalities, and other cultural identities on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Ethnic groupsWikipedia:WikiProject Ethnic groupsTemplate:WikiProject Ethnic groupsEthnic groups
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Feminism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Feminism on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.FeminismWikipedia:WikiProject FeminismTemplate:WikiProject FeminismFeminism
This article is part of WikiProject Gender studies. This WikiProject aims to improve the quality of articles dealing with gender studies and to remove systematic gender bias from Wikipedia. If you would like to participate in the project, you can choose to edit this article, or visit the project page for more information.Gender studiesWikipedia:WikiProject Gender studiesTemplate:WikiProject Gender studiesGender studies
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Human rights, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Human rights on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Human rightsWikipedia:WikiProject Human rightsTemplate:WikiProject Human rightsHuman rights
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Sexology and sexuality, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of human sexuality on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Sexology and sexualityWikipedia:WikiProject Sexology and sexualityTemplate:WikiProject Sexology and sexualitySexology and sexuality
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Women's History, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Women's history and related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Women's HistoryWikipedia:WikiProject Women's HistoryTemplate:WikiProject Women's HistoryWomen's History
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Sanitation, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Sanitation on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SanitationWikipedia:WikiProject SanitationTemplate:WikiProject Sanitationsanitation
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Women's Health, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Women's Health on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Women's HealthWikipedia:WikiProject Women's HealthTemplate:WikiProject Women's Healthwomen's health
The contentious topics procedure applies to this page. This page is related to gender-related disputes or controversies or people associated with them, which is a contentious topic. Please consult the procedures and edit carefully.
This article has been viewed enough times in a single week to appear in the Top 25 Report. The week in which this happened:
A user here added a section comparing circumcision to FGM, but the first resource in the article (Came across this from @KlayCax: on circumcision's talk. MrOllie also stated that analogies shouldn't be used.) states Although discussions sometimes use the terms 'female circumcision' and 'clitoridectomy', 'female genital mutilation' (FGM) is the standard generic term for all these procedures in the medical literature ... The term 'female circumcision' has beenrejected by international medical practitioners because it suggests the fallacious analogy to male circumcision.Doesn't this mean that this analogy is rejected and shouldn't be included? It seems like there's an agreement that analogies between the two don't work? (Note that I'm biased. I converted to Reform Judaism as an adult and underwent circumcision. Presently, I am extremely shocked at the lack of current neutrality on the topic. It feels like people are pushing an agenda on the subject.) OntologicalTree (talk) 04:29, 2 February 2023 (UTC)Reply
Medical authorities may reject such analogies and terminology, but that doesn't mean everyone does. I find the section informative and don't see why it should be removed. All sorts of cultural issues come into play iro FGM, and female cosmetic surgery, and, to a lesser extent (male) circumcision. I don't see how it is 'pushing an agenda' to record that such analogies have been made. Pincrete (talk) 10:42, 2 February 2023 (UTC) … ps I didn't check the sources used before posting this comment. Obviously, if they don't make the FGM/circumcision analogy, they shouldn't be used. The Dutch Med Ass below does make such an analogy, though of course not claiming equivalence and that would seem to justify such text (even if text has to be modified). Pincrete (talk) 11:08, 3 February 2023 (UTC)Reply
All of the sources that this claim was based upon — AAP (2012), Frisch et al. (2013), AAP (2013), Freedman (2016) — never make an analogy between (male) circumcision and FGM. They simply state that there is a debate within the academic literature about the strength of its prophylactic effect in developed countries. Of the source within the article that does mention the topic: it (as OntologicalTree points out) states that The term 'female circumcision' has been rejected by international medical practitioners because it suggests the fallacious analogy to male circumcision. As I previously stated on talk: It's true that there's been ethical discussion about the procedure. That's much different than saying they are analogous.
I have to say that the present content seems to have removed most of the 'analogous' procedures, irrespective of the quality of sourcing. Most people would not wholly agree with many of these analogies, but if they have been competently framed, why exclude them? Also the present section title: Differentiation betweeen African, Western cosmetic procedures is both inaccurate and clumsy. The section isn't primarily noting differences between the two and FGM is not anyway solely African, nor recognised 'cosmetic' procedures inherently Western. It's hard to say what the present purpose of the section is - obviously it should not go too much off-topic to 'related' controversies, but I don't see why we should be excluding competent (especially medical) comparisons. Pincrete (talk) 16:15, 4 February 2023 (UTC)Reply
For what it’s worth, it is perfectly WP:DUE to cover significant minority viewpoints. Comparisons between FGM & circumcision, and FGM & transgender genital cutting should be covered, FGM & Intersex Genital Mutilation comparisons should definitely be covered. Prcc27 (talk) 17:17, 4 February 2023 (UTC)Reply
Absolutely. An independent source free of cultural bias is far more valid than cultures perpetuating an act initially indocrinated without evidence and post-hoc justified with spurious studies. Hypocriticalreason (talk) 11:09, 21 February 2024 (UTC)Reply
There seems to be a slow edit war here. See the recent page history. This is a Wikipedia:Featured article and this Wikipedia:FAOWN applies. The top editor who took it through reviews died; nevertheless FAOWN still applies, which states: Editors are asked to take particular care when editing a Featured article; it is considerate to discuss significant changes of text or images on the talk page first. These are significant changes and need significant discussion. At this point I'm tempted to roll back to entire article to the version that went through review. In the least I'm rolling back the many changes and suggest strongly that we not deviate the original version's section Comparison with other procedures. Victoria (tk) 20:43, 4 February 2023 (UTC)Reply
The section is definitely WP:UNDUE now. The only comparison between FGM and circumcision in the article, is a pro-FGM one: “Carla Obermeyer maintains that FGM may be conducive to women's well-being within their communities in the same way that rhinoplasty and male circumcision may help people elsewhere”. The anti-circumcision/anti-FGM viewpoint is a significantly more prominent viewpoint than the pro-FGM/pro-circumcision one. The article used to give due weight to these viewpoints, but now it does not. Unless the article changes, I think we should add an UNDUE template, since the section is problematic. I also think it is problematic that MrOllie was pinged to this discussion, even though he was not involved in the mini edit war, but an involved editor (@Neveselbert:) was not pinged. Prcc27 (talk) 21:20, 4 February 2023 (UTC)Reply
Yeah, sorry, didn't look closely enough at the history before reverting you and had to self-revert.So the article went through review with a section called Comparison with other procedures. At some point that section acquired additional subheadings as seen in this last version by the primary author. That's the version we should be working from and gaining consensus. At this point I support reverting to 18 April 2021 version per WP:FAOWN. My suspicion is that the additional headers/subsections are an invitation to add more text. Given the way the TOC is formatted in V22 (those sections aren't visible) it's best to flatten the TOC as much as possible. That, at least would be a starting place. Victoria (tk) 22:22, 4 February 2023 (UTC)Reply
I share your concerns about adding too much text, this article is supposed to be about female genital cutting, not other types of genital cutting. Reverting to the original version would be UNDUE though per the reasons I gave above. However, the current version may also be UNDUE because it deviates too far from the main topic of the article. I would propose condensing the section, and we could agree to not add content that veers away from FGM. Would this address your concerns about too much text being added? Prcc27 (talk) 23:14, 4 February 2023 (UTC)Reply
Articles are supposed to be changed, updated, and improved upon. I don’t agree with reverting to an old version, based on a review from several years ago. The important thing for us to do, is to find a consensus. But yes, I do hope other users will share their thoughts. Prcc27 (talk) 04:34, 5 February 2023 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 1 year ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Somalia is seeing a rise in female genital mutilation due to the lack of awareness of the consequences. The majority of the procedures are performed on preteen girls. There was an uptake in these fatal procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic, shown with a direct correlation to the rise of girls dropping out of school.
“Female Genital Mutilation: A Daily Grim Reality for Girls in Somalia - Somalia.” ReliefWeb, 6 Feb. 2023, reliefweb.int/report/somalia/female-genital-mutilation-daily-grim-reality-girls-somalia. Accessed 29 Nov. 2023. Polka365 (talk) 07:25, 29 November 2023 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 9 months ago2 comments2 people in discussion
This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.
Under the Terminology section, the below quote disengenuously represents the severity of multiple forms of what the WHO defines as female genital mutilation when compared to male genital mutilation (presented within the quotation using the euphimism of "circumcision").
"Until the 1980s, FGM was widely known in English as "female circumcision", implying an equivalence in severity with male circumcision."
Type IA of female genital mutilation is directly analgous to male genital mutilation. Multiple other forms of female genital mutilation as defined by the WHO are far less severe than male genital mutilation including all defined acts under Type IV. Hypocriticalreason (talk) 11:05, 21 February 2024 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 8 months ago2 comments2 people in discussion
Under “types” it is stated that type Ia FGM is rarely performed alone, that is to say, it is typically performed congruently with type Ib. However, neither of the supposed sources provided corroborate this claim. Eliek1996 (talk) 01:24, 1 April 2024 (UTC)Reply
Note [f] includes, "in very rare cases, only the prepuce" (prepuce = clitoral hood) and "this form appears to be relatively rare" and "Almost all known forms of female genital mutilation that remove tissue from the clitoris also cut all or part of the clitoral glans itself". That supports the claim. Johnuniq (talk) 05:08, 1 April 2024 (UTC)Reply
Add A Fact: "1 in 3 girls undergo FGM in 31 countries"
Additional comments from user: While the exact number of girls and women worldwide who have undergone FGM remains unknown, at least 200 million girls and women alive today have been cut in 31 countries with representative data on prevalence.
This post was generated using the Add A Fact browser extension.
level-4 vital article is rated FA-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.,_early_1900s,_Central_Africa,_Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo,_Pende_people,_wood,_fiber_-_Cleveland_Museum_of_Art_-_DSC08700.JPG){kind=small}
.svg){kind=small}
