ISBN:
9781580464987
,
158046498X
Language:
English
Pages:
xi, 280 Seiten
,
24 cm
Series Statement:
Rochester studies in medical history
Parallel Title:
Erscheint auch als Rodriguez, Sarah B. Female circumcision and clitoridectomy in the United States
DDC:
618.1/6059
Keywords:
Clitoris Surgery
;
Female circumcision
;
Circumcision, Female history
;
Clitoris surgery
;
Sexuality history
;
Sexual Behavior
;
History, 19th Century
;
History, 20th Century
;
Clitoris ; Surgery
;
Female circumcision
;
Beschneidung
;
Klitorektomie
;
United States
;
USA
;
United States
Abstract:
Introduction ; Rethinking the history of female circumcision and clitoridectomyi in the United States -- Women, masturbation, and clitoral surgery, 1862-1945 -- Children, masturbation, and clitoral surgery since 1890 -- Female sexual degeneracy and the enlarged clitoris, 1850-1941 -- Female circumcision to promote clitoral orgasm, 1890-1945 -- Female circumcision as sexual enhancement therapy during the era of the vaginal orgasm, 1940-66 -- Female circumcision and the divisive issue of female clitoral sexual pleasure go public, 1966-81 -- James Burt and the surgery of love, 1966-89 -- Conclusion : Genital geographies -- Appendix : The clitoris in anatomy and gynecology texts
Abstract:
From the late nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century, American physicians treated women and girls for masturbation by removing the clitoris (clitoridectomy) or clitoral hood (female circumcision). During this same time, and continuing to today, physicians also performed female circumcision to enable women to reach orgasm. Though used as treatment, paradoxically, for both a perceived excessive sexuality and a perceived lack of sexual responsiveness, these surgeries reflect a consistent medical conception of the clitoris as a sexual organ. In recent years the popular media and academics have commented on the rising popularity in the United States of female genital cosmetic surgeries, including female circumcision, yet these discussions often assume such procedures are new. In Female Circumcision and Clitoridectomy in the United States: A History of a Medical Treatment, Sarah Rodriguez presents an engaging and surprising history of surgeries on the clitoris, revealing how medical views of the female body and female sexuality have changed - and in some cases not changed - over the last century and a half. -- from back cover
Note:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-272) and index
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