Instruments of Chastity (2006):

FGM is the torturous practice of removing all or part of a woman’s genitals. 135 million women around the world have undergone FGM. It is believed that approximately 6,000 undergo this mutilation each day. This practice occurs all over the world, but has a very high prevalence in 28 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, where sometimes as many as 95% of the female population have been genitally mutilated. It is also practiced in the Middle East, Asia, the Pacific, North and Latin America, and Europe.
 
Female circumcision is practiced most commonly on young girls between the ages of 4-8 years old, as part of a coming-of-age ritual. It is usually carried out by elder female members of the community, most frequently in unsanitary conditions, with no anesthetic, and with crude tools such as broken glass, tin lids, scissors, razor blades, and thorns. In some cases, the labia majora (outer folds of the vagina) are sewn together, leaving only a tiny hole for the passage of urine and menstrual blood.
 
The physical effects of FGM are severe. FGM can cause extreme pain, shock, hemorrhaging, HIV and other blood-born diseases, bladder and urinary tract infections, reproductive infections, kidney damage, obstructed menstrual flow, infertility, scars, cysts, and in many cases, death. Women who have great difficulty experiencing pleasure during intercourse, and may in fact find intercourse to be extremely painful. Women who have been sewn shut may be cut open by their husbands to allow for intercourse. The scars may tear during childbirth, and some women are re-sewn afterwards to “tighten” the opening.
 
Within strongly patriarchal societies, FGM is practiced to control women. It is often believed that the elimination of sex organs will make them more “calm” or “docile”. It also allows for external control of a woman’s reproduction and sexuality. The removal of the sex organs likely removes the potential for sexual pleasure and therefore reduces the desire for sex outside of marriage. There is also the possibility of the enhancement of sexual pleasure for men.
 
The psychological effects, while difficult to measure, must certainly include feelings of anxiety, terror, humiliation, and betrayal. Since FGM is a deeply rooted cultural practice, women are made to believe that the procedure is “necessary” to be a “whole woman”, or to be “pure” or “clean”. The procedure is often referred to as “the removal of a woman’s male parts”. In some societies, a woman is “unmarriageable” if she has not been circumcised. Marriage may be the only job prospect for women living in these societies, so to not be circumcised would equate to an uncertain future, social unacceptability and alienation. Combined with the fact that this is done to women while they are still young girls, it is clear that in most instances, this is done completely involuntarily.
 
In this series of images, I have appropriated, digitally manipulated, and recombined a variety of images, ranging from photographs of the faces of young girls screaming in agony to 19th century medical illustrations. The images are meant to imply an ambiguous sense of violence and violation that may be interpreted as FGM, or as any other violations of a woman’s rights to her own body. I felt it was necessary to “stitch” or “sew” the paper prints – in response to the practice of “infibulation”, where the labia majora is sewn shut. I covered the prints in encaustic wax, to suggest a sense of mutilated and scarred flesh. The encaustic was also used to create textual references to violent acts against women, such as “HELD DOWN” or “SCREAMING IN AGONY”. I have also spelled out some of the various forms of FGM, such as “CLITORIDECTOMY”, “EXCISION”, and “PHARAONIC CIRCUMCISION”.
 
Genital mutilation is an attempt to “mark” women with an inferior status. It is a form of torture designed to take away a woman’s rights to her own body. Instruments of Chastity is my personal graphic response to this little-discussed but widely practiced violation of human rights.