Reconsidering Mutilation

Civilizing Women: British Crusades in Colonial Sudan is the latest book by Janice Boddy, professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto. The book is a self-conscious attempt to alter the terms of debate on an explosive issue: female genital mutilation. The issue is so explosive that fierce arguments surround the very question of what to call it. Those who defend or remain neutral on the practice tend to prefer the label “female genital cutting.” In Civilizing Women, the index entry for “female genital mutilation” reads “see female genital cutting.” In this review, when presenting my critique, I use the acronym FGM because nothing in Boddy’s book has softened my conviction that the practice is brutal child abuse. Out of respect for the author, however, I will use FGC or other neutral terms when presenting her views.

Boddy’s purpose in Civilizing Women is two-fold. First, she constructs a broad historical...