In this article, we offer a critical examination of the tendency to segregate discussion of surgical alterations to the male and female genitals into separate compartments--the first known as circumcision, the second as genital mutilation. We argue that this fundamental problem of definition underlies the considerable controversy surrounding these procedures when carried out on minors, and that...

Several clades of spiders whose females evolved giant sizes are known for extreme sexual behaviors such as sexual cannibalism, opportunistic mating, mate-binding, genital mutilation, plugging, and emasculation. However, these behaviors have only been tested in a handful of size dimorphic spiders. Here, we bring another lineage into the picture by reporting on sexual behavior of Darwin's bark sp...

This paper examines impulsivity as a central factor in moderate/superficial self-mutilation such as skin-cutting and burning. A sample of 165 subjects were divided into four groups, namely self-mutilators, patients with any modes of impulsive behavior other than self-mutilation, patients without any impulsive behavior, and normal probands. All were administered the 10th version of the Barratt I...

BACKGROUND Female genital mutilation/cutting is a harmful practice which has effect on female's wellbeing. However, the practice has continued to prevail in many cultures. Research on the social determinants of the practice and its continuation are scarce. The objective of this study was to assess whether attitude towards the continuation of female genital mutilation is predicted by gender role...

The case of a 28-year-old woman with paranoid schizophrenia is reported who presented with erotomania and who had injured her external genitals in an attempt to stop coenaesthetic dysaesthesias. The implications of the symptoms are discussed with reference to relevant literature (German J Psychiatry 2005:8:38-41).

39 MOST recent estimates indicate that 48,000,000 African women, ranging in age from a few days to beyond puberty, are currently victims of ritual genital mutilation. Though it is spoken of in Africa as “circumcision” it is actually quite distinct from the removal of the foreskin of a boy. Annie de Villeneuve gives an eye-witness account of what actually happens to girls : “Among the Somalis th...

It is estimated that around 130 million women and girls worldwide have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM), with a further 2 million girls thought to suffer the same fate every year. In general FGM is thought to occur mainly in 28 African countries, although the practice has been recognised in Asia and the Middle East. The practice comprises all procedures that involve partial or total re...

The paper considers and rejects two arguments against the performance of sexual reassignment surgery. First, it is argued that the operation is not mutilating, but functionally enabling. Second, it is argued that the operation is not objectionably deceptive, since, if there is such a thing as our 'real sex', we do not know (ordinarily) what it is. The paper is also intended to shed light on wha...

John A. Johnson and Jonathan N. Cheek Pennsylvania State University 1,iellesley College Short Abstract Factor analysis of Hogan's Empathy Scale, scored in Likert format, yielded four factors: Social Self-Confidence, ~ven-Temperedness, Sen­ sitivity, and Flexibility. Correlations with ten personality measures confirmed the factors' psychological meanings. 'l'he factors accollllted for small but ...