Becoming (more) Dutch as medical recommendations: how understandings of national identity enter the medical practice of hymenoplasty consultations

Abstract

This article looks at how Dutch national identity enters the practical setting of a medical consultation. Extending the growing scholarships of everyday nationalism and engaging with the notion of multivocalism, this article shows how Dutchness is understood in the form of desirable personal characteristics. These characteristics are promoted by physicians to patients of migrant ancestry looking for a surgery called hymenoplasty. This article presents unique scholarly observations of a case where a particular understanding of national identity is recommended as part of medical advice. Furthermore, by closely examining exchanges between doctors and patients, this article argues that Dutchness is in a state of flux where a person of migrant ancestry can simultaneously be seen by others as Dutch and non‐Dutch.

Gender and cultural understandings in medical nonindicated interventions: A critical discussion of attitudes toward nontherapeutic male circumcision and hymen (re)construction

“…Although counseling can be perceived as enhancing the autonomy of the patient, it can also be used to influence patient’s decisions imposing upon them other values and norms. 65 In debates on abortion, counseling requirements were often opposed by feminist as they were perceived to aim at changing women’s minds, create feelings of guilt, and undermining women’s right to decide. 66 We notice, further, that in the debates on hymen (re)construction the surgery is not compared to arguably harmful cultural practices in the West, like cosmetic surgery, which pose comparable questions around autonomy and choice.…”

Challenging Muslim Family Practices – Investigating a Danish Policy Initiative’s Reception by Its Target Group

“…Another common trait is that this questioning leads to a growing tension, which culminates with a tense silence in the room (Bengtsson & Fynbo 2017). With specific forms of sexual practices being closely aligned with national identity (Ayuandini & Duyvendak 2018;Cense 2014;Jaffe-Walter 2016), such interchanges contribute to casting individuals who adhere to an Islamic norm as 'outsiders' who are out of place in the Danish nation, and may thus end up marginalising young individuals rather than helping and supporting them (Jaffe-Walter 2016).…”

“…The empirical reality of such journeys is, however, somewhat more complex (Reisel, The desired direction of change is towards the practices of the majority Danish population, who are considered to have exactly the 'self-determination over their own body and life' that ethnic minorities are perceived as lacking. With sexuality closely tied to the formation and reproduction of both ethnic minority groups and nation states (Yuval-Davis 1997), intimate practices thus become an index for belonging (Abboud, Jemmott & Sommers 2015;Ayuandini & Duyvendak 2018;Jaffe-Walter 2017). Related to a universal struggle involving territory and populations (Stenson 2005), liberal states depend on the loyalty of their subjects.…”