Sculptors of African Women’s Bodies: Forces Reshaping the Embodiment of Female Genital Cutting in the West

Abstract

Video featuring male performance artist, Makode Aj Linde, whose blackfaced, minstrel caricature echoes the racialized stereotypes of the post-Civil War era in United States history wherein African-Americans were dehumanized and demeaned in the public media and entertainment with exaggerated facial features, language, movement, character and deportment; codifying blackness as primitive, hypersexual, and comedic. https ://www. youtu be.com/watch ?v=z8zLM _hIw7Y (accessed 2/6/20). 2 Jezebel's Erin Gloria Ryan. 4/17/12. "Swedish Official Gleefully Cuts Racist Black Lady Cake, Delights Onlookers." https ://jezeb el.com/swedi sh-offic ial-gleef ully-cuts-racis t-black-lady-cake-59026 72 (accessed 2/6/20). 3 Ebony magazine's Jonathan Pitts-Wiley. 4/18/12. "Taking the 'Painful Cake': Reconsidering the Swedish Ministry Art Nightmare" http:// www.ebony.com/news-views/the-swedish-ministry-art-nightmare#. UyOhZrlOXVi (accessed 2/6/2020).

Factors Associated with Health Care Provider Attitudes, and Confidence for the Care of Women and Girls Affected by Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting

“…45,46 Health care providers caring for women who have experienced FGM/C in the diasporic setting may be further influenced by ''othering'' of African bodies, and moral superiority of opposition to FGM/C may lead to a paternalistic and stigmatizing treatment of women living with FGM/C. 47 Our findings were limited in terms of factors associated with the Negative and Empathetic Attitudes subscales. Only one factor had a significant association-identifying as a woman was significantly associated with less negative attitudes toward FGM/C compared with identifying as a man.…”

“… 45 , 46 Health care providers caring for women who have experienced FGM/C in the diasporic setting may be further influenced by “othering” of African bodies, and moral superiority of opposition to FGM/C may lead to a paternalistic and stigmatizing treatment of women living with FGM/C. 47 …”

Racism, COVID-19, and Health Inequity in the USA: a Call to Action

“…Trainings should seek to combat racism, implicit bias, and microaggressions at the institutional as well as individual level. Self-reflection exercises should examine one's own implicit biases, challenge assumptions, and consider cultural and racial power hierarchies in the patient-provider relationship; addressing the "othering" of Black bodies and the insidious ways that racial and cultural hegemony implicitly influences the patient-provider encounter [22].…”

Assessing the Reliability and Validity of Attitudes and Confidence Scales for the Care of Women and Girls Affected by Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting

“…Even if a health care provider is con dent in their ability to provide quality care, they may hold attitudes that create barriers in the patient-provider relationship. (9) Health care providers who encounter a patient with FGM/C may experience a strong affective response including anger toward the practice of FGM/C, or bias toward women who experienced it. (10) USA providers and patients with FGM/C may further face challenges with cross-cultural communication exacerbated for those with low-English pro ciency, particularly if the provider is not skilled conducting visits via interpreter.…”

“…(44,46) Women and girls who have experienced FGM/C embody multiple identities that, within the USA, can render them vulnerable to bias and discrimination including immigration/ refugee status, low-English pro ciency, and being a person of color. (9,43,47) We began of development of the con dence items by con rming an operational de nition and reviewing existing measures. Self-reported con dence in a particular skill is also termed self-e cacy and can explain, in part, the actual performance of that skill.…”