Female discourse analysis is a broad technique for understanding and critiquing the power of language and language power in many contests. It is also used to portray and denounce the differences in the representation between men and women. Female genital mutilation is a global issue that has been declared a violation of human and girl rights. Female genital cutting (FGC) refers to any surgical procedure that involves the partial or complete removal of the external genitalia or injury to the female genital areas, whether for cultural or non-therapeutic reasons (FULGIERI, 2017). The occurrence and procedure of female circumcision depend on ethnicity, geography, and status. However, the process is common in Africa, which has raised a lot of perspectives concerning it. A recent image that has gone viral illustrates a black pregnant woman, which is uncommon in medical textbooks. By comparing the black image to a white-skinned pregnant woman, the black woman’s clitoris was cut off.
Images of black patients are rarely revealed in a medical setting or even in textbooks. People in the medical field use white images when studying the human body organs. Chiedebere Ibe, a Nigerian medical student aspiring to become a neurosurgeon, has recently drawn an image of a black pregnant woman that has gone viral (Meadows-Fern et al., 2021). The Nigerian student started drawing illustrations of black individuals during the covid pandemic claiming that he had never seen images of a black fetus illustrated before. The image was an illustration of him sticking up and advocating for equality in healthcare through medical illustrations (Meadows-Fern et al., 2021). The image also reveals the black woman without a clitoris. At first sight, the picture appears to be a regular drawing that could be found in a medical book or on the walls of a physician’s office. But it’s a simple yet significant element that distinguishes the depiction of a fetus in the womb that recently attracted the internet’s attention: its darker skin tone.
Postmodernism is a mode of discourse that suggests that instead of the existence of one essential truth, there are multiple subjective, relative truths of personal construction (Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber, 2014). Subjective experiences shape these truths and what is available in the society, spoken, culture, and written word. Though the rate of female circumcision is decreasing in Nigeria, the procedure is still high and widespread despite efforts towards its eradication (Gbadebo et al., 2021). In Nigeria, FGC is practiced throughout infancy, especially within the first eight days after birth in some organizations, before weddings in others, most notably among the Ibo of the south, and sometimes before the first child’s birth in other neighborhoods (Gbadebo et al., 2021). With the help of a few healthcare professionals, it is mainly performed out by midwives and indigenous circumcisers who lack medical skills and utilize nonsterile equipment such as razors, broken glasses, and scissors.
The image, produced by Chidiebere Ibe, a Nigerian medical student and illustrator, resonated with many people on social media, with many saying they had never seen a Black pregnant mother or a black fetus shown in the past (Meadows-Fern et al., 2021). It also raised awareness of a wider problem: a lack of representation in medical drawings. Ibe told HuffPost UK that he certainly wasn’t expecting such a positive reaction to his fetus design, which is one of several he’s made as a medical artist, the most of which feature Black skin tones (Ceron, 2021). It did, however, highlight the significance of a task to which he has long been dedicated. Despite the continuing need for medical graphics to reflect the full range of human variation, medical illustrator Hillary Wilson told CNN that the discipline changed. It’s critical that black people giving birth feel seen and safe in the medical system (Ceron, 2021). His illustrations are particularly significant as we learn more about the maltreatment of Black parents seeking prenatal and postpartum care.
Female circumcision is viewed as a symbol of a woman’s inferiority in other areas of life. Circumcision is used to suppress a young girl’s sexual desire by removing the most delicate sexual organs in order to ensure her dignity. A country like Nigerian men is viewed as more powerful than females, denying them the right to deny FGM. Some of the cultures in the country still hold on to strict values which force females to undergo circumcision. Women’s responses to female circumcision are influenced by their socioeconomic dependence on men (Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber, 2014). The contextuality of the forces within the community that relate to and control women’s sexuality is often overlooked in feminist representation ideologies (Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber, 2014). Female circumcision will not be abolished through state legislation or international involvement unless the inferior status of females in the Nigerian society is addressed. Why do women who endure an evidently detrimental and, in some cases, brutal treatment tend to safeguard and perpetuate their mutilation, based on the circumstances? Why do women compromise their own rights to “bodily integrity” in order to demonstrate their servile respectability to potential spouses?
The image of the black pregnant woman reveals a woman with a black fetus and with no clitoris, while the other is of a white woman who is carrying a white fetus and has a clitoris. The Nigerian image is a misrepresentation of a Nigerian human body since it only embraces the circumcised females, whereas not all women are circumcised. Although female circumcision in Nigeria is still high, not all Nigerian women are circumcised. The image raises the question of why the white image has a clitoris, whereas the black image does not have a clitoris. Although the central message of the black image was to show the gap in the representation of the black human organs in the medical textbooks, it is unethical since not all Nigerian women have undergone female circumcision. Although there are various factors surrounding this practice, like ethnicity and culture, the world is still in the fight against FGM; hence the picture may be viewed as resistance against abolishing female genital mutilation. The representation of this image is wrong and an unacceptable creation of knowledge.
The image reflects that female circumcision in Nigeria is still taking place despite the efforts to abolish it. The fight against female genital mutilation is a political one. Breaking the shackles of reliance and inherited forms of power is critical for females worldwide who are entangled in a web of subjugation (Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber, 2014). We need to create a shared oppositional awareness that demands that the state prioritizes women’s training and education, equal participation in the workforce, availability of health and contraceptives services, constitutional protections, and political engagement. Females will be able to end the procedure of female circumcision once these conditions are realized.
References
Ceron, E. (2021, December 17). Bloomberg – Are you a robot? Www.bloomberg.com. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-17/black-pregnant-woman-fetus-by-chidiebere-ibe-is-an-nft-selling-for-10-ethereum
FULGIERI, M. (2017). Perceptions of Womanhood: A Discourse on Female Genital Mutilation. Wp.nyu.edu. https://wp.nyu.edu/steinhardt-appsych_opus/perceptions-of-womanhood-a-discourse-on-female-genital-mutilation/
Gbadebo, B. M., Salawu, A. T., Afolabi, R. F., Salawu, M. M., Fagbamigbe, A. F., & Adebowale, A. S. (2021). Cohort analysis of the state of female genital cutting in Nigeria: prevalence, daughter circumcision and attitude towards its discontinuation. BMC Women’s Health, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-021-01324-2
Meadows-Fern, A. R., December 08, & 2021. (2021, December 8). Med School Student’s Illustration Shows a Black Fetus in Utero—Here’s Why It Went Viral. Parents. https://www.parents.com/kindred/med-school-students-illustration-shows-black-fetus-in-utero-heres-why-it-went-viral/
Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber. (2014). Feminist research practice : a primer. Sage Publications, Inc.
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