The Act Of Deviance: Female Genital Norms

2438 Words5 Pages

Literature Review
The act of deviance is any behavior that essentially violates a societal norm and permits great condemnation from a large number of the society (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). According to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, deviance is multifaceted due to the variation of norms amongst a society. For the most part, what one group may deem customary, another may ruminate deviant. In light of a more specific topic under the complexity of deviance, the act of female genital mutilation allows for a very informative cultural norm of a few societies that may create opposing views for societies who prohibit such asks.
Female genital mutilation, which is also known as cutting, includes an umbrella of procedures involving fractional or total …show more content…

al). The World Health Organization has approximated about 140 million females are victims of such practices and estimates that each year, about 3 million girls are “subjected to, or at risk of being subjected to, this harmful traditional practice” (Kaplan et. al). As stated in a CNN news article some girls undergo (FGM) during infancy, while others in their teens (Smith-Spark). Smith-Spark also notes that the extent of harm imposed by FGM varies amongst …show more content…

What a society deems a normal natural way of life, other cultures may view it as a violation of ones natural born rights. Some societies’ view the female anatomy differently than others. In retrospect, the role of deviance as it relates to female genital mutilation is one that includes the ideology of several African countries and hundreds of years of a practice from which their society believe that females will be better protected and better suited for marriage. In the American society, quite the contrary is focused on. The necessity for a bride to be sealed and purified is not held to such standards as FGM societies. A bride can essentially become remarried as many times even though she is not a virgin. There is certainly a variation in the American society of what a bride should be and how purified she should be, but the underlining difference is that FGM is not tolerated in thee American society. FGM is certainly seen as

Open Document