Svoboda ‘Promoting Genital Autonomy by Exploring Commonalities between Male, Female, Intersex, and Cosmetic Female Genital Cutting’ Global Discourse 2012.
Global Discourse has published on June 20, 2013 my attached article on genital autonomy, that is, on the importance of protecting all children from genital cutting regardless of whether they are male, female or intersex. The article also looks at the practice of cosmetic female genital cutting by consenting adults. The article is titled, "Promoting Genital Autonomy by Exploring Commonalities between Male, Female, Intersex, and Cosmetic Female Genital Cutting," and is adapted from the paper I presented on September 1, 2011 at the conference held at the University of Keele, "Law, Human Rights, and Non-Therapeutic Interventions on Children."
The attached comment on my article, published in Global Discourse as a reply to my article and authored by female genital cutting (FGC) scholar Sara Johnsdotter, finds itself largely in agreement with my article and has no serious critiques of it. I had praised Johnsdotter's articles in my reviews of the two volumes on FGC edited by Bettina Shell-Duncan and Ylva Hernlund and published in 2000 and 2007. We are pleased at the growing convergence between the different branches of work on genital autonomy.