Robinett, Patricia (2006). The Rape of Innocence: One Woman’s Story of Female Genital Mutilation in the U.S.A. Eugene, Oregon: Aesculapius Press. aesculapiuspress.com. 112 pages. ISBN-10: 1878411047; ISBN-13: 978-1878411044.

Reviewed by J. Steven Svoboda, J.D., Berkeley, California

 
           Intactivist Patricia Robinett has written a truly remarkable account of her personal story. (Fair disclosure: Although I do not believe this affected my opinion of her book, Patricia is a friend of mine.) The author was a victim of genital surgeries performed on her when she was a child. She describes the events objectively though not without passion, and of course strong anger particularly toward her mother who arranged for the procedure.

            Patricia proves herself that rarest of writers who can write a memoir as her first book and maintain a focus and an objectivity that is genuinely admirable. She writes movingly, stunningly, about events arising from her own incredible experiences while leading the reader through her emotional roller coaster ride rather than, as is more common and much easier, essentially strapping the reader into the car and leaving them to handle the rough ride themselves. More impressively, Patricia simultaneously manages to achieve a paradoxical distance and perspective that places her life events in a larger societal context relating to the paradox that is genital cutting in the US.

            Some of us know that the nineteenth century craze for medicalized male circumcision was accompanied by a passion for the corresponding female procedure. Medical justifications were virtually identical, the general idea being that moral hygiene and personal hygiene mirrored each other and that both could be advanced by reducing the incentive, i.e., the pleasure produced by youthful masturbation.

            Female circumcision appears never to have numerically matched the cutting of boys. The practice was dying here in the 1950s although articles advocating female circumcision were published in medical journals and popular magazines (including Cosmopolitan) into the 1970s. As the author states on the back cover of her book, Blue Cross Blue Shield actually paid for clitoridectomies until 1977. Ever since medicalized circumcision developed one and a half centuries ago, we have lived in a profoundly wounded culture, which in turn has found an almost limitless number of ways to harm individual boys and girls. The author does make one basic mistake when she incorrectly states that a reduction in urinary tract infections (UTIs) from two in a hundred boys to one in a hundred boys would be a 100% reduction in UTIs whereas of course it is actually a 50% reduction. Nevertheless her point remains valid: relative percentage reductions can seem high even though the actual overall reduction is small.

            Patricia’s story is a horribly sad one. It is bad enough that her labia were cut in a misguided attempt to prevent UTIs but as she relates, she was forced to undergo a second genital cutting “not necessarily for medical purposes.” According to the author, she and her mother never bonded and the repeat surgery was a symptom of an ongoing power struggle. Apparently, the author learned to survive through psychological defense mechanisms.

            In her twenties, Patricia took an important step in her path of self-discovery and recovery when she started volunteering as a counselor at an institution called White Bird. She describes White Bird as “a surreal environment where all the PhDs wore plaid, flannel shirts and were paid minimum wage, including the CEO.” In one pivotal session, a previously suicidal client of Patricia’s turned over to her all the razor blades the client had previously used to cut herself. As she gained maturity and perspective from her work and from her path of healing, “My world view became less judgmental.  I saw that there are no good guys, there are no bad guys—there is only fear and love.”

            Luckily, this author was able to find redemptive value in relating her story to others and moving on, transforming the pain and working to protect others from it. This rare book is essential for anyone wanting to understand the inner meaning of genital mutilation, and indeed anyone interested in humanity, love, and survival.

                                                           

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