Don't Stop This Signal

[schizoauthoress]

Female Genital Mutilation at Cornell University


A pediatric urologist at Cornell—Dix Poppas—has been operating on little girls with what he judges to be oversized clitorises, cutting away important clitoral tissues, and then stitching the glans to what remains of the shaft. Poppas claims that, unlike past clitoral-reduction procedures, his procedure is "nerve sparing."

That's pretty damn disturbing, but that's not all. Not only is there female genital cutting (which is known to result in both physical and psychological harm) going on, there's also child molestation. Well, this guy calls it "medical research", but judge for yourself:

"But we are not writing today to again bring attention to the surgeries themselves. Rather, we are writing to express our shock and concern over the follow-up examination techniques described in the 2007 article by Yang, Felsen, and Poppas. Indeed, when a colleague first alerted us to these follow-up exams—which involve Poppas stimulating the girls’ clitorises with vibrators while the girls, aged six and older, are conscious—we were so stunned that we did not believe it until we looked up his publications ourselves.

"Here more specifically is, apparently, what is happening: At annual visits after the surgery, while a parent watches, Poppas touches the daughter’s surgically shortened clitoris with a cotton-tip applicator and/or with a “vibratory device,” and the girl is asked to report to Poppas how strongly she feels him touching her clitoris. Using the vibrator, he also touches her on her inner thigh, her labia minora, and the introitus of her vagina, asking her to report, on a scale of 0 (no sensation) to 5 (maximum), how strongly she feels the touch.... Poppas has indicated in this article and elsewhere that ideally he seeks to conduct annual exams with these girls....

"Although we have tried, we have been unable to locate any other pediatric urologist who uses these techniques. Indeed, we doubt many would, because we think most would—as we do—find this technique to be impossible to justify as being in these girls’ best interests."

And why is this being done? Two words for you: homophobia and misogyny.

"There's another disturbing reason this surgery is being performed: girls with large clitorises are more likely to identify as lesbians when they grow up. Needless to say (or maybe not-so-needless): carving up a girl's clitoris does nothing to change the underlying hormonal and genetic factors that contribute to lesbian orientation and identity. Big clits don't make lesbians—lesbians sometimes make big clits. These surgeries are partly motivated by out-and-out homophobia, by the belief that "fixing" a large clit somehow prevents lesbianism. (Larger penises correlate positively with gayness in males but no one is out there shortening boys' penises.)"

And finally, courtesy of pervyficgirl (who first brought this to my attention), contact information for those involved:

Contact info:

Dr. Dix Poppas (the degenerate slime behind this)

Phone (212) 746-5337
Fax (212) 746-8065
525 East 68th Street
Suite F-935
New York, NY 10065

Email Contact Info:

Dean of Weill Medical College, Antonio Gotto: dean@med.cornell.edu
Dr. Poppas himself: dpoppas@med.cornell.edu
University President, David Skorton: president@cornell.edu


Please pass this on, and please speak up! This is horrible and wrong and should not be allowed to continue!