Is the Anti-Female Genital Mutilation Campaign Offensive?

Giulia Rozzi May 12, 2008 | 3:52 pm EST

Feministing commented on the new anti-female genital mutilation campaign by the Association of Women against Genital Mutilation (AMAM). The ad copy reads: “More than 140 million women in the world are condemned to feel nothing” and features the image here of a blow-up doll. Feministing had this to say about the ad:

I’m all for raising awareness about FGM, but this campaign really rubs the wrong way. It reduces women to their body parts and the issue to just a sexual one. Using a blowup doll to depict a woman who has undergone FGM is incredibly offensive - they’re literally being portrayed as no longer human, just a sex toy.

Not only is the ad dehumanizing, it also suggests that FGM is all about sex - that women who have undergone FGM will never enjoy sex and that a woman who is no longer sexual is no longer, well…a woman. [Feministing.com]

I did not find the ad as offensive as Feministing did however I do see their point. What do you think?

For more information on FGM, and visit the Female Genital Cutting Education and Networking Project at http://www.fgmnetwork.org/index.php for ways to help stop this horrible practice.