Desexualization
Desexualization is the practice of depriving people of sexual characteristics or sexuality. Desexualization is a major motive behind keeping incels from complaining. Men being forced to emasculate in favor of a feminine form of sexuality (a.k.a. demisexuality) can also be a form of desexualization. Since there are many religions and other cultural tropes that encourage abstinence, it is also meant to ease the (often painful) process of becoming volcel.
Inceldom[edit | edit source]
Inceldom is a type of forced desexualization because you are robbed of genuine sexual expression. Also, incel shaming or virgin shaming, especially the type meant to elicit disgust, is typically a form of implicit desexualization of incels on a society wide scale. The undertone usually being, "because you can't find a date, you are therefore unfuckable".
The anti-manspreading movement and large portions of the #metoo movement were other major examples of desexualization.
MGM and FGM[edit | edit source]
Desexualization serves as a motive for male genital mutilation (MGM) and female genital mutilation (FGM). Practitioners of female genital mutilation believe that desexualization, and its physical manifestation, such as FGM, ensures chastity, and by extension, prevents promiscuity.[1] When beliefs surrounding the virtues of desexualization are put into practise through FGM, it is done through interpreting the outer vulva as representing the source of a woman's libido.[2] Others theoretical motives behind desexualizing women in the context of FGM is to prevent family disintegration.[3] Within Islamic cultures, the zenith of desexualization occurs when it is done in order to uphold a code of honor. In this context, FGM is sometimes practised alongside others attempts at desexualization such as a prohibition on freemixing, the adoption of the niqab as a form of clothing and threats against bringing dishonor upon the family.[4] These attitudes may not necessarily have a footing in religious texts, and may instead simply be a reaction to what ultra-conservative Muslims feel is a wave of excessive liberalism and feminism.[5] Some analysts that have interviewed excisors have claimed that female genital mutilation that involves clitoridectomy, is especially intended to desexualize women, due to the central nature of the clitoris in women's sexuality.[6] Another method through which desexualization manifests itself is by expropriating and then augmenting existing desexualized attitudes such as those towards aging people and the disabled. In this instance, desexualization can be viewed as an instrument of ableism.[7]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Gruenbaum, Ellen, and Elizabeth Wirtz. "Female genital cutting debates." The International Encyclopedia of Human Sexuality (2015).
- ↑ Garba, I. D., et al. "Prevalence of female genital mutilation among female infants in Kano, Northern Nigeria." Archives of gynecology and obstetrics 286.2 (2012): 423-428.
- ↑ Otaigbe, Barbara Edewele. "Infantile masturbation in an African female: is this a justification for female genital cutting?." World Journal of Pediatrics 4.2 (2008): 148.
- ↑ Ghanim, David. "Virginity and Body Discourse." The Virginity Trap in the Middle East. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2015. 65-77.
- ↑ Nelson, Christopher. "The domestic is political, and the political is gendered: An analysis of veiled subjects, gendered epistemologies, and Muslim bodies." Islamophobia Studies Journal 3.1 (2015): 106-114.
- ↑ AHMADU, FUAMBAI. "Equality, Not Special Protection: Multiculturalism, Feminism, and Female Circumcision in Western Liberal Democracies." Universalism Without Uniformity: Explorations in Mind and Culture (2017): 214.
- ↑ Brown, Lydia XZ. "Ableist Shame and Disruptive Bodies: Survivorship at the Intersection of Queer, Trans, and Disabled Existence." Religion, Disability, and Interpersonal Violence. Springer, Cham, 2017. 163-178.