Ayanna Nahmias, Editor-in-Chief
Last Modified: 21:03 PM EDT, 13 July 2011
CALIFORNIA – Catherine Kieu Becker who lives in Grove Garden, California, called 911 Emergency Services after she cut off her husband’s penis and mangled it in a garbage disposal. This is not the first time that an American wife has cut off her husband’s penis.
In 1984, Lorena Bobbitt severed the penis of her husband, John Bobbitt after he returned home and raped her following a night of heavy drinking. Unlike Catherine who mangled her husband’s penis in the garbage disposal, Lorena left with the severed penis, drove a short while, then rolled down the car window and threw the penis into a field.
She subsequently stopped and called 911 and after an exhaustive search, the penis was located, packed in ice, and taken to the hospital where John Bobbitt was being treated. The penis was re-attached by Drs. James T. Sehn and David Berman during a nine-and-a-half-hour operation.[Wikipedia]
At this time, the reason for Catherine’s assault are unknown. By contrast, Lorena Bobbitt revealed during her trial the volatile nature of her relationship with her husband. She told a packed courtroom that her husband sexually, physically, and emotionally abused her during their marriage and that John Bobbitt flaunted his infidelities, and had forced her to have an abortion. [Wikipedia]
What makes the cases against Catherine and Lorena so sensational is the visceral response men have to this crime. Their penises are a potent symbol of their manhood, are the instrument by which they can procreate or rape, and one of the most sensitive areas of their bodies. Because the perpetrators of these crimes are women, who in most societies are by and large viewed as passive victims, the only explanation offered is that they must be ‘crazy.’
When a woman castrates a man, the action is tantamount to an insurrection by the ‘weaker sex’ and in any other country but America the offender would have been summarily executed. This was the case with a woman, known as Zarmina, executed by the Taliban at the Ghazi Sports Stadium, Kabul, November 16, 1999. She was a mother of seven children who killed her husband after he severely beat her.
Castration has been used as an instrument of war for thousands of years. After battles in some cases, winners castrated their captives or the corpses of the defeated to symbolize their victory and “seize” their power. The amount of media attention devoted to the rare incidents of male castration by females is inordinate compared to the global scourge of female genital mutilation.
Female Genital Mutilation (FMG) also known as Female Genital Cutting (FCC) or Female Circumcision has been defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as all non-surgically necessary procedures performed on girls and women to mutilate their genitalia. The damage wrought to these women’s vaginas is heinous and equivalent to male castration but media attention to these crimes pale by comparison.
Although surgeons can reattach a man’s penis there may be reduced performance, a female victim of FMG suffers life-long health issues. These include urinary and reproductive tract infections, caused by obstructed flow of urine and menstrual blood, various forms of scarring and infertility.
This is not an argument in support of what Catherine Kieu Becker and Lorena Bobbitt did to their husbands, but rather an indictment of societies that continue to support misogynistic practices that go unnoticed and unpunished around the world and in many North African countries explicitly required to preserve the ‘sanctity’ of a woman’s chastity.
In the American justice system we are judged by a jury of our peers. In 1984 this judicial system declared Lorena not guilty due to insanity. The verdict is still out on Catherine Kieu Becker but it will be interesting to follow her case.
Related articles
- Penis-Cutting Wife to Appear in Court (abcnews.go.com)
- Why We Need Tougher Laws Against Female Genital Mutilation (huffingtonpost.com)
- Germany criticised for castration (bbc.co.uk)
- Germany should end surgical castration of sex offenders (haleybehre.wordpress.com)
21/08/2011 at 15:55
There is already enormous attention paid to FGM by American activists. And these activists are not to be taken seriously until they take the plank out of their own eye. There are two main reasons:
1.) People are tired of Americans trying to fix their cultures. This is still true in cultures that truly do need fixing. We talk and talk about FGM, but only those who are on the ground in those countries can accomplish anything. “Awareness” is just a word Americans use to feel good about themselves when they’re twiddling their thumbs.
2.) Americans practice genital mutilation and almost universally condone it when it is performed on infant boys. (Less severe mutilation is still mutilation and no one has the right to belittle that fact.) If you do not understand why MGM is wrong, then you don’t understand why FGM is wrong.
FGM is not wrong because of the damage it does (if it were, then less-severe versions might slip through the ethical cracks). It’s not wrong because of the reasons that motivate it (anyone could make up a religion that mandated it). It’s not wrong because of how it’s done (sometimes it’s done in gleaming hospitals).
It’s wrong because it’s a human rights violation regardless of results or motives. That right is the right to bodily integrity – the right that everyone has to be free from any forced cosmetic alteration. By jumping straight from a man in America to girls in Africa you are implying that the millions of boys in between do not have this right. There is no room for debate on that subject, and you should not expect any man to support the fight against FGM if it is predicated on the idea that he doesn’t have this right.
American activists have plenty of credibility on sexism in general, but not on the issue of genital mutilation or general disdain or violence towards a person’s sex organs. Our society’s sick combination of puritanism and sadism has created a culture where absolutely any injury suffered to a man’s genitals (which are far more easily destroyed than a woman’s) is considered funny.
Any injury, no matter how severe and life-altering, is played for laughs here if it happens to a man’s genitals.
You could use this opportunity to say that ALL mutilation is wrong. But by dividing the issue by sex and downplaying the rights and suffering of this male victim, you undermine your own arguments against FGM.
06/09/2011 at 16:52
You are absolutely correct in your assessment about ALL mutilation is wrong. Because I focus in large part on women’s rights my writings are naturally slanted toward injustices within that arena. However, you are quite right in stating that I should not elevate one type of violence over another.
As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “justice denied anywhere is justice denied everywhere.”
Thanks for the comment.
14/07/2011 at 10:50
There were so many articles on this topic yesterday from all the major news outlets. I really like how you added a different perspective to this topic by first referencing the Lorena Bobbitt case and also tying this incident to female genital mutilation.
Both crimes are definitely horrendous and I appreciate how you brought awareness to this issue. Keep up the good work!!!!
14/07/2011 at 10:18
Ouch! Folks should have more civilized ways of handling disagreements, walk away, get a divorce, etc. No need to go this far, it’s like playing God which is not a man’s duty. ~ Godwin Asuelimen