Hymen Reconstruction

In previous classes we have talked about genital mutilation and our discussions have ranged from clitoridectomies, “corrective” surgery on intersex children, and how society usually doesn’t consider circumcision in this category. There has now been another type of mutilation that has been brought to my attention after reading the book In the Land of God and Man by Silvana Paternostro for my Latin American history class. In her book Paternostro, explores the suppression of Latin American women by a patriarchal society and the Catholic Church. The repression limits women to rigid gender roles and also controls how women use their bodies. In Latin American culture, for a man to marry a woman she must be a virgin. However women who have moved from their countries to countries with less rigid gender controls such as United States have thus had more freedom to have premarital sex. However, if they want to marry a Latin American man, they now have the problem of not being a virgin. The solution that many Latin American women have chosen is hymen reconstruction, which Paternostro found out about when she found a plastic surgery clinic advertising the procedure in the newspaper. The point of the reconstruction is so that the woman will bleed like she did the first time she had intercourse and thus verifies her virginity. For more information on the procedure you can go to the following website of a plastic surgery clinic in Argentina called Plenitas http://www.plenitas.com/treatments/hymen-surgery.asp. I found the website’s description of the results from the surgery very interesting. The website states “hymen reconstruction will allow you to have your next sexual intercourse as if you were a virgin, without worrying about failing to fulfill the cultural and religious expectations of your family or social group.”

The irony of the situation is that even though these women who have hymen reconstruction have emigrated from Latin America and are now free from direct suppression, they are still under the yoke of their country’s traditions. Why, though, are men so concerned with a woman’s virginity? I found that my TA’s answer to be very interesting. The answer he gave was due to the belief in honor which is tied to the social status of the family in a patriarchal society. An honorable family is one in which the father is the actual father of the children in the family instead of the woman’s children from previous men. By “protecting” a woman’s virginity then the family maintains its honor.

When Paternostro saw the ad she contacted a human rights group to tell them about the procedure so that they could report it. However, she was told that it wasn’t as serious as a clitoridectomies since those were forced on women whereas women were consenting to hymen reconstruction like they do for breast implants. Paternostro also spoke with a human rights lawyer who told her that since it did not harm the woman’s health and the woman was doing it voluntarily it would not be considered as bad as a clitoridectomy either. If this is true, can we call this procedure genital mutilation? I disagree after reading an article from 2006 titled “Reconstructing Virginity in Guatemala” by Hannah Roberts who reports that many Guatemalan women who undergo the procedure do not understand all the risks involved and that the surgery is done in poor conditions causing infections and other discomforts. Also the procedure is not just limited to Latin American women either. Many women around the world get the surgery to deceive their husbands on their wedding nights in order to escape the disapproval of their society.