While much has been made of female genital mutilation it should not be forgotten that circumcision is also a form of genital mutilation which is widely practiced and widely supported throughout western culture. Of course, western culture, being deeply biased in terms of gender and religion sees nothing wrong with all Jews and many Christians performing male genital mutilation while condemning female genital mutilation in others.
Because female genital mutilation is suppressed it is usually done by nonprofessionals, which is a bad thing for any surgery. This, however, suits the suppressors, because it raises the chances of complications, lending more ammunition to those who want it suppressed.
Arguments about hygiene are not self-evident to me. While I rarely am deprived of clean water in which to wash, there are clearly parts of the world in which clean water is in short supply, particularly in times of drought.
Arguments about consent are challenging, because genital mutilation is sometimes done at puberty, as part of an event willingly undertaken by an individual.
I find myself unable to speak to the arguments about the intent behind female genital mutilation, because I am separated by thousands of kilometers, a language barrier, a cultural barrier and a class barrier from the body of those who practice it.
For the record: (a) I don't support female genital mutilation. The above writeup was an attempt to point out some of the hypocrisy in the issue. (b) this writeup was not originally the first writeup, not does it deserve to be.
If we were meant to have flaps of skin that felt good when rubbed, we'd have been born with them.