Cut, Cured: Contesting 'Corrective' Operations with the Lineage of Racial-Sexual Sciences

Abstract

Modern ‘corrective’ operations on female reproductive anatomy stem from centuries upon centuries of discourse dictating anatomical (a)typicality, (dys)functionality, and racial inferiority. “Cut, Cured" thus seeks to locate the influence of foundational racial/sexual constructions within contemporary medical intervention, sterilization, and intersex ‘treatments.’ This project gathers two distinct sets of modern case studies, tracing medical and classificatory violence imposed upon incarcerated/detained Black women and intersex-identified women. Today, it is these women—left to the whims of western surgeons and at the mercy of cruel regulatory bodies—who are most at risk for nonconsensual ‘corrective’ procedures. They are cut into, sexually ‘disarmed,’ then stitched back up, all in the name of social protection. By placing these explicit, specific occurrences of sanctioned sexual ‘correction’ in the broader context of scientific racism, this project strives to identify both resurgent and new strategies of eugenic discipline. This past decade, Americans have witnessed the overwhelming resurgence of Nazi and white nationalist ideals, with the general public favoring ‘deceased’ eugenic rhetoric. As such, it is critical that we are attentive to the reassertion of old control tactics while also identifying the new sites, victims, and strategies of power.