Name: Missi Wooldridge Age: 22 Major: Community Health,

1
From the Bottom UpApproaches to the
Anthropology of Sex Dictionaries of Sex,
Encyclopedias of Sex, and Cross-Cultural
Perspectives on Womens sexual cutting.
Name Missi WooldridgeAge 22Major Community
Health, Concentration in Sexual HealthCareer
Goal PhD and teach community health at the
college level. The purpose of my research is
to assist Dr. Whelehan and her colleagues with a
portion of their literature review for their
publication of an Anthropological Encyclopedia of
Sex. My task has been to research different
Dictionaries of Anthropology and Anthropological
Dictionaries of Sex to establish what is already
out there and what their strengths and weaknesses
are. I am looking for origins of words, the
context in which they are written, new words, and
if and how globalization has affected them. More
specifically, we are focusing on four areas
including gender, sexual orientation, medical
terminology, and slang. Upon completion of the
research, I will be providing Dr. Whelehan with
an annotated bibliography of my findings. One
might ask, how does this apply to me as a woman?
Having the opportunity to attend college and make
my own decisions about my academic studies and
life has impacted me. All three of us (interns)
are women with different concentrations here at
S.U.N.Y Potsdam, but we are all given the
opportunity to take a proactive role. Through my
studies with Dr. Whelehan I have learned the
cross-cultural perspectives in issues related to
sex, enhancing my cultural competency. Having
cultural competency in the field of community
health is essential, because we must be able to
interact and work with diverse groups of people
and develop, implement, and evaluate effective
health programs. With my concentration in sexual
health, I will be able to apply all of the
knowledge I have gained through this research and
the courses I have taken with Dr. Whelehan. I now
will be able to disseminate information more
effectively. Considering I want to take a
leadership role when I graduate form S.U.N.Y
Potsdam, this experience will set me aside from
other individuals in the field. Hopefully this
internship will allow me to be more successful in
my future endeavors.
Name Jackie Best Age 21 Major Archaeological
Studies, Womens and Gender Studies Career Goal
Work in Womens Issues on Domestic Violence
or Reproductive Rights The
purpose of my internship is to do a literature
review of body modification across time and
cultures, with an emphasis on female
modification. This is research on a project
comparing Female Genital Cutting (Female Genital
Mutilation, or Female Genital Circumcisions) with
plastic surgeries that females have. Related to
these surgeries I am looking at issues of
adulthood in terms of adult, gender identity,
gender role, sexuality and fertility in cultures.
Some of the previous research done in these areas
gave a very open minded view about what women
were doing or had done to their bodies, with the
only explanation as having negative health
implications. Some people believe that FGM was a
horrible institution and must be stopped by any
means, because FGM was abuse and torture. There
are health complications, but when trained
doctors use sterile tools to do the operations,
health complications decline. In Western cultures
it is a problem because women will not go for
help if they have health problems. Some articles
speak about how it is no different to circumcise
a man than it is a woman, some take a negative
and some a positive outlook. When male genital
surgery is researched there is less outrage for
such things as subincision or the palang, though
I am not sure these are any worse or better than
FGM (Rownachilde 1996). Yet some articles
contradict others and believe that FGM is mainly
a Muslim activity, although it has been around
far longer than the religion, and FGM is not a
uniform part of the Muslim religion or Koran. One
study found that Catholicism was the religion
most commonly related to FGM (Klouman, Manongi
and Klepp 2005). One study that I was excited to
read spoke about labia elongation, this article
was exciting to me because it was so different
than the other research. The researchers look at
Rwanda women who elongate their labia to be
attractive to a mate later in life, very
different from female genital circumcision
(Koster and Price 2008). In western countries,
women were circumcised to stop them from
masturbating to prevent hysteria (Studd 2007). It
is a great honor for me to be working at the
start of a very interesting research project, I
am excited to see the final result in the future.
It is hard yet easy for me to do FGM research. As
a woman it is hard sometimes for me to read the
representation of FGM, as I could never want that
happening to me or someone I love. Yet I have
pierced ears and pay some attention to how I look
in the morning. I understand that having these
surgeries is the same to them as that is to me. I
am really glad I did this internship I took it
to fulfill my Senior Seminar Requirement for
Womens and Gender Studies. Now I could really
see me doing research like this later in life
sometimes I find myself wishing I had more time
to work on my literature review. I have never
had any fears of accomplishing my goals because I
am a woman. I have never been one who really
understood the problems and hardships that were
holding back women until I began my S.U.N.Y
Potsdam education. I grew up in a household of
six, and my sisters and I did everything,
including typical boy tasks. My four sisters and
I were never discouraged and were always told we
could do anything we wanted, and I grew up
believing that. I never knew that is was
different for women in the past or elsewhere in
the world. It is an honor to do such advanced
research in my undergraduate career, as a woman I
know I would not have had these opportunities in
the past, and I hope to keep them available for
the women of the future.
Name Noele Brabon Age 19 Major
Psychology Career Goals Clinical
Psychologist Through out the Spring 2008
semester I have been doing a literature review of
encyclopedias. This literature review is for Dr.
Whelehans future encyclopedia of sex. Throughout
this internship I have been reading
encyclopedias and writing annotated
bibliographies to see what types of encyclopedias
exist. I am trying to find the strengths and
weaknesses of each encyclopedia so Dr. Whelehans
future encyclopedia is not the same as every
other one. Her goal is to cover different topics
that are not seen in a majority of current
encyclopedias. This internship is unique in the
sense that I am starting at the very beginning of
a research project that will take up to five
years. I started my literature review by looking
at general anthropology encyclopedias and as time
progressed, I turned to more specific
encyclopedias pertaining to sex. As I look
through these encyclopedias I try to look at
specific words and see if the definitions of
these words cover gender, sexual orientation,
medical terminology, slang, age, ethnicity,
origins of words, and globalization. To be a
female and doing undergraduate research as a
sophomore would be unheard of in the past. The
encyclopedias that I have researched reflect the
society we live in. As a psychology major I can
see that prejudices and bias have come out even
when they do not mean to in the definitions. The
reason I want to do this internship is to have a
finished product that is not from just one point
of view, but from many. This internship has shown
me that I can start at a beginning of a research
project and work independently and still be
successful. My internship is a unique experience
to work with three other women to achieve a
similar goal, and it will give me the skills I
need for my future graduate school work.
Throughout my classes at S.U.N.Y Potsdam and
especially Dr. Whelehans classes, I have been
given cross-cultural education. Throughout my
time here I have realized that women in the past
did not have the same advantages as I do now. I
am blessed to have choices, and this internship
is showing my future options. Throughout my
research and college experience I can now
identity with what Jacqueline Kennedy once said ,
I am a woman above everything else (Lewis 2006
1).
References Klouman, Elsie, Rachel Manongi and
Knut-Inge Klepp 2005 Self-Reported and
Observed Female Genital Cutting in Rural
Tanzania Associated Demographic Factors, HIV and
Sexually Transmitted Infections. Tropical
Medicine and International Health 10(1)105-115.
Koster, Marian and Lisa Leimar Price 2008
Rwandan Female Genital Modification Elongation
of the Labia Minora and the use of Local
Botanical Species. Culture, Health and Sexuality
10(2)191-204. Lewis, John Johnson 2006
Wisdom Quotes. Electronic Copy.
http//www.wisdomquotes.com/000786.html
Rowanchilde, Raven 1996 Male Genital
Modification A Sexual Selection Interpretation.
Human Nature 7(2)189-215. Studd, John 2007
A Comparison of 19th Century and Current
Attitudes to Female Sexuality. Gynecological
Endocrinology 23(12) 673-681.