Excellent article! I applaud your bravery in both taking on healing, and in writing about it. I come from the outsider perspective, having been raised by sex- and body-positive feminists, so I see how this brainwashing affects nearly every woman I know (often in ways they themselves don’t see). I think it’s a form of psychological child abuse. It’s only different from FGM in severity, but it’s on the same spectrum. Instead of physically cutting it off, they train your brain to “cut it off” internally. It works by the systematic shaming and punishment of a person for a basic, normal physical and emotional behavior. It starts nearly as soon as a baby is born — slapping hands away and/or shaming them for touching “naughty” parts. From infancy, their genitals — the locus of our most intense pleasure and creative energy! - become associated with disgust, pain, and shame.

I think it needs to be rooted out and criminalized, along with similar tortures like conversion therapy.

Not to proselytize, but just to offer some contrast: my path (Wicca) celebrates “all acts of love and pleasure.” Like most Pagans, we consider the body sacred, and sexuality — as long as it’s consentual — is sacred as well. We never describe any part of ourselves or others as “dirty” or “naughty.” For many who have come to this path after being raised in what is mainstream Christian culture (i.e., patriarchy), they find it very healing. I hope you can find some of this wisdom for yourself, to not just “get over” what was done to you, but to love and celebrate your sacred sexuality!