Breast Ironing in Cameroon: A harmful practice restricting sexuality or a means to protect the girl child from harm

Abstract

Around the world there exists so called harmful practices, they include e.g. female genital mutilation, child marriages and the little researched practice of breast ironing. This thesis presents lived experiences on the practice of breast ironing as experienced by women in Cameroon. It does so through three research questions: What notions of femininity are invoked in the performances of breast ironing? In particular, what notions of desired female sexuality are invoked in the performances of breast ironing? To what extent are notions of female sexuality portrayed as something which has to be controlled or evoked? What other notions of femininity are evoked in the practices of breast ironing? The theoretical framework departures in feminist theory and builds upon gender performativity and lived experiences. Breast ironing is within this thesis undestood as a perfromative practice. The core method for collecting empirical data has been in-depth semistructured interviews in combination with participant observation. The interviews and observations were carried out in both the capital Yaounde and in Ndumbi and Djiang, which are two villages in the Eastern part of Cameroon. The thesis presents the diversity in lived experiences of breast ironing and concludes that it is a practice with many meanings. It cannot simply be labelled a harmful practice, it needs also be understood as a means to protect the girl child from harm. Thus, breast ironing is a practice that seeks to protect the girl by aiming to decrease significations of femininity that breasts invokes. This in turn means that breast ironing is a practice that ultimately seeks to decrease the level at which the girl child is identified with femininity.