Castration

Chelsea Caldwell = **Castration** = ** Definition ** Castration is the act of removing the male genitals from the body to the extent that the function of the testicles is lost, this can be by means of chemicals or by surgery. ** A Brief History ** Not long after the discovery of the genitals, did the removal of those genitals come about. This obsession with castration is seen from present day legal punishments all the way back to Greek and Roman mythology. In the most commonly accepted tale of the birth of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, she is born of the sea after her father Uranus was castrated by his son and his penis was thrown into the water. This story romanticizes and brings to light the practice of castration as a foundation myth. This in turn effects how we are educated about such an influential culture and thus castration is engrained into our communicative tendencies. Castration continues to appear throughout history in medicine, sociology and literature. In fact a famous restoration play “The Country Wife” by William Wycherley, is centered about the alleged impotence of it’s antagonist. In the story Horner, the main character, pretends to be impotent, a form of castration without the physical removal of the genitals, so that he may sleep with the various women of the town. Thousands of years later story tellers are still using castration to explore the human nature, though in this example the physical manifestation of the act is not prevalent. Castration is also present in agriculture, criminal law, religion, medicine, fetishism, and much more. Castration thus is continually referenced and commonly understood and thus greatly effects how we communicate about it. ** Castration in Music ** In the opera community in the late 18th century and even into the early 20th century it became a general practice to castrate young boys so that the lack of testosterone would prevent them from going through puberty and hence keeping their voices high and pure. In going through this process the boys were called castrato, thus they would be male but still have Soprano like voices, making them a rare and valued commodity. However around the early 19th century evidence suggests that the castrato quickly became an unthinkable figure, falling from grace in the wake of embodied conceptions of vocality and ‘natural’ expression, newly dominant ideas that projected him beyond prevailing notions of human nature (Davies 2005). Though the practice does not go on today, or rather it is socially unheard of, references are still made to the practice in modern musical circles. ** Castration as a Fetish ** Though the motivation behind castration could be any number of reasons, such as medical, criminal punishment, or singing, there also can be personal sexual desires behind the action. One study reported the major reason (selected by 40% of respondents) for desiring castration was to achieve a "eunuch calm" and freedom from sexual urges; however, a large proportion (∼ 30%) of respondents found fantasies about being castrated sexually exciting and a similar percentage desired castration for the "cosmetic" appearance it achieved (which we interpret to mean scrotal removal along with an orchiectomy). (Wasserburg 2004). This high interest in castration as either a sexual stimulus (a fetish) or a cosmetic enhancement was unexpected, but pertinent enough to take notice. ** Castration in Medicine ** Some men must undergo forms of castration as a medical treatment for certain conditions. The most predominant disease this helps treat is prostate cancer, in removing the genitals doctors are able to remove the source of the cancer and help cure their patients. However, recently there has developed a strand of prostate cancer that is resistant to castration. Recent studies suggest that these activities are due to the generation of constitutively active AR splice variants, but the mechanisms by which these splice variants could mediate such effects are not fully understood (Sprenger 2010). As prostate cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer, the treatment of it being castration is controversial but effective. ** Castration in the Law ** A very recent development in criminal law is the use of castration as a means of punishment for pedophiles and rapists. Current treatment goals focus on stopping the behavior and achieving long-term behavioral control in the community. Common treatment methods are cognitive-behavioral, group therapy, and, when appropriate, medications such as androgen-lowering agents that can act as sexual appetite suppressants. Meta-analyses have established that treatment is more effective than nontreatment in preventing recidivism of sexual offenders in general, a finding that has a high probability of application to individuals with pedophilia. Pedophilia is a chronic psychiatric disorder, but it is treatable in terms of developing strategies for preventing behavioral expression (Fagan 2003). This approach is not necessarily the physical removal of genitals but could also be chemical castration, which is generally more accepted as a form of punishment. Organic treatment approaches for this population (pedophiles) may be divided into surgical and pharmacy otherapeutic categories. Surgical approaches include castration (orchiectomy), stero (brain) surgery and estrogen implants, the latter two approaches are not used in the United States. All surgical approaches act hormonally, in reducing or blocking the amount of circulating androgens in the subject (Greenfield 2006). Though this tactic may seem extreme as castration has fluctuated in and out of popular culture throughout the years, it has proven to be effective and has been adopted by many state governments.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0in;">__ Works Cited __ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">Davies, J. (2005). 'Veluti in speculum': The twilight of the castrato. //Cambridge opera journal//, 17(3), 271. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">Fagan, Peter J. (2003). Pedophelia. //Journal of the American Medical Association,// 289 ( 10 ): 1243 .doi: 10.1001/jama.289.10.1243-b. jama.ama-assn.org/content/288/19/2458.full.pdf+html?sid=9e20859f-51e0-49f2-a325-ed37780534aa <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">Greenfield, D. P. (2006). Organic approaches to the treatment of paraphilics and sex offenders. //Journal of Psychiatry & Law//, 34(4), 437-454. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">Rubens, Peter. //Castration Of Uranus//. April 11, 2011, www.culture24.org.uk/art/painting+%26+drawing/landscapes/art13749 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">Sun, S., Sprenger, C. T., Vessella, R. L., Haugk, K., Soriano, K., Mostaghel, E. A., & ... Plymate, S. R. (2010). Castration resistance in human prostate cancer is conferred by a frequently occurring androgen receptor splice variant. //Journal of Clinical Investigation//, 120(8), 2715-2730. doi:10.1172/JCI41824 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">Wassersug, R. J., Zelenietz, S. A., & Squire, G. (2004). New Age Eunuchs: Motivation and Rationale for Voluntary Castration. //Archives of Sexual Behavior//, 33(5), 433-442.