<p>In this article, I reframe the 'female circumcision controversy' 1928 - 1931, focusing on locating Ratna Kapur's 'erotic subject'. Kapur develops the terms 'sexual subaltern' and the 'erotic subject' in order to trouble the boundaries of, and ultimately expand the category of the legitimate, rights bearing subject (Kapur 2005). Searching for the voices of these disruptive subjects also compels fresh interrogations of the gendered, colonised subject.</p>