Battleangel

News is slow this time of year, but here is nevertheless an insightful piece of hypocrisy. The first case of Female Genital Mutilation was tried in a Swedish court, resulting in massive fines and four years in prison for the parent in question. So far so good. FGM is notoriously inappropriate. But wait, why is there no outrage over Male Genital Mutilation you ask? Granted, it’s not a major issue in Sweden statistically speaking (though neither is FGM despite today’s massive headlines) and the health risks and psychological trauma of FGM are undeniably greater, if we assume the most invasive procedure for a moment, but you have to appreciate the choice of terminology. It has been bugging me for some time and this was as great a time as any to bring it up. The main reason Sweden doesn’t clamp down on Male Genital Mutilation is of course freedom of religion. The same freedom of religion that gets trampled in the case of FGM. The trampling of religion is good per se, but it should be done with great consistency. Also, FGM is a perfect cause for some since it is a safe cause. After all, it is an “entirely Muslim” phenomenon. Well, not really since there is no such precept in the Quran, but it is practised in states and regions that just happen to be Muslim. A bummer for them and a wonderful opportunity for some to engage in some guilt by association. As for MGM it is unfortunately, as we all know, practised traditionally by both Muslims and Jews. Darn. Not very many people dare risk their career and reputation on criticizing something that even remotely involves Jews. For the record, some Jewish communities of Northern Africa also practise FGM but their miniscule numbers rarely warrant a mention. Unless of course it is deliberately omitted. But lets be fair here and write it off as a statistical quirk.

It is interesting to compare the situation with the US where MGM is rife. Yet, there is no religious nor medical rationale for the practise.

God didn’t create males to be naturally unable to be clean and in need of circumcision. He created humans in his perfect image.

Evolution would have selected human males whose anatomy was best suited for propagation and survival, not plagued by chronic disease. Nature chose not to circumcise us.

Especially true when you consider the origins of MGM in the West, because it does not have anything to do with modern medicine. MGM advocates usually cite bleeding edge research but for a hundred years the practise has been allowed without so much as a shred of corroborating science and has in fact been entirely backed up by arcane superstition and a dark age mentality. It just wont work ex post facto. The basic premise was hogwash then and is hogwash now. Current research, what flimsy little there is, amounts to no more than apologetic pseudo-science.

Medical circumcision in the Western world was instituted in the 1800s mainly to deter masturbation, a behavior that was blamed for causing alcoholism, insanity, tuberculosis, epilepsy, asthma, polio and other maladies.

As such …

Superstition, not science, promotes male circumcision in the United States and female circumcision in the Third World.

Our outrage about the practice of FGM in other countries is deserved. We should also be outraged about male genital mutilation victims here in the United States and put a stop to the practice immediately.

So please, spare us the hypocrisy.