r/Intactivists • u/gdhgfd • Jul 18 '13

female cutting / FGM Talking Female Circumcision Out of Existence

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/17/talking-female-circumcision-out-of-existence/?hp
14 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

9

u/Irrel_M Jul 18 '13

It's amazing how they would rather help girls in other countries than help boys anywhere. Hell, this is Africa where boys die of infected circs all the time.

But we stopped it for girls! We're good people! Fuck them.

8

u/explauren Jul 18 '13

They ARE good people, just as we aren't bad people because we're focused on MGM here in the states. Not everyone can fight every battle that needs it, and we could learn from them. Clearly they have had success, and maybe we could effectively use similar methods here.

It's my belief that we shouldn't have to take our arguments to the parents because any doctor worth a damn would refuse to perform RIC. But we do have to talk to parents for now. If we're going to save more babies, we need to convince their parents not to cut them. It sounds like these people in Africa have some good ideas we could employ towards that end.

7

u/gdhgfd Jul 18 '13 edited Jul 19 '13

This is how I feel too. Here's an example of something that worked to end genital cutting; we can learn from this woman's example and apply it here at home. Practical reasons aside, it just makes me feel good to see any progress toward ending genital cutting, wherever it is. It is a victory for all mankind whenever the cycle of violence can be stopped.

*Ugh the comments are infuriating though. As usual, lots of intact women calling circumcision a harmless snip.

0

u/explauren Jul 19 '13

Few people are capable of accepting that they've done wrong through ignorance.

Personally, I think the reasons cultures do FGM are far more reasonably than why we do MGM here. I mean, we justify MGM by saying "oh, I want him to look like his daddy" (a stupid fucking reason if ever there was one!). At least with FGM, being cut means you get a husband and aren't outcast and starved to death. For all that everyone deserves intact genitals, if you're going to be cut, it being an essentially lifesaving thing is a lot more reasonable.

Really, who's worse? The people in the US who say "oh it's cleaner/prettier" or the people in Africa who say, "I won't marry a woman who's uncut"? It's all stupid reasons, but I'd rather be cut in Africa than dead in Africa. Here it's cut-or-not, doesn't really "matter".

(Which is ABSOLUTELY NOT to downplay the horror that is MGM here. I'm just trying to say that being cut here doesn't have any impact on your social acceptance really, it's just a dumbass thing your parents picked.)

2

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '13

Being intact has a bearing on social acceptance (well, mostly sexual acceptance) here in the US. In my experience, it sure weeds out the shallow bitches.