Female Genital Cutting

I don't support it, and it should be gone, but it is a very sensitive area, as it being culture and such, but as others said it ruins the sexual pleasure, and it pretty much tries to restrict women, and such. Overall it should be gone in MY opinion, how that'll happen, no clue. Hell if a woman wants to do it because of her religion or culture, it's her choice, but I don't see any benefits out of it, sadly I believe the parents decide it at a young age.

Also about the Old Testament..it was NOT barbaric...for it's time, so do not claim it is. Hell for it's time, it was very well on track, and some would even say ahead of it's time in some ways. Scientifically, their health laws back then were effective, some even now are still effective.

Pork was very unhealthy back then, as it couldn't be cooked and such as well as it is now. Foreskin could also give infection, as they didn't always have completely effective bathing/cleaning methods back then.

 

i dated a guy that was uncircumcised and honestly in a physical/sexual sense i prefer it. but there surly wasn't anything wrong with it. i didn't think it was weird or wrong. it was different that's for sure. but not wrong. he wasn't jewish or anything but the hospital he was born in didnt do them so he didn't get one. i think the decision to circumcise is dependant on alot of things like religion and belief and parents ideals. but over all i dont' think that either way is "wrong" . it's just a choice people make

 

i see both sides of the coin on this matter.

first of all, i don't think "any and all" genital "mutilation" should be outlawed. i'm kinda into body modification, and some of the extremists do some stuff to their own genitals that can be considered "mutilation" by these standards.

however, these are adults, who choose to do this on their own. in cases of adults who choose to do this, i don't think there is anything wrong with that. people have a right to make their bodies the way they want them to be, whether it's by cutting their private bits up or not. and for what ever reason it is that they want to do it too... no one reason is better than another.

should it be done to children? absolutely NOT. not for males or females. if anyone comes near my little boy (when and if i have one) with a sharp object trying to cut apart his wee willy, i will turn that knife around and use it on them. nuh uh, not ever gonna happen to my kid.

but can we stop it by making it illegal? fuck no. look at all the unsafe and unsanitary abortion procedures that were performed while abortion was not legal in the US. look at the fact that making things illegal has NEVER stopped things from happening... whether it's drug use, speeding, or whatever else. ESPECIALLY when it comes to a very deeply held cultural belief.

education has to be the way to eradicate these monstrous things. force and legal punishment will NEVER ever solve the problems. it will only turn more people against those who are bringing education, and cause them to retreat further into cultural beliefs. it has to be gentle and it will take a long time. rome was not built in a day... nor will human rights issues be solved quickly.

one last thought i had... about the woman who said her sex life was just as good after the procedure...

pleasure (as with pretty much everything) has to do with state of mind. i know i have MUCH more pleasurable sex when i feel sexy and pretty. regardless of what's actually being done to my body, or what i can feel. so, if a woman doesn't feel sexy or pretty with intact genitals, but does without any, perhaps her pleasure is intensified by the fact that she feels sexy, and desirable. perceptions of self as sexy and desirable are very deeply held, and COMPLETELY culturally rooted. in the US, it seems to be very "unsexy" to not shave legs and armpits and genitals. in europe, it's quite common not to shave much of anything, at least in some places. asian countries, african countries, latin america.... pretty much every place in the world has its own cultural set of beauty standards. i come from western culture (both US and europe) and even if i was completely surrounded by people who think that the hottest thing ever on a woman is a bald head, i wouldn't feel sexy bald. because of the culture that is deeply imbedded within myself. it takes a very long time for cultural ideals to change, and until those ideals change, and people no longer think it is sexy or desirable or pleasurable to have no female genitals, the practice will continue to be prevalent.

the psychological/mental aspect of sexual pleasure can also be seen in people who are born the wrong gender. women who are born in men's bodies, and vice versa. they don't feel right about their body until they remove (or "grow") a penis, and cannot possibly engage in sexual acts with pleasure, as they feel their body is hideous and "wrong." it has nothing to do with physical stimulation, and everything to do with the mind. so i can totally see how this woman felt like she had perfectly pleasurable sex after the procedure.

 

Let me repeat myself.
The people who do this to little girls are doing "what their momma taught them". They are not evil people.

On the other hand, this practice is cruel and should be forbidden and disapear.

The antiquity and cultural background of a particular cruelty does not make it less cruel. Neither does it excuse the continuation of that cruelty.

 

Female genital mutilation is designed in order to keep women chaste by reducing the pleasure they get from sex. I can understand a man who wants a virgin bride and a faithful wife. I cannot understand a man who wants a wife who cannot enjoy sex with him.

Female genital mutilation is a painful and often dangerous operation. Some traditions deserve to be respected, but this is evil. As much as possible should be done to put an end to it.

Suttee was the east Indian tradition in which a widow was expected to throw herself on the funeral pyre of her husband and burn to death. When the British conquered India they made it a capital offense to in any way pressure a woman to do this. Several Indian maharajas came to their English colonial over lord and said, "Suttee is an old Indian tradition."

The over lord replied, "In Great Britain we have an old tradition too. Men who pressure women to kill themselves are hanged." Suttee came to an end. When Africa was divided into European colonies the Europeans should have put an end to female genital mutiliation

Like female genital mutilation, suttee was a cultural tradition, not a religious practice. Nothing in the sacred scriptures of Hinduism commanded it.

 

and so the european cultural traditions of hanging people for their crimes without a trial, and waging war on other countries peoples just to expand their sovreignty are good cultural traditions, and genital cutting, polygamy, and other "primitive" cultural traditions are bad?

scribe, you have a very narrow view of the world, i'm afraid. just because you feel that the european codes and standards of morality and ethics are right does not make them right for everyone.

 

You are distorting what I wrote. I wrote, "Some traditions deserve to be respected." I did not say that the traditions you attribute to Europe should be respected. Nevertheless, I do think that Europe is vastly more civilized and enlightened than Africa.

It is worth mentioning that blacks were seldom if ever enslaved by European slave traders. They were enslaved by other blacks and sold to the slave traders during a time when black slaves in Africa were often eaten, or sacrificed to various dieties. The Arab slave trade began centuries before the European slave trade. It continued for decades later until it was smashed by European military action. Arab countries have small black populations because they only bought male slaves, and they always castrated them.

Europeans nearly always tried criminals before hanging them. Aggressive warfare has been universal historically, and is not unique to Europe. The Europeans were better at it than other nations, because since the fall of the Mongolian and Ottoman empires they were militarily superior.

 

AND we got over that whole "hanging without a trial" thing...they're still mutilating little girls.

 

This is very true. When one compares Europe and the United States with the Mid East and Africa, and when one compares Christianity with Islam one should compare contemporary Europe,the United States, and Christianity with present day counter parts. We compare very well.

 

scribe... i wasn't saying that you were defending all european customs. my point is merely that we say european customs (by and large) are more "civilized" than african customs (or any other custom that differs tremendously from what we grew up with) simply because we have been raised to ethnocentrically view european-style customs as more moral or ethical. africans, indians, native americans, and many other indiginous cultures grew up believing themselves to be more civilized in the way they behave than europeans or other cultures.

so what we basically have is multiple cultures each believing that their own culture is the "best" or most "civilized" and because no one wants to look at each other as similar in some way, we hate on each other. because the basic thing it all boils down to is we are all the same, we just come from different perspectives, different cultural beliefs that are VERY deeply engrained. so something that caused the ancient people in africa to start cultural traditions of female genital cutting is also present in our own forefathers, they just chose to do something different. neither is better or worse, it just is.

and i stand by the viewpoint that the only way to eradicate such things is to educate in a non threatening way. because if someone comes up to you and shoves a gun in your face and says "stop eating meat" does that make you feel ready to like that person or respect them for showing you the value of vegetarianism? no... it makes you hate that person for taking away your favorite burgers or ribs. of course that's highly simplistic, but it still does the same thing.