For the boys with boo-boos

We have a thread on female genital mutilation, and a few boys are insisting on turning it into a discussion of the damage done to their pee-pees by circumcision. For the record, I agree with you: circumcision is mutilation, too, and it shouldn’t be done, and doctors shouldn’t be collaborating in such a primitive and barbarous practice on children — like piercings and tattoos, it should only be practiced on consenting adults. Except that it’s even crazier than a tattoo.

However, FGM is a much more serious problem that causes great pain, destroys most of the capacity for sexual response, and is a tool used to control and oppress women. There is no comparison between FGM and circumcision, and it is annoying to see boys intruding on a thread about a serious political and social issue to insist that everyone look at their little boo-boo.

Yes, I am belittling your loss, because compared to what mutilated women have lost, it’s goddamned trivial.

But since some of you are so insistent on demanding that your tallywhackers must be privileged with sympathy, this thread is for you. Go ahead, tell us in all the detail you want how sad you are that your sensitivity has been reduced and that you were tortured for a bit when you were a baby, all true, and I’ll even concede right here that it is a genuine problem that ought to be stopped.

Ladies, I suggest that you just ignore this thread. This one is for all the hormonal little guys who need a place to hold hands and cry together.

Whatever happened to “first, do no harm”?

The American Academy of Pediatrics has come up with a compromise on female genital mutilation.

International human rights organization Equality Now is stunned by a new policy statement issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which essentially promotes female genital mutilation (FGM) and advocates for “federal and state laws [to] enable pediatricians to reach out to families by offering a ‘ritual nick’,” such as pricking or minor incisions of girls’ clitorises. The Policy Statement “Ritual Genital Cutting of Female Minors”, issued by the AAP on April 26, 2010, is a significant set-back to the Academy’s own prior statements on the issue of FGM and is antithetical to decades of noteworthy advancement across Africa and around the world in combating this human rights violation against women and girls. It is ironic that the AAP issued its statement the very same day that Congressman Joseph Crowley (D-NY) and Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) announced the introduction of new bipartisan legislation, The Girls Protection Act (H.R. 5137), to close the loophole in the federal law prohibiting FGM by making it illegal to transport a minor girl living in the U.S. out of the country for the purpose of FGM.

Nice bit of accommodationism there. “We’ll just mutilate baby girls a little bit, to make the misogynist patriarchal assholes happy.” Well, we have no obligation to make misogynist patriarchal assholes happy at all, especially not when it involves waving scalpels about in the genitals of children.

Check out Equality Now, if you’re unfamiliar with the organization. It’s got the most depressing mission ever, but one of the most important, too. Also go to their urgent alert page, where they have names, addresses and phone numbers of AAP board members who should be flooded with messages (they also provide a sample letter) telling them what an awful, horrible, evil decision they have made.

By the way, the director of AAP and both board members you should write to…all male. Somehow, I’m not surprised.

By the way, also read the official AAP policy statement. It’s got another bizarre bit of pandering:

In addition, “mutilation” is an inflammatory term that tends to foreclose communication and that fails to respect the experience of the many women who have had their genitals altered and who do not perceive themselves as “mutilated.” It is paradoxical to recommend “culturally sensitive counseling” while using culturally insensitive language. “Female genital cutting” is a neutral, descriptive term.

It also has several diagrams of the results of the procedure, appropriately labeled “Female genital mutilation.”

They do say that they offer “nicking” as a compromise to avoid greater harm, so that the parents are satisfied and do not go looking for more severe forms of mutilation to perpetrate on their children. It is not enough. Their whole policy is designed to avoid confronting misogynistic bigots with the horrendous consequences of their traditions.

Happy National Day Of Prayer!

Sometimes I am just so embarrassed by my country. Do we really need the government telling people to appeal to an invisible magic man in the sky? Apparently, we do.

“I call upon the citizens of our nation to pray, or otherwise give thanks, in accordance with their own faiths and consciences, for our many freedoms and blessings, and I invite all people of faith to join me in asking for God’s continued guidance, grace, and protection as we meet the challenges before us,” Obama said in his official proclamation.

Get stuffed, you pandering, unprincipled hack.

Let’s just hope that the appeal of the rejection of the NDOP goes our way…not that I have high hopes that this Supreme Court will help.

Prayer Poll

This is a poll from the mind of Wayne Laugesen, crazy fundie editor from Colorado Springs. As usual, he’s complaining about those damned atheists on his lawn.

Is it OK for government leaders and legislative bodies to proclaim a National Day of Prayer?

Yes, this is perfectly appropriate and legal
50%
No, this is inappropriate and quite possibly illegal
46%
I don’t know
0%
I don’t care
4%

I think we should go give him something more to complain about.

If only Obama would declare a National Day of No Prayer to be fair…then watch Wayne squall and screech.

I get email

This is utterly incomprehensible.

YOGI

YOU SEEM TO LIVE EXCLUSIVELY IN THE
“AFTERMATH” DIMENSION.

SAD REALLY… AND PATHETICALLY
UNORIGINAL AND UNCREATIVE.

USE YOUR “BIG BRAIN” TO EXPLAIN
911… YOU AMERICAN IMBECILE.

ALAN

One noteworthy thing about it: I haven’t modified the formatting at all. It actually was sent to me in giant blue all-caps Comic Sans.