Letters to the Editor
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Simple Solution
My doctor gave my son an injection of novocaine before his circumcision. The baby didn't cry at all. I don't know why more people don't use it.
And by the way, when is being more sexually sensitive a good thing for a male?
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Male genital mutilation
Male genital mutilation, otherwise known as circumcision. A practice originating among superstitious desert dwellers in the Middle East thousands of years ago. Amazingly enough, carried on to this day by their adherents who otherwise consider themselves enlightened human beings.
Why not worship a bush which burns yet is not consumed? It's the same damn mumbo-jumbo.
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Too sad
That's the saddest story. I almost feel worse for the mother who was bullied into mutilating her child than I do for the baby!
I admire Neal Pollack for being so honest about this controversial subject, but I don't think I'd admit it publicly if I let my parents push me around that way and compromised my values on something so important.
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Take the Baby and RUN
In 1980, I chose not to be told the sex of my unborn baby. But I was extremely anxious throughout the pregnancy because the prospect of having to leave my husband loomed (no Judaism involved, he was just convinced it would be vital to a male child that his dick look like Dad's, when it was obviously the obverse). I would not for a nanosecond allow someone, anyone, ever, to take a knife to my child's penis and induct him into the barbarity of that mindless and monstrous practice, "because it's cuuuuuustom". (I loathe parents who pierce tiny girls' earlobes, too, "because it's cuuuute.")
Early physical and emotional experiences leave a profound mark on an infant's psyche. Just because they're pre-verbal doesn't mean they don't know they've been assaulted and brutally betrayed. It's abuse under any mythology. And it makes me furious.
It's not funny, and this father and mother should be ashamed. And any grandparents who'd reject an infant whose parents refused to have the tip of his sexual organ crushed off are assholes. Chances are, they'd come around. But if they didn't, I'd borrow some nice old geezer neighbors who know how to love a child.
The young parents were WRONG to cave. It's a HORRID thing to do to a helpless baby. I still can't believe this form of conformity overrides compassion in new parents.
Anyone care to speculate how the first cut might play out later on in life? One day, we'll know. Unless we do already.
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Ridiculous
The reason foreskin "tore the family apart" was because the Jewish grandparents acted so incredibly irrationally AND the parents rewarded that behavior by circumcising the child. It's none of their business, it's not their child.
It's the decision of the parents, NOT the grandparents. It's deplorable that the Jewish parents used their grandchild as leverage for having their wishes granted. It's even worse that the child's parents gave in to the insanty of the Jewish parents.
I feel badly for the child. He has to grow up in a family that disregards respect and uses innocent babies as pawns.
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Unforgivable barbarism
Wait, when negroes perform circumcision on a female baby it's an atrocity, but when males get their dicks snipped it's tradition..? You're. Fucking. Nuts.
Fuck Jewish tradition. Circumcision enables rape without as much damage to the male. Chew on that.
Why are people so fucking stupid? Has thought been outlawed..?
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This is utter nonsense
I understand that it's a day of the week with a vowel in it and Salon has to print a whiff of Jewish revisionism, but this event is no different than any other parenting discussion that was never had and should have been. What would you say to the discussion you never had about sending your kid to public school for instance? Any Jewish father who had his head this far up his ass about a conversation that never should have been avoided in the first place really shouldn't be writing articles. I wonder if he was even part of the 'decision' to have a child at all?
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circumcision and AIDS
Umm, er, I don't know when Mr. Pollack's son was born, so perhaps it makes sense that the following did not enter into the family calculus, BUT:
Studies in Africa and, more recently, India, have shown that uncircumcised men are something like six times more likely to contract HIV from sexual activity. This, it would seem, changes the situation that confronted us when our son was born -- we were told that no evidence supports a conclusion that circumcision has any health benefits. Arguably, the HIV findings tip the scales in favor of circumcision, as a purely scientific matter.
What was really interesting about Pollock's article, of course, was not so much the dilemma he and his wife confronted -- this hits every family that has a baby boy -- but the way in which he allowed himself to be manipulated and controlled by his parents. One really needs to declare his independence from such perniciously controlling behavior well before starting one's own family. Otherwise, the day your kid is born is too late to assert yourself.
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To Poor Baby
I loathe parents who pierce tiny girls' earlobes, too, "because it's cuuuute.
Oh yeah? My parents did that to me, and I've never been anything but grateful. You know why? Because I didn't have to do it later when I'd actually remember the experience.
Adults can be so idiotic about things like this these days. I've known tons of circumcised guys in my life (I'm about the age where pretty much any guy within 20 years of my birthyear was snipped), and interestingly enough, not a single one of them deals with physical horrors or psychological trauma. They all think "my dick's fine, thanks", as do pretty much all circumcised guys that I've heard of, just like the article's author.
But weirdly enough, people have this strange idea that somehow, this procedure which left the vast majority of guys who had it with dicks that work just fine, thanks, will hideously mutilate their children. It's that strange modern obsession with disaster and misfortune - no matter how safe the airplane is, MY plane will crash; no matter how rare that disease is, I'M going to get it (or worse, my kid will).
There are at least a thousand things about modern life that are more harmful, scarring or begetting of lifelong trauma than circumcision. As a conduit of wrongness, it's pretty minor league.