Two women discussing circumcision. What is wrong with this picture?

What next? Outrage over kosher food? Let's ban that too?

If the same man were to take a tongue to the child's penis, we would call it a crime.

But a scalpel?

Oh, then it's perfectly OK. It must be, because God told us to do it.

Penile circumcision takes off the entire prepuce, completely changes the sensitivity of the penis, changes the appearance of the penis. How is this different than female circumcision? I don't think if it happened to me that I would really care what your intent had been.

You are changing the appearance and function of a person's sex organ irreversibly. How could you feel as guilty about this as about not circumcising?

Danae Elon says that she believes male circumcision is incomparable to female circumcision because the procedures are done for "entirely different reasons". It sounds like she believes the difference is that for males, it is because God commanded it, and for women it's just because the powers that be think it will keep a woman chaste. Both procedures are used as a way to control sexual behavior. But the filmaker can't get out from under her apparent belief that "God" actually told Abraham to issue this command instead of understanding it was just a way in which that society tried to keep men chaste. Entirely the same reason.

It's called genital integrity, and I don't think this filmaker is able to see the issue without letting religion effect her opinion. She seems to say that the genital mutilation of children is a-ok as long as religion condones it.

http://www.icgi.org/

link also through user name

Salon never seems to learn, does it?

There is no debate to speak of. Religious Jews (and Muslims) will continue to circumcise their boys no matter what anyone else thinks, what laws are passed and especially what some idiot Israeli woman thinks.

If somehow laws were passed banning infant male circumcision, we would break them. No way will our boys grow up intact.

Articles like this accomplish nothing but sensation. Better to write an article about Paris Hilton.

Non-Jews, do whatever you want.

As a gay man, I'm sadly under-informed about female circumcision, but I'm going to talk about it, anyway. Rationales aside, my understanding is that female circumcision greatly reduces/removes capacity for orgasm, so I don't think it's quite comparable to removal of the foreskin.

So few men have experienced sex with and without it, but it seems there must be a few who've undergone the operation during their active phases--why do we never hear from them?

that God told Abraham to cut off foreskins just to demonstrate to himself how stupid his own creation is.

The reason women's and men's genital mutilation is treated differently in people's minds shows how far apart the chasm is between the respect we bestow on women and the lack of respect we bestow on men.

As to mutilating your baby, why not let the child grow up and decide for themselves that they want to cut their most sensitive parts off? Is it too much to ask to consider males to be sentient beings?

And I am offended that this so called documentarian considers male and female genital mutilation to be world's apart. I have news for you, it is ALL mutilation.

My circ was fucked up and I had to have half a dozen operations by the time I was 10 to fix the problem, which never should have been. Indeed, once I almost died on the operating room table when I threw up while under anesthesia.

When you women CHOOSE to have your clitoral foreskins removed, I will do the same to my boy. Let's see it, goons.

men who choose to cut off their foreskin are a self chosen group.

many who do it will only admit that they prefer their newfound state, since there is nothing they can do about their new condition anyway.

the only honest assessment one could make would be if a man had sex with a foreskin, then had it cut off by someone without any personal preference on his part, and then had sex with it cut off.

I have heard comments from some men who were honest and who had had sex both ways and I have heard more often that sex is better before it is cut off, partly because the tip of the penis is kept in a softer state. Partly because there are unique nerve bundles in the foreskin itself.

The U.S. should pass a law that prohibits the circumcision of any male under the age of 18. When a male turns 18, he can then decide for himself whether or not to be circumcised. The idea of allowing a parent to make the decision for his/her child on this kind of unnecessary, cosmetic, irreversible, intentionally disfiguring procedure is simply barbaric. Did you read the story of the man who is being sought on child abuse charges for having his 7-year-old son forcibly tattooed: http://www.momlogic.com/2009/04/dad_tattooed_7-year-old_with_gang_sign.php

How can our society oppose the forced tattooing of children, but not oppose the forcible genital mutilation of our boys?

so when will you have the great debate about whether women ought to be circumcized or not?

You haven't made clear exactly who you want to debate this issue with, so you might be waiting a long while.

I think it's pretty much the same debate, judging from the feminist sites I visit. Some think it's horrible, some think it should be left up to the society or culture. There are many women in the societies where they circ. women who are in favor of the practice. Just like everything, people are divided on the issue. Fortunatley for me, I'm always right.

- with Brightstar.

I think this is a needless procedure that, if it were anything else (taking out tonsils, removing the appendix, putting tubes in ears) people wouldn't stand for.

Plus, well, in the extreme cases you get accidents and then you get people like Brightstar.

It just ain't worth the risk!