Imagine you have a new baby, she's a beautiful baby girl & she's your dream come true, she's healthy & fully formed, she's just 2 days old, but then the nurse comes and takes her away from you, she's led into a surgical room, she's strapped to a table, she beigins to cry from the restrainsts on her, her nappy is removed, she's dabbed in the genital area, then a doctor with a very sharp knife, starts to cut away at parts of her genitals, she bleeds, she screams in agony as loud as a 2 day old can scream, but her cries are ignored, She writhes but cant move, she struggles to breathe because of the pain, her heart pounds so hard it causes a severe stress reaction, & the screams go on and on and on .... until the cutting stops, then the surgery is over, she's quiet and in shock, she becomes catatonic, she's bought back to you, and the nurse tells you she slept thru the whole event, but she refuses to breastfeed, and she averts her gaze from you........ An unimaginable HORROR & What barbaric civilisation would allow this to happen?..... I'm sure at this point you;ve had enuff, and are saying this would never happen to a daughter of mine, and thank God it just doesnt happen (except in places like Malaysia), and we dont do that to our baby girls, .......Phew.......... what a horrible read........
But Somehow I imagine even if you are an intactivist, If I'd replaced the word girl with the word boy, you wouldnt have had such a vile reaction or thought it was an unimaginable horror......... Even I, an avid intactivist felt horrible writing it, trying to comfort myself that it doesnt happen in the real world. Thats what cultural/tribal conditioning does to humans, it allows u to accept an Unimaginable horror committed to a 2 day old infant male child....its why its so hard to convince those who are in favor of infant male circumcision to see that it is WRONG..... Its why babies dying from circumcision are tolerated, its why sucking the penis of a baby is tolerated, its why doctors make money from the procedure and dont want to give it up, its why the medical community looks for ways to justify the procedure, and conduct research on adults to justify cutting babies.......
So whats the message in all this?
WE need to work very hard and very long, & maybe for generations and we must never ever give up, & yes there'll be times of exhaustion, frustration and doubt, then you have a rest, you rest as long as you need, & then you come back because baby boys need you to help change a culture! And Never Forget = This also applies to ending FGM, because what I described above UNIMAGINABLE HORROR happens to little girls in Africa Asia & the Middle east and to baby girls in Malaysia!!!!!
Excellent and enlightening post. Please do not give up and to all those that read this, though it might be hard, it is all worth preventing anyone from going through this. This cultural conditioning must come to an end, people must start to question.
ReplyDeleteI have never understood the ease with which our society condemns the mutilation of girls but condones the mutilation of boys. Why? Because they are boys? Do boys and men have less value in our society? Despite what mainstream feminists will say, I am beginning to think this is true. And it is pervasive. Human rights are for ALL humans. EVERYONE, male, female or intersexed, have the right to an intact body and the right to choose for his/her self.
ReplyDeleteThank you for a very sane and provocative post. We'll keep working on this and like the other struggles for human rights, genital integrity will eventually be accepted as the norm.
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