tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384490944414266510.comments2013-10-28T07:18:34.329-07:00This Fading American LifeMatthew Felix Sunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03347154808262264374noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384490944414266510.post-73807568771541630372013-10-28T07:18:34.329-07:002013-10-28T07:18:34.329-07:00The Parellels of Female and Male Genital Mutilatio...<br />The Parellels of Female and Male Genital Mutilation<br /><br />Female and male circumcision are more comparable than some people think. Firstly, both female and male genital mutilation began as a practice to harm the sexuality of children, for sexual morality or purity reasons. Circumcision in the US as we know it today started in the Victorian sex-hating time period, and was done with the intentio of causing so much pain to the adolescent (in both males and females) that it would deter them from masturbating. In the late 1800s it was known as fact that male circumcision caused sexual harm, but today that fact is often refuted. <br />“1860: .001% of the North Eastern urban American male population circumcised<br />In cases of masturbation we must, I believe, break the habit by inducing such a condition of the parts as will cause too much local suffering to allow of the practice being continued. For this purpose, if the prepuce is long, we may circumcise the male patient with present and probably with future advantage; the operation, too, should not be performed under chloroform, so that the pain experienced may be associated with the habit we wish to eradicate.<br />[Athol A.W. Johnson. On An Injurious Habit Occasionally Met with in Infancy and Early Childhood. Lancet 1860;1:344-345.]”<br /><br />“1888: 15% of the North Eastern urban American male population circumcised<br />A remedy [for masturbation] which is almost always successful in small boys is circumcision...The operation should be performed by a surgeon without administering an anaesthetic, as the pain attending the operation will have a salutary effect upon the mind, especially if it be connected with the idea of punishment...<br />[John Harvey Kellogg. Plain Facts for Old and Young. Burlington, Iowa: F. Segner & Co. 1888:295.]<br /> <br />In consequence of circumcision the epithelial covering of the glans becomes dry, hard, less liable to excoriation and inflammation, and less pervious to venereal viruses. The sensibility of the glans is diminished, but not sufficiently to interfere with the copulative function of the organ or to constitute an objection...It is well authenticated that the foreskin...is a fruitful cause of the habit of masturbation in children... I conclude that the foreskin is detrimental to health, and that circumcision is a wise measure of hygiene.<br />[Jefferson C. Crossland. The Hygiene of Circumcision. New York Medical Journal 1891;53:484-485]”<br /><br /> In addition, countries where female circumcision is done under unhygienic conditions, male circumcision is too (broken glass, no anaesthesia, etc). Many boys die each year in Africa from tribal circumcisions – twenty young men died this year in just one province of South Africa. In some countries though female circumcision only involves the removal of the clitoral hood – the anatomical equivalent of the foreskin – and is done to babies in sterile conditions, even with pain relief. Check out how it’s done in Egypt, Malysia or Brunei, for example. Circumcised women choose to have their daughters circumcised, citing how it’s cleaner, good sexually, reduces secretions and smegma and is generally hygienic, and also mentioning studies showing circumcised women have lower infection rates. Basically the same reasons that people use to defend male circumcision. It’s just a cultural difference. Yet, here in America, all forms of female genital mutilaiton of minors done for cosmetic, hygeine, cultural/religious reasons, even if done in a doctors office under anesthetic, is illegal and labeled "mutilation" but when done to boys, even with no valid medical reason and purely for cosmetic or cultural or religious reasons, it is "circumcision." Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12917049225735285961noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384490944414266510.post-14853497193480555452011-09-15T10:28:00.605-07:002011-09-15T10:28:00.605-07:00Nicely put, Matthew, thanks...Nicely put, Matthew, thanks...Steve Masoverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03387484207819808962noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384490944414266510.post-4450858313114176392011-03-05T20:20:42.227-08:002011-03-05T20:20:42.227-08:00Not as loud as the helicopters...
Matthew Felix S...Not as loud as the helicopters...<br /><br /><a href="http://www.matthewfelixsun.com" rel="nofollow">Matthew Felix Sun</a>Matthew Felix Sunhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03347154808262264374noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384490944414266510.post-34722862005412986482011-03-05T17:57:35.039-08:002011-03-05T17:57:35.039-08:00Thanks for the shout-out, Matthew...Thanks for the shout-out, Matthew...Steve Masoverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03387484207819808962noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384490944414266510.post-26212247567614382092010-05-27T13:21:44.196-07:002010-05-27T13:21:44.196-07:00For more background information regarding Sister M...For more background information regarding Sister McBride, please read an excellent article by NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF on New York Times: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/27/opinion/27kristof.html?hp" rel="nofollow">Sister Margaret’s Choice</a>Matthew Felix Sunhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03347154808262264374noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384490944414266510.post-1372810558904085182010-04-10T08:21:06.385-07:002010-04-10T08:21:06.385-07:00I feel that I owe President Obama an apology. &qu...I feel that I owe President Obama an apology. "Securer", though sanctioned by Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is not necessarily more correct than "more secure". After all, English is a living language and the correct way to speak it is the correct way it sounds. <br /><br />However, it is still unforgivable for President Obama to deliberately misuse the phrase "too big to fail."Matthew Felix Sunhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03347154808262264374noreply@blogger.com