A family says their newborn son nearly bled to death and is fighting for his life after he was circumcised at a New York City hospital.
Tim and Gabrielle Groth said their son, Cole, underwent the circumcision at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital in Manhattan, where he was born on March 31.
I feel like your argument loses something by being stated backwards. It (and Hacksaws reply) comes off sounding like you are more angry at women than the patriarchy and want to be able to mutilate and body shame them. Rather than what I hope and assume is the case, that you want all genitals protected from mutilation and shaming.
I’m just bringing up the double standard. You’re correct in your assumption that I don’t want ANY genitals being mutilated.
But it’s not patriarchal that circumcision is normalized for aesthetical reasons. Women circumcise their sons because they don’t like uncut penises. I’ve NEVER heard a man say anything like that outside of not wanting their child to feel different because other boys are all circumcised. Women do it for aesthetics. Men do it because of a fear of being different. There’s a difference.
It shouldn’t be done at all but the idea that uncut penises look gross is inherently a woman thing.
I think a lot of people make a very reasonable argument that a huge reason this anxiety even exists is because of patriarchy
Sometimes it not some patriarchy conspiracy. Just sometimes.
Nobody said it’s a conspiracy. It’s practically a natural phenomenon. Why would anybody be afraid that their child would look different from the other boys? Because they don’t want the other boys to bully him. Why do we all know that the other boys would bully him? Well, the good news is there’s a lot of research on this topic but the unfortunate thing is if you wanna learn more, you’ll have to engage with a word you don’t seem to like for some reason.
It’s the same reason men want their sons to play sports and do manly things. Most of the dads pushing the patriarchal agenda aren’t doing it out of some hyper masculine superego, they just want their kids to fit in. The really sad part is that it’s because they know what it’s like to not fit in. They perpetuate the trauma because they were traumatized.
I’ve never heard a woman say they did or would have their baby boy circumcised because uncircumcised penises are gross, or any other version of aesthetic reasons. The religious reasons are rooted in the patriarchy, as is the “need” to look like one’s father and male relatives.
In the case of female circumcision, it’s a way of enforcing the position of women as property, making it more apparent if she’s ever had sex so her virginity can be sold to her husband. In its most extreme forms it can require she be cut open in order to give birth, and resewn each time. It can block clumps of menstrual blood and lead to infection and sepsis. In less extreme versions it can prevent her from feeling any pleasure during sex, in order to prevent her from having any except that imposed by her husband.
Aesthetics are the most often cited reason for male circumcision in the USA. It is rarely medically necessary, and only religiously motivated among Jewish people.
Anecdotally, I’ve known more mothers who fought for their child not to be circumcised than fathers. I fully encourage men to put their feet down on this issue too. This is very often a battle that the parent who cares more wins on.