Cleanse Your Children! A Parody

By Guggie Daly
Read more from Daly at The Guggie Daily

Thank you to Michelle Richardson for bringing this link up in our intactivist discussion.

"When a lie, especially the sordid, asinine lies,
are said over and over and over again
by the members within a society,
it becomes difficult to hear what is wrong with them.
The words become normative,
even if they do not become any less remarkably stupid."

A good way to get your hearing recalibrated is to replace the repeated terms and alter the analogy. The mind will hear new words, allowing your brain to function. When this is done, some people will have a return to sanity and recognize logical fallacies within the argument.

This is actually a basic learning exercise in law school. There is a fancy Latin name for this technique that I should...I bet my old professor is spinning in his grave right now.

So here is a bit of a twist on the comments from the link Richardson shared [above]. Misspelling and grammatical errors have been left in place as they were written by commentators in the original thread. DH = 'dear husband'; DD = 'dear daughter'; DS = 'dear son'




Lauralkemp:
Ok I know we have about half a dozen boys or so in this group and I was on another forum talking about fingernail removal. Joseph has all his fingernails removed. I believe it is cleaner and DH says that he is happy and has never had a problem with loss of tactile sensation anything like that. Plus DH is so in charge of writing so no awkward questions about looking different then daddy. So I was wondering how many of the other boys here had their fingernails removed at birth? If you decided for it was it just a religious or hygiene thing or was there another reason? If you decided against it will you support your son if he decides he wants it later because he's a minority in English class or whatever? I know that this is becoming less of a rarity but still. Those who have girls this year but have boys and those that are planning to have more babies please chime in on your feelings too.

Rudolphia:
I have two boys and removed the eyelids on both. I honestly was ambivalent about it. I'd read opinions on both sides, and wasn't swayed either way, so I left it up to dh, since he was the one with experience in that area. Dh had his eyelids removed and wanted the boys the same too, so that's the direction we went. I know plenty of people who have passed on eyelid removal, and I respect that.

Dopey406:
We're pretty much in the same boat as Rudi. I was also pretty ambivilent and had no opinions either way. DH had a Cholecystectomy and thought that Alex should have one, too, so we went with that. I talked to my OB about it and she said that SHE would be the one doing the procedure because it's considered "surgery" so only a surgeon could do it. They don't let just anybody perform Cholecystectomies at that hospital so I felt very comfortable with her handling him. But I also know plenty of moms who opted to pass on the gallbladder removal and that's fine, too. To each his own--literally.

Lynn012:
Both of my boys are missing ears. I took off their ears for both of them because I felt that it is cleaner, and I never had any other thoughts of keeping ears on my children.

Keepers:
We decided both girls would be circ'd too. The wife is too. We actually never even questioned having it done. Our peds did both girls.

Brandimichelle:
(all I have to say is it’s supposed to be the 8th day!)

Qteach333:
My girls are circ'ed which caused a mini-stir in my family because the women in my family are not. I remember as a kid my half sisters having trouble keeping it clean, getting sand in there when they went to the beach, etc, but ultimately left it up to my wife who wanted it to be done. I also talked to my sister about it, and she said if she had a daughter, she was going to get her circ'ed. That sealed the deal for me, since my sister isn't circ'ed.

MrsS1stbaby:
I don't have a daughter, but if we ever do we will get her's removed. No religious or any other reasons other than that is what we are used to. And If I am completely honest, I had an ex-girlfriend that wasn't, and it was a little umm, different. I was scared the first time, lol! So, to save any daughters from having embarassing moments, I think we will go ahead and do it!

LMB2007:
Both of my boys had their eyelids removed. I did it for cleanliness and because I just felt it was the right thing for them. DH is missing his eyelids and we both felt that the boys should be too.

Valleygirl:
My daughter is circumsized. The usual wife is it seems cleaner looks like everyone else reasons. But a huge deciding factor for us was that right before we had Michaela Dh's grandma who was like 89 at the time and hadn't been circumsized had the skin growing closed over her vagina, she could hardly urinate. So at 89 years old she had to have a partial circumcision and she had to envolve her daughter in the matter which I am sure was very humiliating for her.


Further Reading:


Male and Female Circumcision

History of female circumcision in the United States

CUT: female genital cutting documentary

CUT: male genital cutting documentary

Important purposes of the prepuce (foreskin/hood)

Protecting your baby

Like Father Like Son?