Article originally published at Pharyngula May 6, 2010
For the boys with boo-boos[]
Category: Administrative
Posted on: May 6, 2010 1:20 PM, by PZ Myers
[...] However, FGM is a much more serious problem that causes great pain, destroys most of the capacity for sexual response, and is a tool used to control and oppress women. There is no comparison between FGM and circumcision, and it is annoying to see boys intruding on a thread about a serious political and social issue to insist that everyone look at their little boo-boo.
Yes, I am belittling your loss, because compared to what mutilated women have lost, it's goddamned trivial. [...]
A fine example of what PZ Myers does not consider trivial is Richard Dawkins Muslima response to Rebecca Watson's fabricated hysteria about elevatorgate. The comment is reproduced here.
PZ Myers priorities are clearly defined -
- Having your penis mutilated by barbaric goat herder superstition is trivial
- Having a "drunk" who may not even be a community member, and who's actual existence is in profound factual doubt, make a pass at you is not trivial and is in fact a catastrophy that justifies the demographic demonisation of a huge segment of the secular community and hostile fragmentation of that same community.
These kind of "standards" are not seen as an aberration at either Pharyngula or it's new incarnation Freethoughtblogs.
And, of course, on October 19, 2011 the Emperor flip-flops on circumcision, to wit:
"Want to spend an hour cringing and twitching? This is the abridged version of 'Cut: Slicing Through the Myths of Circumcision', and you will suffer if you watch it. It is a wasteful, terrible thing to do to a child. One rabbi interviewed is at least honest about circumcision: 'It’s painful, it’s abusive, it’s traumatic, and if anybody does it who isn’t in a covenant ought to be put in prison … I do abusive things because I’m in covenant with god.' What nonsense. What a wretched excuse for abusing children.
"The arguments for circumcision are pathetic and awful.
"There is no reason, other than certain rare and specific medical conditions, for maiming anyone’s genitalia. Don’t do it to your children."
Link: http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/10/19/ritualized-child-abuse-circumcision/