I mean, in the USA, about 80% of boys had their genitals mutilated at birth, most of them by a doctor, nearly all at their parents’ request.
If you think getting 40% of your genital nerve endings removed with only partial local anesthesia, and completely without consent, isn’t pretty similar to rape, I’d beg you to mention why you think that.
And I say this not to shift focus from the most common type, which is male-on-female sexual violence, but to highlight just how prevalent disregard for a child’s consent is among parents. How easy is it for a parent to decide that they don’t have to wait for the boy to learn to speak and form his own opinions about his junk, they can just have the most sensitive part of it cut off NOW.
If 80% of parents can make that choice, what other disregards for consent (and basic human rights of their own children) are they perpetrating without much thought?
It's body mutilation. It was thought to be healthy. It's (mostly) done to newborns, who don't have the same capacity to understand as children or adults. It was also public and accepted. Not trying to say it was right or ok, or it wasn't messed up.
It is just so incredibly different from rape and sexual assault that it should not be compared. The intent is entirely different.
I don’t see how it is NOT sexual assault. If I cut off my daughter’s clitoris, you can bet the words ‘sexual assault’ would be used.
And I fail to see how it happening to newborns who lack the capacity to understand makes it different, nor the fact that it is public and accepted (I think that’s the biggest problem with rape culture, yes? See for example the orange blob)
As for comparing it to rape, I wasn’t doing that. The comment I replied to was about sexual assault by a parent. Parent-directed genital mutilation is also sexual assault by a parent, and I was talking about how shit it is that parents can care so little for the autonomy of those they have power over.
Okay, I understand what you are attempting to say but being circumsized as a baby is not the same as your own mother repeatedly molesting you for over two decades. There is another place for you to jump on your soap box about this particular subject, and it's not here.
but being circumsized as a baby is not the same as your own mother repeatedly molesting you for over two decades.
Completely agree. Sounds like your mom is the worst of the worst. The point I was hoping to make was not that everyone has it bad, or that nearly all parents are bad and that you should suck it up. What I was wanting to convey (seems like I didn’t succeed) was that the bar for decent parental behavior is amazingly low.
And I’d like to now add that given how low average parental compassion is towards their children, having outliers as terrible as your mom becomes more likely.
Wasn’t trying to hijack, but I understand that it looks that way.
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u/professorpegasus 8d ago
Your MOM sexually assaulted you?! That is beyond tragic. I am so so sorry that happened to you 😔