A couple comparisons of male circumcision vs female circumcision…
Archive for Health
It sounds ridiculous when you turn it around!
Someone on one of my message boards posted this, I thought it was funny. All of the arguments against nursing in public sound pretty stupid when they’re turned around.
i found this onlline and it made me laugh a lil…..so i thought i would share it wiht yall!
Hide your bottles……
Bottle-feeding in public?? GROSS!!
(I got this offline….. None of the disclaimers or anything beyond these parenthasis was written by me)
***IF YOU START READING IT, READ IN ITS ENTIRETY***
“Women should cover up their bottles when they are feeding their babies…
I wasn’t exposed to bottle-feeding much growing up and seeing it makes me very uncomfortable. I mean if you think about it, a bottle is a substitute for the breast, and since breasts are sexual, doesn’t that make a bottle kind of like a dildo?! Eww, gross.When I see a mom bottle-feeding, I don’t know where to look. I can’t look directly at the bottle or the baby because the idea of feeding a baby formula makes me sick to my stomach. It’s just gross. And the way babies sound when they eat??? They slurp and suck and dribble formula everywhere! It’s just nasty and it *smells*! I shouldn’t have to see that! And what about my young son? How am I supposed to explain to him why a woman is bottle-feeding? I mean, he’s too young to understand how different parts of the body function. It’s going to be hard to explain to him that women actually choose not to nurse, or can’t for one reason or another. It’ll probably upset him to know that lots of babies don’t get “nurse-nurse” like he does. I don’t want to have to deal with him being emotionally scarred by seeing bottles.
And imagine the therapy bills I’ll have to pay for when he’s older!
So bottle-feeding moms should either go into a bathroom, re-lactate so they can use their breasts in public, or cover up with a blanket. Sure, I know the excuses….bathrooms are dirty and no one should have to eat in there. But women could still re-lactate. Oh, yeah I know how hard it would be, but ya know, we DO have nice pumps available nowadays. She could get a good supply going for the sole purpose of feeding in public. If she would just use her breasts, we wouldn’t have to see those indecent bottles all the time. And if she has a hard time re-lactating, she could always just cover up with a blanket when she has to use a bottle. Oh I know some babies aren’t comfortable under a blanket. Re-breathing their own carbon dioxide for 20+ minutes must come at a price, but who cares? At least I wouldn’t have to see bottles.
And if a woman doesn’t want to go through all that trouble, she could just schedule outings around the baby’s feedings. A bottle-fed baby only has to eat, what? Every 3-4 hours? She can just bottle-feed at home, go out, and rush back with a screaming baby if he needs to eat sooner than the schedule allows.
I’ll admit that I’m uncomfortable with bottle-feeding in public. And as an American, I have a right to not have to be exposed to that sort of thing. Women should be aware of everyone else and accomodating to all others.
After all, our right not to be offended is more important than a baby’s right to eat, right?”
response to a critical reply:
“I turned it around so people could see how ridiculus is is for ANY woman to hide to feed her child. It sounds a bit ridiculous when I say women should cover up their bottles, huh? I hope it makes you think.Disclaimer…
Ok, so forgive me for assuming people would see the sarcasm in the post below. I don’t *actually* think women should cover up their bottles. I used all the arguments against nursing in public and turned them around to bottle-feeders in an attempt to show people just how idiotic it is to ask women to hide while feeding their baby.The point is, breasts are not lewd or indecent. If you see a little nipple, get over it. Breasts are for feeding babies, first and foremost. The day you hide your bottles is the day I hide my breasts.
Also…
I realize the dildo reference may make some people’s jaws drop in disbelief, but that was possibly the most important part of the post. It seems the main reason people freak out about nursing in public is because breasts are also sexual, therefore should be covered all the times. Well, a nipple on a bottle was designed to replace the original thing, just like a dildo is meant to replace a penis. Sorry, but it’s true. If it sounds outlandish to you, then maybe you should reconsider just how sexual the breast is. It’s not sexual to feed a child at the breast any more than it is to feed a child with a bottle.IF (and that’s a big “if”) nursing WERE sexual, then I would assume people would have the same reaction to a bottle as they would to a dildo. But they don’t. It’s something to think about anyways.
A story of regret…
http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=944787
This is a post from a regretful mother over at mothering.com. I wish this was the only story like this that I’d heard, but unfortunately, stories of moms and dads who deeply regret their decision to circumcise their children are pretty common….even when there are no issues and the surgery is done “correctly.” 
I have been wanting to post this for awhile. I have finally done it almost a year after my 2nd son was circumsized. I hope it helps others rethink this decision. This is from my blog (WARNING:VERY GRAPHIC)!
It has come time to write about this very sensitve topic. In doing so I hope that there are parents out there that will read this and might reconsider their decision to cirumcise their sons…
I have circumcised my sons. It is a decision I regret down to the soul of my very being. I wish I could take it back. I feel certain that there are many decisions I will regret making as a parent, but I KNOW that there will never be one that I regret more than this. The really sad thing is, that I knew better. I was against it before my first was even born. But I did it because I thought I would let my husband make the decision. I mean, he knew better then I did, right? He’s a man, he knows what’s important about a penis. WRONG!
Circumcision is nothing but mutilation of our sons. People across the world are up in arms across the world about the mutilation that happens in some countries to young girls vaginas. Yet, we here in this developed country, where we value personal choice, making this very personal decision to slice open our sons genetilia all in the name of asthetics. Doctors these days even agree that it is NOT medically necessary. Parents use the excuses that they want their sons to look the same as Daddy and brothers to look the same as each other. Or that they will be made fun of in the gym locker rooms if they are different. Some people use the reason that it leads to infection to not be circumsized and it’s easier to clean if it is.
What is this load of bullshit? How about teaching our sons to have self respect and self esteem? I personally plan on teaching my sons to be proud of who they are and that it is a wonderful thing to be different!! Why would I want them to be the same as everyone else? I don’t want to be the same. I strive to be my own person. Oh and do we not teach our children good hygeine?
Truth be told with C, my oldest, the procedure was no problem. I even liked the doctor that did it. He was a friend of mine. I ‘trusted’ him, which if you know me at all you know that in general I do not trust doctors. But C healed just fine and looked as everyone wanted him to look, just like everyone else.
But W was a different story. Everything went horribly wrong. First after they sliced him open he wouldnt stop bleeding. And all I could do was sit there and watch my newborn baby scream and cry while strapped to this horrible plastic tray while the nurse pinched his newly cut open penis to try to stop the bleeding. Have you ever been wounded and then had to pinch it tightly shut? Have you ever known a man to pinch his penis anyways? No, because that would be too painful. So how about having it cut on and then pinched. I had to watch my son, that I had birthed at home, so gently into this world be, be in so much pain because he needed to look “normal” by everyone elses standards. I couldn’t hold him, I couldn’t nurse him for comfort. I could only try to hold his tiny little hand and get close to his ear and and sing to him. (I am crying as I write this…) The nurse told me to let him suck on my finger to help him. I thought, “shut up bi!!!, let me cut open your vagina and see if sucking on my finger makes you feel better!
It was obvious that the nurse and the doctor were very concerned. I knew that if my son did not stop bleeding that he would be admitted into the hospital. So she continued to pinch his penis.
Eventually it stopped bleeding (Thank God). And eventually I got to hold him and nurse him while they continued to observe him. But do you know that at first he refused the breast?! He screamed in my arms for awhile. I knew he was mad at me. He would not even make eye contact with me. As I sat there and cried silent tears I eventually got him to calm down and latch on.
We left the hospital after this three hour ordeal which should have only taken 10 minutes, and went home. That evening it was so obvious that my son was extremely uncomfortable and in pain. And he still would not look me in the eyes and was very very reluctant to nurse. Can you imagine how that felt? My son was rejecting me because I allowed him to be tortured! Changing his diaper was like a slap in the face each time. Having to look at that open wound that was red and swollen and raw. The third diaper change brought on more worries. The procedure that they used on W was called the plastibell method. It is a little plastic ring they put around the head of the penis to hold the skin back that they had just cut. It should stay on a few days to a week and not longer then that. Well it had already fallen off. I cannot even describe how distorted his penis looked. I panicked. I freaked out and was crying hysterically and I started calling around to every hospital asking if I should bring my son in (it was afterhours). They all gave me a different answer. I had to start questioning if I had just distorted my son’s genetilia. Would it function properly sexually? Would it be this hideous looking thing it was right now? How could I have done this to him? And I blamed my husband as it was his choice. I finally got a hold of my doctor friend. The one that performed C’s circumcision. He calmed me down and told me to take him in the morning to see the doctor that did it, but it was probably okay. He said the plastibell usually doesn’t fall off this early, so he wasn’t sure what that meant, but we could wait till morning to deal with it.
The next morning we went to the doctors and he said it looked “great, just right!” And he assured me that it’s okay that it fell off so quickly even though that’s not typical…
W’s penis never looked like Coopers did. And isn’t that the whole reason we did this? So everyone can look the same? I have since come to learn that there is a newer fad with circumcision called a “loose circ.” apparently this is what has been performed on my youngest son. Instead of making a tight ring of skin around the head of the penis, they cut only a little bit of skin and it almost still looks uncircumcised. Are you kidding me? I am almost at a loss for words about this. (but not!) WE CUT OUR SONS, TO KEEP THEM LOOKING UNCIRCUMSIZED?!! Who is the genius that thought this up?
So as W healed and proved that he could at least pee normally his skin began to reform around the head of the penis. And it does in fact look uncircumsized except for the scar that I can see where they cut. I am so proud of my sons body to reject what happened to him and to go back to how it is intended to be. The head of the penis is supposed to be covered up. That skin we consider extra actually performs several functions. It keeps the head lubricated, not dry and scaly like the exposed circum. penis. That “extra” skin is what helps the penis self clean and keep bacteria away from the head. But no, we want to be able to see it and scrub it and dry it out. That skin is also the most senstive part of the penis and helps a man enjoy sexual intimacy to the fullest. But instead we actually SLICE the most SENSITIVE part of a boys body and literally rip away this very functioning part of him. WE as parents decide that he will not enjoy his sexual life when he’s older as much as he could or should.I know that my sons will endure many injuries. Probably broken bones and stitches and black eyes. But I will never ever forgive myself nor my husband for being the first person to inflict such horrific pain onto my child. I will never forgive myself nor my husband for taking it upon ourselves to decide how their body should look. We are not God, yet we acted like we were. Like we knew what was best and right and God was wrong for creating that part of the body the way he did. The guilt I now carry with me is undescribable. When I look at my two son’s penises I do not see a natural thing of beauty. I see something that has been disfigured and mutilated by me and my husbands own choice.
So all I can do is this: speak out about this injustice. If I help one family change their mind about circumsizing I will be forever grateful. And when my boys are older I will sit them both down and tell them how sorry I am for what I did to them. For this unethical choice I made when they had no say about THEIR bodies. I will offer to pay for any reconstructive surgery they want. (there is such a thing), even if I have to take out a second mortgage on my house, or give everything up I own to pay for it.
I will never forgive myself or my husband for this decision. I look it in the face every diaper change and potty run and will for several more years. As to date, we are not even sure if W’s penis is going to function properly sexually when he’s older. We still do not know the complete damage, if any ,that we have done to him. I pray there is none.There is much more that I could say about this topic. But that is emotionally all I’ve got right now.
I am so sorry dear sons for what I have done to you. I hope one day you will forgive me. I love you.
