Is it appropriate to discuss male circumcision when talking about FGM?

[elettaria]

I've just written such a long comment to an article by Ava Vidalon FGM that I may as well copy it over to here. The article is excellent, go and read it. The comments are full of racism and will probably make you headdesk repeatedly. Here's what I put

Comments

[voxwoman]

it is really a weird thing. I identify as neoPagan nowadays (and was raised Reform Jewish), but for the longest time I would not even consider a sexual partner who wasn't circumcised (it was actually a deal-breaker in a dating relationship I had when I was single). I think the "hygiene" explanation for the practice (along with the hygiene reason as to "why we don't eat pork products") that was drilled into me growing up and also the nearly ubiquitous practice of circumcising all male children in the US in my generation helped me with this thinking. (and yes, my non-Jewish husband was circumcised as a baby. He doesn't dwell on it much, but I think he carries some resentment about the procedure.)

Luckily, I had a girl when I had a baby, so I didn't have to decide about whether to continue the practice or not. I'm tending now to be on the "leave everything alone" side of the argument now, and letting people modify their bodies as they want to when they're of the age of consent.