They were doing WHAT?!

[polaris93]

This is political correctness at its worst:

American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Is Advocating for U.S. Pediatricians to Perform Certain Types of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)

And see Whatever happened to “first, do no harm”? : Pharyngula

By any name you call it, the American Association of Pediatrics has fallen to evil!

% Walking the Path

Comments

[mosinging1986]

Have they lost their minds?!

***

I remember when I first learned what this involved. I had no idea. And then I saw drawings. And then photos. And then videos.

I also didn't know how exactly it was done. Silly me, I assumed this was a medical procedure done in a hospital or clinic - even a primitive one. Or if there's no hospital/clinic available, then at least with some concern for sanitary conditions.

But not this. Not in cold blood with no anesthetic, with people holding them down and these girls, sometimes very young, screaming. I cannot even imagine the pain! It made me nearly gag.

I wish I could erase the visions from my mind. Most of all, I wish I could erase the screaming.

[polaris93]

Even worse, there are places in Africa and maybe elsewhere where these mutilation "ceremonies" are done by old women who use busted Coke bottle shards -- shards of thick broken glass! that they pick up out of the dirt and use without cleaning them at all! As a result, many of the girls they "initiate into womanood" in this savage fashion die of gangrene, others are made sterile, and still others are crippled for life. (An anthropologist I once knew who had done research in the back country of Nigeria had plenty of stories to tell about things like that.) This monstrousness has to come to an end for good -- and the AAP certainly isn't helping, damn them to Hell for all eternity!

[mosinging1986]

I know. I remember seeing the razorblades and other shards of whatever sharp objects (or maybe not sharp enough) they use, caked with blood and gore. They didn't even wipe it off, let alone clean it. It was vomit-inducing.

What gets me is that once you've had such unspeakable suffering inflicted upon you, why on earth would you turn around and do it to someone else?! I suppose there's little choice if it's a cultural thing. But the women I saw seemed to be enjoying it.

I cannot imagine inflicting such needless pain on someone. Especially a little child!

::shudder::

[polaris93]

Sometimes victims of extreme abuse will begin identifying with their abusers because it makes them feel powerful, and no longer victims. That ugly syndrome was seen among some Holocaust survivors, particularly children, who began to identify with the Nazis. It's called "Stockholm Syndrome" when it occurs among kidnap victims/hostages. My adoptive mother fell to it concerning the psychological terrorism inflicted on her by her first husband. It is, unfortunately, not all that uncommon. Down through human history, that sort of drive, that need to feel powerful has impelled people to all sorts of evil. It becomes an all-consuming addiction that has to be fed continuously, the same way methamphetamine or any other drug addicts have to feed the monkeys on their backs. Most people don't fall to it -- but way too many people are not above turning their heads the other way when somebody like those terrible old women carry out their society's "necessary" tasks, such as female genital mutilation.

[pathia]

Genital mutilation has been the standard in this country for quite awhile (Not talking about circumcision either). Intersex children are butchered to make them look as normal as possible. The only thing that matters is looks, not functionality, or safety.

So this doesn't surprise me at all.