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Re: Castration vs Circumcision: The Great Divorce
Posted by diogenes on 2026-October-22 07:33:38, ThursdayIn reply to Castration vs Circumcision: The Great Divorce posted by LaudateAgno on 2026-October-20 19:09:32, Tuesday
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It is true that there have been cultures in which circumcision is a coming-of-age ritual signalling the shift from boyhood to manhood, or rather from childhood to youth, though since the objection here is to the circumcision of newborn males I don't quite see how that is relevant to the issue at hand. I don't think that left wing opposition to cutting male genitalia has anything to do with hostility to masculinity, but with a genuine belief that infant genital mutilation (for, when we get rid of the euphemisms, that is what we are dealing with) is contrary to certain ideas that are indeed liberal in origin. It is the idea that a child is not “born Muslim” or “born Christian” or “born atheist”. Our identities are not exactly chosen, since we are obviously shaped by our upbringing, but nevertheless there is the idea that we should always be able to change our identities, that an identity shouldn't be a prison. I am sure that you wouldn't, for example, feel that apostasy should be punished. At the same time, where I might agree with you is that viewing the topic through the modern lens of “consent” is theoretically simplistic. But anyway, I digress. In the end I shall always be against circumcision, for the following reason. As you know, I am not a Christian; my attitude towards the world is partly Indic and partly Hellenic. I am fascinated by the male body, which I see as noble and beautiful, and I see circumcision the same way the Greeks saw it: as a mutilation, an uglification. As a cinephile, I have noticed that, in contrast to European or Indian films, frontal male nudity is virtually non-existent in films produced in countries where circumcision is common; and I have sometimes wondered whether this is because there is a recognition at some subconscious level that the exposure of the glans is ugly and obscene. Love for nature, and a feeling that it should not be treated with violence, is something that I feel very strongly, and in this too my attitude is not wholly removed from the Hellenic. The Greek Anthology contains epitaphs to dead insects. Shrill grasshopper, nevermore shall the sun find you singing in the rich house of Alkis;I want to suggest that unless you truly feel the sentiment of these verses you have not grasped the world aright. This is why I have a problem with Pharmakon's blithe pill-popping and flesh-tearing tendencies. Now, of course, he will say that such things as cancer are as much a part of nature as the healthy functioning of the human body, and we rightly tear out cancer cells. But I suppose that the point is that cancer is opposed to the healthy functioning of the body, whereas the foreskin belongs to it. For these reasons, I shall never reconcile myself to the tearing of male genitalia and the uglification of the male body.  |
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