It’s a well-documented internet phenomenon that threads about female genital mutilation tend to be hijacked by discussion of circumcision. A while back, PZ brought attention to this fact, after just such a thread was hijacked on his blog. I think this betrays a loathsome societal tendency to ignore women’s issues in favor of more trivial male issues. We’ve seen this before elsewhere. A dominant social/economic group manages to puke up some twisted rhetoric that makes them seem like they’re the ones who are oppressed (Christians, “objectivists,” I’m looking at you). And, since they’re the dominant group, they get to hog the megaphone and drown out the voices of those who are actually disadvantaged. Really nothing new here.

However, I would like put forward a reason why I think the incessant comparison between FGM and MGM is understandable (not always warranted, but at least understandable): male genital mutilation is happening here.

The majority of infants in the US are still being circumcised, so drawing the comparison is at least useful in the sense that it illuminates how such a practice could arise and perpetuate itself. It’s difficult for an American to imagine how a parent could look lovingly into the eyes of their daughter, and then hand them over to someone who is going to razor off her labia. However, we have an innate cultural understanding of circumcision, so we can introspect on our own attitudes towards a similar tradition. Also, if you accept the premise that circumcision is morally wrong, then its defenders become proxy defenders FGM, and we gain great insight into the cognitive biases that drive these barbaric rituals forward through the generations.

Handicapping the discussion at the outset by prohibiting mention of circumcision seems to be an unnecessary, reactionary position on the part of those who would advocate it. Although I’m tempted to agree, because it’s utterly inexcusable that no discussion of FGM can get started without being totally derailed three comments in. Comparison is fine, but cooption is retarded.