In my high school English class (that I teach), we were discussing body "modification" vs. mutilation, such as the (disgusting) new "trend" of tongue splitting. We were also discussing a guy who had plastic surgery and tattoos to make his face look more like the face of a tiger. We were discussing whether or not people should have the right to do these things to their body.
Anyway, I briefly mentioned circ as another form of body "modification," which could be considered mutilation. (And I mentioned that the people involved don't even get a choice because it happens to them as infants.) I didn't go into this topic too deeply because:
1) I didn't want to offend any circ'd students
2) I get way too emotional talking about my son when discussing this topic
And....to my point........as the bell rang, I heard one male student say to another, "I would commit suicide if I hadn't been circ'd." The other student agreed!!
Oh........this broke my heart. I didn't know what to say to them, and they didn't even know I had overheard their conversation.
Is this the type of ignorance my son will have to deal with in the future????
I WON'T (didn't) mutilate and hurt my son merely for the sake of tradition, but it does bother me that Utah is such a high circ state and there is so much ignorance!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, I briefly mentioned circ as another form of body "modification," which could be considered mutilation. (And I mentioned that the people involved don't even get a choice because it happens to them as infants.) I didn't go into this topic too deeply because:
1) I didn't want to offend any circ'd students
2) I get way too emotional talking about my son when discussing this topic
And....to my point........as the bell rang, I heard one male student say to another, "I would commit suicide if I hadn't been circ'd." The other student agreed!!
Oh........this broke my heart. I didn't know what to say to them, and they didn't even know I had overheard their conversation.
Is this the type of ignorance my son will have to deal with in the future????
I WON'T (didn't) mutilate and hurt my son merely for the sake of tradition, but it does bother me that Utah is such a high circ state and there is so much ignorance!!!!!!!!!!!!!
. My two oldest boys are 17 and 16, so I am around teenage boys ALOT as they hang out at my house and I hear them in unguarded moments. They are prone to making statements that sound shocking on the surface, but have a completely different underlying meaning than we would interpret them. Remember that males have a lot of their ego tied up in their genitals, so they have a hard time if something makes them feel a little inadequate in that area. Chances are this boy just wanted to reinforce in his own mind that his penis is great the way it is.
