forwarded Internet Joke...

[jaxinsmom]

So, I had a friend forward me this internet joke about a little boy who gets circumcised...:

A teacher noticed that a little boy at the back of the class was
squirming around, scratching his crotch, and not paying attention.

She went back to find out what was going on.

He was quite embarrassed and whispered that he had just recently
been circumcised and he was quite itchy.

The teacher told him to go down to the principal's office. He was
to telephone his mother and ask her what he should do about it.

He did it and returned to his class.

Suddenly, there was a commotion at the back of the room. She went
back to investigate only to find him sitting at his desk with his
penis hanging out.

"I thought I told you to call your mum!" she said.

"I did," he said, "And she told me that if I could stick it out till
noon, she'd come and pick me up from school".

I've decided to change it to look like this and send it back with some info linked:

A teacher noticed that a little girl at the back of the class was
squirming around, scratching her crotch, and not paying attention.

She went back to find out what was going on.

She was quite embarrassed and whispered that she had just recently
been circumcised and she was quite itchy.

The teacher told her to go down to the principal's office. She was
to telephone her mother and ask her what he should do about it.

She did it and returned to his class.

Suddenly, there was a commotion at the back of the room. She went
back to investigate only to find her sitting at her desk with her
labia and clitoris hanging out.

"I thought I told you to call your mum!" she said.

"I did," she said, "And she told me that if I could stick it out till
noon, she'd come and pick me up from school".

Thoughts? Suggestions?

I've received this forward before and it really bothers me, I figure it's saying that if your not circ'd at birth, you will need to be as a child.

[Daisyuk]

Yet another sick "joke" doing the rounds.

I have a sense of humour failure, I can't see anything funny in these kinds of "jokes" at all.

Maybe it's cultural again.

[sadean]

I think the OP flip around of the joke was to point out the absurdity of the original by changing it to represent a girl. The "Would you tink it was a funny joke if you got the alternate version...No???...Then why is the original funny???" effect.

I get the desire to point out the stupidity of these jokes by essentailly satirizing them, but I think it will be lost on the person who originally sent the OP the joke.

[jaxinsmom]

Here's what Im sending her:

Hey [friend];

It's so interesting to me that if I replied to this 'joke' saying I was offened and found it to be innappropriate to 'joke' about genital mutilation, I'd probably hear "lighten up" or something similar. So instead, what do you think of this version of the 'joke':




A teacher noticed that a little girl at the back of the class was
squirming around, scratching her crotch, and not paying attention.

She went back to find out what was going on.



She was quite embarrassed and whispered that she had just recently
been circumcised and she was quite itchy.

The teacher told her to go down to the principal's office. She was
to telephone her mother and ask her what he should do about it.

She did it and returned to his class.


Suddenly, there was a commotion at the back of the room. She went
back to investigate only to find her sitting at her desk with her
labia and clitoris hanging out.

"I thought I told you to call your mum!" she said.

"I did," she said, "And she told me that if I could stick it out till
noon, she'd come and pick me up from school".


This isn't as 'far fetched' as some ppl might think. The comparison between female and male genital mutilation is striking and designed to make us think. This is a great article:



http://www.noharmm.org/comparison.htm

I'd love to know what you think.



Danielle

I think it will be interesting as she is on mat leave with her little girl. This is also a friend who made another comment when I was visiting about 'cleaning an intact penis of an old man' and how aweful it is. ds was having a melt down and I was just leaving so I never had a chance to respond....so I do think this will be intersting......

I'll let you know if she says anything. It might just be an opportunity to open up some dialogue about circ ~ her and her husband are planning to have more babies and I've been trying to figure out an 'open'....

[jessjgh1]

If I was thinking of doing something like this, I'd add something like....

Question Circumcision.
How is circumcision different if it is a boy? It's not.
http://www.noharmm.org/comparison.htm
www.cirp.org (or another source)


Jessica

[MommaLauraRN]

The original joke is so not funny on so many levels. I hate how it implies that a circumcision is so minor that a kid would be able to go to school and sit in class and at most would be bothered by itching...of course maybe circumcisions aren't as complicated when done on an older boy whose foreskin doesn't have to be ripped from the glans...people who forward jokes like those just serve to trivialize something that all of us here take very seriously...I'll be curious to hear her reply (the woman who just had a baby girl)

[Fyrestorm]

How about something like this:

A teacher noticed that a little girl at the back of the class was
squirming around, scratching her crotch, and not paying attention.

She went back to find out what was going on.

She was quite embarrassed and whispered that she had just recently
been circumcised and she was quite itchy.

The teacher called CPS and had the parents and the doctor that preformed the circumcision arrested.

The end

[BookishVonLiberal]

If a girl was circumcised, she would not have her clitoris and probably not her labia either, right?

So Fyrestorm's reply makes a better turn around and it has the punch in the gut effect, which I think is good. Really drives home the point that it isn't funny to cut on babies' and children's genitals.

[ThreeBeans]

Originally Posted by Fyrestorm

How about something like this:

A teacher noticed that a little girl at the back of the class was
squirming around, scratching her crotch, and not paying attention.

She went back to find out what was going on.

She was quite embarrassed and whispered that she had just recently
been circumcised and she was quite itchy.

The teacher called CPS and had the parents and the doctor that preformed the circumcision arrested.

The end

PERFECT. Except it's 'performed', not 'preformed'

[ThreeBeans]

Oh, and I would change 'doctor' to 'child abusing hackjob'. :

[gridley13]

Originally Posted by Fyrestorm

How about something like this:

A teacher noticed that a little girl at the back of the class was
squirming around, scratching her crotch, and not paying attention.

She went back to find out what was going on.

She was quite embarrassed and whispered that she had just recently
been circumcised and she was quite itchy.

The teacher called CPS and had the parents and the doctor that preformed the circumcision arrested.

The end

[Blarg]

Originally Posted by BookishVonLiberal

If a girl was circumcised, she would not have her clitoris and probably not her labia either, right?

So Fyrestorm's reply makes a better turn around and it has the punch in the gut effect, which I think is good. Really drives home the point that it isn't funny to cut on babies' and children's genitals.

It depends on the particular type of female circumcision. I don't recall which forms are most common, but I think you're right about the clitoris, but not so sure about the labia.

Anyone else here more informed than me about the rates of the different forms of female circumcision? And if you have references, that'd be a bonus.

EDIT:
I found an older paper on the subject. I assume most of it still generally holds true. If anyone has more (and particularly more recent) sources of information on this topic, I'd still like to see them, of course.

http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/2313097.html

The overall proportion of women who have undergone each type of circumcision is not known, although clitoridectomy appears to be by far the most common procedure. It is estimated that about 15% of all circumcised women have been infibulated, although an estimated 80-90% of all circumcisions in Djibouti, Somalia and the Sudan are of this type.

So it sounds like removal of only the clitoris is substantially more common than either of the other types (both the clitoris and the labia minora being removed, and infibulation).

So as nit-picky as this is for something that's supposed to be a ridiculing parody of a bad joke, the girl would likely not have her clitoris, but it is likely that she would have her labia.

[jaxinsmom]

Originally Posted by sadean

I get the desire to point out the stupidity of these jokes by essentailly satirizing them, but I think it will be lost on the person who originally sent the OP the joke.

I think your right. I haven't heard back from her and I know she would have received it yesterday afternoon (she's the queen of forwards, and I haven't received anything else from her, which makes me think she's avoiding me )


I sent her another email subject line: PS and tried to explain it in a gentler way. I remember when we were going to circ ds and the midwife asked if we would circ our daughter too? and it totally threw me and made me feel alienated from her. She didn't offer any information, but made a snap judgement (I felt) about us and our lack of knowledge. I don't want this friend to feel that so I tried to explain the email and my feelings about circumcision and that it's not funny, or a joke.

But, I still havent heard from her. Knowing this friend she won't send me anything for a while and then I'll get some forwarded joke about a cat or something...:

Thanks for all your help and suggestions, though!

[pixiesmommy]

I got this in my inbox too. GRRRRRRRRRRR

I just received this in my inbox as well- from a very good friend of mine- who is really walking the line with me lately about parenting issues now that I am pregnant.

I replied back with this:

UGH! NOT FUNNY. Why would someone circumcise a child of any age, let alone a school-aged boy?!!!!

It would do more than itch!!! Can you imagine having part of your clit removed??? OUCH. I just can't find the humor in genital mutilation. Yes, I realize it's a joke, but a VERY sad one in VERY poor taste in my opinion.

We are VERY anti-circumcision, if you didn't know! I'll give you a list of why if you're really interested, but I think I'll just leave it with this before I go on and on. It's rather like religion with me- I'm not out to push my beliefs on anyone, no matter how strong they are.



I wish I had come here first and seen the reply about changing it to a girl and the teacher calling CPS. I'm pretty sure she had her son circumcised (he is 11) and don't want to shame her too much- she has just left a very abusive marriage and I doubt she had a say in his circumcision... but STILL. UGH!!!!!

I did bring up circumcision with her once about a month or so ago in passing that it was one thing on my birth plan and that we were against it, and she asked why. I told her simply that I felt it was child abuse and did she know how it was done or anything about it? She said she didn't even know what it was and please don't tell her- she would rather let dr's make those medical decisions and be ignorant and then accused me of learning TOO much about things that I really "shouldn't know about." Like dr's should have complete control of our bodies and we should just agree and be uninformed. :

I'm having a VERY hard time maintaining this friendship and am curious what her reply will be- I bet she'll just ignore me.

:
Manda

[Ajbaby]

OT but yay, another person from IL!!