Reframing: Call It What It Is

I'm tired of having the nice, polite-sounding Why should we have the right to stop child-circumcision? debate. Let's call it what it is. Let's have the open and frank Why the hell should you be allowed to mutilate your children's genitalia? debate.

Likewise, let's not have the Why should abortion be legal? debate. Let's have the Why should we force women to donate the use of their body to another organism? debate.

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Butchery (re-post)

Re-posting this from last October. Because: reasons.

They have no autonomy
And you have all the power
So you prune off their anatomy;
Like you'd dead-head fading flowers.

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Female Genital Mutilation: A Petition

From Change.org:

You wouldn't think school girls in the UK have to worry about female genital mutilation (FGM), but we do. Although it is illegal in the UK, it is still happening – 24,000 girls in the UK are currently at risk of FGM. People just don't talk about it, doctors don't check for it and teachers don't teach it.

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Doom ‘n’ Gloom ‘n’ Happy Endings

I'm quite aware that my normal tone could probably best be described as "snarky bastard," so this one's something of a departure for me. How to begin…?

The last few days, I've been in pretty much of a dark place. Not, I hasten to add, that words like "clinical" would be appropriate; but, well, shit's happened and I've not quite managed my usual "if you can't fix it, don't let it get to you" bounce-back. Some of it, a major part of it, is stuff that's happened offline and I've kept mostly private, in that I've not spread it around much online (being mostly a private sorta chap). Couple that with a few nights of (possibly not unrelated) insomnia, and well… you can probably imagine that the bounce in my bounce-back would be slightly less, erm, bouncy than normal.

Then there's the online shit.

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Butchery

They have no autonomy
And you have all the power
So you prune off their anatomy;
Like you'd dead-head fading flowers.

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Morals For Dummies

If you need to look up what's bad about rape and abuse;
If the mutilation of children's genitalia requires your use
Of a book of instructions from God on high
Before you'll condemn it, then my, oh my—

You're a contemptible little shite.
Please stop wasting my oxygen.

(No, I wasn't aiming for subtlty.)
—Daz

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A Petition Against Female Genital Mutilation

…And, from the jollies of the previous post to the deadly serious.

This is a petition that all in the UK really really need to be signing:

Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation.

Responsible department: Department for International Development

Female genital mutilation comprises all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. It has no health benefits and harms girls and women in many ways.

It involves removing and damaging healthy and normal female genital tissue, and hence interferes with the natural function of girls' and women's bodies. The practice causes severe pain and has several immediate and long-term health consequences, including difficulties in childbirth also causing dangers to the child.

We the undersigned, ask that the government use all of it's political and economic influence to deter this barbaric practice at home and abroad.

Click here to sign the petition
—Daz

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What’s Wrong With This Picture?

You want to get inked? That's up to you,
But you have to be eighteen to be tattoo'd.
It's best, we've found, to give you time
'til you're old enough to know your mind.

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For People Who Don’t Believe In God, You Atheists Sure Do Talk About Him A Lot

It's an accusation I see a lot. The inference is supposed to be something like "So you don't believe in God? Fine, but in that case why all the fuss and bother about something you don't believe in? Just shut up, already."

Problem is, those nonexistent gods might not affect us, but belief in those gods does.

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Arguments I Probably Will Have Again…

And Again, And Again, And Again…

I’d been thinking of doing something like this for a while, and, as Nat over at Forty Shades Of Grey recently accused me of reading her mind by making all her points before she could, I thought I’d turn the tables and do it just after she just had, thus showing that it seems to be a two-way street. And—imitation being the best form of flattery—I reorganised my sketchy notes on it and nicked her ordering and headings, too. 🙂

It concerns, if you didn’t click the link, the arguments from the opposition that we see over and over again. While some are actually meant seriously, the vast majority of times you see them, they’re from trolls; people who aren’t actually trying to make a serious case rather than just muddy the waters.

Of course, Nat did it from a feminist perspective, where I’ve gone for the gnu-atheist perspective, so there’s bound to be some differences. Indeed, if there were none, I’d have just linked to her article. As it is, the two are similar enough to lead one to the conclusion that a conservative troll of little imagination is still a conservative troll of little imagination, no matter their specific area of conservatism, whilst being dissimilar enough for me to add something new.

[Added at the last minute. Talking of Forty Shades Of Grey, Facebook users really need to read Nat’s latest post. Words fail me, they really do. On the lighter side, I have a substitute YouTube link.]

Right then, let’s be about it…

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