Miles Jackson wrote:
>
> Consider the possibility that we're as "socially
> programmed" as the women in these African societies,
> and our disgust about FGM is a social product, just
> as their support of the practice is.
And you should consider the following possibilities:
1. It is possible to become conscious of social conditioning. It is possible to reject slavery in a slave society; it is possible to reject racism in a racist society; it is possible to reject sexism in a sexist society...and some people do so.
2. Pain is pain. Our disgust with female genital mutilation has to do with the horrific procedure it is and the toll it takes not only on the lives of individual women but on the entire society to which they belong. If we were equally horrified with out own practices of mutilation that would be good too.
Joanna