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On Sep 2, 2012, at 5:46 PM, shag carpet bomb <shag at cleandraws.com> wrote:
> At 10:46 AM 9/2/2012, Andy wrote:
>> I'm curious if this will stir some shit.
>>
>> It was only a couple of months ago, I think, at PZ Myers's blog that I
>> noticed there are people out there who get really upset by
>> circumcision. Myers's angle of course is his disdain for religion,
>> but what was interesting in the comments was dismissal for the
>> medical case as well (the WHO and CDC view it positively on balance).
>> The recent position change of the APA (to that the marginal benefits
>> outweigh the marginal risks, but not enough actually encourage the
>> practice) jibed with my previous, superficial understanding of the
>> matter, but blew a lot of people's gaskets.
>>
>> What I find interesting is the heated rhetoric around the matter --
>> emotive words like mutilation and critiques leading with insistence on
>> conflicts of interest on the part of researchers, very reminiscent of
>> antivaxers. Not that I think there's no case against the practice (I
>> think for my own kid I'd lean against) but the impassioned reaction
>> strikes me a little weird. Like, if you're going to think that much
>> about my dick you might ought to ask me out.
>>
>> What say you?
>
> I heard the report on NPR, yeah. I haven't been around these conversations in years but the rhetoric - the danger, the horror, the victimization, the abuse, the trauma - I see it as a wedge into the identity politics that dominate politics discourse. The rightwing does it, Christians do it, etc.: portray themselves as victimized by some dominant other in society in order to claim legitimate political beef. What Wendy Brown calls a politics of victimization or ressentiment where the only way to get taken seriously is to show that society has so damanged and tramautized you and your identity group, you're powerless in the face of those who control the system. Much to do with Americans binary understanding of power: you either have it/ or you don't.
>
> Also see it as a bit of anti-feminist posturing among some of the rhetoric I saw. When these guys would show up in the feminist blogosphere, they'd want to take center stage to discuss *their* trauma and make feminists understand that they deserved to be heard too. *They* were traumatized, suffering PTSD, their lives stunted by the event at age 1 day, carrying around the scars and pain since nearly the day they were born, etc. etc. They'd talk about undergoing therapy to relive the event and heal, etc. This was from the MRA - men's rights activist - crowd. *shrug*
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