Analogies

What may and may not be compared with circumcision

Things you may - and someone does - compare with male genital cutting

Bedtime
- Leah on Babycenter.com, November 15, 2011
Hair- and
nail-cutting
- IfThen in the Guardian December 6, 2011
Vaccination,
tooth-straightening and
ear-piercing
- Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz in the Jewish Week, February 6, 2012
Tattoos,
tonsillectomies and
appendectomies
- SubZeroIQ on FITSnews.com, June 20, 2012
Feeding your kids spinach,
making them come in at night, or
get up for school
- DanMK on Zionica, July 2012
Baptism
- Tipsy Teetotaler on Intallectualoid, September 18, 2012
Removal of wisdom teeth and
stopping your child from crossing the road alone,
eating poison or
putting their hand on a lit stove
- Anonymous writer in The Word (Indianaopolis) p 21, October, 2012
Breastfeeding
- Barbara Amiel in MacLeans.ca, October 2, 2012
how u dress ur child
- Valerie Brink on Facebook, October 2, 2012
Abortion
- Winston Blake on Macleans.ca, October 3, 2012
Removal of pyrogenic granuloma (benign red skin growth) from the forehead (Granulomas often grow and shrink over time, stretching the skin in a way that surgery can not correct.)
- Leah Cypess in the Atlantic, October 3, 2012
to let teeth grow in the mouth of a child, and more cruel still
to allow all of them to break [come out]
- Sadaf Sarfaraz on MSN Arabia, October 11, 2012
to plan a trip to a region that is disease rampant, and take their child
- HapkidoNinja on The Jewish Post, October 15, 2012
Feeding him a high-fibre diet
- Mikey Bowler on the Greater New Orleans Times Picayune, October 18, 2012
The use of tobacco (for the standard of proof of harm required)
- atpontchrtrn on the Greater New Orleans Times Picayune, October 18, 2012
Putting on a coat in the winter,
taking medicines if they become ill,
eating meat their parents cook, or
for vegetarian parents - not eating meat
- Linus Scot on NPR, October 18, 2012
Umbilical cord cutting
- Tweeted by Hartwick College pre-med (!) Omar Russo, October 25, 2012
Internal examinations during labour
cesarean delivery... even at the cost of their child's life.
- Sue Ieraci on The Conversation, November 7, 2012
... forc[ing] them to go to school,
go to the dentist,
brush their teeth and
take a shower.
jonjlm on IMDb, November 19, 2012
cleft palate repair
lamk on Huffington Post, December 20, 2012
Ok yall talk about your childs rights like you cant choose whats best for them? So do they choose if they ... brush their hair
bathe
go to school ... Ok what about
medicine ...
going places they could get in an accident ...
Comment to Mary Lanser on Facebook, January 21, 2013
poisoning your children with grape juice...
apple juice...
any type of fruit juice.
Marcapen on single dad laughing, February 12, 2013
... you buy you kid cheerios instead of frosted flakes
Thomas Lafferty on Facebook, February 27, 2013
The sequester is something like a circumcision.
Wm on Yahoo News, March 8, 2013
... like a fabric must be stitched and cut before it become a shirt.
Message to Indonesian Intactivist on Facebook, March 10, 2013
... a car accident which is much more likely [than a circumcision death], but I'm not going Amish anytime soon.
Brian Callaghan on Facebook, March 25, 2013
... Just like if I bought my son a car it's still MY car until he's 18.
- Caity Bro String on Facebook, April 4, 2012
... going to grandmas for Christmas...
Mike Baird on Metronews, Ottawa, April 10, 2013
"If you have a problem with what we did, sorry, we named you too..."
William Struemke on YouTube, April 13, 2013
... being forced to eat his string beans...
being forced to go to early morning swim team practice...
Aric Bernard in The Jewish Daily Forward, May 7, 2013
"So if a 13 year old goes to their parents & says I want to have a baby, it's my body, my right, should that parent allow it & let their child make that decision because it is THEIR BODY & RIGHT?"
Laura Dionne Gensoli on Facebook, May 11, 2013

Things you must never, NEVER compare with male genital cutting

Female genital cutting

An analogy would be no use if the things it compared were alike in every way. It is of use when it compares similar attributes of things. These things are either not permanent, or not done without consent, or not done to (born) infants, or choices between near-equivalents, or vital to life - unlike male genital cutting.

It is as a human rights violation that female genital cutting is comparable to male genital cutting. It is not severity that makes genital cutting a human rights violation, but that it is invasive, permanent, reductive and done without consent.

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