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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

CJones11 · 03/01/2026 13:51

Chiseltip · 02/01/2026 20:34

No, it isn't any different. It's genital mutilation. You do realise there are different degrees of FGM too don't you?

Are "some" of those OK?

No form of FGM is OK. It never offers a benefit to the individual it is performed on. It is done to dominate and control women. To suppress 'promiscuity' and cause lifelong issues.
Yes, both are genital mutilation, but one is justifiable in some instances, and the other is never justifiable. That is why FGM is illegal in the UK.

FlayOtters · 03/01/2026 14:32

Wish I hadn't mentioned FGM as it's somewhat derailed the thread. Was just meaning to say that it's odd we allow one form of genital mutilation for religious purposes when another is illegal. To clarify - even if FGM didn't exist, I would would still think circumcision for non-medical reasons was abhorrent!

OP posts:
Walkden · 03/01/2026 15:05

No form of FGM is OK.

Anatomically the female equivalent of the foreskin is the clitoral hood. Removing this is a type of fgm and illegal everywhere in the world and never ok.

It's a Shame boys are not offered the same level of protection under the law.

ArabellaSaurus · 03/01/2026 17:44

sashh · 03/01/2026 10:07

For some Orthodox Jews part of the ceremony the mohel sucks the blood from the freshly cut penis.

I thought this sounded made up.

And went and looked it up, and found this horrific story.

A mohel gave babies herpes, one of whom subsequently died.

I'm not sure if revulsion for the practise itself is outweighed by horror that the baby died.

web.archive.org/web/20061213112130/www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=13676

sashh · 03/01/2026 22:32

ArabellaSaurus · 03/01/2026 17:44

I thought this sounded made up.

And went and looked it up, and found this horrific story.

A mohel gave babies herpes, one of whom subsequently died.

I'm not sure if revulsion for the practise itself is outweighed by horror that the baby died.

web.archive.org/web/20061213112130/www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=13676

It does sound made up doesn't it. Like it is antisemitic rumour created to discredit.

Theyreeatingthedogs · 03/01/2026 23:02

cantkeepawayforever · 02/01/2026 17:33

Cultural / medically ‘normalised’ rather than religious iirc - only a few % of US citizens are Jewish or Muslim (two main faiths that practice male circumcision), so it doesn’t account for the high prevalence .

Follow the money. They don't do it for free.

BanditSlashed · 04/01/2026 03:09

Maray1967 · 02/01/2026 17:53

Wasn’t there an episode of SATC in which one of the main characters slept with a bloke who was not circumcised and they were all surprised?

That suggested to me that the practice is common in the US whereas it is rare in the UK.

Back when I was born it was the done thing in hospital before coming home. Unless you opted out. Pretty much all males around my age and older would have had it done.
By the time I had my kids it wasn't the norm unless you opted in and only private hospitals would do it. So my boys aren't done and neither are most boys their age. There is a small percentage who have done it by choice and have had to arrange that which is costly.

So the SATC ladies being older than I am, for their generation it would have been the done thing when they were born that boys had it done in hospital right after birth. Which is why that would have been in the show.

I personally don't think it should ever be done unless medically necessary but I can see why it was a thing in SATC being generational. Don't know how prevalent it is in the US now, but where I am they no longer do it.

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