5 ms·
> Previous preliminary research has reported an association between circumcision and alexithymia (i.e., dysfunctions in emotion recognition, social attachment,
by jstarfish 3y ago
> Previous preliminary research has reported an association between circumcision and alexithymia (i.e., dysfunctions in emotion recognition, social attachment, and interpersonal relations) in adults (Bollinger and Van Howe, 2011). More recently, two large-sample studies suggested a positive correlation between circumcision and autism spectrum disorder (ASD; Bauer and Kriebel, 2013; Frisch and Simonsen, 2015a). Although the causal implications of this research has been questioned (Morris et al., 2012; Morris and Wiswell, 2015), these studies suggest that early-circumcision might have an impact on adult psychosocial functioning.
This can't be right...one of those correlation is not causation situations?
I hesitate to take the side of Brian J. "B.J." Morris (a contentious individual, to be polite) but here we are.
US surgery rates have been declining since the 60s as autism diagnoses increase. Half the population in Israel, the Middle East and southeast Asia should be autistic by now.
I don't see where they looked at how many intact kids were diagnosed with autism, only that there's a "positive association" with circumcision, which means little. We fell for that logic once already with the HIV prevention claims. Fool us twice and we...can't get circumcised again?
This is interesting though:
> Circumcised infants display increased pain responses during subsequent vaccination, suggesting that behavioral effects of the surgery can last, at a minimum, up to 4–6 months
And this:
> Finally, one recent study has found that neonatal male circumcision and prematurity were associated with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), providing support for the allostatic load hypothesis (i.e., the result of cumulative perinatal painful, stressful, or traumatic events) as an explanation for SIDS (Elhaik, 2018).
Circumcision, vaccinations, autism, SIDS all mentioned in the same context...
Girls don't get clipped but everybody gets vaccines. Most other cultures that snip boys tend to wait until puberty. They also inconsistently vaccinate and don't have mysterious infant death syndromes.
Maybe there's something to avoiding causing infants pain.
- DaveExeter 3y ago[flagged]
- jstarfish 3y agoI'm aware, but that's not a legal or post-natal operation for them in most of the world. The paper and my inference are about infant trauma.
- BrandoElFollito 3y agoLess damaging???? It is way way worse. I am not circumcised but I guess it does not stop you from getting pleasure from sex. It does with women. Can you imagine your penis being slit along, live, when you are 7 yo or so? I am not taking about removing a bit of skin, but about craving into your penis with your family holding you. This is something that proves that forced sterilization should be a thing for families that plan to do this to their children.
- throw310822 3y agoI think there are a lot of different versions of FGMs, from those as cruel as the one you describe down to the purely symbolic ones.
- BrandoElFollito 3y agoWhat kind of "purely symbolic" FGM do you have in mind? Every part in women genitals is useful and removing it means problems down the road (as opposed to removing a foreskin where the damages are relatively benign - of course it is proof of a profound mental illness of the ones doing it on children in all cases).
- throw310822 3y agoI've read (a long time ago) a newspaper article mentioning a simple pricking of the skin to produce one drop of blood. A pure ritual with no practical effect. Not sure how widespread it is though, or if it's just a wishful thinking on part of some Western cultural mediation agency.
- BrandoElFollito 3y agoI must say that the only reports I know of (I am French) are those of tortures of children girls who have their whole clitoris excised by their own family. This is simply insane to me. Any such ritual that subordinates someone to something is disgusting to me, though the one you described is indeed symbolic, at least it does not leave any physical traces (I do not know about mental ones)
- germinalphrase 3y ago“generally a less damaging version of what is done to men” This is untrue. Male circumcision involves the removal of the foreskin (not the glans) while female genital circulation often involves not only removing the clitoral hood and inner labia, but the clitoral glans as well.
- DaveExeter 3y agoWhen you amputate the forskin, what do you think happens to the male glans?
- germinalphrase 3y agoWell - importantly, they continue to exist.
- DaveExeter 3y ago[flagged]
- germinalphrase 3y agoTo reply, no - your eyes would not continue to exist if the eyelids are removed. Nor would your teeth if the lips were removed. You’re hyperbolic false equivalencies won’t win anyone over (and we have the same general stance on this issue!).
- DaveExeter 3y ago[flagged]
- germinalphrase 3y ago[flagged]