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Friday, 16 May 2008
Calling a spade a bleeding shovel
 I have just posted a piece from the Copenhagen Post, in the course of which a Danish politician speaks of his opposition to an ideology which can involved “10-year-old girls being castrated”. And I commented how refreshing it is to hear it described so.
The practice is still sometimes called “female circumcision” which sounds like the practice which all Jewish boys have done at 8 days old and many (although not so much in the UK and less so these days) non Jewish boys also.
To which, of course, it bears no comparison.
I have heard the practice described as “excision” which sounds totally innocuous and what one has done to a wart or mole.
Even the preferred phrase, Female Genital Mutilation or FGM, could sound to the naive like the sort of punk piercing enjoyed by those of, shall I say, an adventurous nature.
No, castration may not be technically quite accurate but the word expresses the horror very nicely indeed. Posted on 3:56 AM by Esmerelda Weatherwax
Comments
16 May 2008
Mary Jackson I agree. Calling female castration "circumcision" is like calling what Mohammed did to Aisha "marriage". Language is important. |