Posted on 04/24/2017 8:51:32 AM PDT by markomalley
Worried the term “female genital mutilation” might sharpen the divide between those who oppose brutally cutting away a little girl’s genitalia to deprive her of sexual pleasure and those who practice the “rite,” one New York Times editor instead refers to the ritual as “genital cutting.”
“There’s a gulf between the Western (and some African) advocates who campaign against the practice and the people who follow the rite, and I felt the language used widened that chasm,” NYT science and health editor Celia Dugger explained Friday. She also said the widely used term (FGM) is “culturally loaded” in the explanation, which came as a result of inquiries from The Daily Caller News Foundation regarding a reporter’s decision to use the term “cutting” in a recent story about a doctor in Michigan.
The doctor was allegedly caught mutilating innocent little girls as young as six and charged with a felony. Performed in American culture and subject to American laws, female genital mutilation carries a sentence of up to five years.
Dugger said she made the decision to ditch “mutilation” for “cutting” after traveling to sub-Saharan Africa for an immigration story in 1996. While she says she never “minced words in describing exactly what form of cutting was involved” and the “terrible damage” it inflicted on young girls, Dugger apparently wanted to soften the instinctive horror by many who oppose the brutal practice by using “cutting” instead.
Other human rights organizations have frowned upon using the term “genital cutting,” saying that it does not accurately describe the suffering placed on young girls.
“It establishes a clear distinction from male circumcision,” the United Nations Population Fund explained. “Use of the word ‘mutilation’ also emphasizes the gravity of the act and reinforces that the practice is a violation of women’s and girls’ basic human rights.”
Dugger has apparently pushed the editorial direction of the TheNYT to follow her lead. The only time “female genital mutilation” appears in an April 13 report from NYT reporter Jacey Fortin on the Michigan doctor is in a statement from an acting assistant attorney general within the Department of Justice. Otherwise the piece uses Dugger’s preferred term “cutting.”
Hillary Burrage, a sociologist who writes against the practice, argues against using other terminology to describe the mutilation of young girls.
“But the time has come to deny for ourselves as activists and thought leaders the comfort of euphemisms,” Burrage said at the 2016 Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Walk-A-Thon to End the practice. “Let’s drop the use of language which softens our horror of FGM, and speak the truth we know.”
USING THEIR METHODOLOGY (emphasized to make it clear), it isn’t “rape” it is “under-authorized sexual contact.”
This is what leftists mean when they say they "believe in science." They mean you can't refer to female genital mutilation because that's offensive to people who mutilate females' genitals.
Cutting and sewing and bleeding and subjugating...
The Ministry of Propaganda must protect Islam.
That’s why they obfuscate.
amazing. Simply amazing that they will not call this what it is, especially when they are eager to embrace culturally loaded terminology in other cases.
It SURE is!
At least I think that's the clinical term. What do I look like? Marcus Welby?
Rest assured that if this were some horridly heretical pseudo-Christian cult performing the mutilation, there would be no qualms about the term.
I should not be astounded by the absurd idiocy of fools who proclaim themselves as wise, but I still am.
Ditch FGM? Language too harsh?
Ok, I’ll buy that.....
So let’s go w/ “clitorectomy”....(smirk).
That should make fem/libs feel much, much better.
Rotflol.
Black lives matter is also culturally loaded and they don’t seem to have any problem with that.
Where are all the “women’s rights” groups???
Where have they been through all this Muslim BS???
Why are they not shouting from the rooftops about this like they do about falsely claiming they only get 79% of the pay men get????
It seems that the 21% of dollars is much more important to them than women being molested and mutilated and regarded as less than human by Muslims....
I would like to point out that the term “racism” should be completely banned as it is a very “culturally loaded” term. Any time I hear anyone talk about “racism” I assume that they are slamming white people in particular. So that word should just be stricken from the language.
FACTS ON FILE-—Islam considers female genital mutilation obligatory.....primarily b/c Islam teaches enjoyment of sex is better for the Islamic male when the sex act is performed on a mutilated female.
REFERENCE-—Obama resettled refugees in the US from Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sudan......these are listed among the ‘Top 10 Countries of Origin’ where female genital mutilation is practiced....usually on little girls.
Verified by US based pediatrician and fellow at the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. Hatem Al Haj Elhagaly, listed as a member of the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America (AMJA).
This ‘Islamic scholar’ issued a 2006 ‘fatwa’ (an authoritative Islamic law ruling), saying that Islam sanctioned genital mutilation b/c sexual enjoyment is ‘better for the husband’ when performed on a mutilated female.
Dr Elgahaly acknowledged that ‘the majority of the scholars regard it allowable and some consider it wajib (obligatory)........’ but advised that because FGM is illegal in the West, it should not be performed.”
And yet it is being performed....just recently in Tennessee...without parents’ knowledge or consent. A Somali doctor performed the mutilation on American children brought into the hospital’s emergency room for other emergency care.
Maybe “tolerant and compassionate” Meryl Streep and Michelle Obama could subject their little girls to clitorectomies?
Maybe Rosie O’Donnell should have it done....just to show her camaraderie w/ Muslims banished by that bad old Trump.
NOTE: Democratic Rep. Mark DeSaulnier told an 11-year-old girl at a California middle school that Pres Trump is more dangerous than a terrorist.
Maybe compassionate Islam defender DeSaulnier could volunteer some of his female family members for the mutilation?
MSM (Main Subversive Media): Enemies of the people and the Republic.
NYT Refuses To Use Term ‘Female Genital Mutilation’ Because It’s ‘Culturally Loaded’
_____________________________________________
Gee. And which culture is it that practices FGM? Them pesky Amish? Don’t think so.
This avoidance of refusing to call a spade a spade is no different than their avoidance of using the term “Islamic Terrorist”.
Circumcision should be treated the same. Cutting a poor kids penis without a choice is wrong.
Euphemism is a liberal survival mechanism.
Liberalism cannot survive without it.
Over here in Sierra Leone all the women who practice FGM get angry when the government and embassies use that term. It cuts deeply into their profit margin and cultural standing.
So once again, the American left is on the side of barbarians and female mutilators. When will they ever learn?
The same? Not even close!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.