What we are asking for with the petition that will be delivered to Downing Street is equal protection from what is an assault, a cut without a medical imperative is quite clearly actual bodily harm. There is no reason to claim that female circumcision is the same as male circumcision and the fact that there are differences should not be allowed to stifle any criticism male circumcision.
The legislation that prohibits female circumcision “The Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003” through the mechanism of it’s name seeks to undermine the rights of males to equal protection from unnecessary genital cutting. The Act fails to protect girls because it leaves room for the parents to argue that “cutting is in our culture and you let us cut our boys”.
The Act is extremely careful in it’s wording to avoid any comparison or equivalence between the sexes. In defining the nature of an offence it states the following;
A person is guilty of an offence if he excises, infibulates or otherwise mutilates the whole or any part of a girl’s labia majora, labia minora or clitoris.
This careful phrasing avoids any possible reference to male anatomy although the clitoris does have a prepuce or foreskin. The fact that the tissues involved have common origins is ignored. The fact that the tissues involved have similar functions is ignored. Every possible care is taken to create difference and ignore equivalence.
There is a valid demand that men should make of the authorities and it is that boys and men are afforded the same protection afforded to girls and women; namely that it is illegal for any one to draw even a single drop of blood from a girl’s genitals without a medical necessity, in the legislation that protects females there are no clauses allowing different cultures or belief systems to alter or cut a girl’s genitals in any manner.
Men and boys are asking for an equal opportunity to grow up able to enjoy a full sex life. Legislation that is designed to protect females will be effective when we stop favouring one gender and treat all children equally regardless of cultural background or parental belief.