Mutilation?

The question of whether circumcision is "mutiltation" is contentious. It very much depends on one's attitude towards circumcision, especially whether one considers it beneficial or not. The (5000-page) Shorter Oxford Dictionary says

  Mutilate (miü·tilëit), v. 1534. [f. L. mutilat-, ppl. stem of mutilare to lop off; f. mutilus maimed (cf. Gr. mutiloV [mutilos] hornless); see -ATE3.]   1. trans. To deprive (a person or animal) of a limb or organ of the body; to cut off or otherwise destroy the use of (a limb or organ) 1562.    2. To render (a thing, e.g. a record, etc) imperfect by cutting off or destroying a part 1534.
1. The Greeks . . mutilated the slain THIRLWALL. 2. I wil not in any words wyllinglye mangle or mutilate that honourable mans worke MOR. Hence Mu·tilator, also †-er, one who mutilates.
  Mutilation (miütilëi·§@n), 1535. [ad. L. mutilationem.] The action of mutilating; deprivation of a limb or of an essential part. b. spec. Castration 1737.

[Some symbols are approximate.]

Circumcision fits all of the second part of 1.

to cut off or otherwise destroy the use of (a limb or organ)
There is no doubt that the skin is an organ - the body's biggest. (The penis is independently an organ, of course.) There is no doubt that circumcision cuts off and destroys the foreskin's use. So the questions of whether the foreskin is "essential" (intact men consider theirs to be "of the essence" of their penises, ie integral to them) and whether circumcision renders the penis "imperfect" (it certainly renders the foreskin imperfect) are secondary.

The derivation from the Greek for "hornless" is also suggestive. The farmer may think dehorning cattle improves them, the cattle may not. Likewise castration.

If the word "mutilation" still seems excessive, the M of MGM (and FGM) can always stand for the neutral "Modification".

A table on this site compares Female Genital Mutilation with Male Genital Mutilation. A page contrasts the American Academy of Pediatrics' approaches to the two. A page of maps shows their world distribution: what is striking is that FGM is never performed where MGM is not.

 

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