??!??!!-rite of passage? taboo?

i was supposed to write a new post when i came across this page No Circ is WholeSon! from the blog Our Homeschool Journey.

now i’m not sure if i’m just stupid or if i have just unintentionally buried the knowledge in the depths of my mind about routine circumcision of baby boys. i mean, i was (for a lack of a better word) dumbfounded. i am in a state  of mind right now that i am still grasping at this concept that i am still not able yet to create or think about my own opinion about this issue.

taken from charmed.wikia.com

not that circumcision is something new to me; it is the exact opposite. i know it as tuli or pagpapatuli. it is actually a “rite of passage” for adolescent boys in our country. i have read that 93% of our males are circumcised. at least every man i know is circumcised; and every man that the men i know know is also circumcised. it’s just that it is done here when the boy is at an age when he can choose to do it or not (although they all choose to do it eventually, because, yup, everyone does it). a lot of times, it would be the boy who would tell his parents that he’s ready (maybe because he hears that his friends are all doing it already). and of course, there are all those local jokes about those that are past “the age” and have still not done it; it’s a guy thing here (so i’m not really one to talk about it and i never really planned to talk about it but here i am). i don’t have actual basis on what i’m about to say and in no way am i sure about this but i don’t think that a parent (especially a dad) would actually force his son to go through with it if he does not want to (or at least if he’s not yet ready). but it is not a without a lack of machismo commentaries.

(wow, this post is getting long for something i didn’t plan on writing about)

although i am not ready to make opinions yet about this matter, i guess i can speak for how i plan to go about it. i’m not saying that this is certainly what will happen because i have not yet discussed this with my husband (hello, our son is 3). i think though, that we would leave it to my son’s choice. (alright, in the spirit of not assuming, i would change “we” to “i”) i think that i would leave it to my son’s choice. i never really thought about this until now but this is what i feel that i want to do. of course, i will be sure to explain to him how our culture sees it and on the other side, what it’s really about (and not about) so he will be ready to make his own judgment and not just be influenced by tradition. if the only contest to go for it is the hygiene reason, then i guess there are other ways he can do aside from having a part of his body cut off. but whatever he decides to do, i would want to make him feel that this is his choice for it is his body, something not mine or his father to impose upon.

related to this is the fact that we did not decide to have my daughter’s ears pierced when she was born. in a country where almost all baby girls have their ears pierced before being released from the hospital, it had been kind of weird for some (or most) of my relatives to see my very pretty daughter without earrings until now. my mother cannot keep her mouth shut about this, she would always pressure me to have JBgirl’s ears pierced as if not doing it is just plain neglect of a basic motherhood duty. but honestly, i just don’t see the need for my 2-year old girl to have earrings. she is beautiful (not only because toddlers are beautiful but because she really is) and she does not need any piece of jewelry for that.

Related articles

• The Pros and Cons of Circumcision (everydayhealth.com)
• Report: Newborn died from circumcision-related rite (jta.org)
• Circumcision (drewsharewithothers.wordpress.com)
• Newborn dies from controversial circumcision ritual (foxnews.com)
• The Backlash Against Circumcision (time.com)
• A Rite of Passage (adoseofrnr.wordpress.com)
• Ritual, Rite of Passage, Meme (standinginanopenfield.wordpress.com)
• Circumcision May Protect Against Prostate Cancer (disclose.tv)
• Circumcision yes or no (antimessiahrevealed.wordpress.com)