[codeisawesome]

> the bad form just normalizes something that is common at the time.

Exactly. I think there should be a blanket negative to customs, practices or systems that objectively cause harm. It would be reprehensible to see someone try to defend, say, Female Genital Mutilation… using “Chesterton’s Fence”. Just don’t fucking do it to people; stop doing it right now, the “why” might be for anthropologists to ponder at a later date.

[drewcoo]

Chesterton liked to be restricted, as his own adoption of Catholicism instead of looser Anglican faith attested. He also liked to restrict others, as with his abominable fence that we can't move or even stop talking about long after he's dead. I'm not philosophy kink shaming but it's just not right without consent.

[jhgb]

Why not just "genital mutilation"? You don't have to be that specific about it as if there were some acceptable cases of it.

[cik2e]

Ah yes, the curious culture of circumcision in the United States is a great example of something that could use a bit of reexamination.

Mr. Kellog, the Corn Flakes guy, in the late 1800s led a zealous crusade against masturbation. Eventually, he somehow managed to sell doctors and the public on circumcision as the answer to one of the hot-button social issues of the day: preventing teen boys from having the occasional wank. Freud would have likely deduced that Kellog himself was a hopeless and compulsive fapping addict.

All jokes aside, I have some friends who feel very resentful about not having had a choice in the matter. And other friends who strongly defend the practice, also likely due to not having had a choice in the matter.

My thinking is that American foreskins will remain on the chopping block until a majority of doctors change their views.

[confidantlake]

Society does not care as much about males?

[jhgb]

Just because "society" is doing something doesn't mean that you have to. Society lies, steals, murders, rapes, but I don't have to.

[confidantlake]

I agree with you. Fwiw I was speculating on the motive. I thought about it and that was honestly what I think is most likely. Society doesn't care as much about males so if you make it about females your argument looks stronger. And I think people do it for this reason without consciously realizing it.