If I could kill this guy and get away with it, I would

[gwyn]

Everyone's justifiably outraged about the Onion's heinous attempt at a joke op-ed on rape, but guys, the thing that is making me much more sick today (seriously, I am so enraged I'm literally fighting to not throw up) is in ginmar's LJ, about a surgeon genitally mutilating young girls at Cornell University, and then molesting them with vibrators to follow up on the surgery. With their parents' dispensation. I can't even... I have no words. And even worse, I don't know if anything can or would be done -- the study Jezebel mentions was done in 2007. There's no information on this fuckwad being stopped.

I can't even... arg. I have to go focus on work and try to calm down. I hate people so much right now, especially men. And that's something I can't stand, but jesus. Jesus. This is just sick. I have this magnet that says "If they can put one man on the moon, why not all of them?" and right now I feel like that so much. It was too long to put in a tag, sadly.

Comments

[umbo]

I don't even know how to respond to that. I mean, yes, people are saying to email Cornell and email Rachel Maddow and stuff, and that all makes some logical sense, but I'm so completely gobsmacked that someone actually did this and no one has done anything about it up until now that I just can't deal, you know?

[nagasvoice]

Have crossposted two of gehayi's links from your lj entry. Thank you for alerting us on this. This deserves to get bigger than anything like racefail flame wars did.

[ratcreature]

I knew that doctors are mutilating genitals that don't look like the "norm" (some years ago I read some truly horrific autobiographic pieces from intersex acitivists), though not this particular case. I guess we are supposed to see it as "progress" that now future sexual function is at least a consideration, rather than just cutting back "too large" clitorises.

[rusty_halo]

I have this magnet that says "If they can put one man on the moon, why not all of them?" and right now I feel like that so much.

I'm with you. There aren't words for how sick and angry this makes me.

[mackiemesser.livejournal.com]

You know, whenever scientists report that there's a chance we might get hit by a passing comet/asteroid, it's things like this that make me root for the comet...

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

Looks like he's still around--and associated with a LOT of hospitals:

Dix Poppas (http://www.weillcornell.org/dppoppas/)

It's being reported in quite a few places, too. I think that Poppas is in serious trouble:

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2010/06/16/female-genital-mutilation-at-cornell-university

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/06/what_is_the_right_size_for_a_c.php?utm_source=sbhomepage&utm_medium=link&utm_content=channellink

http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2010/06/discussion-thread-cornell-university.html

http://www.thehastingscenter.org/Bioethicsforum/Post.aspx?id=4730&blogid=140

https://feministphilosophers.wordpress.com/2010/06/17/fgm-at-cornell/

http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2010/06/17/female-genital-mutilation-at-cornell-university

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/6/17/877097/-Female-Genital-Mutilation-at-Cornell-%28updated%29

http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2010/06/first_do_no_har

http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1103786/pg1

http://lizmair.com/blog.php?Index=615

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/fetishes-i-dont-get/201006/can-you-hear-us-now

If you'd like to contact Cornell, go here:
http://weill.cornell.edu/visitors/contact-us.html

If you'd like to contact Cornell's Dean of Medicine, go here: dean@med.cornell.edu

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

Excellent collection of links there, thank you. And if their ethics committee did indded get told about his procesdure for "testing sensitivity" and they approved it, then possibly Weill-Cornell ought to change their name to Vile.

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

I think that would be a most appropriate name change.

I also ran into a page of comments by parents whose kids had gone to various urologists. Interestingly, the parents of a number of boys with potential problems commented bout Dix Poppas, saying that he'd discussed circumcision with them and they'd decided against it. One pair of parents mentioned that their son had some sort of condition which was causing part of his foreskin to grow back. The parents were prepared for an operation--"but that wasn't necessary!"

Are you getting the feeling that Dix Poppas is not an equal opportunity circumciser?

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

Yep. I also notice that one of the articles you linked to included some comments that Cornell has a bad reputation in the intersex community about allowing a patient to grow up enough first to decide if they want to have their genitals operated on, and perhaps the parents just go along with the white coats.

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

It looks like I might have been wrong.

lizardspots has a take on the paper in which she says, based on the paper, that this is an intersex issue and that the girls are suffering from Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (http://lizardspots.livejournal.com/331660.html).

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I think that's an obfuscating mechanism, and I'm afraid that they're going to steamroll the issue because of that, since so many people are afraid of and don't understand intersex issues.

But I also recognize that this is something deeply person to me, in a way I don't want to get into in my public journal, and I have a lot more experience with some of this than most people. I'm really unhappy that this is going to get washed over, I think.

[kassto.livejournal.com]

That is bizarre in the utmost. Who is deciding these girls are ``abnormal'' and need to be operated on, and why are the parents agreeing???

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

Okay, it looks like I might have been wrong.

lizardspots has a take on the paper in which she says, based on the paper,that this is an intersex issue and that the girls are suffering from Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (http://lizardspots.livejournal.com/331660.html).

[kassto.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :) I went and read all that. Interesting debate. Not as clear cut as it originally seemed!

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I have a deep personal investment in this, my disclaimer, but I have a bad feeling this is now going to get swept under a rug with "it's about a condition we don't understand so it's all okay." Which is not okay with me, but I have a feeling I'm going to be in a minority.

[kassto.livejournal.com]

Well, it IS about a condition I don't understand. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's OK. I don't know if it's OK. But it is clearly more complicated than I originally thought.