It seems that I used my offensive remark of the week way too soon.
Today, Slate’s William Saletan has a column titled “Sex-change Socialism: Taxpayer-funded genital mutilation”.
Oh, but it gets worse.
First, he leads in with a story about how new surgery can partially reverse FGM. Then, he goes from talking about the violent act of tearing apart a little girl’s vulva against her will, without anesthesia, to talking about sex reassignment surgery! All without batting an eye!
You see, Brazil is now paying for sex reassignment surgery out of its national health care. And William Saletan thinks that it’s highly unfair, asking:
Question: Is genital mutilation a crime if you don’t want it but a right if you do?
Oh yeah, see the parallel? Because trans people are mutilating their bodies! Right? No? Hmm.
If anyone can find contact information for William Saletan, please let me know (aren’t bloggers and journalists supposed to be contactable?). I looked all over the Slate website and couldn’t find anything other than the forum (of which you have to be a member to post). And I definitely think that he needs to hear some “feedback” on this one, including quite the lesson on gender and trans-politics. Oh, and on how to not be a prejudiced fuck.
UPDATE: Saletan’s email address is apparently human@slate.com. Let the commenting and critiquing begin!
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“Question: Is genital mutilation a crime if you don’t want it but a right if you do?”
Aside from the fact that he’s using the term “genital mutilation” to describe sex reassignment surgery, he’s demonstrating absolutely nothing by asking this question. Basically, the answer to it is yes! COUNTLESS things are crimes if you don’t want them but rights if you do. Like sex, for example. Or sterilization. Or abortions. It’s completely ludicrous to make a comparison between FGM and reassignment surgery. Argh! If you do happen to find out about contact info, please pass it along.
Excellent point, Tracey. The flaw in logic didn’t even register in my brain, what with all of the rage over the bigotry. Thanks.
Looks like his e-mail may be human@slate.com. That’s the address at the bottom of this article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/03/AR2006030302078_2.html, and since Human Nature is the title of his column, it seems to make sense to me… hope that helps!
I’ve googled the email address and it seems to be correct! THANK YOU, GABS!
More than welcome, happy to help!
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