The New York Times will no longer use the phrase ‘female genital mutilation

The New York Times has decided it’s not going to use the phrase “female genital mutilation” any more. They’ve come up with a new phrase for it because they find that the old phrase is “culturally loaded.”

The World Health Organization has decided and declared that female genital mutilation is a violation of the human rights of girls and women. This is a removal of the clitoris made early in a girl’s life, to remove sexual pleasure.

I think it really says something about a society that would encourage anything like this.

Why does the New York Times want to use another phrase for this? They still use terms like “immigration hard-liner.” They also use the phrase “opponents to women’s health care.” But I guess those phrases aren’t culturally loaded.

The phrase they are telling their reporters to use is “genital cutting.”

Did you know that Washington state is one of the few states where this is legal? Do we want parents able to do this to their children here?

Why are we afraid to go to another culture and say you don’t get to hold down a little girl and cut her sex organs off? We’re afraid of that; that’s controversial?

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