We are fashioned not by our genes, but by our environment - by the family and socio-historic conditions in which we evolve.
Michel OnfrayRead
How strange that excision – female circumcision, with several languages using the same term for both kinds of mutilation – of little girls should revolt the westerner but excite no disapproval when it is performed on little boys. Consensus on the point seems absolute. But ask your interlocutor to think about the validity of this surgical procedure, which consists of removing a healthy part of a nonconsenting child’s body on nonmedical grounds – the legal definition of… mutilation.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the hypocrisy surrounding the societal perceptions of bodily mutilation based on gender.
Michel Onfray's quote critically examines the double standards in the discussion of bodily procedures that are considered mutilation. While female circumcision is widely condemned in Western societies, male circumcision often lacks the same scrutiny despite both practices involving the removal of healthy tissue from nonconsenting children. Onfray urges a reconsideration of the societal norms that allow for such disparities in moral outrage and legal definitions of harm.
Themes
MutilationCircumcisionDouble StandardsGenderHypocrisyConsent
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate on bodily autonomy and ethics, this quote can serve as a powerful point against gender-based double standards.
More from Michel Onfray
All quotes →Similar quotes
All diseases of Christians are to be ascribed to demons; chiefly do they torment freshly-baptized Christians, yea, even the guiltless new-born infants.
Saint AugustineRead
The story of Mary of Magdalene reminds us all of a fundamental truth...A disciple of Christ is one who, in the experience of human weakness, has had the humility to ask for his help, has been healed by him and has set out following closely after him, becoming a witness of the power of his merciful love that is stronger than sin and death.
Pope Benedict XviRead
Dead men are not friends to living men, and give them no gifts. (Ghan-buri-Ghan, of allies during war)
J. R. R. TolkienRead
You can't carve up the world. It's not a pie.
Patti SmithRead
In a world wounded by conflicts, where violence is justified in God's name, it's important to repeat that religion can never become a vehicle of hatred, it can never be used in God's name to justify violence.
Pope Benedict XviRead
The quality of the will to power is, precisely, growth. Achievement is its cancellation. To be, the will to power must increase with each fulfillment, making the fulfillment only a step to a further one. The vaster the power gained the vaster the appetite for more.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead