perhaps a heavy post for sunday afternoon

[lauralh]

But anyway. FGM. Often it's one subject that feminists and conservatives agree on. (That it's bad, I mean.) This is honestly one reason I'm no longer much of a cultural relativist. That is, I now feel secure in saying yes, western cultures are superior to others. And not merely because of human rights issues. Democracy is better than fascism and dictatorships and theocracies. Having freedom of speech and religion guaranteed is better than, well, not. Being able to have the choice of eating beef - well, you get the idea. It's having the option to chose that makes western cultures superior to others. We may choose to live in a nude commune where we have to worship Cthulhu in order to eat bread. Hell, if an adult wants to cut off parts of her genitals, well, after making sure she's not crazy, she can go for it.