Melançon Enterprises • a multidivision multinational since 1980

If nothing else, I try not to be a hypocrite, which casual observation shows is plenty difficult in its own right.

Well I was caught in a double-standard the other day. I don't like needles, piercings, tattoos, hanging from hooks, or anything that involves perforating or cutting or mangling one's body. I wouldn't, of course, try to stop anyone else from

But I have no problem with being circumcised.

And that is done to decidedly non-consenting non-adults.

Can Judaism, which has the same double standard codified, help explain this?

To be clear, I most certainly do love people who have piercings and tattoos, fully. Yet I have to admit that my first reaction, one which I have stated, is against messing with the human body, even though I recognize it has been done throughout cultures and throughout history.

When a couple of women I respect happened to mention their dislike for the body modification, in their words the genital mutilation, that is circumcision, for the first time I saw this hypocrisy in my own mind. And I don't know what to think.