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Mum Posts Picture Of Baby 'With Piercing' To Raise Point About Circumcision

Mum Posts Picture Of Baby 'With Piercing' To Raise Point About Circumcision

She got a lot of stick for this.

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

A mum found herself at the receiving end of social media fury after posting a photo of her baby's 'new piercing', but it was part of a plan to raise awareness against childhood circumcision.

Bear with us, here. Enedina Vance, from Ohio, posted a photo of her adorable little girl with the caption: "So I got the baby girl's dimple pierced.

"It looks so cute, right? I just know she's gonna love it. She'll thank me when she's older, lol. If she decides she doesn't like it, she can just take it out, no big deal.

"I'm the parent, she is my child, I will do whatever I want. I make all of her decisions until she's 18. I made her, I own her!

"I don't need anyone's permission. I think it's better, cuter and I prefer her to have her dimple pierced. It's NOT abuse!

"If it was, it would be illegal, but it's not. People pierce their babies every day, this is no different. MY BABY, MY CHOICE! PARENT'S CHOICE, PARENT'S RIGHTS! Don't judge my parenting, we all raise our kids differently, it's none of your business anyway!"

The photo quickly spread like wildfire over Facebook with hundreds of people calling the mum out for 'piercing' her child. Comments like, 'this is disturbing' 'what the fuck?' and 'who would do this to a baby' were, understandably, pretty common.

However, Enedina - who added #sarcasm to the bottom of the post - had actually faked the piercing in a bid to make a bigger point about the common US practice of male childhood circumcision.

She followed her initial post, with a second one explaining her reason. In it she said: "Altering a child's body simply for aesthetic reasons is wrong, as all the angry post, comments, and hate mail explained.

"'You don't own your child!' 'Your baby isn't a doll you can customize!' 'How could you do that to your child?!' 'Stabbing holes in your child is abuse and you don't deserve to be a parent!' Well said, I couldn't agree more, so why are ear piercings and genital cutting so popular?"

Speaking to International Business Times, Enedina said she'd been against the practice since 1998, while she was pregnant with her first baby, and the doctor casually asked her whether she would want the baby's foreskin removed, if it were a boy.

"I was shocked," she told IBT. "I thought that parents would be outraged. How dare you ask for my permission to damage my child."

Around 56 percent of US-born boys are circumcised while infants. Enedina continued: "Americans have no idea what an intact penis looks like. They don't understand what they're taking away."

Critics of the practice say it can cause complications and that it is basically genital mutilation. However, advocates argue that it lowers the risk of certain cancers and infections in males.

Featured Image Credit: Facebook