Family axes wedding plans, Egyptian cuts off organ:
A 25-year-old Egyptian man cut off his own penis to spite his family after he was refused permission to marry a girl from a lower class family, police reported Sunday.
This kind of reminds me of self-castration for religious reasons. It is a reality that in many parts of the world children are property a very tangible way. Their marriages are arranged for the benefit of the lineage, as determined by the pater familias. Honor killings in fact show a face of this reality which comports with the most grisly functions of the classical Roman Republican ideal, where the pater familias had the power of life and death over his children.
H/T Talk Islam
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That'll show 'em! Reminds me of the time I dyed my hair purple in High School to piss off my mom. (She introduced me to people as her nephew until it grew out.)
Anyway, I remember reading that the most common reason men in America self-castrated themselves was to rid themselves of unwanted homosexual urges. This study was done in the 70s so maybe things have changed, but regardless, I think it shows how deeply ingrained the urge to not shame our families can be. (The second most common reason was to rid themselves of unwanted pedophilic urges.)