From Larissa Black of Ames, Iowa –
Circumcision is a taboo topic in our society, even though 56% of infant boys are circumcised within the first few days of life in the United States according to the CDC. With circumcision being one of the most common surgeries performed (occurring roughly every thirty seconds) why aren’t more people willing to talk about it?
This week advocates from across the country are doing exactly that as they descend on our nation’s capitol for the 21st annual Genital Integrity Awareness Week. Their message is simple: routine infant circumcision is a violation of human rights, and our boys deserve the same protections from forced genital cutting that are already in place for our daughters. American girls are legally protected from even a ritual pinprick to the clitoris, and rightly so. But how is it fair that a baby boy can be strapped to a board and have his prepuce ripped, clamped, and cut away from his penis, usually without adequate (or any) pain relief? In mere moment the most sensitive part of his penis, what would equate to 15 square inches on an adult man, is cut away without his consent or any actual medical reason.
Parents circumcise their sons for various reasons but really are any of these reasons worth a painful procedure that risks the child’s life? An estimated 117 baby boys die from circumcision-related complications every year in the US, yet no child dies from being left intact. The many alleged benefits to circumcision are highly disputed and often based on flawed studies. Overwhelmingly, medical societies from around the world have determined that infant circumcision is not beneficial but is instead harmful. Recently the Council of Europe, an organization of 47 countries, passed a non-binding resolution that called circumcision a violation of the physical integrity of children, according to established human rights standards.)
Whatever your belief system is, you must acknowledge that God, nature, evolution gave men a foreskin for a reason. As a matter of fact, the male and female member of every single species of mammal on this entire earth has a prepuce (foreskin). This would not be the case if it was some vestigial, unnecessary body part. The foreskin has a vast number of very important protective and sexual functions that benefit not only the man but also his partner(s).
Whether or not to remove the foreskin is a permanent and highly personal decision that should be left for your son to make for himself at the age of consent. Check out The WHOLE Network, both .org and on Facebook, to learn more.
This letter is an excellent rebuttal of male genital cutting myths. My body belongs to me!
Thank you for this article! More people need to question this practice; trust me: once you question it and research it for yourself you’ll see just how wrong it is. There is no difference between male and female circumcision. They are cultural/religious practices grounded in superstition and misogyny. I hope we can look to the rest of the world to see how unnecessary this practice is. It accomplishes nothing but pain for a baby. To perform an unnecessary surgery on a non consenting minor.
I hear ya. It’s not pleasant living around such blatant ignorance. I am astounded at how basically dumb so many on this planet are…and lacking common sense. I assume everyone can think as clearly and obviously as myself, but NO they cannot. Humans are like a virus, and Michael Reynolds was right: The Alcyonnes, need to come here with other intergalactic Federation members and wipe us off the face of the earth. It’d be nice if they could spare some of us…but if not so be it.
Circumcision is basically unknown in Europe and other industrialized countries except for religious reasons (Jews and Muslims). Furthermore, Europe has lower rates of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Are there valid reasons to remove the tonsils and appendices of newborns? So why remove foreskins?
Talk about barbaric this is nothing….some cultures promote and practice female circumcision.
Actually, male circumcision is the same as female circumcision. It’s genital mutilation and it needs to stop. Ignorant parents force this surgery on their sons solely for aesthetic reasons. At a minimum the choice should be left to the man when he’s old enough to make it on his own.
You’ll get a lot of flak about how much worse female genital cutting can be, but much of it, in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, is surgical and minimal, and it’s hard to tell from this loving Malaysian mother’s blog what sex her baby is. Yet even that is illegal in the USA. The double standard has to stop.
How barbaric is barbaric enough, Aunt Bea? It’s not a barbarity contest.
Women aren’t supposed to see the “mushroom tip” until after it get gets erect. Then it is supposed to drive then crazy.
Nerve endings get cut off as well and so men experience less pleasure.
Having said that most women will say the uncircumcised men look weird. Probably because most women have never seen one.
Since few European men are circumcised, most of those you most admire, film stars, sports stars and musicians, have intact genitalia.
Familiarity can overcome any sense of “weirdness”. Here are some non-pornographic pictures (NSFW) of real intact men.
I remember the first time the babysitter girl from across the street told me that I had been circumcised and described how it was done. I felt angry, violated, hurt, and refused to believe it was true. The whole thought was disturbing. Well, she was correct I later had found out. I think the whole practice is beyond the design of what Nature / God intended for men (and women) and outlines the disturbed insanity of religion quite clearly. If I have a son again, he will not be cut.
Anonymous, thanks for your concern, but it’s okay…many don’t know about that, and I know they are just lobbing insults that are pretty standard fare and obvious. Now if someone really wanted to say something willingly malicious about the event, that would be a different story. Besides, the only reason I ever disclosed that information was in the hopes some coward would come forward and spill the beans about what happened so long ago. It’s still an unsolved murder. A cold case.