bankside
JUB 10k Club
Re: Is the art of circumcision dying?
I accept that some men are not just content, but delighted, with the state of their circumcised penises, and they certainly would have had the procedure done voluntarily if it had not been done to them as children. If they are happy having been circumcised as infants, it, I am glad that their parents guessed correctly. But it was never their choice to make. It's the boy's body; it's the boy's choice.
We have a page to learn from the history of feminism in that respect. Perhaps a chapter or a book or two…
As to the word "mutilation," consider also that to call subincision a form of penile mutilation would not really be controversial. Yet it is practiced both by adults as a fetish or body modification choice, and as a cultural practice in some parts of the world. I contend that it is only the pervasiveness of circumcision in some communities, and the resulting desensitization to it, that prevents us from calling it "mutilation" without hesitation. The sad part is how many people feel that it ought to be part of the cultural landscape, as though if we collectively changed our minds about the wisdom of doing it routinely, that we would somehow be in the wrong. Of course, we are free to re-think routine non-consensual circumcision, and we have very good reasons to do so.
I accept that some men are not just content, but delighted, with the state of their circumcised penises, and they certainly would have had the procedure done voluntarily if it had not been done to them as children. If they are happy having been circumcised as infants, it, I am glad that their parents guessed correctly. But it was never their choice to make. It's the boy's body; it's the boy's choice.
We have a page to learn from the history of feminism in that respect. Perhaps a chapter or a book or two…
As to the word "mutilation," consider also that to call subincision a form of penile mutilation would not really be controversial. Yet it is practiced both by adults as a fetish or body modification choice, and as a cultural practice in some parts of the world. I contend that it is only the pervasiveness of circumcision in some communities, and the resulting desensitization to it, that prevents us from calling it "mutilation" without hesitation. The sad part is how many people feel that it ought to be part of the cultural landscape, as though if we collectively changed our minds about the wisdom of doing it routinely, that we would somehow be in the wrong. Of course, we are free to re-think routine non-consensual circumcision, and we have very good reasons to do so.
