The Medical Profession and Cutting: Part I
NOTE: Comments are now posting. I’m trying to retrieve any comments that didn’t show up. They must have gone somewhere, right? Sorry again. A couple of the commenters on my last blog about genital cutting took a strong stance against doctors who promote and carry out the practice of cutting in our society. I too [...]
My Boy
Anyone who has read the comments sections of my blogs already knows that my wife and I had a baby boy, a couple of months ago now. (Babies. That’s where all this sex stuff leads.) And anyone who has read any of my blogs at all knows that I’m against genital cutting so, needless to [...]
Stop Masturbating in Public: Castration Fetish as Social Policy, Part I
I ran across this forum on likelike.com, an open survey site that poses questions and lets all comers post responses. The question asked is whether men convicted of sexual assault against a woman or child should be castrated. Some posts seriously consider it as a social policy but the tone and content quickly reveal the [...]
Male Circumcision or Women’s Health, Not Both: The Case of Zambia
Feminism is, needless to say, not a monolith. I am happy to report that there are many feminists who are against male circumcision as an integral part of their stance against all genital cutting. See here, for instance. But there is a pretty strong strain of feminism which somehow feels that a single word said [...]
The Trouble with Technology: Africa, the Machine Gun and Clinical Trials
In my very first blog on the topic of circumcision, I talked about how weird it was that the US medical community was sponsoring mass circumcisions in Africa. A recent comment from a reader recently reminded me of the Africa angle and I thought it would be interesting to re-address it since my worst fears [...]
Now Is Not the Time
I really appreciate people who come forward with comments and clarifications on my blogs about circumcision. They very much help me get my arms around this issue which to me seems so simple (stop cutting anything off of anybody), but to many is so complex and multi-layered. I claimed in an earlier blog that it [...]
… so shut up and stop whining about your stupid foreskin
A recent reader of one of my blogs agreed with my position against male circumcision but objected to any comparison between the male foreskin and the clitoris, explaining that women without a clitoris couldn’t have an orgasm, where a man without a foreskin can. I myself thought this to be true six months ago, so [...]
Think Globally, Act Locally, the Circumcision Edition
A recent reader of one of my blogs about male circumcision, after stating clearly and sincerely that she herself was anti-male circumcision, expressed reservations about my “lumping male circumcision with FGM.” She requested that I describe female circumcision so my readers would be aware of how it’s practiced. (Being above all a consilient Southern man, [...]
Framing Circumcision for the (Happliy)* Circumcised
I am very much a non-fan of male circumcision. You can read my previous writings on the topic here, here, here and here. An unfortunate holdover from our sex-negative Victorian past, the genital modification discards the most sensitive part of a man’s sexual organ and changes the way that organ functions. This kind of thing [...]
Triangle Trade in Foreskins, Part 3
So many great comments were made on both sides of the circumcision issue that I started doing research into the literature and added a part 3. I view studies that highlight the advantages of male circumcision with the same suspicion that I, and most people, would view a study implying an advantage to female circumcision. [...]
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