Circumcision

My Own PERSONAL Take on Circumcision - (I do not expect ANYBODY to hold the same opinions as me and am open to the array of ideas that exist!!) -

As an individual who uses objective scientific research to speak out against sex negativity, body negativity, and oppression, I cannot support male OR female circumcision in infants. It goes against everything that I believe in and stand for.

-I will never look warmly upon procedures which serve to alter the body without significant medical cause, whether it is breast augmentation, labiaplasty, or circumcision (but I do support the right for individuals to modify their body when they are consciously able to choose). Without medical cause for the procedure, the implication is that there is something wrong with it when there absolutely is not. I feel that natural bodies are beautiful (this belief is one of the big reasons I started Sex+).

-It deprives males of pleasurable nerve endings and leaves their body permanently altered, almost invariably without their consent. It is not anybody else's right to make such a drastic decision about a person's body & sex organs - not even a parent. Such is a textbook example of injustice.

-I do not feel that tradition is a viable reason to engage in such practices, and there is heaps scientific literature to refute claims of hygiene and STD prevention by circumcision proponents several times over. Even if there was significant benefit, I would still advocate sexual health education as a way to promote cleanliness & stop the spread of disease instead of mutilating baby's genitals.

-After much research, I am convinced that the only reason a circumcised preference exists is because it is a cultural norm. I do NOT support degradation and bullying based on body parts - whether they are circumcised or not.

-Additionally, circumcision is born out of religious doctrine, and as I am not religious, I do not personally feel that it is worth supporting, especially since religion has facilitated sex negative practices such as breast ironing, female genital mutilation, and castration in the past.

-I do, however, respect the decisions of others to what they will so long as they have taken ample time to properly educate themselves on the matter with literature from both sides of the argument. :)