Category Archives: Circumcision

Danish newspaper article on circumcision

This is deeply personal and important to me, as I am myself a victim of this vile practice – due to my misfortune of being born in the United States.  Although my young mother was not keen on the idea, a doctor insisted on doing it, and she relented.

What were this man’s motivations?  Why was it so important to him what my penis looked like?  Why did he think that the most intimate part of my body, my ‘private parts’, my penis, was his prerogative?  I’ll never know what he wanted from me.  But what ever it was, he took it.  He had his way with me.  He carved his pay-check into my penis.  He carved his religion into my penis.  He carved his tribal marking into my penis.  He carved his custom into my penis.  He carved his grotesque aesthetic preferences into my penis.  He carved his obscene signature into my penis.

Read more at Why Denmark must carry the courage of its convictions on circumcision – News – The Copenhagen Post.

Genital cutting tied to later abuse risk

And remember, dear friends… anything that affects a female who has been cut surely will affect a cut male as well. Male circumcision is no less traumatic to the child than Female Genital Mutilation. Trauma is trauma. And the worst part of circumcision is not the physical cut, but the psychological repercussions. Spare the child and he or she will grow up to be far more peaceful, trusting, happy than someone who has been grievously injured unnecessarily due to fashion, superstition or any other adult fear.

By Amy Norton, Reuters
September 24, 2012

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Women who underwent genital cutting as young girls may be at increased risk of physical, sexual or emotional abuse from their husband, a study of women in Mali suggests.

The study, of nearly 7,900 women, found that 22 percent of those with genital mutilation said they’d been physically abused by a husband or male partner. That compared with 12 percent of women who’d never been subjected to the procedure.

It’s estimated that more than 130 million women worldwide have undergone genital mutilation, also known as female “circumcision.” The centuries-old practice, which involves removing part or all of a girl’s clitoris and labia, and sometimes narrowing the vaginal opening, remains a common practice in some countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa.

It’s well-known that genital cutting has long-term consequences for women – including sexual dysfunction, childbirth complications, incontinence and psychological disorders.

In the new study, researchers looked at whether there’s a link between genital mutilation and a woman’s odds of suffering abuse from her partner.

In Mali, where the vast majority of women have undergone genital mutilation, the government has taken steps to raise awareness of the consequences of the practice. But genital mutilation has not been outlawed.

The difficulty is that genital cutting is widely seen as an important cultural tradition, rather than a form of abuse.

“If something is entrenched in a culture, it is difficult to change,” said Dr. Hamisu Salihu of the University of South Florida in Tampa, the lead researcher on the new study.

On the other hand, physically abusing your wife – though common in Mali and other African countries – does not have that cultural acceptance, Salihu told Reuters Health…

READ MORE: YAHOO! Health

SOURCE: BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, online August 24, 2012

Circumcision & Human Behavior

Circumcision & Human Behavior:
The emotional & behavioral effects of circumcision
by George Hill

Psychologists now recognize that male circumcision affects emotions and behavior. This article discusses the impact of male circumcision on human behavior.

Introduction

Medical doctors adopted male circumcision from religious practice into medical practice in England in the 1860s and in the United States in the 1870s. No thought was given to the possible behavioral effects of painful operations that excise important protective erogenous tissue from the male phallus. For example, Gairdner (1949) and Wright (1967), both critics of male neonatal non-therapeutic circumcision, made no mention of any behavioral effects of neonatal circumcision.[1] [2]

The awakening

Other doctors, however, were beginning to express concern about the behavioral effects of male circumcision. Read the rest of this entry »

Depression is not irrational – Suicide is not a solution

I was depressed from an early age. As a child, I always wanted to be dead. I know now that it was probably after my clitoridectomy. I was bereft. Life didn’t seem worth living. I went to the kitchen to get a knife to cut out my heart, but I was too small to reach the sharp knives – I didn’t even know where they were kept.

When I went back to my bed that night, I heard a voice say, “What makes you think it would be any different if you were to die?” I had to admit I had no guarantee. But I saw the implication was that I would have to live through those early childhood years again – no way! – and so I have stayed. My teen years and early twenties were no better. But after that, each year my heart has grown more full and rich and happy. I have no external possessions to brag about, but peace of mind and joy are my priceless treasures.

Depression is not irrational. It is a diagnosis that is like that drawer in the kitchen where you put everything you don’t know what to do with. Depression is an accumulation of legitimate, but unreleased fears, angers and sorrows. Our society does not allow grieving and does not offer anything much better than “you are born, life is for suffering, technology advances, and then you die.”. Religion often makes life on earth sound like a prison sentence, a valley of tears, after which – if you are perfect – you get to go to “heaven” and experience something that might or might not be all that much better than what you have known on earth… but there are no guarantees on any level.

lovely lady in flowersWhat finally brought me out of my depression was the discovery that when I was very very quiet, I could feel my heart.

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer… no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.” ― Albert Camus

Another way to say that is, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.” It is! And it can be known NOW. But only one thing can exist in one place at one time, so as long as we hold on to negative feelings from the past, we do not feel that beauty that already exists in our own hearts.

I came to understand that I had something important to do here on planet earth. Until I released all that old baggage, I might just come back over and over again – no way! And so I began to do my work and began to let go of all that old and ugly stuff.

We are fortunate in this age to have lots of help – from people and healing systems like Jed Diamond, Byron Katie’s “The Work”, Gary Craig’s “EFT – Emotional Freedom Technique”, Hale Dwoskin’s “The Sedona Method”, and many others. It’s all about healing – letting go of fear/anger/sorrow. It’s why we’re here and why “stuff happens” – so that we feel the old stuff and release the past – to “forgive”, which is “for giving ourselves peace of mind, joy and health.” Feelings got stuck when we held our breath in fear. So whatever feelings come up, breathe into them… that’s how we tell ourselves that we’re safe here and now.

See the “Tools” tab, above and release one little thing today, here and now. You will be so glad you did. Then move to another… and let it go…

Quotes on Circumcision by Atheists

What do atheists say about circumcision?

Ayaan Hirsi Ali…

“The foreskin is cut off the penis. That’s a form of mutilation. You should leave the child as he is, as he comes out of the womb. Hes finished, hes complete. You shouldn’t take things off, especially when there’s no medical reason. I think male circumcision is worse than an incision of a girl. With boys, a lot of skin is removed. The consequences can be worse for boys than for girls.”

George Carlin…

“I also survived circumcision, a barbaric practice designed to remind you as early as possible that your genitals are not your own.”

Richard Dawkins…

“Creator of the Universe went to great trouble to create the foreskin. Then insisted that you cut it off. Makes sense.”

“If circumcision has any justification AT ALL, it should be medical only. Parents’ religion is the worst of all reasons –– pure child abuse.”

Christopher Hitchens…

“Handed a small baby for the first time, is it your first reaction to think, beautiful, almost perfect, now please hand me the sharp stone for its genitalia.”

“I can’t find the compulsory mutilation of the genitals of children a subject for humor… It’s designed to repress sexual pleasure… The full excision, not just the snip but the full mandatory covenant is fantastically painful, leads to trauma, leads to the dulling of the sexual relationship. And can be, in itself life-threatening at that moment. We have records, I can show them to you, of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds in the United States of boy babies who died or had life-threatening infections as a result of this disgusting practice.”

“The vast majority of the world knows there’s no reason to circumcise. Someone should tell the doctors.”

Penn & Teller…

“Shouldn’t our son have the choice whether he wants to wear a condom or cut off part of his dick? Put down the knife. Step away from the baby.”

Joe Rogan…

“People mutilate their kids dicks because of visuals. That’s what circumcision is about. Look, Im circumcised, I didn’t ask to be. I’m sure a lot of you are circumcised. I’m sure a lot of you circumcised your kids. When you really stop and think about it, its kinda fuckin’ crazy… I would never circumcise my kid.”

“I think its stupid. If I had a boy I wouldn’t circumcise him… I got robbed. I got robbed. Sliced. I think its a fuckin’ gross tradition man… I just think its a weird fuckin’ tradition that we need to end. People get like, really bad infections. Its not completely innocuous – kids have lost their penises because of circumcision… It’s a dick it’s not a Jack-O-Lantern alright? You don’t have to chop parts off of it to make it look better.”

Howard Stern…

“I am circumcised, and I tell you something, I despise it. I despise it. I despise it… I am completely pissed off that I’m circumcised.”

via Famous Atheist Quotes on Circumcision – The WHOLE Network: Accurate Circumcision & Foreskin Information.

Risks, Benefits, Complications and Harms: Neglected Factors in the Current Debate on Non-Therapeutic Circumcision

Excerpt from an article by Robert Darby, published by Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal Vol. 25, No. 1, 1–34 © 2015 by The Johns Hopkins University Press. Emphasis added by this website.

It is a sign of the increasingly controversial status of routine circumcision that the American Academy of Pediatrics policy released in August 2012 attracted strong dissent, not merely from long-standing critics of circumcision, but from previously uncommitted child health experts in Europe as well. The scale of the dissent is all the more striking given that the policy differs little from the quietly received 1989 statement (which found that circumcision had potential benefits, but not enough to justify it as a routine) or even the 1999 statement, which reached a neutral stance and left it up to the parents. The only major difference in the new policy is that while it continues not to recommend circumcision, it states that the benefits outweigh the risks and are great enough to authorize parental decision-making and payments by health insurance providers. Although this is largely a continuation of the status quo, it is precisely on these points that objections have fallen most heavily.

According to the critics, the AAP policy is flawed because it does not establish that the benefits of circumcision outweigh the risk and does not justify its secondary (but unrelated) contention that the decision about whether a boy should be circumcised should be made by his parents. While the brief (widely quoted) statement asserts that “the health benefits of newborn male circumcision outweigh the risks” the lengthy (but less readily available) report acknowledges that

The true incidence of complications after newborn circumcision is unknown, in part due to differing definitions of “complication” and differing standards for determining the timing of when a complication has occurred (ie, early or late). Adding to the confusion is the comingling of “early” complications, such as bleeding or infection, with “late” complications such as adhesions and meatal stenosis.

In its reply to their critics, the AAP admitted that it had not surveyed the literature of complications case reports, but added that the benefits of circumcision “were felt to outweigh the risks of the procedure” (AAP Task Force on Circumcision 2013).

“…had not surveyed the literature… benefits… were felt to outweigh the risks…? Surely real scientists would actually study the subject before expressing their feelings! Oh, ethics! Oh, evidence-based medicine, wherefore art thou? How revealing and how embarrassing for them that they did not bother to study the complications case reports. “Don’t confuse us with the facts,” head-buried-in-sand ostrich behavior here – and so, children continue to be tortured and traumatized by people masquerading as “healing professionals”.

Read the full article and save it to your computer if you wish: Risks, Benefits, Complications and Harms: Neglected Factors in the Current Debate on Non- Therapeutic Circumcision

Circumcision & Human Behavior

The emotional & behavioral effects of circumcision
by George Hill

Psychologists now recognize that male circumcision affects emotions and behavior. This article discusses the impact of male circumcision on human behavior.

Introduction

Medical doctors adopted male circumcision from religious practice into medical practice in England in the 1860s and in the United States in the 1870s. No thought was given to the possible behavioral effects of painful operations that excise important protective erogenous tissue from the male phallus. For example, Gairdner (1949) and Wright (1967), both critics of male neonatal non-therapeutic circumcision, made no mention of any behavioral effects of neonatal circumcision.[1] [2]

The awakening

Other doctors, however, were beginning to express concern about the behavioral effects of male circumcision. Continue reading Circumcision & Human Behavior

Genital cutting tied to later abuse risk

And remember, dear friends… anything that affects a female who has been circumcised surely will affect a circumcised male as well. Trauma is trauma – no matter the gender. And the worst part of circumcision is not the physical cut, but the psychological repercussions.

Protect your child from adults with knives and he or she will grow up to be far more peaceful, trusting and happy than someone who has been grievously injured unnecessarily due to fashion, superstition or to assuage any other adult fear.

By Amy Norton, Reuters
September 24, 2012

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Women who underwent genital cutting as young girls may be at increased risk of physical, sexual or emotional abuse from their husband, a study of women in Mali suggests.

The study, of nearly 7,900 women, found that 22 percent of those with genital mutilation said they’d been physically abused by a husband or male partner. That compared with 12 percent of women who’d never been subjected to the procedure.

It’s estimated that more than 130 million women worldwide have undergone genital mutilation, also known as female “circumcision.” The centuries-old practice, which involves removing part or all of a girl’s clitoris and labia, and sometimes narrowing the vaginal opening, remains a common practice in some countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa.

It’s well-known that genital cutting has long-term consequences for women – including sexual dysfunction, childbirth complications, incontinence and psychological disorders.

In the new study, researchers looked at whether there’s a link between genital mutilation and a woman’s odds of suffering abuse from her partner.

In Mali, where the vast majority of women have undergone genital mutilation, the government has taken steps to raise awareness of the consequences of the practice. But genital mutilation has not been outlawed.

The difficulty is that genital cutting is widely seen as an important cultural tradition, rather than a form of abuse.

“If something is entrenched in a culture, it is difficult to change,” said Dr. Hamisu Salihu of the University of South Florida in Tampa, the lead researcher on the new study.

On the other hand, physically abusing your wife – though common in Mali and other African countries – does not have that cultural acceptance, Salihu told Reuters Health…

READ MORE: YAHOO! Health

SOURCE: BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, online August 24, 2012

Open Letter to Doctors and Medical Organizations

This was originally written for pediatricians who are represented by www.HealthyChildren.org – with a few additions for this blog post.

I understand that your organization represents:
“…pediatricians committed to the attainment of optimal physical, mental, and social health and well-being for all infants, children, adolescents, and young adults.”

If this is so, then I would respectfully suggest that this organization refrains from recommending foreskin retraction and circumcision. Neither contributes to “the attainment of optimal physical, mental, and social health and well-being for all infants, children, adolescents, and young adults.” In fact, there is quite a bit of evidence that retraction creates a host of iatrogenically induced problems, that can lead to a “need” for circumcision – and circumcision can be detrimental to “the attainment of optimal physical, mental, and social health and well-being for all infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. Plus, an adult retracting a child’s foreskin could rightfully be interpreted as a sexual assault, as can circumcision itself. The child does not know why adults are touching his private parts and cutting on them.

It is highly understandable that the young mind can see circumcision as sexual abuse. The details of the memory might be clouded but the body never forgets. Most circumcised men are reminded something is wrong every time they go to the bathroom or attempt to have sexual relations. They never achieve the point of ecstasy they know they could and should.  They know something is wrong, very, very wrong. But their expressed concerns are often scoffed at by trained professionals, who are perhaps themselves circumcised and therefore in denial of their own condition, or embarrassed to address the subject of genitalia.

Let me tell you my story.

When I was a little girl, a little white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant girl, in Kansas in the 1950s, I was circumcised by a probably well-meaning physician who might have believed that female genital mutilation was conducive “to the attainment of optimal physical, mental, and social health and well-being for all infants, children, adolescents, and young adults.” Genitals were private in those days – nobody talked about them – so I lived in a secret hell for many years, suffering from conditions usually associated with males in our society: night terrors, suicidal ideation, depression, misogyny, anger, rage, and above all, an aversion to all things medical. It is difficult to get a circumcised person into a doctor’s office, even for an annual checkup.

However, there came a time – after age 50 – when I discovered I’d been circumcised. Thankfully, I had a background in and understanding of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and realized that I had been badly traumatized and, as I saw it, betrayed by my mother, for she was the one who had allowed the doctor to cut me. Once I recognized the problem, I was able to do the healing work to release the fear and dread that had followed me, wherever I went, all my life.

Not all who were circumcised realize they were cut and very few get to the point of healing the PTSD they’ve carried from infancy. Many of the aware yet still unhealed are those you see demonstrating at medical conferences with bright red circles at the crotch of their pure white suits.

The “aware that they are circumcised but still unhealed” men – and women – are for the most part angry that they were hurt as children and angry that as adults they do not have the full natural, functional bodies they were born with. It also pains them that even to this day, children are still being subjected to unnecessary cosmetic genital surgery. It pains me too. And I fully understand their grief. Sorrow expressed by the unhealed often looks like anger and rage.

I pray you listen, hear, look, see, and let this message into your hearts. Begin treating birth as the amazing, awe-inspiring wonder that it is, women as human beings worthy of respect, and the children they bear as conscious beings who deserve protection, love, care and “the attainment of optimal physical, mental, and social health and well-being.” – not just slabs of meat.

I am sorry if you too were hurt by circumcision as a child, but the lesson to learn from our own misfortunes is to never treat another as you were treated when you were hurt. To pass on the abuse is a failure to learn the lesson. If you think circumcision is a valid medical procedure, you are among the wounded. A cursory objective investigation would serve to convince the adult in you that circumcision is – quite frankly – medieval torture and has no place in a civilized world.

Respectfully,
Patricia Robinett, author
“The Rape of Innocence: Female Genital Mutilation and Circumcision in the USA” (2006)