Say no to circumcision - support intactivism. The following list includes blogs, articles, and websites of interest to Intactivists that were published in the past week. This is a running tally of the ones I found interesting.

Announcement: The Eleventh International Symposium on Circumcision, Genital Integrity, and Human Rights Genital Autonomy is scheduled for July 29-31, 2010, at University of California, Berkeley.
 

Sunday, May 30, 2010

One Day at a Time: Circumcision
A mother describes her regret in having her two sons circumcised when they were born. She does not say why she changed her mind, but she presents lots of information showing male infant circumcision is harmful and not necessary for the health of the baby.

Bugs, Boys and Boo Boos: Why Are We Still Cutting Our Sons?
A mother of three sons regrets the infant circumcision of her sons. She let her husband decide and he wanted the boys cut to be like him. She questions why she was even given the option to have the unnecessary surgery done to her children.

Mens News Daily: Royal Dutch Medical Association: Male Circumcision Medically Unnecessary
The Royal Dutch Medical Association has published an official statement opposing male circumcision of children. The doctors group says that there is no medical reason for male genital cutting of children and infants. Portions are reproduced in this article. Read more . . .

The Rape of Innocence: Female Genital Mutilation in the U.S.A. is a book written by a woman who had her genitals cut as a child growing up in Kansas in the United States. Many people do not know that female genital mutilation was commonly practiced in the United States up until the 1960s. Insurance paid for it until the 70s and FGM became illegal only in 1996.

Patricia Robinett desribes growing up mutilated. Female circumcision affected her childhood and continued to affect Patricia as an adult. She is now a therapist who helps others with trauma.

Her female genital mutilation made Patricia very aware of the atrocity of cutting the genitals of any child. Patricia is an avid intactivist. She fights for genital integrity of both girls and boys. Female circumcision is virtually wiped out in the United sates. Male circumcision had decreased to about 54% of newborn boys in 2006.

The winds seem to be blowing for a change in the genital mutilation culture of the United States. Unfortunately, it is a foul wind that is starting to blow. Last year the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced that they were reconsidering their stance on male infant circumcision. After a public outcry, the CDC backpedaled, somewhat. Read more . . .

Say no to circumcision - support intactivism. The following list includes blogs, articles, and websites of interest to Intactivists that were published in the past week. This is a running tally of the ones I found interesting.
 

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Belly Buzz:  Circumcision for Girls, too?
A comment about Patricia Robinett's book The Rape of Innocence. The author wonders why so many are outraged at female circumcision, but are so complacent about male circumcision.

The Dillier Man Blog: Circumcision
A man describes how, even though he was circumcised at birth, he did not have his sons circumcised. But, he could not speak out to his sister and her husband about keeping their new son intact.
  Read more . . .

Many men, when they start restoring their foreskin, have questions about the frenulum. To answer questions about the frenulum, we must first consider what the frenulum does and how it works.
(click the pics to embiggen - NSFW)

The frenulum is a body part that connects the glans penis to the ridged band of the foreskin. The frenulum functions as a tether. It is a relatively inelastic section of tissue extending from the meatus to the ridged band on an intact man. The frenulum is connected to the inner foreskin by a web. The frenulum prevents the intact foreskin from retracting and fully exposing the inner foreskin, like it is on a circumcised man.

To understand how the frenulum works, consider your tongue. The lower portion of your tongue is connected to the floor of your mouth with a frenulum. The bottom medial portion of the tongue is tethered to the floor of the mouth. Without that frenulum, the tongue would be able to move fully back into the throat. With the frenulum tethering the tongue, you cannot swallow your tongue. Read more . . .

Say no to circumcision - support intactivism. The following list includes blogs, articles, and websites of interest to Intactivists that were published in the past week. This is a running tally of the ones I found interesting.

I post these mini-reviews of the past week's intactivist posts in order to let others have a single place to find good information. I also do it to help the search engines, like Google, index these pages so that others can find them when searching for circumcision related topics.

The newly revised Policy Statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) "Ritual Genital Cutting of Female Minors" continues to be news. The policy advocates for allowing female genital "nicking." It also renames female genital mutilation (FGM) to female genital cutting (FGC) because the word "cutting" is less threatening. Read more . . .

I have been restoring my foreskin for 21 months. Although that is almost two years, looking back, it does not seem that I have been restoring that long. In those 21 months I have experienced significant changes to my penis and my well-being.

Before restoring my erections stretched my shaft skin tight. Now when I am erect my restored foreskin is movable along my shaft, allowing my glans to slide in and out of my foreskin. When I am flaccid, my restored foreskin covers my glans. On cooler days I have overhang, while on the warmer days I have minimal overhang.

The appearance of my penis has also changed in these past 21 months. Before I started, my penis was the same color and texture as the skin elsewhere on my body. Now, my inner foreskin remnant is a nice pink color. My glans is smooth and glossy. Read more . . .

Say no to circumcision - support intactivism. The following list includes blogs, articles, and websites of interest to Intactivists that were published in the past week. This is a running tally of the ones I found interesting.
 

Monday, May 10, 2010

The Huffington Post: First Do No Harm
A critique of the American Academy of Pediatrics newly revised Policy Statement by the Executive Director of Equality Now.

FrontPageMag.com: Embracing Female Genital Mutilation
Another article critical of the AAP policy advocating a form of female genital mutilation (cutting). Read more . . .

Last week I wrote about the inventor of the Tug Ahoy Dr. James Haughey. He  received United States Patent Number 6,579,227 for his Tug Ahoy foreskin restoration device. A pdf file of the patent is available here or it can be viewed at the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) website.

In his patent, Dr. Haughey takes a hard position against infant circumcision. James Haughey is a medical doctor that calls infant circumcision male genital mutilation. The section below is from the background section of the patent: Read more . . .

Say no to circumcision - support intactivism. The following list includes blogs, articles, and websites of interest to Intactivists that were published in the past week. This is a running tally of the ones I found interesting.

The big news this week was the newly revised Policy Statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) "Ritual Genital Cutting of Female Minors." The policy advocates for allowing female genital "nicking." It also renames female genital mutilation (FGM) to female genital cutting (FGC) because it is less threatening. Read more . . .

The Tug Ahoy was a popular foreskin restoration device introduced around 2000. The Tug Ahoy was invented by Dr. James A. Haughey and patented in 2003. Dr. Haughey was a medical doctor who returned to school to become a biomedical engineer. He was a man of many talents, including inventor. Unfortunately, James passed away in January 2009 at age 69.

The Tug Ahoy was one of the first tapeless devices sold for restoring the foreskin. Because of Dr. Haughey's death the Tug Ahoy is no longer being marketed. Its popularity and use is waning and other tapeless tuggers have stepped up to fill the gap. The Tug Ahoy website at TugAhoy.com is unavailable, although a copy of the website is available on the Wayback Machine. His website had the famous milk jug picture, which shows two 1-gallon milk jugs as weights for the Tug Ahoy. James demonstrated his tugging device at NORM-SoCal meetings, where he was an active member. Read more . . .