Parents, protect your babies. 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, October 23, 2011

Psychology Today: What is the greatest danger for an uncircumcised boy?
If a baby boy escapes being circumcised in the United States, the next great danger he faces with respect to his penis is a well-baby visit. Many times the boy's primary care provider has no idea on the proper care and handling of an intact penis. These ill-informed doctors wrongly think that they should forcibly retract the foreskin while it is still fused to the glans. The foreskin should never be retracted by anyone other the owner until the foreskin becomes naturally retractable.

Brian Paget: Circumcision: suffer little children
A thoughtful blog about how male infant circumcision is indefensible, even as a religious ritual. Non-medical circumcision should be an adult’s decision over their own body. Circumcising children takes that basic right away from them and makes an irreparable change to a child’s body. Individual right to freedom requires that such physical abuse on those who can’t defend themselves from religion, culture or social convention should not be permitted in a civilised society. Non medical circumcision children should be banned.
  Read more . . .

Secret Penis is a new website according to Intactivist Blog. Secret Penis is a website about one man's journey to understanding and accepting his male organ, his penis. The site includes much information about the penis, a subject that concerns every man and should concern every woman.

For a long time I suffered unnecessary anxiety about various aspects of my penis such as being uncircumcised, worried about my size, worried about the curvature of my erection, having pearly penile papules, worrying about the volume of my ejaculate and my pre-ejaculatory fluid and others.

Parents, protect your babies. 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, October 16, 2011

Cookeville Herald-Citizen: Mom tells of heart defects in newborns
Baby boy with hypoplastic left heart syndrome almost dies after circumcision. His condition was discovered after he crashed from his circumcision. It would have been much better to discover his birth defect during normal examinations instead of crashing from the trauma of elective surgery.

Intact News: Doctors' Circumcision Recommendations Influenced By Personal Factors, Study Finds
A study published in the Journal of Men's Health has found that primary care physicians are most significantly influenced by their own circumcision status in their recommendations for routine infant circumcision. The circumcision status of their sons was also found to be significant. Go figure. Doctors who were circumcised advocate circumcising infants. Most circumcised men strongly defend their circumcised status. The exception are men who are restoring their foreskin. These men typically hate that they were circumcised.
  Read more . . .

I am not the person I used to be. At 56 years of age, I know that I am vastly different than the person I was 30, 20, even 10 years ago. I noticed that many of the emotional changes came after I started restoring my foreskin. I do not know if that is the reason for the change or just a trigger that caused me to be a different person.

One manifestation of my change is empathy. This empathy allows me to feel the shared pain and the shared elation of others. I feel the pain of the 99 percent. It does not matter that I am one of the 99%. I am human. That is all that should be necessary to care for humanity.

While reading Occupy Wall Street Tumblr posts, I discovered the following video. The Great Dictator was released before the United States entered the Second World War. It was a daring movie, considering the times. It was also Charlie Chaplin's first talkie and the last film appearance of Chaplin's Little Tramp character. The video shows the climatic monologue where Chaplin, as the Jewish barber playing the dictator, addresses the world.

Each time I watch the video, I get goose bumps. Read more . . .

Parents, protect your babies. 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, October 9, 2011

NY Daily News: End the barbaric cutting of baby boys
Georganne Chapin of Intact America responds to California Governor Brown's signing of the anti-anti-circumcision law. She points out the different treatment between sexes: it is OK to cut the genitals of boys but not girls. Sure there are differences between the sexes, but both involve altering the sex organs of children. Neither is right.

Dr Momma - Peaceful Parenting: Circumcision: I Changed My Mind
I mother, who did not want to have her newborn son circumcised, gave in to her husband's wishes. Her son was circumcised. When she had her second son, she put her foot down, but her husband did not insist on cutting his second son. Too bad she did not allow her mama bear instinct to protect her first son.

…and Baby Makes Five…: Labor Day, truly a labor of love…
A mother tells of how she wanted to have her newborn son circumcised, but her husband was against infant circumcision. He convinced her to research male infant circumcision. After looking into it, there was no way she was going to circumcise her son.
  Read more . . .

“Although uncircumcised, I am a very proud Jew, with a very strong sense of Jewish identity, and never hesitate to affirm my Jewish identity, to Jew and non-Jew alike, but particularly to myself. I can assure you that having a foreskin has not made me less of a Jew than those without one…”
- Alan Altmann, Circumcision Questions, California Jewish Bulletin, May 31, 1985.

"It's not a parental choice. There's an ethical problem with making this a parental choice, namely that you're not taking into account the wishes upon whom the surgery is being performed."
- Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon, Georgetown University, September 22, 2011.
The Cut Tour: Washington DC Q&A with Ryan McAllister & Rabbi Binyamin Biber Podcast
 

Jewish Intactivism, the Foreskin and Human Rights

• Jewish Intactivists, the Foreskin, and Human Rights Part 1.
• Jewish Intactivists, the Foreskin, and Human Rights Part 2.
• Jewish Intactivists, the Foreskin, and Human Rights Part 3.

“There are tens of thousands of intact Jewish boys and men around the world who thank their lucky stars they were not circumcised.”
- Brian Levitt, Jewish Intactivist, co-founder of Jews for the Rights of the Child
Testimony at the California Senate Judiciary Committee Public Hearing on Circumcision.
  Read more . . .

In news this week the medical industry comes out and says that intactivists should stop fighting male infant circumcision. I guess intactivists are cutting into the easy profits of the medical industry. It must be nice to have patients that cannot complain. *sigh*

Parents, protect your babies. 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, October 2, 2011

Awesatious: All infant circumcision is child abuse and needs to stop!
Any removal or alteration of a baby’s genitals is mutilation and child abuse.  If you ask most people from civilized societies, they will immediately say that FGM (female genital mutilation) is barbaric and worthy of being against the law, and it is.  If you mention MGM (male genital mutiliation AKA circumcision) to the same group of people, you get mixed results. For some reason, the sex of the child makes a difference when it comes to genital cutting.

The WHOLE Network: Penis Reduction Surgery: Does Size Not Matter?
Suppose we call male infant circumcision penis reduction surgery? The foreskin comprises a substantial portion of the outer tissues of the male penis. Removing the foreskin, removes that substantial amount of tissue from the penis. Girth, in particular, is affected. After restoring my foreskin, my penis gained girth. Even my partner noticed it.

The Walrus Speaks: Male Circumcision OK, Female Circumcision Not OK
Hector points out the double standard of protecting girls from genital cutting but not protecting boys from genital cutting. He disses California's Governor Brown who just signed the anti-anti-circumcision bill. Hector thinks, like many others who think about it, that males should have the choice to decide if part of their penis is to be cut off.
  Read more . . .

Parents, protect your babies. 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, September 25, 2011

Psychology Today: Circumcision Ethics and Economics
Part 4 of a 4-part series addressing male infant circumcision. Part 4 opens with "Infant circumcision is an ethical issue that has lifelong effects on the child and societal costs." From there the author provides quotes from various medical associations that do not recommend male infant circumcision. She continues with other reasons why male infant circumcision is unethical and should stop.

Empowered News: Dutch Doctors Want to Stop Male Circumcision
Dutch doctors speak out against male infant circumcision because they say infant circumcision is a "painful and harmful ritual" and a violation of children's rights.
  Read more . . .

This week two petitions were started at the Whitehouse page. The right to petition our government is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Throughout our history, Americans have used petitions to organize around issues they care about from ending slavery, to guaranteeing women's right to vote, to the civil rights movement. The Whitehouse has set up a petition system that will bring the petition to the attention of the Whitehouse for an official response if the petition receives 5000 signatures within 30 days.

We petition the Obama administration to:

1. Ban non-therapeutic routine infant circumcision. (814 signatures since September 23)
    
2. Amend the 1996 law banning female genital mutilation to include protection for males as well. (6 signatures since September 23)

Go to the Whitehouse petition site. Sign up. Sign each of these petitions. Do it for all the unborn baby boys who may get circumcised if you do nothing.

Parents, protect your babies. 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, September 18, 2011

Dandelion Stories: Being Circumcised
A 76 year old man laments his infant circumcision. He started restoring his foreskin when he was 73 years old. He is happy to have regained his lost sensitivity. He wishes he had learned about foreskin restoration 50 years ago. Read more . . .

Parents, protect your babies. 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, September 11, 2011

Psychology Today: Moral Landscapes: Myths about Circumcision You Likely Believe (Circumcision does great harm to babies)
Six myths about circumcision surgery that are debunked. The foreskin is not a flap of skin. The foreskin is skin tube that covers the penis to protect the glans and provide the gliding action during sex. Infant circumcision is painful, both during the surgery and afterwards when the wound is healing in soiled diapers. Infant circumcision does cause long-term harm to the boy as he grows up and the man he becomes.

Intact News: Demonstration Against Circumcision at the American Academy of Pediatrics 2011 National Conference and Exhibition in Boston
The Stop Infant Circumcision Society is sponsoring a demonstration at the American Academy of Pediatrics 2011 National Conference and Exhibition at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center October 15 - 18, 2011. See the Facebook event page: American Academy of Pediatrics 2011 Demonstration. See the Intactivist Calendar for more information on this demonstration and other intactivist events.
 

Monday, September 12, 2011

Lawn Cares: Circumcision is too repulsive, injurious, uncivilized to last
"The days, months, years and decades march on, and the macabre procedure of circumcision does not end.  How absurd that in an “enlightened society,” the madness goes on, and medically trained humans cut off healthy foreskins. Where are their principles?" There is such an overwhelming amount of literature, videos, testimonies, web sites and speakers out there debunking circumcision. Fortunately, many are listening and learning of the harms of male infant circumcision. Read more . . .

Coming up next week is a series of public information meetings and protests outside London clinics that perform genital alterations of children with 'atypical', 'ambiguous', or 'otherwise deemed unworthy' genitals.  STOP Genital Mutilation in Children's Clinics! is aimed at those children who are born with genitalia that fall in the continuum between completely male and completely female. These children are often called intersex.

The meetings and protests are sponsored by Zwischengeschlecht.org. Zwischengeschlecht.org is a Human Rights Advocacy Group of survivors and allies fighting against genital mutilation in children's clinics and for the right to physical integrity and self determination for all children born with "atypical genitalia."

Genital alterations of children is a problem in the United States, also. Recently, news was published of a doctor at Cornell University who used a vibrator on female children after clitorises were surgically altered to a smaller size. The children were born with a clitoris that was larger than is considered normal by many. So, their parents decided to have their child's clitoris reduced. The doctor was testing to determine if the girls were still sensitive.
See Slog: Female Genital Mutilation at Cornell University and Bioethics Forum: Bad Vibrations.

Check out the Intactivist Calendar for other intactivist events coming up.

Parents, protect your babies. Support intactivism. All children deserve to grow up with their WHOLE body. 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, September 4, 2011

Jewlicious U: OPINION: Grabbing circumcision by the balls
Male infant circumcision violates international laws enacted by the United Nations. Article 6 of The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. Circumcision goes against the edicts of the United Nations, and therefore violates human rights. "If Jews are to exist in a contemporary world, and escape the barbaric past in which we have so suffered, we as a people must be willing to make sacrifices of our own to coexist."
  Read more . . .