I love a woman who tells it like it is!! Woman Uncensored's blog is brilliant and provokes deeper thought and analysis of the whole male circumcision issue through very penetrating questions that force us to look at what our actions say about our children and about our parenting style. ...and I LOVE the sarcasm that drips off the screen.
And by weiners, I'm not referring to penises. Nice play on words though, eh? I'm referring to parents who are so afraid of doing their job that they resort to circumcision in hopes it will make their job easier.
"I heard that circumcision reduces the risk of HIV and some other STI's, so I know it was the best choice for my child"
Super. Wow, where do I start? -bangs head against desk- If only I had a dollar for every time I've seen/heard this "reason" for male genital mutilation.
Let's see if I can put this into perspective for you. Tell me how intelligent I sound when I say this:
"I heard that pulling all my child's teeth would reduce the risk of oral health problems, so I'm just doing him/her a favor so they don't have to suffer later"
Yeah, heaven forbid you just teach them proper oral hygiene and treat any problems in a reasonable way IF they ever arise!
Hmmm... sounds kinda crazy when applied to any other body part, eh?.....
...Anyway, here is my big problem with circumcising to prevent sexually transmitted infections: It is a MAJOR cop-out on the part of the parent. "Oh goody, I can just cut off part of my son and skip all those awkward conversations about sexual responsibility. He's free to be a man-whore, hooray!"
Okay, anyone who really gives this more than 2 seconds of thought is going to see that there is no way in hell that a lack of foreskin can insure adequate "protection" against HIV or anything else. It will never come close to the protection that a condom can provide. If your son operates on the assumption that he doesn't have to be careful just because he is circumcised, he's going to be at MORE risk. Circumcised or intact, I certainly hope your son wears a condom with any sexual partner unless they are in a long-term, trusting, monogamous relationship. In essence, when you circumcise your son for the purpose of "preventing" STI's, you are undermining his common sense and morals. You're telling him he's too stupid to be a responsible adult, and that you were too lazy or afraid to teach him how....
...How would YOU feel if someone decided that you might be sexually irresponsible someday, so they removed vital parts of your genitals "for your own good"??? When these reasons are used in other cultures to justify female genital mutilation, we are outraged, and we say that NOTHING can justify doing that to girls/women. Yet we buy into the most ridiculous reasons to have the same thing done to baby boys.
