Intactivism

A venture into educating the public about intact male genetals.

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The Real Reason You’re Circumcised

For those who haven’t seen this video yet, give it a watch, especially if you’ve never given the topic of circumcision much thought before. At just three minutes long, it’s an amusing but completely factual explanation of how circumcision caught on in the United States, why there’s actually very little need to practice it, and how it’s better in fact to KEEP your foreskin.

For further information, see why I’m against infant circumcision, my compilation of circumcision-related posts, and my FAQ. I’m also happy to answer any questions you have.

(Thanks to to-two-too, carbon-mynoxide, ireneadlercatwoman, nossaquechique, marlequin, and maybe a few others for sending this to me!)

[chatte23-deactivated20151016]

While I personally don’t mind if a guy is circumcised or not, I have read that it reduces the risk of contracting HIV by 60%.

[intact101]

They keep on generating new “studies” that claim all sorts of “benefits” of circumcision in order to keep it going because it is very profitable. And people always fall for it generation after generation.

Read the history of circumcision… in the past medical professionals also claimed it prevented or treated - asthma, bladder infections, blindness, club foot, clumsiness, compulsion to rape, constant crying, convulsions, criminal behavior, deafness, diabetes, diarrhea, divorce, dumbness, epilepsy, excessive saliva, frequent urination, gangrene, gonorrhea, hernia, herpes, hives, homosexuality, idiocy, impotence, indigestion, irritability, marital unhappiness, masturbation, mental disease, nervousness, nightmares, nose picking, oversensitive penis, paralysis, passion, promiscuity, restlessness, urine retention, sexual appetite, spinal curvature, swollen feet, syphilis, tuberculosis, urinary tract infections and wet dreams.

Here is some other opinions on the HIV studies: - Male Circumcision for the Prevention of HIV - The Use of Male Circumcision to Prevent HIV Infection - Mass Circumcision Campaigns - When bad science kills

[racismschool-deactivated2016032]

May is National Masturbation Month: Let’s do this people. 

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Caspar by Celia Hempton

[viewsfromamommy]

[bons-sonos]

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An illustration demonstrating a few homologues in the reproductive system- the glans is “equivalent” to the clitoris, the foreskin is to the clitoral hood, etc.

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[intactivism]

Since some cultures recognize circumcision as a coming of age ritual, I'm wondering if they will cover the subject. I'm approaching it with optimism. For those who don't know. I'll state why this documentary should have circumcision discussed in it.

These are the cultural reasons circumcision happens

1. The parents want it done, which brings up the issue of autonomy. If the child can't make their own decisions, the parents do what is best. There are laws stating FGM (Type I - III) are illegal. Type Ia on this chart. But for boys, the role of choice and autonomy remains unjustified. Feel free to read this article on FGM and note the cultural comparisons. The rest of the reasons are underneath this overarching theme of autonomy and choice.

2. The father was circumcised. AKA previous male bodies define their experience as a man to not include a foreskin. They then reinforce their understanding of gender roles onto the child, and the costume doesn't fit with a foreskin involved. 

3. He needs to match his peers. Masculinity has reinforced that "boys will be boys" and that includes lashing out, and being agressive on people or ideas they don't understand. This creates fear. Fear that a boy's body will be shamed by others. 

Other culture problems would be institutionalized power, but that would be challenging to discuss in this case.

The verdict: this documentary could reinforce that circumcision is part of our culturally constructed definition of masculinity along the way. Or it could not talk about this at all, and resolve some problems in the way of discussing cross gender body autonomy.

[intactbynature-deactivated20150]

Absolutely hate when a parent defends infant circumcision with the ‘it’s a personal choice that we made for our family’ argument. 

[intactivism]

Question about men's health

Has anyone here seen an Andrologist? I don't even know where to find one. I figure if there is anyone who should be studying foreskin restoration in the medical field, it would be someone under this title. But its non-existend as far as I've heard.

[intactivism]

Some Spanish show talks about all the different kinds of dicks. For those of you who don't speak this language, she is talking about all the dicks. If my years of spanish classes have taught me correctly, in this clip someone called in and was self conscious about their genitals, not being the "right fit" for someone else.

What is lame about this clip is: The guy continuously upstages his own genitals as if its some competition. The sentiment: its all about the dick (and thickness). Which is crap.

What is awesome: They talk about diversity. They tell you, you should be content with what you have, and that there is nothing wrong with what you have.

What they should have said: Every person and genitals are different, so everything is normal (yay body-positive culture).

[intactivism]

Shameless Ron Low grew some more skin today. 

Side Note: There is zero Ron Low penis in this episode. Which was mildly disappointing. 

[screenshot source: Strange Sex, Season 2, Episode 3: The Tugger & Double Trouble] Available on Netflix.

[intactivism]

Photo 1 [source]

A photography student's project: feminist phrase in response to rape culture.

Photo 2 [source] A baby t-shirt design created by a Intactivist mother.

I'm just going to juxtapoze these two separate messages into one post. Hey! Two things with the same words! But for completely different reasons! But yet for the same reasons? Dare I say these two things can exist in an overarching theme together? Might it be possible that our culture has some broad issues we have yet to answer, which put these two things into a category?

It’s the removal of choice, it’s the absence of a clearly defined aspects of consent. It’s listening to victims, hearing their stories, and understanding they have had a choice taken away from them. This is happening in the same culture, these issues..

[arosegarden-deactivated20221030]

[doyoulikeheadgames-blog]

Matthew Barney - Hoist 

[intactivism]

If y'all didn't know. This fellow so happens to be intact. I wonder if it was part of the concept. His dick is an integral part of his performances, yet he has not addressed the fact. We don't know why this is, but he is certainly giving intact folk a good name! BOOM! ART!

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Our culture’s tendency to prejudge the man with a foreskin reminds me of a child who claims to dislike a particular food because he’s never tasted it. Think of how many kids have refused to try something new because it ‘looks funny.’

-Mary G. Ray, mothersagainstcirc.org (via edwardshallow)

[intactivism]

_ | Business

This is an article by a Zimbabwe media outlet, and their observations of UN intervention. Its rather unethical. I never knew this is how it went down.

[intactivism]

Mardudjara Aborigines Subincision | Rites of Passage (img from 1904) 

When an Aborigine boy comes of age, usually around 15 or 16, the tribal elders will lead the boy to a fire and have him lie down next to it. Tribal members surround the boy while singing and dancing. Another group of men, called the Mourners, wail and cry while the circumcision is performed.

The tribal elder in charge of the circumcision sits on top of the boy’s chest facing his penis. He pulls up the foreskin and twists it so it can be cut off. Two men take turns cutting away the foreskin with knives that they’ve imbued with magical qualities. The boy bites down on a boomerang as the operation takes place.

When the circumcision is complete, the boy kneels on a shield that’s placed over the fire so the smoke can rise up and purify his wound.

While the boy sits there dazed and in pain, the tribal elders tell him to open his mouth and swallow some “good meat” without chewing it. The “good meat” is actually the boy’s freshly removed foreskin. After he’s swallowed a piece of his own wiener, the boy is told that he has eaten “his own boy” and that it will now grow inside him and make him strong.

A few months after the circumcision, the tribal elders take the young man again to a fire. An elder sits on the boy’s chest and takes ahold of the boy’s penis. Again, there are singers and men mourning at the ceremony. A small wooden rod is inserted into the urethra to act as a backing for the knife. The operator then takes a knife and makes a split on the underside of the penis from the frenulum (underneath the head of the penis) to near the scrotum.

After the sub-incision, the boy stands above the fire and allows his blood to drip into it. From now on the boy will have to squat when he urinates, just like a woman. In fact, some anthropologists posit that the sub-incision ceremony is done to simulate menstruation, allowing men to sympathize with the females of the tribe.

This Rites of Passage has slowly dissapeared, and rightfully so. Since more and more young males don't like the idea of swallowing their own freshly cut off foreskin (20,000 nerve endings and all).

Aditional Sources:

Article Source 1 2  Modern Dance Documentation [video] [Video] Modern Circumcision Documentation [Video] Wiki: Penile Subincision [Link]

[barreloforanges-blog]

Rape culture silences victims. Rape culture enables perpetrators and demands that victims prove their innocence. Rape culture demands victims prove they were not in fact asking for it, through their behaviour, their clothing, or simply their presence in the wrong place at the wrong time. Rape culture always sides with the systems of oppression.

A few months ago, I wrote a post about circumcision being a feminist cause, and I want to revisit patriarchy and rape culture as it relates to circumcision. Because I continually see rape culture manifest around this issue.

Male victims of genital mutilation are silenced in profound ways. (If you find yourself buckling at the use of mutilation here, congratulations, that’s rape culture.)  Indeed, people don’t even want to use the word ‘mutilation’ because somehow it will discount the mutilation of females. Sorry folks, the dictionary doesn’t work that way. Mutilation is mutilation is mutilation. Outcomes may be different for survivors of FGM simply because childbirth places a woman’s life at risk, whereas men will never push a human being out of their penises. But does that discount their assault?

Simply because a man can’t birth a baby, does that mean he can’t be a victim of genital mutilation? Does the dictionary definition of mutilation change, simply because the organ is a penis rather than a vulva? And what about victims of FGM who suffered clitordectomies, instead of infibulation? The outcomes of those procedures are most certainly different, yet would we dare tell the victims of clitordectomy that they haven’t been mutilated, and they shouldn’t be outraged because some women have it worse? That would be pretty callous to say to a victim of genital mutilation, wouldn’t it?

So why is it okay to have the same silencing rhetoric for male victims? And isn’t it perpetuating rape culture to have some standard of damage done before someone gets to identify as a victim of sexual assault? Because strapping a baby down to a board and cutting his sex organs is sexual assault, even if he doesn’t remember (aha! rape culture!), even if he’s fine and claims he likes it that way (of course, he has no control penis to compare it to, so this is a logical fallacy), or even if everyone around him agrees an altered penis must be better, because everyone they know has an altered penis. Someone needn’t identify as a victim to in fact, be a victim.

But perhaps more men aren’t identifying as victims because of rape culture. Because rape culture ridicules and shames our male victims. Because rape culture silences the suffering of male victims. We have a cultural narrative driven by patriarchy which ridicules male weakness, and those who might identify as victims. Indeed, even when a man identifies as a victim and dare call his assault genital mutilation, rape culture silences him because he’s not a female, so it can’t possibly be as bad.

Busting a cultural myth: not all victims of FGM suffer worse than all victims of MGM. There are victims of male genital mutilation who are much worse off than their female counterparts.

Which brings me back to the point I make in my previous post: genital mutilation isn’t a pissing contest, and the same rights are violated, regardless the continuum of potentially tragic outcomes.

Perhaps if we smashed rape culture into oblivion, we could begin to hear the silenced voices of our male victims, who are very angry and damaged by genital mutilation.