Every year thousands of baby boys are circumcised. Every year 117 neonatal baby boys die because of circumcision, that's more than neonatal SIDS death (in boys).
From March 28, 2011-April 3, 2011 You can show your virtual support of genital integrity by changing your facebook profile picture to something that speaks about circumcision or genital integrity. You can write about it on your blog, you can get the word out there that boy and girls should have equality. Genital integrity shouldn't be a double standard.
This is the link to the facebook virtual demonstration group.
The page that created the virtual demonstration is Saving our Sons and you can find them HERE!
Some may wonder why a mother of two girls cares so much about circumcision, and the answer is simple: I care about babies. Had my first daughter been a boy he would have been circumcised. Why? Because I went with the crowd, I didn't know better, and I would have let my husband make that decision (blindly) because "he has a penis, he knows more about them." Yes, I actually believed that.
Then came a wonder website called Cafemom. I know, I know; how can a website change your views, right? Well, I met a wonderful woman name Kate, she was one of my first non-mainstream friends I made on the site. She was also pregnant, planning a natural birth, and was NOT circumcising her son. Hmmm, not circumcising? Why? So I asked, and researched, and decided that there's no way that I could ever do something like that to my child.
There are so many "reason" people give for circumcising their boys, whether religious or for vanity or for the health benefits, but I often wonder how many people ever took the chance to just think about what that decision really means?
A foreskin, is more than just a piece of skin, it contains nerves and glands and it protects the head. It can increase sexual sensitivity (and according to my dear friends, the sex is better with an intact man lol). The foreskin, albeit tiny on babies, actually adds to penis size and girth in a grown man, so you're also removing that. Not only that, but you are removing all choice from your son. Where's his say in what happens to his body? Why can't he decide whether his foreskin gets to stay or go?
A little bit of a tangent here, but the most horrible excuse ever given is "I wanted him to look like daddy". Really now people? Are we going to give our children tattoos? What if daddy was missing a toe, would you remove a toe too? Because I can almost guarantee that a missing toe is far more noticeable than a missing foreskin. I have two daughters and their biggest fascination is that mama has hair. That's all. They don't examine me enough to notice that we look different. It's the same for boys. Daddy has hair, and that's fascinating, but there's not going to be an uproar that their penis' don't look like their dads, because it wont: they are little boys and not grown men.
Back to my point of Genital Integrity, it's important to recognize that the MGM (male genital mutilation) is very similar to the FGM (female genital mutilation) that people frown upon. We hear horror stories of women losing their clitoris or labia, or all of it. BUT it's culture in those societies, so isn't it slightly hypocritical to be supportive of circumcision, and then disgusted at those countries that practice FGM? Did you know FGM used to be legal in the United States, and in fact some small religious sects still practice it.
According to the World Health Orginization FGM is: Female genital mutilation (FGM) comprises all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. (read the bolded carefully, It's mutilation for girls, and not boys; such a sad double standard)
What is the definition of MGM then? Well, the World Health Organization doesn't have one. Instead you find pages and pages of circumcision benefits (including those benefits that are completely vague and unreliable, such as "preventing the spread of HIV- which is a study done in africa where cleanliness and unprotected sex are rampant, completely unreliable).
There is so much more I can write about, and there's so much I didn't cover. I hope that this lets people think. I am including links to some helpful resources for more information regarding circumcision. Remember: once it's done, it's done. While there is a possibility of foreskin restoration it's painful and can be completely avoided by just allowing your child to make that choice for himself.
Not my body, not my choice.
