The Circumcision Blame Game (warning: contains infographic)

**SoCo Intactivists** · 01-10-2013 10:06 PM

Thursday, December 27, 2012

The Circumcision Blame Game

In all my years as an intactivist (I've been against circumcision since I was about 16, I'm 31 now), I often come across the dilemma of who is responsible for the circumcision of children in America. Who's fault is it if you are circumcised and not happy with it?

Who should you blame?

Before going on, I'd like to introduce the above image. It was uploaded to Facebook by one Jonathon Conte, who is a pro-active intactivist in the San Francisco area, and belongs to the local group Bay Area Intactivists.

The caption read:

"This is the pattern that I continue to see when doing various intactivist protests and events. Nobody wants to accept responsibility and the blame goes round and round.

"Talk to the parents!" "Talk to the obstetricians!" "We don't do them. Talk to the pediatricians!" "Nobody told me it wasn't necessary!"

On the bright side, they used to all defend the practice, now they pass blame. Blame acknowledges a shameful act. Progress."

And Jonathon is right.

There is something suspicious going on when, instead of owning responsibility, it is being passed around like a hot potato.

Except, I think the above image is wrong. It places undue weight on parents, with them at the top and the doctors at the bottom. It implies parents are entitled to a choice, and physicians are loyal subjects who merely listen and obey.

But since when does medicine work this way? ...

Read the rest on Joseph4GI's excellent blog at
https://joseph4gi.blogspot.jp/2012/1...lame-game.html

**Dixon** · 01-14-2013 02:36 AM

Kirsten, I just want to express appreciation for all the effort you put into keeping the various aspects of the nonconsensual circumcision problem bubbling on the front burner. This movement is at an early stage, similar to where the black, brown and women's rights movements were some decades ago. Keeping the issue in front of people will ultimately raise the public consciousness as people get the message that the issue is not going to go away, and start actually thinking about it rather than taking it for granted as normal. Respect to you!

**Valley Oak** · 01-14-2013 09:18 AM

I would like to echo Dixon's gratitude to Kirsten's tireless and often thankless efforts in the fight against routine and arbitrary circumcision on male children.

Circumcision is mutilation. Period. There are very, very few exceptions to this because the traditional medical justifications are simply untrue and it has been proven time and again. Yet, this unwarranted practice continues. At best, and in only some cases, it has a ritualistic purpose, with dubious justification.

The issue will not go away now that enough people have been awakened to this cruelty. The number of people who are becoming aware of this perpetration against men's bodies is increasing. Public awareness of the injustice of circumcision will not stop growing until the rates of circumcision dwindle to maybe a few hundred, truly and medically needed cases a year.

Edward