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, March 13, 2011

The Case Against Infant Circumcision: Do Pro-Circumcision Propagandists suffer from a Form of Stokholm Syndrome?
There is much evidence that infant circumcision is a traumatic and painful experience causing loss and deprivation, yet we find some or even many males that have been circumcised endlessly and obsessively promoting infant circumcision.  Why is this so? One explanation may be a form of Stokholm Syndrome.
 

Monday, March 14, 2011

WeHo News: Forget fur; what about banning circumcision?
WeHo News: Banning Circumcision
This is a very informative article describing why we circumcise our baby boys and why we should stop circumcising. The author cites the O'Hara study that found that sex with an uncircumcised partner was rated many times more satisfying than sex with a circumcised partner.
 

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Megan, Ivan and Anton's Great Adventures!!!: The biggest Regret . . .
A mother chooses to have her son circumcised and regrets the decision. "All I can hope is that he realizes that I do love him and I am more truly sorry than I have ever been of anything in my entire life, and that I hope one day he will forgive me."

The Case Against Infant Circumcision: Busting Circumcision Myths: Babies Sleep through Circumcision
Babies feel pain and many scream during their circumcision surgery. That is why many doctors do not want the parents in the room during the surgery. The truth is that babies feel intense pain during circumcision, and that if babies lose consciousness it is not that they are sleeping but that they have a traumatic shock or dissociative unconsciousness.

Rockin with the Nugget: Circumcision
A pregnant woman addresses the circumcision question. She describes all the reasons circumcision is unnecessary, but stops short of saying she will not circumcise her baby when he is born. Unfortunately, this is yet another example of a blogger afraid of offending parents who made a regretable parenting decision. Everyone judges others. It is only when the judgement is that a person did the wrong thing do they get offended by the judgement. Well, sorry mothers and fathers. If you circumcised your infant boy, you had his genitals mutilated and there is a strong possibility that he will grow up resentful.

Legacy.com: Dr. Benjamin Spock: Child Care and Controversy
A description of Doctor Spock's life and legacy. He advised treating children with love and affection. In the 1980s, Dr. Spock spoke out against male infant circumcision, stating, “Circumcision of males is traumatic, painful, and of questionable value.”

MyPleasure: Special Techniques for the Uncircumcised Penis?
Some common sense advice on how to have sex with a man who is intact. Generally, condoms should be put on with the foreskin retracted. Also, hand jobs are usually better when the foreskin is moved back and forth over the glans. The foreskin is often retracted for oral sex. The best advice is that the partner should just ask the man what he prefers. Communication works almost every time.
 

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

coffee and kids: Crap or get off the pot
An intactivist mother felt obligated to suggest to her younger brother and his fiancé that they leave their future sons intact, that is, they consider not circumcising him. Her brother did not know anything about circumcision. Hopefully a seed has been planted and the next generation will have intact genitals.

SF Weekly: S.F. Circumcision Ban Is a Bad Idea But It Could Still Become Law
I think it is about time that we recognize that baby boys grow up to be men. We should let boys grow up with all their body parts. I wish I still had all of my sex organ and not just what the doctor left me with after my circumcision. As for the Constitutionality of the proposed circumcision ban, the Supreme Court precedent of Prince v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts should be controlling. It is a 1944 case that limited what a parent could do with their children. "The right to practice religion freely does not include liberty to expose . . . the child . . . to ill health or death." There are other nuggets in the case that would favor a circumcision ban being Constitutionally permissible.
 

Friday, March 18, 2011

BlogHer: Sex With The "Uncircumcised" Man
A woman who has had sex with both circumcised and intact men prefers intact men. She says that sex with men who have their foreskin (uncircumcised) is decidely nice.

Let's get Serious: Circumcision
A mother writes about the reasons male infant circumcision do not make sense to her and her husband. They left their son intact so that he could decide for himself if he wants a permanent body modification to his sex organ.

Beyond the Bris: Mayim Bialik, Circumcision & Destiny
Recently, many intactivists attempted to raise the issue of circumcision on the Mayim Bialik page. This article discusses that Mayim Bialik chose to circumcise her boys on religious grounds, although the Jewish author disagrees that circumcision is requied by Judaism. She provides various reasons why leaving baby boys intact is a legitimate Jewish practice.

The Case Against Infant Circumcision: Why does infant circumcision still exist?
Culture. In the United States the circumcision culture is strong, Even with the infant circumcision rate falling, the cultural pressure to cut the genitals of baby boys is strong. This post addresses many of the reasons for the cultural pressure to circumcise infants.

Joseph4GI: My First Post
Avid intactivist Joseph started a blog. Joseph4GI lays his cards on the table as he tells everyone that he is against the forced circumcision of healthy, non-consenting minors. I make no exception for "religion" or "culture." The only time that a child should undergo surgery is when there is actual medical or clinical indication, and all other methods of treatment have failed.

Joseph4GI:  Circumcision Just After a NICU
Many babies are circumcised while they are in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) or when they are released from the NICU. Joseph4GI questions, rightfully so, why any parent would think it OK to have elective, non-therapeutic surgery on a frail infant that had to be in the NICU. Worse yet, doctors are willing, and often suggest, such circumcision on sick and frail baby boys.

The Daily Guggie Daly: The Cost of Circumcision
Guggie describes the many ways the medical industry profits from the circumcising culture in the United States. It starts with the doctor's fees. Then there are the hospital fees, the supplies, followup care, correction of botched circumcisions, and ending with sales of erectile dysfunction drugs because circumcised men lose sensitivity as they age.

The Daily Guggie Daly: Involuntary Ritual Amputation among the Nacirema People
A parody of male infant circumcision in the United States. When circumcision is described in terms of a tribal custom of a foreign culture, the barbaric nature of male infant circumcision becomes apparent.

The Daily Guggie Daly: Confessions of a Mom Guilted into Circumcising
A mother was completely against infant circumcision as a barbaric, elective surgery until someone told her, "He's gonna cuss you for the rest of his life." So, she changed her mind and her son was circumcised. But the doctor botched the circumcision and took off too much skin and left the boy bleeding. The baby then had an emergency surgery to stitch the top of his penis to the baby fat around the base of the penis to stop the bleeding. The circumcising doctor had cut all the skin off the shaft of her son’s penis. At eighteen months and again at twenty months the boy had more corrective surgery on his penis.

I will never understand how any parent can subject their son to such barbaric surgery as circumcision, particularly for such a flimsy reason that her son may "cuss" her for not getting him circumcised. Why not tattoo "Mother" on his arm, too. Oh, wait, that is illegal. But cutting off part of his sex organ is OK. WTF?

Some may think the above comment is being too judgemental of the parents. Well, every opinion is a judgement. Agreeing with someone is passing judgement. Because it is a favorable judgement, no one minds. Disagreeing is criticized as being judgemental. Tuff. My sympathies lie with the poor boy. He has a severly botched circumcision and both he and his penis will carry those scars for his whole life. I only hope that he is capable of enjoying sex when he grows up. Based on the description in the blog, I have my doubts about that. Hopefully the parents will seek redress from the doctor and the clinic. If not, hopefully they will preserve the record so that their son can sue the doctor for his botched circumcision.