Male Circumcision and HIV

Intactivism, Anti-Semitism, and Foreskin Man

Growing up in Texas, the only Jews I knew lived in the Bible. As far as I could understand, circumcised boys were all my fundamentalist and not so fundamentalist Christian friends. Intact boys were foreigners or the kids who spoke Spanish. Rather than competition and prejudice between different religious traditions, the divide in my town was between blacks and whites. We all went to churches made from the same cloth, Baptist, Methodist, Church of Christ, a few others, or generically named congregations, like Sunday Christian Church, or churches with names to that effect.

image / flickr / J. Stephen Conn / Ambassadors for Christ Chuch of God - Interior

My acquaintance with anti-Semitism and Jews generally didn't really get off the ground until quite a few years later when I moved to California. From the start, coinciding with the beginning of my legal career, I was drawn to Jews as both mentors and irreverent co-travelers butting up against the perceived monolithic mainstream or "system." I'm not sure whether this was related to my own feelings of being an outsider both here and at home, or something else. On the other hand, maybe this was true because most of the Jews I knew were liberal-minded criminal defense attorneys rather than because they were Jews.

Anti-Semitism was something I experienced mostly in movies and on TV. Perhaps it's because I'm not Jewish, but it seems more likely it's because the cruder forms of this peculiar prejudice are much rarer today in the shadow of the Holocaust and within the plurality of the United States. So then, with this backdrop, what of Foreskin Man and Monster Mohel?

The first time I saw this comic, I thumbed through it, but didn't read it. My impression was that this was not going to be helpful. However, my reaction was tempered by my knowledge and familiarity with Matthew Hess. His first comic harshly depicted doctors. The second comic followed this line with mohels. Matthew has made clear each comic will take on some category of circumciser. While I perceived an opening for accusations of anti-Semitism, I thought that the pattern would make clear Matthew is anti-circumcision, not anti-Semitic. Like me.

Anyone who has even a passing familiarity with the intactivist movement knows that anti-Semitism is a particularly sensitive issue for us. The outsized number of Jews involved with this movement feels at times that we skirt too close to the line, and I agree. Still, I have never met someone who has come to intactivism out of an irrational hatred or anger towards Jews. The vast majority are drawn to intactivism because they have a deep and abiding sense of justice, compassion, and fairness that they perceive as being violated by infant circumcision. Bigots and haters are not likely to turn inward in a self-reflective moment and decide they are against circumcision. Rather they deny their powerlessness and lash out at those who they perceive as challenging it, i.e. intactivists, blacks, gays, immigrants, Jews, the Bilderburgers, whomever.

The problem here is that this comic lends some credence to the epithet of anti-Semitism. The startling storyline of an Aryan-looking hero interjecting himself in the affairs of Jews, and kidnapping/rescuing a Jewish baby to be raised by non-Jews is one everyone can rightfully take issue with. Yet, the other victims depicted in the comic book are also Jews. In fact, practically all the characters in this issue are Jews. The debilitating flaw is that the imagery and storyline are just too reminiscent of recent demonization campaigns against Jews in other places and for other (bogus) reasons - which by the way haven't ended well.

To illustrate the former point, imagine a comic or other popular culture depiction of a white hero swooping into some poor community and rescuing black babies from poor parenting and systemically enforced poverty. Or if you like, think of the history of white government officials stealing the children of Navajos in the early 20th century and putting them in territorial schools to make them more like white people and less like the people they are. Outsiders imposing their will on a community is just bullshit. The change must come from within (joined by others) if it is to come at all. Matthew completely failed to understand this.

Although my sense is that the accusation of anti-Semitism is like the race card - usually not helpful, I feel it is not entirely off base here. Still, I am confident that Monster Mohel comes from Matthew's deep pain and hurt from the practice of circumcision. At this point and without delay and much haste, he needs to do more to dispel the idea that he and his comic come from a place of prejudice.

"Aurora’s ‘Society for Creative Anachronisms.’ I’d hoped it would improve my chances. Just my luck to have found one anachronism she doesn’t appreciate."

3001, the Final Odyssey,

by Arthur C. Clarke

Excerpts from the book, Chapters 11 and 12

Frank Poole became aware that he was not alone in the sky. Something else was approaching, and it was certainly not a human flyer….it seemed much too large for that…. A pterodactyl was not a bad guess, maybe eight points out of ten. What was approaching him now, with slow flaps of its leathery wings, was a dragon straight out of Fairyland. And to complete the picture, there was a beautiful lady riding on its back. At least, Poole assumed she was beautiful. The traditional image was spoiled by one trifling detail: much of her face was concealed by a large pair of aviator’s goggles that might have come straight from the open cockpit of a World War I biplane….

And then he forgot about the dragon, for the rider removed her goggles. The trouble with clichés, some philosopher remarked, probably with a yawn, is that they are so boringly true. But “love at first sight” is never boring….

Indra, however gave him the answer he needed right away.

“So you’ve met the Dragon Lady!”

“Is that what you call her? What’s her real name, and can you get me her Ident?”

“Of course – no problemo.”…

Her name’s Aurora McAuley; among many other things, she’s President of the Society for Creative Anachronisms….

This is too good to be true, thought Poole. I am the biggest anachronism on Planet Earth.

To Poole’s delight, Mistress McAuley’s Ident conveyed the information that she was currently between lovers, and he wasted no further time in contacting her……

I believe I’ve passed another test, he told himself smugly. Riding on Draco must have been the first. How many more, I wonder?….

But there were no more, and the answer to the immemorial “Your place or mine?” was – Poole’s.

The next morning, shaken and mortified, he contacted Professor Anderson.

“Everything was going splendidly,” he lamented, “when she suddenly became hysterical and pushed me away. I was afraid I’d hurt her somehow –

Then she called the roomlight – we’d been in darkness – and jumped out of bed. I guess I was just staring like a fool…” He laughed ruefully. “She was certainly worth staring at.”

“I’m sure of it. Go on.”

“After a few minutes, she relaxed and said something I’ll never be able to forget.”

Anderson waited patiently for Poole to compose himself.

“She said, ‘I’m really sorry, Frank. We could have had a good time. But I didn’t know that you’ve been – mutilated.’”

The professor looked baffled, but only for a moment.

“OH, I understand. I’m sorry too, Frank – perhaps I should have warned you. In my thirty years of practice, I’ve only seen half a dozen cases – all for valid medical reasons, which certainly didn’t apply to you…

“Circumcision made a lot of sense in primitive times – and even in your century, as a defense against some unpleasant, even fatal, diseases in backward countries with poor hygiene. But otherwise there was absolutely no excuse for it – and several arguments against, as you’ve just discovered!”

“I checked the records after I’d examined you the first time, and found that by mid-Twenty-First Century there had been so many malpractice suits that the American Medical Association had been forced to ban it…..”

“In some countries, it continued for another century; then some unknown genius coined a slogan – please excuse the vulgarity – “God designed us: Circumcision is blasphemy.’ That more or less ended the practice…..”

Poole found himself laughing.

“Now what, Frank?”

“Aurora’s ‘Society for Creative Anachronisms.’ I’d hoped it would improve my chances. Just my luck to have found one anachronism she doesn’t appreciate.”

Male Circumcision | The Frisky

Lifted in full. Apologies to John DeVore.

Mind Of Man: I Want All Of My Penis Back!

Posted by: John DeVore Filed in: guys
11:30AM, Wednesday January 27th 2010

Comments (67)

If a hood is good enough for Batman, it’s good enough for my penis. Uncircumcised joints look gross, like a cross between a tentacle and a trunk. But the word on the street is that it feels better to have a foreskin. My zipper cudgel is cut, and therefore less sensitive than a man who’s packing a frightful sex nozzle. I mourn the loss of that little flap of skin. I think I would have preferred to have had the choice to be circumcised or not.

I get that thousands of years ago, soap wasn’t readily available. And maybe, after a few months of sweating in the fields, it was possible to get an infection in the pants. Circumcising was a way of preventing such unfortunate ouchies. But we have soap now. Tons of it.

The idea that my penis could have had more nerve endings is erotically intriguing. I’m curious as to how dulled my love prong is as a result of my foreskin having been removed. I’m not even sure I believe any of the negative reasons for being uncircumcised. It’s a bunch of hype. First of all, I have always been under the impression that penises were not exactly attractive human appendages. I have never met a woman who was all, “There is NOTHING more beautiful than a ween.”  Whether it’s a helmet or an anteater, male genitals are not aesthetically attractive. Unlike boobs, they are not triumphs of natural wonder.

And there’s the health reason for circumcision, which all boys learned about in junior high sex education class. It seems that uncircumcised men have wangs that ooze a terrible, disgusting substance known as “smegma.” It might or might not be toxic. Smegma has the distinction of being the human secretion with the most disgusting name. The runners-up: mucous, pus, and bile.

From what I know, it serves as a lubricant between the head of the penis and the foreskin. Poor smegma, you are tragically misunderstood! During sex education classes, we all felt relieved, thankful even, for being circumcised. We were told that smegma was basically some kind of social disease, that men with uncut clangs were always itching, and stinking, and generally uncomfortable. It never occurred to me that uncircumcised penises could be unhygienic … if you never bathed.

There are religious reasons for circumcision, and hey, I respect religious beliefs. Sort of, kind of. I mean, my religion believes that every time I masturbate, I’m consigning millions of potential babies to Death by Kleenex. I respect that some people believe that; I don’t.

I’ve even been to a Bris, the Jewish circumcision ritual. The smoked salmon was delish. The baby cried, but babies always cry. Everybody seemed really happy. But what I didn’t appreciate was that the infant’s cries, if one were to translate them from the baby to the adult, went something like this: “HOLY F**K, STOP SLICING INTO MY DINKY! SOMEBODY F**KING HELP ME! THIS CRAZY SON OF A BITCH IS TAKING A SHARP OBJECT TO MY DELICATE BITS!” 

I get that thousands of years ago, soap wasn’t readily available. And maybe, after a few months of sweating in the fields, it was possible to get an infection in the pants. Circumcising was a way of preventing such unfortunate ouchies. But we have soap now. Tons of it. Think about it: after water, it’s the one fluid that’s pretty much free. Just pop into any public toilet and Shazam! Soap!

The decision to remove my foreskin was made for me. Like millions of men, my tip was snipped without my consent. There are solutions to this, but they all seem extreme. There are surgical and non-surgical ways to restore or reattach foreskin to the glans of the penis. There are actual skin grafts, and procedures that stretch and grow skin. All of these solutions promise improved sexual pleasure for dudes. As well as increased pride: why not walk around with a swinging, all-natural, all-sheathed gorilla bazooka. Join me, as I mourn the long-ago loss of my foreskin.

I have seen an uncircumcised penis in the wild once in my life. I was in the locker room of the local pool with my dad. I must have been all of 7 or so. Some hairy butterball of a grown man was sauntering around naked, like some European shipping magnate. Sprouting from his gross man nest was a hooded penis.  I made a sound I imagine an astronaut would make if his spaceship was punctured and all his oxygen was sucked out into space. I almost cried: Human beings were not supposed to look like swamp beasts. I asked my dad later why that man was horribly deformed and he explained to me why his penis looked that way. He then told me about circumcision: it had been done to him, to me, and to my little brother. This process sounded more terrifying than the man with the werewolf tube. My dad was a cigar smoker, and I pictured the mini-guillotine he used to cut off the ends of his cigar as the device doctors used when removing the foreskin.

The next day, I reported all I knew to my friends at recess. We huddled in fear of the adult world. One of my friends asked where the foreskins went after they were cut off.

I responded swiftly, if slightly sarcastically: “The Penis Fairy! The doctor tucks them under his pillow, and The Penis Fairy comes in the night and leaves a quarter!” We laughed at this joke, and then debated the actual worth of a human foreskin. A quarter? No … that’s the standard rate for a tooth. Fifty cents? A dollar? We concluded that the princely sum of five dollars was the amount The Penis Fairy would leave for a scrap of skin.

Of course, we didn’t believe this. But at the same time, we sort of did.

Anyway, Dear Penis Fairy: Please return my foreskin. I’d like to know what it feels like to have it back.

via www.thefrisky.com

CRAZYTOWN: The fringe benefits of spousal abuse

I used to be in an abusive relationship. While it wasn't one that I sought out, neither was it one I sought to escape. You see, through all the beat downs and late nights in the ER, I found there were fringe benefits that came with the black eyes, broken teeth, and lost time from work. For example, I learned that I had syphilis once while they were stitching up my left eye one particularly late evening. One particular hospital I ended up in had a really great program where they tested everyone who came through their doors for diabetes, screened for heart disease, and even gave tips on a proper diet. It was great. For me, getting my ass beat regularly was the best way to ensure that I actually got the medical services I wouldn't or couldn't get otherwise. I think of all the screening and treatment for conditions I didn't know I had as a fringe benefit of my abusive relationship. If I hadn't gotten beat, I wouldn't have accessed services and learned just how off the charts my cholesterol was. Thank you, abusive spouse. Me and my health are gonna miss you.

Link: KENYA: The fringe benefits of male circumcision rollout

"The Rise and Fall of Circumcision"

Occasionally fiction spells out a problem more clearly than volumes of non-fiction prose can. In Esquire's short story series, called Napkin Fiction, by up-and-coming young writers, we see a metaphor emerge for the more powerful making decisions for others they might not make for themselves.

Read the text after the break or click through after the click-through to read it on Esquire's site in its original format.