{"id":13104,"date":"2023-04-02T16:29:42","date_gmt":"2023-04-02T06:29:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rationalemagazine.com\/?p=13104"},"modified":"2023-04-02T16:29:42","modified_gmt":"2023-04-02T06:29:42","slug":"rationalists-and-circumcision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rationalemagazine.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/02\/rationalists-and-circumcision\/","title":{"rendered":"Rationalists and circumcision"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 14 April 2023, it will be 10 years since I sent out the very first edition of \u2018RSA Daily\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Every weekday morning for a decade, I have checked about 100 websites and skimmed over about 700 headlines to choose no more than 10 articles to send to my loyal subscribers before 8 a.m., keeping them informed of news and views of interest to the freethought community. And I add a brief editorial, drawing attention to the more interesting or insightful pieces.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of those pieces shared last week was titled, \u2018<\/span>Circumcision: the human rights violation that no one wants to talk about<\/span><\/a>\u2019. It argued that male circumcision and female genital mutilation (FGM) are both harmful and morally unacceptable practices, and that human rights bodies are slowly but surely waking up to the inconsistency in the social, political and legal treatment of the two.<\/span><\/p>\n

Opposition to medically unnecessary, non-consensual circumcision has been a campaign item for the Rationalist Society of Australia since 2017, when we published an Occasional Paper called <\/span>\u2018Genital Autonomy\u2019, written by our then vice president, Jonathan Meddings.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Since then, Jonathan has gone on to become chair of the <\/span>Darbon Institute<\/span><\/a>, an organisation that advocates for everyone\u2019s right to bodily integrity and autonomy, and works toward a future where \u201cno child is subjected to genital mutilation, and every baby is brought home whole\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

But back to that article in RSA Daily. Conscious that circumcision is a sensitive topic and that, as a woman, I have no personal experience of it, I invited readers to send me their thoughts. Here\u2019s what I got at first (somewhat edited for length):<\/span><\/p>\n

Hi Meredith, you asked for a comment about MGM. Will you accept a male\u2019s perspective? I ask, because it really strikes me that women are far more concerned about this than men, even though we men are the ones who have had to either be chopped and know no other (such as myself) or have foreskins that are too short, too tight, too fleshy and have to [be] removed anyway. Not to mention the obvious reason, hygiene, for the practice in origin.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Personally, I\u2019ve never had a problem with the fact I was chopped, neither in terms of sexual ability or any of the other reasons being bandied about. \u2026<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The issue seems to be a rather pathetic thing to be getting worked up about when we still haven\u2019t sorted out climate change, religious dominance of society, or even a decent education system.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

On the other hand, I was never asked. I don\u2019t really have a problem with that, but I suppose it would have been nice to have had a choice\u2026<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Female genital mutilation is a practice designed to assert control over the woman. Circumcising does nothing of that. In fact, it might appear to make us males even more horrible. It\u2019s a club badge, as you well know, a symbol of early Christian gentility. If, as some have said, it reduces the sensations in the penis during sex, then I can only say so much the better. Men are already guilty enough of behaving badly, sandworm or not, and if chopping off an annoying flap of skin clams [sic] us down even a little, it might be worth it\u2026<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And then there was this:<\/span><\/p>\n

I suspect the fairly apathetic response to your call for comments, cutting or otherwise, on circumcision is a product of social conditioning and the fact that ongoing physical injury is rare. I think also that it is very significant that circumcision doesn\u2019t affect a bloke\u2019s enjoyment of sex. Contrast this with what happens to women. I\u2019m pretty sure if men\u2019s sex lives were affected the topic would be at the, ahem, forefront of their minds.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The benighted religious insistence on male circumcision indicates more inconsistencies than five-second mashed potato: \u201cI love you, son, so I\u2019m gonna chop a bit off you\u201d; \u201cNow you are part of a great, ongoing tradition that has held our people together for millennia. We are united in our cruelty\u201d\u2026<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll let you in on a secret: blokes don\u2019t spend a lot of time worried about whether they\u2019re circumcised or not. The main issue, trust me, is whether it makes them look bigger, or smaller\u2026<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I was surprised. I would have thought Rationalists would judge this issue from a disinterested perspective and comment on the <\/span>principle <\/span><\/i>of whether it\u2019s morally acceptable to cut off parts of another human being\u2019s body, particularly when they are in no position to provide consent, and when these days there is no compelling reason to do it, <\/span>the hygiene reason having been pretty much rebutted in recent years<\/span><\/a>. Instead, I got generalisations from personal experience, with the message being, \u201cDoesn\u2019t worry me, my sex life has been fine thank you very much.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Then, I got this:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The gaslighting statement made by the Rationalist Society regarding circumcision is in poor taste. \u201cThe majority are ok with it\u201d is not ok.\u00a0 The responses you received are most likely perpetrators writing in to justifying their actions. The people most affected by this intrusion on their bodily autonomy have not spoken up for fear of being shouted down by this kind of gaslighting. This is classic victim blaming where those who feel harmed are made to feel bad by those who are doing the harm.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

There is significant evidence of both physical and psychological harm caused to children and the adults they become caused by this hideous ritual.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

All children should have protection from genital cutting.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

I expected better from the Rationalist Society.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I was taken aback. I thought I had made it plain that <\/span>the RSA was opposed to genital cutting of children<\/span><\/a>, be they male or female, but I was being accused of gaslighting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Clearly, my editorial summarising the early submitted comments had failed to get this message across. Fortunately, the writer of this last message left a mobile number in his email, so I called him. After about 20 minutes of discussion, the misunderstanding was cleared up and, in the process, I learned a lot.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I learned that this is, indeed, a sensitive issue for all sorts of reasons, but perhaps most of all, because it involves personal pride or shame.<\/span><\/p>\n

I also learned that sometimes simply speaking with someone who appears to attack you can, indeed, lead to a constructive outcome. I\u2019m reminded of one of the <\/span>7 Habits of Highly Effective People<\/span><\/i>: first seek to understand before being understood.<\/span><\/p>\n

Subsequently I received more emails, mainly focusing on the issue of lack of consent but also criticising the religious tradition and the pressure to conform. <\/span>One commented:<\/span><\/p>\n

It seems to me that this question simply turns on the relative risks and morality of carrying out these procedures immediately without permission, or waiting until informed and voluntary consent can be given by the person involved.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another wrote:<\/span><\/p>\n

Agree with you entirely, Meredith. Although I was circumcised shortly after birth as was standard practice in the late 1950s, and have never been dissatisfied with the form or function of the organ. It was a procedure performed without my informed consent. As should be the case for ANY elective surgery performed essentially for cosmetic purposes, the patient must be able to furnish consent based on a full understanding of the nature, consequences and risks involved in undertaking the procedure.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One person, born and raised in the Jewish community but now a committed atheist, said:<\/span><\/p>\n

It won’t come as a surprise to you that I’m completely opposed to ritual circumcision.\u00a0Apart from considerations of whether there are benefits, I just find it completely daft for otherwise intelligent people to believe it’s the right thing to do \u2014 and based on imagined instructions from their imaginary friend. I\u2019d like to see legislation to ban the practice even though I’d likely be a traitor in the eyes of the Jewish community.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another shared their experience from South Africa:<\/span><\/p>\n

Having tested both varieties (with and without), I can attest that performance is not affected.\u00a0In the 1980s, circumcision was the norm in white South African circles. However, we did not have our son circumcised (for all the reasons you have mentioned). When he went to primary school, he was teased because he looked different. He came home in tears and I told him that he was perfect and that the other boys had had their willie heads cut off! He then had a great response to the next comment. The other boys went home in tears, parents contacted the school and I was called in to account, which I did so satisfactorily in my Inimitable fashion.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One writer shared their experience from childhood growing up in Germany:<\/span><\/p>\n

I grew up in Germany and, if my memory doesn\u2019t fail me, it wasn\u2019t until I was in my early twenties that I became aware that some people had their penis cut! Shock, horror. Why on Earth would one submit to such ignominy. Why would parents do that to their babies? They cry out in pain, don\u2019t they? That makes it child abuse.\u00a0OK, so it\u2019s for religious, customary reasons. One more reason to reject religious customs … as if one more reason really was needed.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And then there was one that criticised my ability to think rationally. I note that, on first reading, this writer appears to be saying that I can\u2019t think rationally <\/span>because<\/span><\/i> I am a woman. But, on closer inspection, I don\u2019t think he is meaning this, but rather pointing out that, as a woman, I don\u2019t have personal experience of circumcision \u2013 which is true, and which I admitted at the outset:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been reading your comments over the last two days about the MGM issue, and in spite of your expressed rational attitude, I suspect you are in fact thinking about this irrationally and as a woman. It strikes me that there is a certain amount of unacceptance of the male experience, (and whose else is it?) and that we should automatically adhere to the same reasonable morals that apply to FGM.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The difference between the two practices is striking, and that seems to have been ignored. If you\u2019d care to pay attention, there are quite a number of unnecessary non-clinical practices that humans engage in and seem acceptable. The problem in your reasoning is that you are seeing the MGM and FGM as similar because of their location on the body. Not the same. If there was ever a reason for women to be anti-patriarchal, it is the disgraceful habits that have been forced upon them by stronger and more selfish creatures.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

As for my own experiences, I have never known an honest man who thinks that MGM is a major social issue causing real physical and social harm. Note, HONEST. That word is integral to the conversation. I believe in critical thinking and reason and rationality, and that is the very reason why I have had to write this. It is not an honest thing to compare the two, to even call the male practice \u2018mutilation\u2019 is to engage at an emotionally compromised level, typical of a kind of subjectivity I often find amongst News Corp watchers or irrational feminazi. It\u2019s a category error.<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span><\/i>As for necessity, I admit there is no good argument\u00a0in favour of circumcision, especially clinically, but there are likewise no genuine clinical reasons against it. The basic religious practice behind it is contemptible, as is any religious practice. Any argument that it lessens or greatness [sic] sexual experiences is unproved and cannot be proved since enjoyment is subjective. Any medical analysis of nerve endings is likewise irrelevant for the same reason.<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span><\/i>This is one of the rare times that I would be willing to suggest that rationality and sensible commentary is being overridden by female sentimentality and a somewhat feminist inability to accept that not all animals are equal, but that none are more equal than others.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, I leave it up to my readers to judge whether I am indulging in \u2018female sentimentality\u2019, but I do reject the <\/span>assumption<\/span><\/i> that feminism necessarily entails not accepting that \u201cnot all animals are equal\u201d. Feminism is not about women trying to be <\/span>the same<\/span><\/i> as men, but about having the same <\/span>rights<\/span><\/i> as men.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you wish to republish this original article, please attribute to\u00a0<\/i><\/b>Rationale<\/i><\/b><\/a>.\u00a0<\/i><\/b>Click here<\/i><\/b><\/a> to find out more about republishing under Creative Commons.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Photo by Mitchell Hollander<\/a> on Unsplash.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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