My journey as an intactivist

September 30, 2018

First of all, in case you don't know what the word "intactivist" means, it's an activist that fights for keeping children's bodies intact.

You may want to read my blog post from January of this year before reading this one.  Titled "Infant Circumcision" at http://johnadkison.blogspot.com/2018/01/  

It was at the time that I wrote the article in January that I decided to head full speed into intactivism.  Up until the time that I wrote that article, I struggled with the idea of speaking out about non-consensual circumcision.  I think the same things that kept me from confronting people is the same that keeps many men from doing so, and why I often see more women speaking out then men.   Men are raised to be tough, not to cry, etc.  Also, like Brendon Marotta put it, it touches on taboo subjects.  I then had the thought that I may very likely meet a child that gets circumcised today in 18 years from now, hear how angry he is that he's circumcised and not be able to tell him that I did everything I knew to educate people and protect him.

I joined groups of intactivists on Facebook.  There are many, but three of them I want to cover:  Your Whole Baby, Intactivists Stop Circumcision - ISC, and Bloodstained Men and Their Friends.  Each of these have a place, depending on what an intactivist feels prepared to do.

Your Whole Baby is a "gentle education" group.  This group does not allow you to reach out to other members via private message to convince them that child circumcision is wrong.  They don't allow bashing or shaming.  They only allow asking questions and providing information in a non-judgmental way.  And, this group does not go outside of the group to educate; it waits for people to join and ask questions.
Intactivists Stop Circumcision is more aggressive than Your Whole Baby.  The members of this group are supposed to be people interested in finding all avenues for educating and stopping the practice of child circumcisions.  This includes commenting on posts that are made public on Facebook about circumcision.  Many people don't know how to handle privacy settings on their posts, so, this happens daily.

Bloodstained Men and Their Friends is a group of people that go outside and protest with signs.  Quite often, wearing white pants with what appears to be blood stains on their crotch.  As I understand it, Jonathon Conte (may he rest in peace) was the one with the idea of the blood stained pants.  A few weeks ago I joined several of these guys in Vancouver BC.  It felt very good to be standing out there with them for the two days I got to be there.  Brother K even gave me a pair of his blood stained pants!!!  There are many very interesting and wonderful members of this group that I would love to talk about here, but, I've been thinking of starting an "Intactivists Wall of Fame" that may be a better place for that.

I even joined groups that are related, but not necessarily supporting intactivism.  Those groups include Circumcision Club and Circumcision Choice. 

Circumcision Club seems to be heavily comprised of men that tout the benefits of being circumcised, particularly when it comes to sex.  Someone new came along into the group and identified that I was an intactivist and attempted to have me booted.  With a simple defense, that person deleted his post.

Circumcision Choice ended up booting me once they determined that I'm an intactivist and I was challenging their way of thinking.  It didn't completely stop me from confronting the people from that group, though.  They have a web page that accepts comments, so I continued challenging their way of thinking there.  Surprisingly, they didn't just delete the comments and actually responded!  I consider it a win.

Other social networks, such as YouTube and GoFundMe have been excellent places to speak out as well. 

It's surprising how many people ask for money to pay for their child's circumcision on GoFundMe.  This is coming about as fewer and fewer insurance companies are covering the procedure and are now considering it strictly cosmetic.  It amazes me that this fact alone isn't enough to give people pause about the procedure.

There are several YouTubers that are intactivists.  James Loewen, who I originally got to meet at the American Circumcision screening in Seattle, runs a channel called Bonobo3D.  While he does some of his own speaking, the channel mostly consists of his video interviews of others that speak about the topic.  Two others of notable mention are Jordan Arel and "Momma Michelle," who I group together specifically because they both have a parent that performs circumcisions.  They both have their own unique discussions about intactivism.

Of course, there's other social networks like SnapChat and Twitter that can be useful.  I just have not done much with these.

There is a ton to learn about intactivism.  There's no way I'm going to be able to cover it all here; you'll have to go to all the places I've identified in my previous posts, the places I've suggested in this post and more.

I think the biggest challenge for intactivists is the statement the AAP made in 2012 and have not updated:  "...health benefits of newborn male circumcision outweigh the risks and that the procedure’s benefits justify access to this procedure for families who choose it."  They go on to say that it "prevents" certain things such as UTIs, certain STDs and penile cancer.  I really think they need to replace the word "prevents" with "reduces chances of..." as it gives people the wrong idea.  Circumcised males can still get all those things.  Plus, the policy includes "they will need to weigh medical information in the context of their own religious..." - the AAP is supposed to be a medical organization; religion or culture is NOT supposed to play into their recommendation.  Here's a sign I'm thinking I'd like to see at the AAP conference: "AAP: Stop promoting the violation of the 1st amendment!" This is what they're doing with their statement, right? They are saying that the procedure should not be outlawed in support of religious/cultural reasons, which is actually violating the child's religious freedom.  I certainly think my own religious freedom was stomped on when they cut that part off of me!  Back then there weren't nearly as many studies showing medical benefits as there are now; unless they were strictly going by Dr. Kellogg's "let's stop masturbation" hypothesis.

Eric Clopper created a show this year by the name of "Sex and Circumcision: An American Love Story" that does an excellent job of addressing the AAP statement.  I do need to point out an important thing, though:  I don't think he did a good enough job of avoiding anti-Semitism.   Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon, the maker of "Cut: Slicing through the myths of circumcision" does an excellent job of calling this out in his video here.

People come up with all sorts of reasons to defend infant circumcision.  I came up with a simple set of responses:

• If you support circumcision in the name of medicine, you have to support cutting off many other body parts for the same medical reasons.
• If you support circumcision in the name of religious freedom for the parents, you have to support freedom of religion for anyone else with power (i.e. Sharia law).
• If you support circumcision in the name of aesthetics, you have to support other body modifications to children.

Another response I often use is "The only person that should be promoting circumcision is a doctor trained in these things that both enjoyed sex before their foreskin was removed and after - I bet you can't find one!"

Many often wonder why, if it's a big deal, not many men complain.  Why are so many men OK with the fact that they are circumcised?  Here's my response:

Try to imagine a society where every person had their pinky toe removed at infancy. Also imagine that everyone always wore socks and/or shoes all the time. Imagine that doctors told everyone that it is more hygienic because it's one less area to keep clean and reduces the chances of that area becoming infected.

If no one had that pinky toe during their life, and it was almost always out of sight, how many people would talk about it? Guys don't talk to other guys about their junk - it's weird and some say "gay." Circumcised guys don't ask intact men what it's like to have foreskin. When you grow up not having it, you aren't likely to miss it; unless, just unless, you learn about foreskin like I did when I became a father at 35 of a son. It's been over 13 years now. I still don't know what it's like to have foreskin, and that's part of what makes me furious: I'd really like to know! I do have a good imagination, though and have read about the anatomy and functions and now notice every single day that I'm missing something that could be making things better for me. I now know that I dealt with an issue as a child and am still dealing with issues as an adult and one of the issues will continue to get worse as I age.

There is a mountain of resources out there to support the intactivists.  Websites, YouTube videos, FaceBook groups and pages, as well as blog posts like this one.  Doctorsopposingcircumcision.org probably would be considered the most reputable since it involves actual medical doctors.  Unfortunately, everyone wants one place to go, that they feel they can trust.  Most want to trust their doctor, but, in the USA many doctors are only interested in making money.  And, many (if not most) USA doctors don't even understand the anatomy and function of the foreskin.  I verified this in person when I opened a doctor's anatomy book that was sitting in their office and found the complete lack of information.  It's no wonder so many just think that it's a "flap of skin."

I would be happy to point out the mountain of resources, but, I understand very few people are willing to take the massive number of hours to look at as much as I have, so I usually send people to the following videos:  American Circumcision, Cut: Slicing through the myths of circumcision, Elephant in the Hospital on YouTube and Dr. Guest's videos on YouTube.  I haven't met anyone that has watched those and come back to tell me that their mind was changed, but I'd be surprised if these videos weren't sufficient to do so.