It has been 2.5 years since I decided to come out publicly against infant "circumcision." I have become heavily involved among those who fight for genital autonomy. I've seen many challenges that is holding back progress.
I think cognitive dissonance is the biggest hurdle and root to many of the others that I will discuss. Facing the possibility that our own genitalia is not better, but maybe worse is very difficult to consider. And, if you are a parent that had the same performed on your child, I can only image that compounds it for us. Another thing that may compound it even further is if we were indoctrinated by religion, culture and/or medical school. Imagine being a doctor that has been performing these non-consensual non-therapeutic surgeries that also went through the surgery, who's friends and family went through the surgery, their religion dictates the surgery and their medical school taught them how to do the surgery. And not that this is NOT limited to male genital surgeries. That is a LOT to consider potentially being wrong.
We are also fighting against the most visible people in the world holding the most powerful position in politics.
We are fighting big money. The wealthiest of the world has spent tons of money promoting genital cutting practices. I don't know whether they were duped by greedy people that manipulated studies to make it seem like a good idea or whether they even realized the unintended consequences of supporting harmful practices or whether they had their own motives; I just know that big money has big influence and until someone else with big money comes along to counter it, grass roots activism is going to have to get very big to counter it.
We are challenged with celebrities that support and promote genital cutting practices.
Nearly half of the world follows one of the Abrahamic religions. While the views vary among the various groups, the root goes to the Abrahamic covenant. Some believe that their religion cannot survive without holding to that covenant. The fear of not having an immortal soul backed by such a religion is a strong one! Add to that the fears of social separation or even death for questioning that part of the religion compounds on top of the immortal soul fear.
I have spoken with religious leaders that admit that they will not speak out publicly for fear of losing much of their congregation / support.
I've been quite excited by the growth of social media because the mass media has been very redundant and has become too powerful of an influence over society. However, I believe that most of what most people are fed still comes from mass media and they rarely tackle the issue. I can only imagine why.
Some get defensive when speaking about the harm done to those that are the same sex as they are and someone else chimes in with the harm done to another sex. This defense is due to the belief that it diminishes the harm to their own sex. I believe that working together for genital autonomy for everyone makes us stronger than if we attempt to gain genital autonomy for only one. In fact, I might say that fighting for only one is counter-productive. Trying to determine who is the bigger victim only deters us from focusing on protecting the next generation.
Victims have a hard time being advocates. Every time they attempt to advocate for the next generation, they are refreshing in their own mind their own victim-hood. It's a negative piled onto another negative. I have met many victims that do not speak out, and, as a victim myself, I can see why. So, when you see one person speaking out, imagine that there are probably thousands more that just do not have the ability to get past their own fight within themselves to speak out as well. I know of one advocate that was also a victim that committed suicide. And, remember that victims include regret parents; it's hard to understand that if you are not a parent yourself. Give them all the positive vibes you can! God knows they need it!
I've come across advocates that can't stand with advocates that are also regret parents. I know one that believed all regret parents should go to the police and turn themselves in. While, if I was a regret parent myself, I probably would, I don't see that the threat of prison time will get more regret parents to be advocates. It's sort of how the police deal with drug lords: they make deals with the minions to get to the drug lords.
This image does not do justice to the complexity of the many approaches to tackle this issue. There is constant discourse among the advocates regarding the best ways to do so. The most common one that fits in the "challenging social attitudes & beliefs" bubble is whether to approach people with a "gentle education" method, aggressive shaming method or somewhere in between. I find that generally, victims will use more aggressive methods because they are hurting emotionally. Some believe that approach scares people away, which may be true with many, however, if people do not hear the hurt of the victims, they may not believe the victims exist or aren't all that harmed.
The challenge here is that people are excluded from various genital autonomy groups because differing ideas and approaches. I created genitalautonomysociety.org where every advocate can join with the simple premise that they believe that everyone has the right to the genitalia they were born with. There is no way for other advocates to get into discourse about other issues. However, as much as I tried, one person found out that another individual was registered there and decided not to join just because they disagree politically with that individual! So much for having one place for all advocates to take a stand of solidarity! :( I find such behavior very selfish - let's think about the next generation!
The man in white is Brother K from the Bloodstained Men group. They were protesting in Alabama when this occurred. The USA may have a constitution that guarantees freedom of speech, but that does not mean law enforcement won't find some law to arrest you with if they really want to. Alon Sivroni has been attacked, on multiple occasions, protesting in Israel. I imagine there is real risk of execution in Islamic countries, thus, there is very little known advocacy in those areas; which also happens to be the areas where female genital cutting practices are most prevalent.
I know of people that have lost their job over their advocacy work. I think this explains, in part, why so many of the advocates are retired. While I can't prove it, I am confident that my public advocacy has impacted my employ-ability. How many medical professionals are gag-ordered to stay quiet to keep working at hospitals? How many are afraid to speak out against it when they've been performing the practice because they are afraid of being sued?
Being ejected from our pack is a severe fear. I swear our Saint Bernard has nightmares JUST because she's been left at home alone at times. No matter how introverted you are, I think we all need a certain amount of connection and support with fellow human beings. Even in female genital cutting cultures, most support the practices and going against the norm can get you shunned from the group. While the trend seems to be shifting in the USA, and already shifted significantly in Europe and Australia, this is still a clear challenge.
A study was done that found that a large percentage of medical training materials completely failed to provide the anatomy of the male prepuce. Someone I know of by the name of Jessica Pin has been fighting to improve medical training materials regarding the anatomy of female genitalia. It wasn't too long ago that Dr. Money pushed genital surgeries to make children more fit the binary norm, and surgeries based on his views are still occurring. People that got their degree based on these are difficult to convince that they didn't learn everything they need to.
And, if all that wasn't enough, there's censorship. I have seen this in so many ways in so many places. Sometimes I get so frustrated seeing it, I'm driven even more to go stand on a corner somewhere in my bloodstained pants outfit.
I hope this has not gotten you depressed. It's meant to recognize and acknowledge the huge mountain that us genital autonomy advocates are attempting to move. We ARE making progress, but it can never happen fast enough.
