Pandemic going on for 1,000s of years

There's a virus that has been spreading the world for 1,000s of years.  A much slower spread than what most people consider when thinking of a pandemic and it kills far fewer people too.  It's not a biological virus, although, it does pretend to be a normal part of you like a biological virus does.  Around 1/6th of the world's population is infected.

There IS a cure for this virus!  It's simply education.  However, like your immune system, your brain has to be trained to see the virus as a problem and not a normal & healthy part.  This would be dealing with something called cognitive dissonance.

To deal with cognitive dissonance, you have to open your mind to the possibility that you are infected.  This is a mind virus, soooo, the virus does not want you to see it!

If I tell you right away the name of the virus, your brain will immediately reject the idea that you have it and you will likely stop reading any further.

It is unknown exactly how this virus got started as it started before written history.  There are many theories like:

- Marking slaves, much like cattle are branded.

- Attempts to control people by removing part of the body that drives particular behavior (at least it was believed to).

There are also documented reasons like:

- Marking a religious group to be distinct from the rest of the world.

- Marking individuals as ones who have reached a certain age (a rite of passage).

- Marking a wealthy/powerful group to set themselves apart from those who are not wealthy/powerful.

- Theories about addressing specific health issues.

Luckily technology has improved our ability to spread this education and hopefully eradicate the virus.  This virus has become such a part of the identities of some individuals as well as the identities of entire groups of people that it is dangerous for some to attempt to eradicate this virus.  Doing so may be more risky to one's health than to let the virus continue to spread and move from one generation to the next.  However, if one cares deeply about the future of the next generation, one will do so.

IF you are committed to eradicating this virus and willing to work through your own cognitive dissonance, scroll down to the bottom of this.

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"CIRCUMCISION" (genital cutting rituals) 

Teen son's essay on "circumcision"

 Of course he got a little help from mom and dad, but still very proud:

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Is circumcision logical? To be able to answer that, first, we have to understand what circumcision is. Circumcision is derived from two latin terms. The first is the latin term “circum,”  means circle. The second latin term “caedere,” means to cut. At some time, the terms were adopted to become what we now know as “circumcision,” the ritual procedure that removes parts of a person’s genitalia. 

The way that circumcision is done today, is illogical. In the present day, circumcision is done to tens of thousands of healthy children daily. Circumcision should only be performed if the person it is being performed on has a medical problem with their genitalia that requires it. This procedure is a problem because it can cause many problems with the person’s genitalia later in life, especially when there was no problem in the first place.

Some people practice the procedure on their children because their religion calls for it. The problem with this is that they are forcing a religion onto their child, that the child may choose to not comply with when they’re older. Doctors usually cut off this body part because it can have medical problems later in life. A counter to this claim though, is so can all body parts, so if we’re removing a child's genitalia, why not remove their toes, fingers, and ear lobes too?

Why has this been going on for millennia? Control, aesthetics, and economics. Control to limit sexual choice. Aesthetics to suit cultural norms. Economics makes people dependant on the procedure for a livelihood. 

In sum, circumcision is illogical to be performed on children because it takes away their individual choice. The only reason for the procedure, should be if there is a specific problem with the person’s genitals. There are many groups addressing the root causes of gentital mutilation. Will you join them?

Lawsuit filed against American Academy of Pediatrics

In 2012, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published a new policy on "circumcision."  There are individuals that consider themselves genital autonomy advocates and/or intactivists (activists for an intact body).

The statement that has gotten them upset is "...health benefits of newborn male circumcision outweigh the risks..."  There is no longer mentions of the physiological structure and functions of the male prepuce (aka "foreskin"), which previous policies acknowledged.  This leaves many to believe that the male prepuce has no value to the individual  The AAP also admitted that the risks are unknown as they are not well tracked.  I believe that if more men had a clue about what was taken away from them as infants, more would recognize the harm done to them and report on it.  Since it is done at such an early age, there is no way for the individuals to know.

Organizations and individuals have been making shots across the AAP's bow to convince them to modify the statement:

• Intact America
• International entities
• Your Whole Baby
• Bloodstained Men
• Doctors Opposing Circumcision
• Attorneys for the Rights of the Child
• ...and many others

This includes protests at annual conferences and protests where individuals from the task force work.

A documentary was created and widely distributed in 2018 and 2019 that included interviews with some involved with the policy.

Yet, the AAP has not made a new policy or any concessions regarding the expired policy.

It is believed that more boys have been harmed by this unnecessary practice due to the trust that medical professionals and parents put in the AAP.

The AAP policy has driven many to spend countless hours attempting to educate individuals on the harms, something that the AAP has a duty to do themselves.

Thus, a paper was written and published in the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy titled "Is Circumcision a Fraud."  The paper can be downloaded at https://www.circumcisionisafraud.com/ where you may also find the legal filing.

Peter Adler can be seen presenting the case of fraud at the 2014 Genital Autonomy Symposium here.

Consider following this on social media and adding your email address to get updates, all of which are identified near the bottom of the website.  Also, if you feel personally affected by "circumcision" and/or the AAP's policy, please be sure to share your story in the "Stories" section of the site.

What stage is the genital autonomy movement in?

I have shared this parallel verbally in the past.  Here it is in writing:

A new business isn't just turned on like a light switch.  Any experience entrepreneur knows this.  You have to come up with a vision, put together a business plan, gather funding (if you're not already wealthy), design your product/service, manufacture your product, stock your product, market your product and distribute your product.  In some cases, like mobile phones, society adopts the product as a standard requirement for the masses (ref: "Obamaphone").  Of course there can be some overlap in these stages and some circular aspects as you improve your product/service.

With the genital autonomy movement it would be really nice to jump to the last stage where society adopts the standard and government incorporates the standard into law.  Unfortunately, we don't have the massive acceptance level yet.  I believe we are at the "market your product" stage still.  We have large stockpiles of product.  Our marketing options are limited as many of the marketing avenues are not open to us, so we have to work with what we have.

We have to be careful about the perceptions of our product.  Like the 5G worries with mobile phones, we have to win people's hearts instead of attempting to force the product on them.

For those of us that are victims of genital mutilation, this fact is very disheartening.  We want everyone to see the obvious benefits of genital autonomy and to buy our product right away.  Unfortunately, society has never changed that fast and easily.

I have worked with multiple large (Fortune 500 level) organizations and was frequently involved with major changes due to new technologies.  As obvious as it was to me the benefits of making the change was, I still had to win the hearts of the people to help the organization work through the change.  Sometimes the leadership would say things that helped that process along, but even those leaders recognized that things couldn't be forced.  I would often have to take a step back and analyze the status of the situation.  Once I did so, I would often see a pathway forward.  And, I use "pathway" very intentionally.  Just like you can't ask a person to just take a leap of 100 yards in a single bound, we can't ask people to just see that genital autonomy is a good thing.  We have to lay out stepping stones for them.

Divided We Fall

I keep hoping this will get better, but it just keeps getting worse.  The COVID pandemic has added another level to it.

The genital autonomy movement is fractured in many ways.  People spend so much time fighting within, there isn't any time left spent on expanding the movement.

• Racism
• Vaccines
• Abortion
• Animal cruelty
• Use of shame methods
• "Professionalism"
• Appropriate age of consent
• Comparisons of victimhood (i.e. FGM vs. MGM and Rape)
• MRA
• Anti-feminism
• Politics
• I'm sure I'm missing something

It's crazy that we get angry that our freedom of speech is stomped on by the social media organizations, yet, we don't afford that same freedom within the movement.

Brendon Marotta, in his Intactivist Guidebook, promotes the idea of organization building but I just don't see how we are ever going to have a sizable organization when we let things divide us and take our focus off the prize: genital autonomy.

I've worked for many large (Fortune 500) companies in my IT career.  People in one part of the organization might not like what another part of the organization believes or does, but they were still loyal to the organization and supported the organization's mission; thus, they work together in spite of their differences.

This is an excellent meme, but it's only addressing one of many things that are dividing us:

I often hear that we are a small fringe movement.  I can see why people think that.  I try to change that perception by having the genitalautonomysociety.org/map page.

Sometimes I wonder if those who attempt to get others to disavow someone in the movement is really just a mole paid by the moneyed-interests.

Too many cowboys.  Too many chiefs.

People often do business with businesses even if they employ someone that they disagree with.  If the business is large enough, that one employee isn't going to impact their decision to do business.

I don't have the solution to this problem.  I just hope that this will get you to let go of any attachment to only collaborating with people that agree with you so we can achieve the goal.

Cuties

The film "Cuties" on Netflix is getting a ton of attention lately.  I made the mistake (maybe?) of engaging in discussion about it on social media.

The main issue that I have with those that are riled up about the show is that people are equating what the creator of the film did with what pedophiles do.  Pedophiles normally take advantage of children that are what most would probably consider vulnerable.  That might mean that the child is too young to know better or might be developmentally delayed.  I don't know for sure, but I hope that the creator of the film fully informed these young ladies and got parental consent.

I have appreciated Netflix for taking on social issues head on.  This one certainly seems to be the hottest of them all.  What I find very interesting is that people are complaining about this one because they were "too young to consent" all while the American Circumcision documentary included an infant that definitely did NOT consent to having a large portion of his genitalia removed in full view!

How old should someone be before they should be allowed to consent to dancing provocatively? I'm not going to try to draw a specific line, that's not what I'm interested in here.

The film, like so many others that have graced Netflix, was designed to get people riled up about a social issue.  I imagine the hopes was that doing so would get people to do things to address it.  For instance, I hope more parents pay more attention to their children and all adults responsible for adolescents (teachers too) do more to properly educate those children so they are less vulnerable.

There are also the claims that it provided more material for pedophiles to take advantage of.  With that logic, we should remove all murder shows that give people ideas about how they might commit the perfect murder.

Just like I believe that it is not ethical for a doctor/butcher to only provide information to parents that lead them to believe that there are only benefits to cutting off part of their child's genitalia, I also believe that what pedophiles do is unethical.

The Genital Mutilation Weed

I see genital mutilation practices as all sharing the same roots.  This stuck this idea in my head of a weed with 3 leaves: FGM, IGM and MGM.  If you are not clear about what "IGM" stands for, it's Intersex Genital Mutilation.  The intention is to show that we need to attack the roots, not the leaves.

The roots can be summarized to be:

• Control
• Aesthetics
• Economics

Control

Control started out as an attempt to rein in sexual drive (not that I think it works).  However, it has expanded to include cultural conformity.  I say this because people are being controlled by their culture by choice or their parents are desiring to conform to the culture they are in and/or they wish to control the conformity of their child.  Being separated from the herd is a very powerful fear, thus, a very difficult root to pull out.  I believe this fear is also what drives us to be ignorant about the topic - meaning, not wanting to learn about the practices for fear that we may realize that it's wrong.

Aesthetics

I hear that the preputially amputated penis looks better far too frequently.  Once I learned about how the natural penis works, I just think it looks mutilated, but, when all you see is preputially amputated penii, it's understandable why people might think the more common penis is the better looking one.  However, I also think that it's built into the female DNA because the appearance of the glans tells them that the male is ready for sex and women do not understand the feelings they are feeling when they see a penis.

It's very clear that intersex normalization or binary surgeries are frequently about aesthetics.  Anything that does not fit the binary view makes people uncomfortable.  And, understandably, parents want their child to be attractive to the opposite sex so they have a good chance at a love life.

Even if the intersex case looks normal from the external view, to a medical professional, if things do not look like they are used to under the skin, they may have an automatic belief that something is wrong.

For female genital cutting, this does not always apply since many cases, such as ritual nicks, there is no visible difference.  However, there does seem to be cases where there is a desire for the labia to be trimmed.

The aesthetics connects back to control as there is a desire to look like peers.  This leads to statements like:

• "They will be made fun of in the locker room."
• "They need to match."

Economics

While there is clearly many financial reasons for individuals to press forward with male genital cutting, there are also for the other two.  Let me start with the many for male GC:

• The surgeons/butchers collect a paycheck.
• The sex lube companies sell more.
• The pharmaceuticals sell more erectile dysfunction drugs (i.e. Viagra).
• The cosmetics industry uses the very pure tissue from what is removed.

For intersex, the only thing I can think of is the paychecks for the surgeons.

For female genital cutting, there is the paycheck for the mohels (yes, they use the same term as the Jewish term for those who cut males).  However, the economics seem to go very deep.  Families often NEED to sell their daughters in order to feed the rest of the family.  If their daughters are not fixed to make sure they are virgins, they may not be valued.