Some New Stuff!

Ok ok ok, first things first.  We have two new contributors to the blog, and a part time author.  One contributor will be working with me on the issues with intactivism specifically, with occasional commentary on other topics of woo, and the other will give us a weekly blog about various topics of woo interest, sure to piss off those in the homebirth movement, anti-vaccination movement and the uber boobers.

Unfortunately, most of my comments are coming from the same people or same kinds of people.  People who, when I look up their email address, are active in assaulting virtually any web page, article or blog post that has anything remotely to do with circumcision.  I honestly wish I would hear more from other people, but perhaps it’s because I’m not writing in a way that seems inviting to parents who are questioning this issue.

With the new statement out from the AAP, I think it’s more clear than ever that the decision to circumcise or not circumcise is really up to the parents.  There are risks and benefits to either decision, and while for me, I don’t find the procedure necessary and therefore decline it, I’ve been moving further and further away from the idea that circumcision causes harm (other than the immediate harm of the procedure).

I know that intactivists are really banking on the coming-of-age of the boys circumcised after the anti-FGM legislation, but I really don’t think that equal protection can or would be applied in that way.  They’re very very convinced of this, but I think that’s a product of their echo chamber.  When you choose to surround yourself only with those of a like mind and a like opinion, who’ve accepted the same assertions as facts, then those assertions start to look more and more rock solid, as though they’re indisputable, widely known facts.  The truth is that this is an illusion, caused by limiting yourself to those sources of information.  As you become more and more involved, it becomes harder and harder to to accept any outside or dissenting source of information.  The fact is that the only people who consider FGM and RIC comparable ARE intactivists.  Virtually everyone else sees this for the nonsensical gross over-reaction that it is.  They’re hardly comparable, except on levels that enormous mental gymnastics are required to reach.  I’ll write a new blog post about this tomorrow, cross my heart and hope to die.

I also recently saw a post in STFUParents with a woman whose husband said he was thankful for all the babies who still had their foreskins left.  I think, to me, this is so absurdly representative of the movement and how it’s just really missing the mark.  Though again, it goes back to the echo chamber environment, and the almost religious zeal it causes.   Are children who are kidnapped and sold into slavery EVEN MORE victimized if they were subject to RIC?  Should they be thankful all they have to deal with is daily rape, and not the horror that their most intimate parts were hacked away at birth by a doctor who only cared about the paycheck (rhetoric of the movement, not my opinion).

I recognize this blog post is sort of all over the place, there’s not much of a unifying theme to it, other than my belief that the online communities of intactivism are innately crippling.  If you were truly interested in the truth and empirical, evidence-based information, then you absolutely would not dismiss EVERYTHING that doesn’t bolster your viewpoint.  The only intellectually honest position is one that recognizes that there are pros and cons, or at the least that there is compelling information in the decision to circumcise; after all, if there wasn’t, why would anyone choose to?

My Absence

As I stated in a prior post, things are quite frantic right now.  Unfortunately that means infrequent updating of my blog.  However, there’s quite a lot of good information in my blog…and most of my readers are intactivists, so I doubt they’re sitting here refreshing their screens constantly waiting for an update.  I’m not giving up on the blog, don’t worry.  My opinion also hasn’t changed.  I do not circumcise, I don’t think circumcision is necessary.  I also do not approve of the tactics used by intactivists, and were they to change those tactics, I would support them wholeheartedly.  Much like the rabid pro-life crowd, intactivists generally resort to appeals to emotion, twisting of facts, offering up studies (that they haven’t even read) claiming they say one thing, when in fact they do not (relying, instead, on the fact that many will not actually read the study, simply providing one counts as support of their argument), sometimes outright lying.  That includes setting up studies in such a way as to pre-determine the outcome.    These are things that I disagree with, and will continue to disagree with.  Since most intactivists, instead of actually reading my site objectively, believe that I am actually pro-circumcision and that my site advocates for circumcision, I’m attacked quite often.   However, I’m not trying to go into a pity-party for myself.  I don’t feel sorry for myself, and honestly, it’s pretty much what I expected.

So, a few things – Hugh Intactivist, based on the sheer bulk of commentary, I’m having a hard time determining whether you’re a troll or legitimate.  If you want to comment, please keep it within as few comments as possible per reply.  I’d greatly appreciate it.  If you’re legitimate.  If you’re simply trying to troll me, well, then I’d appreciate if you’d stop.

I’m also soliciting for guest authors right now, and have a dear friend that’s already agreed to post for me sometime in the near future.  She’ll be writing a few articles, and I’ll edit them and then post them.  So hopefully this will be updated a little bit more frequently, but perhaps not by myself.

An Open Call

I’d like to hear from you, dear reader.  The furious intactivist.  The circumcising parent (both religious and secular).  The moderate.  I’d like to post your opinion on my blog.  So please, feel free to submit a post in comments, with the words ‘Blog Post’ in it, and I’ll post them.  I’m not going to post redundant comments, so please don’t flood me with ‘his penis, his choice’ or ‘your right to religious freedom ends where his body begins’ posts.  I’ll post anything that hasn’t been posted yet.  You’ll get your very own shiny blog post, right here on The Case Against Intactivism.

Now, back to my regularly scheduled blog.