1980-01-01 via Intactivism Pages - Final Chapter of "Circumcision: An American Health Fallacy"

[DerekV12345]

Chapter 18 of "Circumcision: An American Health Fallacy"
by Edward Wallerstein (Springer, 1980)
http://www.circumstitions.com/w18.html

An Appeal to Reason

Circumcision is a unique phenomenon. Its origins in antiquity are obscure, its original objectives unknown, its spread to all continents a source of speculation; yet this operation, this first ritual surgery devised by humans, is still in use. As a ritual, circumcision has been practiced for thousands of years. It is so deeply ingrained among many groups that there is little likelihood of the practice soon being abandoned.

But circumcision is more than merely ritual surgery. As a therapeutic measure, to correct a true defect, it is accepted worldwide. In the U.S., circumcision is allegedly employed therapeutically-to correct a pseudodefect. A third aspect, prophylaxis, has taken on even greater significance in the United States, where many more operations are performed for prophylactic reasons than for religious or therapeutic ones.

Thus the American practice is trifaceted; a religious rite, a therapeutic measure, and a prophylactic operation. No other surgical procedure can make such a claim. In fact, according to Dr. David Grimes, "Newborn circumcision eludes classification."1 (Surgery is classified into four areas: repair of wounds, extirpation of diseased organs or tissue, reconstructive surgery, and physiologic surgery. Prophylactic circumcision fits none of these classifications.)

~From the book Circumcision: An American Fallacy
by Edward Wallerstein

{full excerpt at Link}

[z726]

Hmm, seems Dr. Grimes forgot the classification of "unnecessary surgery" in his list.

[Dasher]

There are of course non-medical, non-religious reasons for circumcision in the U.S. These might be broadly classified as the "truly stupid" reasons, because there is not even a half-assed argument to be made in favor of any of them. And it's these "truly stupid reasons" that make circumcision in the U.S. the unique phenomenon that author Wallerstein was talking about.

The truly stupid U.S. reasons for circumcision are sociological and psychological:
1. Conformity, to make junior look like the other boys, whether the operation would do so or not -- this was the frivolous official reason why I was circumcised.
2. To confer status on the parents, because of their mistaken belief that circumcising junior will admit them to the middle class (or higher) -- this was the real reason I was circumcised.
3. To make junior's penis more closely resemble his father's penis (only if the father is circumcised; this reason somehow almost never comes into play if the father is intact). The obvious implication here is that the circumcised father would be jealous and might even have feelings of inferiority if junior ended up with more in the penis department than he did.

And for any of these truly stupid reasons, the parents subject junior to risky and unnecessary surgery. The medical and religious reasons given in the U.S. are only in the stupid category.

Europeans I suppose have a right to laugh at us Americans for being so gullible because our leaders essentially invite millions of illegal aliens into the country every year to steal our jobs and we do nothing about it. Or because we can be suckered into endless unwinnable wars of occupation that we can't afford at the drop of a hat. Or because we have only two political parties, where one is just as bad as the other. Or because we have the finest Congress money can buy. Or for lots of other reasons.

But Europeans never criticize us Americans for being so gullible and stupid that we circumcise junior for truly stupid (and just plain stupid) reasons. That's because, for them, circumcision is a non-issue.