The concept of #bodilyautonomy might seem alien to the discussion of men and boys, until you consider that most American boys have theirs violated in their first days of life. I am talking about male circumcision, which remains widely socially accepted around the world. By no means is this just in America, as over a billion men and boys have been circumcised across the globe; a procedure with few (if any) medical benefits, that is usually carried out for a mix of cultural, religious and aesthetic reasons. Often times these procedures, especially some of those in the developing world, can be truly horrifying, and genuinely traumatising to boys – yet there is not one single law criminalising the procedure. Why not? Is this not a glaring violation of bodily integrity and human rights? Meanwhile, the data continues to stack up against it, with spurious studies that spread misinformation overturned. For example, Abraham Wolbarst's promotional claims that circumcision prevented penile cancer ‘were false and mislead the medical community for decades.’ More and more national medical organisations speak out against male circumcision – describing it as ‘an assault’, or ‘a violation’ on a boy’s ‘right to make decision about his own body’. But will things ever change within public attitudes, and when? To be clear, public acceptance of circumcision is waning – 10% of Americans opposed it in 2010, in 2019 it had grown to 15.9% – but is this fast enough? So what are your thoughts? Are boys not entitled to the same right, choice and autonomy as girls? [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Zachary Androus PhD Circumcision trends  Images by Gradienta, Black Kiwi Hug, Haithem Ferdi, JC Gellidon, Ray Zhou and Taisia Shestopal from Unsplash. #mybodymychoice #bodilyautonomy #intactivist #intactivism #intact #humanrights

2023-02-25