Welcome to Cherie Raymond!

I'd like to take a moment to let you all know Cherie Raymond of Natural Mama NZ has joined the Intactivist blog as our official graphic designs support person! Which is really, really good, since my knowledge of this is very limited.

You'll be seeing the face of the blog changing for the better because of Cherie. She's already started working on a proper graphic / logo for the blog so we are better recognized when we post around the internet.

Thank you, Cherie, for agreeing to help here and especially thank you for working with the control freak who publishes this blog... you're awesome and we're very grateful to have you here!

Cherie is located in New Zealand and is available for online graphic design work and can be reached through the blog's email address.

Stop Genital Mutilation

These are the faces of intactivism.

Patricia ~ You did a beautiful job. Thank you for the work you put into this project.

Video is produced by:

Patricia Alejandra Figueroa

Reader's Letter: To the Intactivist Mothers & Wives

The only words I removed from this reader's letter are anything that could identify people that he refers to since I do not have specific permission to publish their points of view. I am happy to publish this letter from a reader, though, because it addresses the efforts of all the wives and mothers of the intactivist movement and I want to share this with all of us, for there are so many of us putting our energy into this, and getting this kind of acknowledgement every so often gives us a little more encouragement to go on another day. ~Monica

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What will the historian of the far future think when they encounter the 20th century English speaking obsession with making the penis bald, almost always without pain reduction? The obtuseness of Masters & Johnson to how foreskin enhances intercourse? The reluctance of parents and doctors to implement the recommendation of the AAP, first made in 1971? The reluctance of People magazine to touch intactivism? They will see us as a seemingly advanced scientific society held in thrall by a neolithic sexual right of passage. As a culture restlessly talking about and exploring sexual activity, but missing a central point. Feminists pounded the table about sexual violence to women in relationships and on the streets at night, but were silent about the sexual violence done to infant boys in every maternity ward.

I know of one American medical school prof who has gone on record as opposing RIC: a fellow who teaches pediatric urology at medical school. The Head of Pediatric Urology at a teaching hospital, an Australian woman who holds no brief for RIC, estimates that about 25% of her caseload is due to circumcision problems. But even she won't take a public stand against it. "Official" and "polite" America still ain't ready for foreskin in the bedroom and locker room.

The American obsession with circumcision has led a surprising number of women of your generation to throw caution to the winds, open the doors to their bedrooms, and risk TMI. I wonder if this struggle is not changing the entire women's culture of sex and the body. Again, this is for future historians to decide. Victory is ours, but it will probably require another 30-50 years, and will be almost entirely due to lay women like yourself.