The Visual Aspects of the Penis

A friend sent me this article. No doubt most of you have already heard of the Weiner scandal, but this article I found particularly interesting because of the attitudes towards men it explores.

I had many personal emotional reactions to what was written in this article, and if you're patient with my explanation, you'll see why it relates to the circumcision issue.

I am a woman. I happen to love the penis. And yes, I happen to love the way they look. I think they're wonderful and quirky and fun. I am obviously a minority in this emotionally damaged society. Why would nature set us up to not enjoy the way our partner looked naked? That would be counter-productive.

Instead, I propose to you that the attitudes presented in this article of women who do not like penises, or do not like looking at penises, is a direct result of our brainwashing to hold men down (figuratively and literally) and mutilate their penises. Men are being taught from birth to not love their own bodies. I am in a unique position, having this blog, because I have heard from many men as a result of publishing this work. The letters that especially touch me are the ones from young men who report having been ashamed of their bodies, of their penises, because either they were circumcised, or they weren't! They can't win in this American society, because no matter what is or is not done to your penis, you get the message no one is going to like it anyway. I am thrilled when I get a letter from a man who simply says to me, "Thank you for saying the penis is attractive. You've made me feel so much better about myself."

Does anyone else see the insanity here? It is being drilled into men's heads their *entire* lives that no matter what they do, their bodies are unattractive, their penises are ugly, they will never be beautiful, and there's nothing they can do about it! How damaging is this message!

To tie all this together, this is a huge reason of why I am an intactivist. We need to give men their power back, the power to love themselves. We have to stop cutting them up in childhood and making them feel that they are not beautiful. We have to learn to rethink this whole issue and realize the penis IS BEAUTIFUL. Look at all this phallic symbol represents: fertility and masculinity and strength. It is not something to be cut forcibly and violently in childhood. We need to stop damaging our men, both physically and emotionally. We need to teach them, and teach ourselves as a society as a whole, that they are beautiful and accept them for how they are and love them.

There are attacks on female sexuality constantly as well, especially in the modeling industry and what comes out of Hollywood, but at least there are many who want to defend female sexuality and help women feel healthy and positive about their bodies. There were campaigns started to help raise awareness of what these attitudes are doing to women. Where are the campaigns to build up men? I propose that intactivism is the largest campaign to help men learn to love themselves.

I believe this is such a basic concept that has far reaching consequences. I believe we need to adjust our thinking and learn acceptance of ourselves in our natural states. Our uptight Victorian attitudes are outdated. It is time to stop allowing the psychological damage these attitudes create. We need to love ourselves and each other.

Cut and Uncut

Another picture was sent in to me for showing on the blog the difference between a penis that was cut years ago alongside one that has been left intact. Notice the keratinizing of the glans on the circumcised penis, which greatly reduces sensitivity.

"Women Are Victims Too" & A Rant From Me

A shout out to a fellow blogger and intactivist who I have the pleasure of communicating with and with whom I share this fight against routine infant cutting.

Cathy publishes Women Are Victims Too. Here you can find stories of how circumcision affects more than just the man whose foreskin is removed.

Please take a moment and visit her blog and read the stories there.

Thinking about her idea for a blog has led me to have a series of thoughts which I'd like to share with you now, here.

Circumcision causes so much emotional damage to so many. It's time we really examined the far-reaching consequences of this "procedure" and think into the future of the man that baby boy will one day become. Circumcision will affect his sexual life as well as his wife or every partner he has, gay or straight. It is not for the parents to decide how a man's penis should be.

The missing foreskin can affect all areas of the man's life. Besides sexual, it will affect him emotionally as well. If his self-esteem is negatively impacted, it will affect how he goes through life. It's common knowledge how fond men are of their penis. Once he realizes a part of it is missing, and he can see only the scars left behind where his foreskin should be, this could potentially be very damaging to the man's psyche.

Deciding not to subject your baby to circumcision will literally help shape his life and the man he will become. What kind of lesson are you teaching a boy who is welcomed into this world only days after his birth with violence and pain? His trust is shattered. He is confused. He doesn't understand why he is experiencing this violation and he feels betrayed. These emotions can be lifelong and permanent.

These are not issues anyone should have to experience at this tender age. This is quite different than if the man chooses circumcision for himself. A man who is circumcised against his will as a baby is not anything like a grown man making a choice for himself with informed consent.

Please take a step back, away from cultural and religious pressure, and see this person for who he is and who he might become, and the right he has to a whole body and to make his own choices in life. He has the right to choose who he has sexual relations with, what religion (if any) he will follow, how he takes care of himself, where he lives, and what he does with his own body. No parent should take these choices away from their child.

An intact man's comments.

I got a note in email the other day and thought it would be interesting to share the point of view from intact men as well. Here is the first I got and I will post more as they come in.

40 years ago, I worked in PA. After each shift, we had 20 minutes to shower and change clothes. And that's how I discovered that in the real America, circ was unknown before WWII, but was almost universal among Baby Boomers like me. Every guy in my shop over 35 was intact, and only two guys younger than that were, me being one of them.

What happened during WWII? Medical insurance became a standard work benefit. In those days, health insurance paid for baby circ without question. Also, military docs thought that being intact made it much more likely that a soldier would catch VD from a sex worker. They also thought that having foreskin often caused problems when fighting in a desert or jungle. The views of the military carried enormous weight in those days.

In high school locker rooms in my town and at the Y, and in pool locker rooms in summer, I saw all of one intact boy. The boys I grew up with were a potty mouthed lot, but one sexual subject they never touched on was foreskin and circ. I very much doubt that most of them knew that their johnsons had been surgically altered. Those of who went on to attend better colleges began talking about it a bit when we were in college.

I was surprised to discover in the 1980s, by reading Rosemary Romberg, that there were American men who were very unhappy about their RICs. I was even more surprised to read, starting in the 1990s, that RIC can have deleterious consequences for the pleasure and functionality of both genders. American intactivism is, in my opinion, a social consequence of the internet and of the rise of sex positive feminism. It is also surprising that nearly all of the passion and leadership in this cause comes from married mothers like yourself.

Why did tens of millions of mothers in the English speaking countries, starting as far back as the 1880s, see nothing to get fussed about, or saw it as positively good? The fact that RIC was done without anesthesia was not a hidden Secret of the Temple. It was freely admitted in most of what I read about sex and baby care from 1965 onwards. Nobody was grossed out by the screaming boys until the 1980s!!

My French mother refused to have me circumcised. When her American mother in law said that she was thinking of having it done without my mother's consent, my mother replied saying that if I were circumcised without her consent, her marriage to my father was history. This was in 1949.

When the history of American sexuality is written, the 20th century obsession to make the penis bald will look very very bad.

The Prepuce: An anatomy lesson

Excellent information here!

Part Two:

Cut Vs Uncut

Please note: These are not photographs taken by me and I do not retain copyright on them. I got this picture from someone else. If you see this and it's your photo and you require credit, please please email me immediately and I will do so. In the meantime, whoever owns rights to these pictures, thank you for posting wherever you did. I believe it makes a huge impact for people to see the difference a foreskin makes in the glans. MANY circ'ed men suffer very uncomfortable dry skin on the heads of their penis and they are not even aware *why*.