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wikify Informed consent
'''Feminism and genital integrity''' is based on the fundamental principle of [[human rights]] that everyone, without exception, has the same [[human rights]]. The ''Universal Declaration of Human Rights'' (1948) declares:
<blockquote>
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.<ref name="udhr1948">{{REFdocument
Feminists attempt to secure the right to choice for women and girls. Feminism is supposed to offer change for women and men, and a way to conceptualize sexism and injustices with an objective to resist and combat these phenomena. Men are silenced and invalidated while feminism belittles their experiences as victims of male genital mutilation by not extending the same articulations of this gendered practice as it has for women.
The origin of feminist theory lies in a vision for change. Among the vision is securing choice that will better women’s lives. Male [[circumcision]] should also be questioned and awareness should be raised of the benefits of intact genitalia, as well as appreciation for the intact body as natural and beautiful.<ref name="wisdom2012" /> These two philosophies seem to contradict each other, because [[intactivism]] calls for choice and protection from unwanted genital surgeries, regardless of gender; and feminism seems to only be interested in securing choice for females. It is a [[double-standard ]] against boys and men and feminists need to reconsider.
Feminism is very relevant to this issue. Both the feminist and [[intactivist]] movements disrupt dominant discourses that are taken for granted, the most basic assumptions of the ways in which our society functions. These discourses articulate meanings of sexuality, health, and reproduction, and as with the discourses surrounding female sexuality, they can be damaging to women. The discourses that surround males are damaging to their sexuality and their bodies, as they promote genital surgery that amputates the epicenter of their pleasure and sensation, and that rids their genitals of protection, denying the the same right of body ownership that Americans ethnocentrically secure for females.<ref name="wisdom2012" /> According to feminism, men benefit most from gender privilege, but they are also oppressed and victimized by its ideologies and by sexist exploitation. If gender inequality exists against males whereby we are marginalized and their lives are jeopardized, why wouldn’t feminism offer critical analyses for positive social change as intended to better women’s lives by eradicating all forms of sexism?
In fact, feminism does recognize the ideologies surrounding genital surgeries and theorists work to articulate the knowledge produced about circumcision on women and girls. Specifically, the feminist movement has been instrumental in securing the right to body ownership for females as well as bodily integrity and respect. However, feminism has failed to look at genital surgeries across the gender spectrum by realizing that circumcision of males is not exempt from these ideologies.<ref name="wisdom2012" /> The same valuation, respect, and appreciation must be extended to boys and men. Males are entitled to the same beliefs and the legal protection from involuntary genital surgeries as females.<ref name="udhr1948" />
Chiefly, the concern is choice; that, feminism offers choice for women in order to improve the conditions under which women live. Reproductive rights rest on this understanding; that choice must be secured for women if women’s lives have any value. “If feminism is a movement to end sexist oppression,” argues Hooks, “and depriving females of reproductive rights is a form of sexist oppression, then one cannot be anti-choice and be feminist” (Hooks, 2000). If feminism promotes choice for the end result of empowering women’s lives via methods to demand positive social change, then advancing society by ending sexist oppression in its entirety should be envisioned. To systematically deny a male child the right to intact genitalia on the grounds of any justification forbids him the choice to decide the outcomes of his body. To legally prohibit the removal of any part of a girl’s body without her [[informed consent ]] regardless of any reason or justification, and yet, to subject a boy to genital cutting, is inherently sex discrimination and prohibited by international [[human rights ]] law.<ref name="iccpr1967">{{REFdocument
|title=International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
|url=https://treaties.un.org/doc/Treaties/1976/03/19760323%2006-17%20AM/Ch_IV_04.pdf