15,546
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
m
no edit summary
We, the undersigned, have been 'cut'. There are manifold reasons for this. For some, religious or cultural ritual motifs played a role, while others had so-called 'medical' reasons. Some of us face every day with a body that was mutilated after their feeling. They had to accept the fact that their sexual experience is severely limited in part. They face the fact that they must live with modified sex organs without insightful reasons, with aching in part and scars perceived as disfiguring. But also they among us who feel the intervention not as so disfiguring, had faced their physical and sexual development with significant disadvantages, complexes and problems, which they sought to compensate for them in various ways.
What unites us is that we do not feel our [[circumcision]] as harmless or beneficial intervention, but as a physical change that we could not choose, that is felt by us - — in varying intensity - — as harmful, and that has created problems for us in many ways.
We do not intend to consider all men per se as mutilated, whose [[foreskin]] has been amputated without their consent. However, we insist to be able to articulate our own feelings. Whether one (man) defends himself against it or not: facts cannot be discussed away. You can put your head in the sand, then you cannot see them. But just because one (man) himself is not affected by restrictions, that does not mean that there are NO OTHER affected ones at all.
Some people like to use the comparison of medical indicated interventions, such as the removal of the Appendix worm process or wisdom teeth, with the often completely nonsensical, not medically indicated, hurtful [[circumcision|removal of the foreskin]]. We perceive this as unrealistic. The 'appendix operation' usually is done in a medical emergency case, and therefore is beyond any doubt to its [[medical indication]] sublime. To pull wisdom teeth is e.g. used to protect the other teeth or to eliminate pain. Moreover, this surgery is usually developed in adulthood, not in childhood where children cannot consent. In both cases, no functional body is removed, as is certainly the case with [[circumcision|foreskin amputation]].
Many affected men suffer from mental health problems, which they attribute to their [[circumcision]]. This is not to say, [[circumcision|foreskin amputation]] was the only possible reason for psychological impairments. However, it is important to us, to recognize and accept [[Psychological_issues_of_male_circumcision | mental limitations and problems]] as a result of [[MGM| genital mutilation]]. Of course it is no [[MGM| forced circumcision]] when a man decides on his own free will and in full knowledge of the possible consequences of a [[circumcision|foreskin amputation]] to have this done on his own body. The same is true when a [[medical indication]] makes a [[circumcision]] inevitable. But we could not even decide for the [[circumcision|amputation of our foreskins]], nore nor were there compelling medical reasons for many of us.
Some of us have the impression of a humilating procedure in memory, carried out against our own will, so that we see the term 'forced circumcision' as accurate and appropriate in many cases. Our opinion is that the not medically indicated procedure in spite of [[German Circumcision Act|§ 1631d BGB]] still violates the [[Human rights|human right]] to bodily integrity and the [https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/ProfessionalInterest/crc.pdf UN Convention of the Rights of the Child]. The assessment that this law is not in conformity with the [https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_gg/ German Basic Law] is represented by an increasing number of criminal and constitutional lawyers.
We keep the feeling of some people, that something was stolen from them, for legitimate and understandable. No one must take this assessment for themselves. How other men perceive the loss of their [[foreskin]], is their own affair completely.
Historically, the removal of the [[foreskin]] was very well accompanied for a long time with the intention to take away something from someone, namely the sexual sensitivity, which is without doubt comprehensible in the relevant literature dating back centuries. We also believe that those are clearly too easy there, if they hold [[FGM|genital mutilation of girls]] and boys '[[circumcision]]' for incomparable. It is commonly understood that [[FGM|circumcision of the female genitals]] always is done in its most serious form, the so-called 'pharaonic' circumcision. However, this undifferentiated approach does not meet the complexity of the issue. The [[WHO]] has classified [[FGM]] into four classes, where Type A also includes the mere scratching of the Prepuce of the [[clitoris]] or removing it. ALL forms of [[FGM|circumcision of the female genitals]], including those who are demonstrably less or at least as invasive as the removal of the highly sensitive [[penis]] [[foreskin]], are rightly outlawed worldwide and also prohibited by law in many countries.
The so-called "[[circumcision]]" of boys, however, will continue as necessary and deserving part of the free exercise of religion, as cultural tradition or because medical myths all over the world tolerate and dismiss it as harmless. We defend ourselves against this scandalous inequality, even if some apparently or actually satisfied, circumcised man is uncomfortable with our protests. The fact that also the [[MGM|mutilation of male genitals]] may be classified into different degrees of severity, is also like being ignored. So the operational possibilities range from the completely prepuce-sparing dorsal cut to the extremely debilitating radical [[circumcision]] [[Circumcision#Low_.26_Tight|"Low&Tight"]], in which not only the important 'grooved band' and the complete inner [[foreskin]], but also the highly sensitive frenulum be removed entirely. To trivialize all the different [[Circumcision#First.2C_a_look_on_the_common_styles:|styles and circumcision species]] of as [[circumcision]] for simplicity, we consider simply naive.
[[Circumcision]]s of the genitals - — except those medically strictly indicated - — are neither 'natural' for boys nor for girls, why they represent bodily injuries in both cases, regardless of their (in turn always individually and therefore subjectively) perceived or defined severity.
Worldwide, tens of thousands men deal with the so-called "[[Restoration|restoring]]", which means the recovery of their [[foreskin]] by stretching the remaining penis [[skin]] for years. Alone the two most important suppliers, TLC and DTR, send approximately 6,500 units annually, according to their own disclosures; adding about 10 new customers per day. Do all these men take these years of torture on themselves, though they are all happy and satisfied with their situation? THE FACT that around 70% of the Germans refuse the regulation of the circumcision practice by [[German Circumcision Act|§ 1631d BGB]] should give pause to anyone who thinks [[circumcision]]is something quite harmless, self-evident, normal.