I’m posting this blog piece because from Sunday, 6 October, 2019, we’re going to continue campaigning against MGM, Male Genital Mutilation – non-therapeutic male circumcision – at Speakers’ Corner, London, but for the first time wearing white workwear with red patches over the groin, in common with the inspiring American group Bloodstained Men & Their Friends. We’ll be handing out new leaflets, and displaying new placards such as this. There will be links to this blog piece on both leaflets and placards, people interested in our message will readily find links here to information about MGM. A unifying theme of the new campaign will be:
If you love your son and understand the harm always caused by circumcision, you wouldn’t have him circumcised.
If you’re an expectant mother, or a parent planning to have your son circumcised, we recommend you first visit the website Your Whole Baby. You might want to watch this video (8:27) of an American mother who is very pleased she didn’t have her sons circumcised. She feels very sorry for mothers who agreed to have their sons circumcised, and later regret their decisions, when they’ve learned of the damage caused by the procedure – “Regret Moms”.
The foreskin, far from being a small flap of skin with no purpose, as many people believe – including most circumcised men – has many important functions. 16 of them are detailed here.
Our collection of materials about MGM is enormous, and it’s impossible to do it justice in one blog piece, but this should be a good start for people wishing to know more about this complex subject.
An introduction to MGM
William Collins, a British man, is the most important blogger on gender-related issues in the world, at his website The Illustrated Empathy Gap. His first article on MGM is here. His book The Empathy Gap: Male Disadvantages and the Mechanisms of Their Neglect was published in June 2019, and it’s a tour de force. The section on MGM alone is 50 pages long.
Religious reasons for carrying out MGM
The two religions which routinely perform MGM on male minors are Judaism and Islam (Christians from parts of Africa also perform it). It’s common in the United States for cultural reasons, explored in the film American Circumcision, which is free to watch on Netflix and Amazon Prime. The most powerful religious arguments against MGM come from Jews and Muslims themselves. The Jewish case against MGM is here. The Muslim case against MGM is here.
What injuries does MGM cause?
The foreskin performs many functions, and over 90% of the Meissner’s corpuscles in the penis – the nerve cells which give men pleasure during sex – are found in the foreskin, and are therefore lost as a direct result of the procedure. For a more detailed review of circumcision harms we recommend a presentation by Tim Hammond, an American campaigner against MGM, Findings of 2012 Global Survey of Infant Circumcision Harm.
Does MGM deliver health / medical benefits?
At Speakers’ Corner and elsewhere, we find circumcised men – Muslim men in particular – convinced there are health / medical benefits from MGM. We refer people who believe there are benefits, to three pieces about the claimed medical benefits, written by William Collins – Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
Video and audio pieces about MGM
Our playlist of 100+ audio and video pieces on MGM is here.
The legal position on MGM in the UK
Performing MGM in the UK is a crime under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, being at least Actual Bodily Harm, and almost certainly Grievous Bodily Harm. However, the criminal justice system, to its eternal shame, declines to bring prosecutions against the criminals performing the procedure. It also stops people bringing private prosecutions of individual circumcisers.
Psychological denial
It’s understandable, but regretable, that circumcised men are resistant to understanding how they’ve been injured (always physically, sometimes psychologically) by the procedure. Religions and cultures brainwash circumcised men into thinking the procedure has been beneficial for them, so naturally they wish to have their own sons circumcised in turn. We believe that the damaging procedure will stop when enough men and women are better informed about the damage caused by MGM, such that they will naturally refuse to have their own sons circumcised.
Ethical considerations
There is a huge body of literature concerning the ethics of MGM. Virtually all of it points to the practice being unethical, in part because mutilation of the genitals is carried out on a minor unable to understand the operation – there cannot be informed consent – and in part because the individual may later reject the religion of his parents, and maybe adopt a different religion. One of the most outspoken ethicists is Brian D Earp of the University of Oxford. One of his earlier papers, from 2014, was Female genital mutilation (FGM) and male circumcision: should there be a separate ethical discourse?”.
Our protests at Speakers’ Corner, London
Every second Sunday we campaign against MGM at Speakers’ Corner, London, we invite you to join us. Details here.
Bloostained Men and Their Friends
The American group Bloodstained Men & Their Friends engage in street protests against MGM. An example of their campaigning, in Denver, Colorado, is here (video, 24:09). A frequent feature of their protests is the large number of female protesters.
Known Genital Mutilators
A Voice for Men is a website run since 2009 by Paul Elam, a renowned American Men’s Rights Advocate (MRA). Gary Costanza is his organization’s Director of Anti-MGM Activism. He runs the website Neonatal Cutting and maintains a directory of Known Genital Mutilators (KGMs). Many of the people exposed as KGMs are British, all of whom are criminals, because carrying out MGM is a crime against the Offences Against the Person Act 1861.
Questions on MGM? Seeking further information?
Please feel free to contact me ([email protected], 07967 026163) if you wish to discuss MGM or any of the many other men’s issues about which we’re concerned.
Our YouTube channel is here.
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