Are we really making that much progress?

Ooooh boy. The circ topic came up again yesterday, and I was reminded of something I have been thinking for a while. All the activist groups like to point to the statistic that in 2009, only 32.5% of boys born in the US that year were circumcised at birth. That sounds AMAZING. It sounds like American parents have really seen the light, like we're going the way of Australia (which used to have a sky high circ rate much like us, but now is well under 10%).

The problem is, that statistic, like many statistics, does not tell the whole story. It only takes into account circumcisions performed in hospitals before the baby is discharged a couple days after he is born. It does not take into account the circs performed in pediatricians' offices, or anything at all to do with births that do not occur in hospitals. Now, while the non-hospital births would skew it in a favorable direction (We non-hospital types are really not the type to cut our babies. By Alyson's account, pretty much none of her clients do that. She could recount ONE in the past 20 years who did.) the other thing that wasn't considered throws it off wildly in the other direction. There is a massive trend in this country toward doing the circumcision at 2 weeks of age in the pediatrician's office, and every time the topic comes up in conversation (and it often does when you have boys) those who have opted out are always in the minority, and I mean by a long shot. It's still pretty much assumed among parents that if you have a boy, you had him circ'd.

This leads me to one definite conclusion. There is A LOT of work to do before we can legitimately claim that circ rates are falling as much as the statistics would indicate. The vast majority of American parents are still clinging to antiquated ideas about this subject. They think it's cleaner, that their son will be made fun of in the locker room if they don't get it done, that he'll face a life of constant infections, face a higher STD risk, and that no decent girl would ever have anything to do with him. In reality, of course, the truth is, soap and water makes things clean, not surgery; Nobody would ever comment on another guy's goods in the locker room; Girls ALWAYS face a higher risk of infection than any subset of boys, intact or otherwise; Condoms, not surgery, prevent STD's; and honestly, if some girl turned my sons away because they're not circumcised, then she is not the kind of girl who is worth their time in the first place. This is the truth, of course, but the majority of American parents are under the delusion of "tradition", or bad advice from pediatricians, who, by the way, will be paid roughly $400 for the 10 minutes of their time it takes to do this procedure, and then turn around and sell your son's amputated foreskin to a cosmetics company for roughly $50 more. Really?? First of all, why take the advice of someone who's lining their pockets on the basis of your decision, and secondly, do you REALLY want a piece of your baby going into Oprah's face cream? (Yes, Oprah uses face cream that contains cells from human foreskins.) I sure as hell do not.

The common question, when someone speaks out about this stuff is, "Why do you care what I do with my kid?" Well, because this practice is cruel, and unnecessary, and frankly, a bit of a human rights violation. (Seriously. Cosmetic surgery on somebody who can't consent. What else can we call it?) Additionally, I have two sons. This issue is personal to me. The thought of having either of my boys strapped to a board while a doctor cuts off a piece of them literally turns my stomach. What's more, a lot of people, myself included, believe that this practice has continued because people don't talk about it much, and when they do, they make wishy-washy statements like "You do what's best for your kids." and stuff like that. No. That has got to end. The fact is, a lot of people in the US, including me, would not know the truth about this issue if someone hadn't had the nerve to tell us what was up at some point. If you ask the parents of any given non-Jewish circumcised boy why they did it, in at least 80% of cases, they'll tell you they didn't even question it, that it's just what you do with little boys. As someone who used to think that at one point in time, I can tell you that is a very ignorant and uninformed line of thought. That answer might as well be rephrased, "I have done absolutely no research and know nothing about this subject." because that is what it really comes down to.

Since so many people do this unquestioningly, the only way that will change is if people who know the truth aren't afraid to say something about it when the subject comes up. Let people know that they are not sentencing their boy to a life of hell by leaving this choice up to him. Let them know that most of the world's male population is intact, and has no problems. Tell them that the US is the only industrialized nation besides Israel with a circ rate over 10%, and ask them why they think that is. Make people think. A lot of times, it takes them out of their comfort zone, and sometimes people get ugly about it because they have never been asked to apply real logic to this topic, but only when those of us who are walking with our eyes open, are willing to help others open their eyes, too, will we legitimately be able to claim the drastic improvement the statistics hint at. Be calm, be civil, and choose words carefully, but when this subject comes up in conversation, be honest.