Friday, January 05, 2007.
Mutilating third-world men because we can
One of my current pet peeves is the news that the U.S. is pushing circumcision on African men as a means of reducing the AIDS epidemic plaguing that troubled continent.
Fact: studies have shown that circumcision may the spread of AIDS by 50-60%. Fact: condoms are nearly 100% effective in preventing the spread of AIDS. So why isn't the US government going to push forward a massive education and free distribution program? If we really wanted to end AIDS, we'd start by educating school-children to the risks of unprotected sex, and ensure that no kid can graduate high school until he or she knows what kinds of birth control and disease preventatives are available. Instead of forcing kids to take vows of abstinence, we should be asking them to vow to use condoms except when they are trying to have children. Condoms are 100% safe and non-invasive; when condoms "don't feel right," it usually means you've bought the wrong brand and should keep shopping until you find one that fits and feels good enough not to interfere with your pleasure. Condom failures are RARELY product failures; with few exceptions, a condom fails because the user didn't put it on properly, handle it properly after use, or the condom didn't fit properly in the first place. If we could teach men (and women) how to use this very simple product, and stressed the fatal implications of unprotected sex with strangers, we'd save millions of lives and prevent millions more unwanted pregnancies. But we won't do any of that. Our government is now so wedded to the idea of abstinence as a cure-all, that we'd rather see men lose partial function in their genitals than give boys a realistic preparation for adult sexuality. Nor does anyone seem to give a damn that there will be huge psychological consequences for African men whose genitals are now scarred for life, whose sexual pleasure will change (and possibly be permanently impaired), and who have been involuntarily subjected to genital surgery. But Bush's people don't care. From their insane point of view, distributing condoms is like issuing a license for promiscuity. Better to mutilate men "for their own good" than give them the tools to choose their destiny. The historical reason why American gentiles (i.e., not Jewish or Muslim) are circumcised in the first place is in itself sick and absurd. Are you ready? It's because 150 years ago, doctors actually believed that cutting off a boy's foreskin would prevent him from jerking off as a teenager. Circumcision was the surgical equivalent of salt-peter - only less effective. If there is no religious justification (and I won't even enter the debate on whether religion IS a justification), then circumcision is nothing more than quackery perpetuated by the ignorant. Infection rates in Africa probably will decline if everyone's has their foreskins sliced off, and Bushistas will think it's a big victory. BUT if condom use became widely practiced, AIDS infections would PLUMMET. We wouldn't have to pat ourselves on the back for a 50% drop in infections; we could dance for joy at seeing 80-90% plus drop (leaving a wide margin for the people who continue to be idiots about their use). This whole issue gives me the creeps and reminds me of the horrible abuses in the past when African American women in North Carolina were forcibly sterilized. Like that horrifying episode in American history, this initiative smacks of racism and bad science. We would never ever get away with this if the population was white. |
Progressive Site of the WeekWE CARE SolarAmerican Samizdat: Underground Word Lines Since 2002
Design: Subscribe to Search American Samizdat
"Mass-market nostalgia gets you hopped up for a past that never existed. Hagiography sanctifies shuck-and-jive politicians and reinvents their expedient gestures as moments of great moral weight. Our continuing narrative line is blurred past truth and hindsight. Only a reckless verisimilitude can set that line straight." Ensure a Free and Fair Election (Ban Paperless Voting Machines20 Amazing Facts About Voting in the USAThe Brad Blog Ohio Election Fraud Rotten in Denmark Blackboxvoting.org Help America Recount Votergate Verifiedvoting.org Voteprotect.org Blackboxvoting.com Instant Runoff Voting Black Box Notes Diebold Variations Subvert the Corporate Media MegalopolyMedia MattersCursor FAIR Take Back the Media PR Watch Project Censored Lying Media Bastards Mediachannel Editor & Publisher Medianews ListenDemocracy Now!Randi Rhodes Mike Malloy Radiopower.org Free Speech Radio News Public Radio Fan OrganizeMoveon.orgAmericans Coming Together Progressive Majority True Majority DU Indyvoter.org Tribe.net Meetup Propagate the Art Gate
Postgen.com Argue EverywhereWinning Argument
More Progressive BlogsAtriosBlah3 Bush Wars CalPundit Conceptual Guerilla Daily Kos The Hamster Kicking Ass LiberalOasis MaxSpeak Nathan Newman Orcinus Neal Pollack Rebecca's Pocket Scoobie Davis Talking Points Memo This Modern World UggaBugga Uppity Negro Whiskey Bar Oliver Willis To see how many US and UK soldiers Bush has killed in Iraq with his lies, click here. Cost of the War in Iraq
(JavaScript Error)
Honorary HarbingersDr. Helen CaldicottNoam Chomsky Alexander Cockburn David Corn Barbara Ehrenreich BartCop Robert Fisk Laura Flanders William Gibson Amy Goodman Nat Hentoff Katrina vanden Heuvel Sander Hicks Jim Hightower Arianna Huffington Molly Ivins Naomi Klein George Lakoff Robert McChesney Richard Metzger Michael Moore Mark Morford Greg Palast Michael Parenti Geov Parrish John Pilger William Rivers Pitt Ted Rall Anita Roddick Douglas Rushkoff Edward Said R.U. Sirius Normon Solomon Bruce Sterling Helen Thomas Hunter S. Thompson Maria Tomchick Howard Zinn Harbingers Past & Present(In Order of Appearance)Kirsten Anderson Fred Pyen Andrew Abb Brooke Biggs A.Q. Jensen Adam Rice Mark Woods Mr. Planet JP Sal Salasin Eliot Gelwan Jerry Westerby Evan Daze Dirk Hine Tiffany Tomkinson Wylie Sypher Craig Jensen Steve L. Judith Lewis Steven Baum Jim Higgins Brian Lamb Tony Tross Stack Kendall Clark Cynthia Korzekwa Chris Eby Joe Somebody Lia Bulaong Turbulent Velvet Jason Lubyk Eldee Graham Freeman Richard Kahn Thorizine Bob Morris Robert Sieracki Pagan Moss Ray Davis Green Flash L Johnson Garret Vreeland Michael Webb Grant Williamson Phillip Shropshire Brad Olson James Capozzola Grady Olivier Back Space Martin Wisse Hash Steven Green Amir Butler Kebbie Marc Robinson Joseph Duemer Norm Jenson Zed Lopez Henning Bertram Helen & Harry Highwater Klint Finley Team sTaRe MC Distraction Cyndy Roy Kim Osterwalder George Kelly Valis Noah Shachtman Lawrence Green Michael LaMartina Bill Connolly George Partington Phil Leggiere Ray Sweatman Tate Engstrand Tommy Tompkins The Happy Tutor Kurt Nimmo Hanan Cohen Julia MadamJuJuJive Ashley Benigno Patton Price Eli Stephens Bruce Wilson Jeremy Wells Madeleine Kane Weird Pixie Bruce Benedict Spinoza HyperSpaceGirl John Fenderson Soy Joy James Benjamin William Blaze DDJango Citizen Daryl Joe Leftist John Walz Damon Taylor Mr. Spock Alec Kinnear Susan Michelle Fierro Northstar Harry MacDougal Rick Pietz Inspector Lohmann Trevor Blake Nick Lewis Cecil B. Demented Michael Miller Ben Gloria Brame Robin Herman Bob Hate Gun Shannon Hubbell Young Fox Teresa Ortega Cap'n Marrrrk Uncle $cam Lenin Mark Elf The Retropolitan Henry Baum Screwy Hoolie The Continental Op Morgaine Swann Ashton Dirk Buchholz . . . and your host: Dr. Menlo: censored by China, Blogsnob and "The Lefty Directory" Friends of the Samizdat100 WordsworthAlmocreve das Petas American Amnesia A-noticias be the water not the rock Betacorpo.net bird on the moon blacksundae Blog Left Blogistan Blowback Burst Transmission commonSci consumptive.org Corpus Callosum Counterpoint 2004 the Daily Vexation, by Pardue Duran Defensor Pacis Dehiscence Dirty Water dratfink Drunken Monkey Style Blogging Estimated Prophet Exquisite Corpse The Fix the floating baby moses syndrome Follow Me Here Mike Golby haha no serious The Hairy Eyeball hedgeblog Heli's Heaven and Hell Radio High Masculine Tones High Water I.D. FLUX ikastikos Incoming Signals information virus Interesting Monstah it is not about you it is not the same killer empathy Knoxville Underground The Left End of the Dial L'Alliance Liberal Oasis likesunday l∅ckedinab∅x lowgradepanic Marstonalia MaxSpeak ME AND OPHELIA misnomer TomNadeau.com NathanNewman.org Netron New World Disorder No-sword No Touch Monkey! notes from somewhere bizarre Obscurantist onegoodmove Orcinus PageCount Palace Chime pleasant PNAC.info Post-atomic Prana Designs Progressive Blog Alliance Progressive Gold Que Bola randomWalks RANTISSIMO reading & writing remake/remodel The River Sassafrass Log Shou? - Igor Boog skimble skippy the bush kangaroo Social Design Notes StoutDemBlog thoughts on the eve of the apocalypse Time Is Tight 3 River Tech Review to the teeth UnaBlogger Unknown News Used Car Sales Wallybrane's Martian Adventures Warblogger Watch We Don't Agree, But Wealth Bondage weblog without a name mike.whybark The Wily Filipino Wis[s]e Words wood's lot Word for Word Youngfox Canada Yoyo Regime Archives2002 January February March April May June July August September October November December 2003 January February March April May June July August September October November December 2004 January February March April May June July August September October November December 2005 January February March April May June July August September October November December 2006 January February March April May June July August September October November December 2007 January February March April May June July August September October November December 2008 January February March April May June July August September October November December 2009 January February March April May June July August September October November December 2010 January February March April May |