... that it takes more than just information to change someone's mind (about anything, not just circ), it takes a paradigm shift.
Hopefully the information will cause one but it's never a guarantee... It was a paradigm shift for me that I could option out of circing my son. That other boys weren't circed. I had to see it for it to hit me, for me to internalize it. I read on random boards that some boys weren't circed but that was as weird and freaky to me as a toddler nursing. I never had ideas that an uncirced penis was bad or dirty, I just had no experience with the concept that you COULD not circumcize. It was like questioning your breath... it just IS, and that's it.
So I guess my request is to try not too be to harsh on mothers who choose to circ... culturally, socially, it is all they know... and the idea that they are causing irreparable harm does not enter their minds. It is not just a lack of information because we know that more and more boys are not getting cut, but a lack of individual paradigm shift for the parents, in time to save the precious foreskins. It is like telling them the sky is purple and expecting them to believe your evidence.
For those parents who research circ and still choose to do it... I wonder if the decision is not based on fear. Go with what you know... go with the majority... err on the 'side of caution' as they know it, and try to avoid the 'risks' of not circing. Much like vaxxing out of fear, which is probably the biggest and only reason anyone circs. Fear that their child could be exposed, get the disease, get a bad case of it, and have the worst side effect, death. My aunt and I have talked about pertussis vax several times- she believes her children to be fully protected despite what I tell her about the inefficacy of the vaccine... she chooses to believe waht she 'knows' to be true, to continue to parent in the way she thinks is right. Challening that requires her to admit she is ignorant, admit she was wrong, admit that she did not do her research, etc. No one wants to be wrong!
Just a late night ramble... with no real point.
Hopefully the information will cause one but it's never a guarantee... It was a paradigm shift for me that I could option out of circing my son. That other boys weren't circed. I had to see it for it to hit me, for me to internalize it. I read on random boards that some boys weren't circed but that was as weird and freaky to me as a toddler nursing. I never had ideas that an uncirced penis was bad or dirty, I just had no experience with the concept that you COULD not circumcize. It was like questioning your breath... it just IS, and that's it.
So I guess my request is to try not too be to harsh on mothers who choose to circ... culturally, socially, it is all they know... and the idea that they are causing irreparable harm does not enter their minds. It is not just a lack of information because we know that more and more boys are not getting cut, but a lack of individual paradigm shift for the parents, in time to save the precious foreskins. It is like telling them the sky is purple and expecting them to believe your evidence.
For those parents who research circ and still choose to do it... I wonder if the decision is not based on fear. Go with what you know... go with the majority... err on the 'side of caution' as they know it, and try to avoid the 'risks' of not circing. Much like vaxxing out of fear, which is probably the biggest and only reason anyone circs. Fear that their child could be exposed, get the disease, get a bad case of it, and have the worst side effect, death. My aunt and I have talked about pertussis vax several times- she believes her children to be fully protected despite what I tell her about the inefficacy of the vaccine... she chooses to believe waht she 'knows' to be true, to continue to parent in the way she thinks is right. Challening that requires her to admit she is ignorant, admit she was wrong, admit that she did not do her research, etc. No one wants to be wrong!
Just a late night ramble... with no real point.
If we can get to some sort of critical mass RIC will stop in the US, I feel certain.
