You got to me!

[Hayes]

You are all in my head! My oldest ds is circ'd. Samuel is not, new baby will be intact as well.

My parents are friends with a guy who is an amazing artist, seriously world renowned, had some stuff at the louvre not too long ago. He and my dad were fraternity brothers, and have kown each other since they were little boys.

We went to see an exhibit of his years ago, like 12 years ago. There were lots of amazing things. he has a big phallic issue, I guess, because there are penises in LOTS of his work. I jsut realized they are all circ'd at least the ones I remember.

Know he is from Alabama in the 50's so it is the norm for him. But now he lives in France. Surely he has come into contact with an intact penis now and again.

Just your random thought for the day. Think I could be an intactivist to my parents' artist friend?

oh, a link in case you are interested.
http://www.nall.org/nall/index.html

[Nathan1097]

I think you should at least say something. The French are going to think there's something wrong with the penises on his artwork!

[paminmi]

I second the motion for you to find a way to bring it up to him. Is his wife European? Anyway, let us know how it goes.

BTW, His work is beautiful... I have never seen anything like it before.

[wendy1221]

THis one definitely looks intact to me http://www.nall.org/retrospective1/page1.html That's the only one I could find on the site except for one erect one, adn it wasn't colored, just an outline. Can't tell by that!

[baybee]

I have an intactivist nurse friend from France. She told me that she saw a statue in Sante Fe, NM that had a circumcised male nude and she couldn't believe her eyes! She and her husband just stared at it for the longest time because they had never even entertained the possibility that art could include a cut penis. In Europe you would never see this. This is the insidious nature of what we are dealing with. Yes, definately bring up the matter with your artist friend. Never miss an opportunity to discuss intactivism!

I had lunch today with two dear women friends. Both Jewish, both really into home birth, gentle parenting, etc. One has 2 intact sons in their 20s and the other has a 13 y.o. who was circ'd in a bris. She feels fine about her decision. We were able to have a stimulating discussion about my goal to end circ by Jan 1, 2007 and I did lots of educating on what I've learned in the past 8 mos from being on this forum (thanks, Frank, for taking me under your wing.)

I realized when I came home that I'm not letting anyone's religion stop me from discussing this matter full on. That's a breakthrough for me. My friends know that I love both of them but circ is definately an endangered act in my world, and good riddance to it.
Baybee

[Hayes]

His wife is French, lovely woman. He has backed away from the penis as an art form in the last few years, so there isn't as much in his recent work.

Just thought I'd let you know you folks are IN MYHEAD!

[kxsiven]

Well - for us Europians exposed glans means erect penis - so we concider it just...porn . Very few of us would even think about circumcision as a reason for said exposed glans since most of us don't know anything about it.

[hakunangovi]

Baybee, Good for you !! I applaud your dedication and conviction. We need a lot more people in the world who are not afraid to broach the topic of circumcision and help educate those who are uninformed or have been misinformed (by the medical community).

Most of us are quite shy about discussing circ. It took me until my teens to ask my mother why she did it to my brothers and I !! However , as I time goes on I find it easier, and to my surprise I have never recieved a negative reaction. I actualy feel happy and proud following a conversation where I have , hopefully, either disuaded someone from doing it or reinforced their decision not to.

Your willingness to broach a sensitive topic - especialy when it involves religion - is an inspiration. Good luck.

[baybee]

Hi Howard, Today, I spent 8 hours in a car with a "complete stranger" 31 y.o. man. I was visiting one of my grown daughters and they have a thing called "rideshare" in her community where you can go online and request a ride and then help pay for gas with someone travelling to the city. Well, of course, after spending a few hours driving along and getting to know this nice young fellow, I had to ask if he was intact. He was circ'd ---Dutch parents who emigrated to Canada. Aaaarrrrrgggghhhh!!!! and he didn't see what my problem was with circ and he had never had any problems. I spent some time explaining the anatomy of the prepuce (much like the eyelid in function) and went on for awhile about what is lost. Shared with him some of what I've learned on this list about sex with cut/intact men, etc. After we'd been discussing this for about 1/2 hr, his girlfriend called him on his cell phone. She was asking him how the trip was going and he said "I've learned a lot about circumcision and now I'm so against it. I'm going to ask my mom what she was thinking when she did it." I thought that was pretty cool. He said if he ever has kids they will definately be intact and he's going to Google foreskin restoration, too. so that's today's conversation! Baybee

[MamaTT]

Baybee, you just plain rock!

[Revamp]

Everytime I read one of your posts a little notch is made in my doubt over whether you will acheieve that ambitious aim of yours...

You certainly are quite an intactivist Baybee, I am really impressed!

[AXEius]

baybee, that is totally cool. Ive have found in my personal experience that alot of men, when they learn even a little bit about circumcision, turn against it. I just wish i was more of an activist and more outspoken against circumcision though.