Does this word bother you? - Page 3

[emma_goldman]

Thanks for bringing this up, Greenie. It is a really important point, and I don't think I would have ever brought this to consciousness. I'm glad I read this thread!

[glongley]

When I educate other nurses about circumcision and genital integrity, I will introduce and parenthetically explain the term with my first use of it, something like, "Today we're going to go over care of the intact (or non-circumcised) penis". AFter that I will use the term intact predominantly but also intersperse it with the terms non-circumcised or not circumcised interchangeably, as a way to get them used to the term intact, without it sticking out like a sore thumb. Believe me, most mainstream nurses are not going to have ever heard the term "intact penis" before, any more than the general public. But I think with a group of health care professionals, it's better to ease them into it matter-of-factly, rather than shoving the politics of it in their faces.

[I know a nurse at my hosptial who didn't circumcise her son, though is not an activist. When I refer to her son as being intact, she laughs and thinks it sounds funny. ???]

I will often use the phrase "NORMAL intact penis". Associating the two words in the same phrase, normalizes intactness in people's minds, and maybe gets them thinking that there is something very ABnormal about penises that have been surgically altered..

I definitely do NOT use the word UNcircumcised, as I feel it semantically implies something that should be but isn't (as in"unwashed"), or that circumcision is the norm to which unaltered genitals should be compared (instead of the other way around).

I think "non-circumcised", "not circumcised", "isn't circumcised" do not carry this connotation. To me, they are more just a statement of physical fact rather than carrying any implication. I don't mind using them on occasion where it works better with the audience or the sentence structure. The word "intact" often gets you blank stares. I think the priority is to educate and communicate effectively, so I stay flexible.

Gillian

[trmpetplaya]

I always use "intact" to refer to the natural, normal, whole penis. The only situation where "uncircumcised" DOESN'T bother me is referring to a restored foreskin because then it was circumcised and UNcircumcised

I think "uncircumcised" is from the Bible actually... but that's all I'll say about that lest we get the thread shut down :

"Unmutilated" doesn't bother me though :

love and peace.

[AntoninBeGonin]

Out of the two, I prefer the word 'intact' for all the reasons given, but when I'm talking to someone who is clueless about circumcision I use 'uncircumcised' and 'intact' interchangably because I'm always worried they won't understand what I mean by 'intact'.

Personally, I don't like either term. It's only because we live in a culture that sees children as property for their parents to do as they wish that we need to have any term to differentiate between normal and altered infant genitalia. I think we should push the word 'penis' to describe the normal state and 'surgically-changed/altered penis' to describe a circumicised penis. I realize this may be painful for some of the men on here who were circumcised as infants, but I think we need to be a bit more hardhitting than we are.

~Nay

[Greenie]

Originally Posted by emma_goldman

Thanks for bringing this up, Greenie. It is a really important point, and I don't think I would have ever brought this to consciousness. I'm glad I read this thread!

No problem.. I just kept seeing "Uncircumsiced" over and over... And I just couldn't explain fully why it made my stomach turn.

Originally Posted by glongley

When I educate other nurses about circumcision and genital integrity, I will introduce and parenthetically explain the term with my first use of it, something like, "Today we're going to go over care of the intact (or non-circumcised) penis". AFter that I will use the term intact predominantly but also intersperse it with the terms non-circumcised or not circumcised interchangeably, as a way to get them used to the term intact, without it sticking out like a sore thumb. Believe me, most mainstream nurses are not going to have ever heard the term "intact penis" before, any more than the general public. But I think with a group of health care professionals, it's better to ease them into it matter-of-factly, rather than shoving the politics of it in their faces.

[I know a nurse at my hosptial who didn't circumcise her son, though is not an activist. When I refer to her son as being intact, she laughs and thinks it sounds funny. ???]

I will often use the phrase "NORMAL intact penis". Associating the two words in the same phrase, normalizes intactness in people's minds, and maybe gets them thinking that there is something very ABnormal about penises that have been surgically altered..

I definitely do NOT use the word UNcircumcised, as I feel it semantically implies something that should be but isn't (as in"unwashed"), or that circumcision is the norm to which unaltered genitals should be compared (instead of the other way around).

I think "non-circumcised", "not circumcised", "isn't circumcised" do not carry this connotation. To me, they are more just a statement of physical fact rather than carrying any implication. I don't mind using them on occasion where it works better with the audience or the sentence structure. The word "intact" often gets you blank stares. I think the priority is to educate and communicate effectively, so I stay flexible.

Gillian

That's AWESOME!!!

Originally Posted by AntoninBeGonin

Out of the two, I prefer the word 'intact' for all the reasons given, but when I'm talking to someone who is clueless about circumcision I use 'uncircumcised' and 'intact' interchangably because I'm always worried they won't understand what I mean by 'intact'.

Personally, I don't like either term. It's only because we live in a culture that sees children as property for their parents to do as they wish that we need to have any term to differentiate between normal and altered infant genitalia. I think we should push the word 'penis' to describe the normal state and 'surgically-changed/altered penis' to describe a circumicised penis. I realize this may be painful for some of the men on here who were circumcised as infants, but I think we need to be a bit more hardhitting than we are.

~Nay

Yep. I agree. I think that it's important to tell the world (well, the USA, anyway..) that it isn't normal to perform plastic surgery on your baby's winky.

[Lara vanAEsir]

[Greenie]

Originally Posted by Lara vanÆsir

sometimes "un" isn't bad. The Dutch word for circumcised is besneden, and uncicumcised is onbesneden. But those words literally roughly into "has been cut" and " has not been cut". In this case I don't see "on/un" as a bad thing.

But yes, the word uncircumcised does bother me.

See, that's nice! It literally means "Has not been cut"!!

[EastonsMom]

I almost always refer to his penis as intact or in the original packaging I like how people saw normal intact, it is a nice relation to have between the two words. I know what post you were talking about when you refered to shortening it to circed and I agree with you!

[Greenie]

Originally Posted by EastonsMom

I almost always refer to his penis as intact or in the original packaging I like how people saw normal intact, it is a nice relation to have between the two words. I know what post you were talking about when you refered to shortening it to circed and I agree with you!

: I'm going to borrow that.

[Telle Bear]

Originally Posted by coloradoalice

Intact all the way!!

My son is not un- anything. Nothing is missing. It's all there.

.

Well said!!

[Greenie]

Originally Posted by Telle Bear

Well said!!

Yep.