We all know that one of the most ridiculous reasons to consider putting your healthy child through penile surgery is the chance he may be teased in the locker room. There are so many holes in this theory that it's approaching urban myth status... few schools have group showers anymore; the circumcision rate in Canada and Australia is well below 50%, and approaching that in the US; and if your child has been raised with an appropriate self-esteem, the correct response is not shame but "Why are you looking at my penis anyway?" or "You're the one who's missing something."
None of us here condones their child making fun of another boy in class or at the pool because he has been circumcised. It may have happened for sound medical reasons or because the parents felt they had no choice given their faith, though far more often boys in the US are circumcised without any compelling reason at all. It's a surgical freebie through insurance, HMO or Medicaid, so it happens almost automatically. Whatever the reason, it is never right to make fun of another's penis.
So, imagine my outrage when I recently sat through an entire evening of presentations on "marketing" circumcision in Eastern and Southern Africa. I attended the 2010 AIDS conference in Vienna specifically to learn what the current plans are for ramping up circumcision. As many of you may know, the big news is a massive fundraising effort (between 1 and 2 billion US dollars) to circumcise 38 million African males over the age of 17 (and as low as 14 in cases of "emancipation" -- being married or working away from home). The goal is to snip off 38 million foreskins by 2015.
What shocked me even more, however, was the nonchalance with which the presenters talked about starting the infant & child circumcision programs in Year 2 of this 5-year plan. When they are through, they expect to have circumcised every newborn male and every boy of school age in 13 countries.
Dr. Iulian Circo, a young Romanian doctor, has been given the task by UNAIDS and WHO of marketing circumcision to boys by any appealing means his team can think of. So here is the plan he detailed 2 weeks ago:
Knowing how much boys love soccer, and yet how poor they are in Swaziland and many other African countries, the committee determined they would put together competitive leagues and bring in soccer heroes to teach the boys. All those who sign up get beautiful new uniforms, rides to compete in away games, and the best equipment money can buy. It is a dream come true for the impoverished boys in these countries.
The catch? To qualify, each team must convince a majority of the boys to have their foreskins cut off. Any team in which a majority of the boys fail to get circumcised is automatically disqualified from the competition. It is up to the boys on the team to put the maximum peer pressure on each other to get circumcised, and the sponsors help this by coaching the boys with lines like "it is more manly to be circumcised", "it is cleaner and safer to be circumcised" and "brave boys go have their circumcision without complaining".
A member of the audience stood up and told Dr. Circo that there is a fine line between encouragement and coercion, and it seems the doctor and his team have crossed it. Dr. Circo chuckled and said that his team wasn't coercing anyone, merely using natural peer pressure among boys to get them to meet the committee's goals. It would also teach boys the values of being men, since any boy reluctant or scared to get circumcised would have to learn to "take a bullet for the team" (his words). There would be no leeway or sympathy for any soccer team in which the boys failed at the task and did not convince a majority of their teammates to have their foreskins cut off; they're immediately suspended from the competition for defying the rule of majority circumcision.
Oh, how I wished right then and there that half that lecture hall was filled with MDC mamas and dads. You can imagine the reactions to the smirking young Dr. Circo.
None of us here condones their child making fun of another boy in class or at the pool because he has been circumcised. It may have happened for sound medical reasons or because the parents felt they had no choice given their faith, though far more often boys in the US are circumcised without any compelling reason at all. It's a surgical freebie through insurance, HMO or Medicaid, so it happens almost automatically. Whatever the reason, it is never right to make fun of another's penis.
So, imagine my outrage when I recently sat through an entire evening of presentations on "marketing" circumcision in Eastern and Southern Africa. I attended the 2010 AIDS conference in Vienna specifically to learn what the current plans are for ramping up circumcision. As many of you may know, the big news is a massive fundraising effort (between 1 and 2 billion US dollars) to circumcise 38 million African males over the age of 17 (and as low as 14 in cases of "emancipation" -- being married or working away from home). The goal is to snip off 38 million foreskins by 2015.
What shocked me even more, however, was the nonchalance with which the presenters talked about starting the infant & child circumcision programs in Year 2 of this 5-year plan. When they are through, they expect to have circumcised every newborn male and every boy of school age in 13 countries.
Dr. Iulian Circo, a young Romanian doctor, has been given the task by UNAIDS and WHO of marketing circumcision to boys by any appealing means his team can think of. So here is the plan he detailed 2 weeks ago:
Knowing how much boys love soccer, and yet how poor they are in Swaziland and many other African countries, the committee determined they would put together competitive leagues and bring in soccer heroes to teach the boys. All those who sign up get beautiful new uniforms, rides to compete in away games, and the best equipment money can buy. It is a dream come true for the impoverished boys in these countries.
The catch? To qualify, each team must convince a majority of the boys to have their foreskins cut off. Any team in which a majority of the boys fail to get circumcised is automatically disqualified from the competition. It is up to the boys on the team to put the maximum peer pressure on each other to get circumcised, and the sponsors help this by coaching the boys with lines like "it is more manly to be circumcised", "it is cleaner and safer to be circumcised" and "brave boys go have their circumcision without complaining".
A member of the audience stood up and told Dr. Circo that there is a fine line between encouragement and coercion, and it seems the doctor and his team have crossed it. Dr. Circo chuckled and said that his team wasn't coercing anyone, merely using natural peer pressure among boys to get them to meet the committee's goals. It would also teach boys the values of being men, since any boy reluctant or scared to get circumcised would have to learn to "take a bullet for the team" (his words). There would be no leeway or sympathy for any soccer team in which the boys failed at the task and did not convince a majority of their teammates to have their foreskins cut off; they're immediately suspended from the competition for defying the rule of majority circumcision.
Oh, how I wished right then and there that half that lecture hall was filled with MDC mamas and dads. You can imagine the reactions to the smirking young Dr. Circo.