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Date: 8/18/2022
WEST SPRINGFIELD – They call themselves The Bloodstained Men, and they were hard to avoid seeing on Riverdale Street on July 30.
Dressed in a white T-shirts, white slacks, matching white cowboy hats and blood-red codpieces, the group travels from city to city to wave signs with anti-circumcision messages such as “I want my foreskin back,” “Circumcision is cruelty to boys” and “Nobody wants less penis.”
A growing number of people in the United States oppose the practice of removing the foreskin of infant boys. They call themselves “intact-ivists.”
Although often thought of as a religious practice – it is mandatory for Muslims and Jews – circumcision is widely practiced for health or traditional reasons in this country, with 80 percent of American men circumcised, even though only 3.5 percent identify as followers of Judaism or Islam. Some Christian sects also require circumcision, but most of the time the procedure is done for secular reasons. The World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control both recommend circumcising infant males, saying it can prevent a variety of health complications later in life. A doctor typically performs the procedure 24-72 hours after birth.
The Bloodstained Men argue that it is unjust to routinely remove a body part from a baby, who cannot consent. They also say it is damaging to men’s sexual health, and sense of control over their own bodies.
Some people associate anti-circumcision with antisemitism or Islamophobia. Bloodstained Men issued this statement: “We recognize that Muslims and Jews have the same right to their own bodies that everyone else does. As such, each boy should be allowed to decide for himself if any part of his body is to be sacrificed when he is old enough to make such an irreversible decision.”
Christina Love, from Buffalo, NY, who picketed with the group on Riverdale Street, said, “I’m doing this because I’m extremely passionate to protect boys’ rights so that they get to keep their whole penis and experience their full potential, specifically sexually, but in every way — just [being able to feel] whole and comfortable in their body. Boys experience tremendous pain and trauma when their penis is sliced apart. It can interrupt the maternal-infant bond, it can interrupt breastfeeding. And literally that male is scarred for life. He’s missing a normal, healthy part of his body.”
While most of the demonstrators were from out of state (“we’re on a 14-day East Coast tour,” said one) there was some local involvement, too. Robin Graves from South Hadley could be seen in front of the West Springfield CVS, dressed in plain clothes, holding a sign. She said she’s been protesting with them in New England for five years. Graves, who previously worked as a mental health counselor at Providence Hospital in Holyoke, got involved with the group when she became pregnant with her first son.
“If you ever watched procedure, it’s horrible,” she said. “It’s just awful. It’s absolutely awful. When we got pregnant with him, I started researching it and I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe they don’t do it in Europe. You know, many other cultures don’t do it.”
In 2016, a Danish association of doctors issued a statement that the procedure should be “an informed personal choice,” according to reporting by The New York Times. The group did not advocate for a ban on circumcision, and there is currently not any country which bans male circumcisions.
Data published in the journal Population Health Metrics from 2016 – the latest available – found that in most of Europe, Asia and South America, fewer than 20 percent of men are circumcised. In Canada, the United States and Australia, between 20 and 80 percent are circumcised. In some African countries the rate is as high as 99 percent.
The World Health Organization recommends voluntary male medical circumcision as a means of preventing the spread of HIV-AIDS, which claims the lives of about 1 million people every year. This is especially important in certain African countries, especially sub-Saharan Africa, where the infection rate is 9 percent, compared to 1.2 percent worldwide. WHO strongly recommends that men over age 15 voluntarily undergo the procedure, citing scientific evidence that it can reduce the spread of heterosexually acquired HIV by 60 percent. For younger boys, it says, “human rights guidance is to postpone non-emergency invasive and irreversible interventions until the child is sufficiently mature to provide informed consent.”
Despite WHO’s age recommendations, two-thirds of mothers surveyed in Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe reported they preferred pre-pubescent circumcision for their sons.
“Reasons for preferring prepubertal circumcision were faster wound healing, less bleeding and pain and no lost time at work during wound healing,” according to a WHO report.
The Centers for Disease Control also recommends circumcision as an HIV prevention measure, but takes a stronger stance in favor of infant male circumcision. While it does discuss the issues with consent and autonomy, the CDC also notes that many parents opt for infant circumcision for reasons of “faster wound healing, less bleeding and pain and no lost time at work during wound healing.”
The Bloodstained Men note that the practice of male circumcision has been practiced for millennia. Diseases like HIV and HPV were completely unknown for most of that history. This makes them question if the medical reasons are a post-facto justification.
David Atkinson, a Bloodstained Men member from Boston, called infant male circumcision an “ancient blood ritual.” He explained, “There is a large variety of ancient blood rituals throughout human history and they’re always about power and control. The people with the power inflict … blood rituals on people who have no power. And the best example of someone who has no power is a baby. Babies can’t fight back.”
“We want to educate the American people and to encourage them to educate themselves about the functions of the foreskin so that they have the confidence to protect their children from the unethical doctor to want to cut off parts of the genocides,” said Atkinson.
For more information on The Bloodstained Men visit bloodstainedmen.com.