Evan Roman was circumcised as a child, and he's never gotten over it. In fact, he's so passionately against parents circumcising their newborn sons that he dropped out of college to defend the principle.
Roman is an "intactivist," the name for advocates who support keeping a man's foreskin intact unless he makes the decision himself -- as an adult -- to remove it. Intactivists say circumcision reduces the sensitivity of the penis, and they feel it's not a parent's place to make body modifications that make sex less enjoyable later in life. Roman's own mother publicly apologized for having him circumcised, but he says he still can't move past his anger.
He also wasn't able to forgive his college for a professor's words on circumcision, he told HuffPost Live on Monday. Roman ultimately dropped out of Colorado State University following a lecture that he disagreed with.
"I was very vocal about this on campus, and I attended a lecture from a teacher, and from what the teacher said about circumcision, I was extremely offended and saw it was completely wrong and biased," Roman said.
Roman said he complained to a faculty member above the professor and was told the teacher had said nothing that was "scientifically or morally wrong."
"[The administration] understood that she was teaching that this is OK to do to children, that it's a parent's choice, and that was the point she was trying to make, and that was the point they were OK with," he said.
The arguments made by men like Roman have made waves online, as evidenced by a Slate piece that called intactivists a "fringe group" that has "hijacked the conversation, dismissing science, slamming reason, and tossing splenetic accusations at anyone who dares question their conspiracy theory."
To date, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Urological Association are both supportive of circumcision as a choice for newborn males.
Watch the full HuffPost Live conversation with anti-circumcision activists below.
Sign up here for Live Today, HuffPost Live's new morning email that will let you know the newsmakers, celebrities and politicians joining us that day and give you the best clips from the day before! Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/30/intactivist-circumcision_n_5631408.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news&ir=Weird+News
No comments:
Post a Comment