Lyra🏳️‍⚧️

Happy Worldwide Day of Genital Autonomy! This day marks the anniversary of the “Cologne Ruling”, the first time a court determined that all children, including boys, have an inalienable right to protection from violations of genital autonomy. genital-autonomy.de

@WacyKitty @quill_monger @foreskinsight @Tyler2ONeil @ChloeCole @GOPHELP The general rule to follow is “only clean what is seen.” No one should ever attempt to retract a child’s foreskin. The individual who owns the genitals will retract it himself when he is old enough that the fusion naturally dissolves (which could be anywhere from 11–20)

@WacyKitty @quill_monger @foreskinsight @Tyler2ONeil @ChloeCole @GOPHELP Yep, that is what caused the issues. The foreskin is fused like a fingernail or hymen until puberty. Forcibly retracting it harmed that fusion and caused adhesions and scar tissue to develop resulting in infections.

'I HAVE NO BRE*STS' Watch @ChloeCole's eye-opening testimony to @GOPHELP. "I hadn't even had my first kiss," she said. "How could they take away part of my womanhood before I was old enough to call myself one?" "I have no bre*sts, because they were replaced with scars."

@WacyKitty @quill_monger @foreskinsight @Tyler2ONeil @ChloeCole @GOPHELP the foreskin of infants or young kids, which causes scar tissue to develop that can result in issues like chronic infections. This occurs often in the US as a result of widespread ignorance about genital anatomy (because of the cultural prevalence of genital cutting).

@WacyKitty @quill_monger @foreskinsight @Tyler2ONeil @ChloeCole @GOPHELP At birth the foreskin is fused to the glans similarly to how a hymen functions. There is a broad age range in which this fusion may dissolve but for most people it occurs during puberty. In the US, where genital cutting is common, doctors will sometimes attempt to retract… (1/2)

@ROpaogun This is sexual assault if done forcibly to a minor. Genital mutilation is a severe sex crime and all children deserve protection regardless of whether they are boys, girls, or intersex.

How circumcision is done in males.

@Castrunfo @ROpaogun It is normal to have natural phimosis at that age. The foreskin is fused to the glans at birth for protection and doesn’t separate until puberty.

@ROpaogun i had phimosis until i was nearly 14, is the surgery really necessary?

@ROpaogun @swolling_flyguy Because “circumcision”/ genital mutilation is a form of child sexual abuse

@swolling_flyguy Really? Why do you think so?

@ThinkyCrow @AdamMcquade I speak about the topic of genital mutilation from the perspective of an affected person. I’m not a debate machine and I don’t owe infinite engagement to people who continually engage in rhetoric that marginalizes affected people.

@ThinkyCrow @AdamMcquade I blocked you because your usage of the euphemism VMMC made me skeptical of your motivations for engaging with the topic of FGM/MGM. Your fixation on the WHO despite them not being the topic of discussion suggests to me that my skepticism wasn’t misplaced.

I still think all circumcision should be banned. FGM outright but male circumcision should be banned until 18 unless for medical reasons

@BloodstainedMen The chances he wasn’t lying when he said he never heard of David Reimer are slim to none. Also, the audacity to say that the victims aren’t traumatized as he stands in front of a protest organized by traumatized victims.

American pediatricians should apologize to our nation for circumcising millions of healthy babies in defiance of world medical practice and ethics. 

@quill_monger @WacyKitty @foreskinsight @Tyler2ONeil @ChloeCole @GOPHELP If they were, that is likely what caused the harm as the foreskin is meant to be fused and unretractable at that age.

@WacyKitty @foreskinsight @Tyler2ONeil @ChloeCole @GOPHELP Were you making sure to pull his foreskin back and clean under it?

@AdamMcquade I agree with the sentiment but this isn’t a good framing. MGM/male “circumcision” doesn’t have any more legitimate medical use than FGM/female “circumcision”. Consensual genital surgery should be allowed for both adult men and women, but MGM/FGM aren’t medical practices.

@DandyDuck118582 @WillRiker1989 @AdamMcquade @JohnDavisJDLLM I do agree that the idea you were responding to is a bad idea. The solution to not all children being protected isn’t to make it so that no children are, it’s to keep fighting until all children are protected.

@DandyDuck118582 @WillRiker1989 @AdamMcquade @JohnDavisJDLLM FGM isn’t categorically worse than MGM. One of the most common forms of FGM is removal of the clitoral hood, which is less invasive than MGM in the US. Infibulation is more invasive than the most common form of MGM, but it is the least common form of FGM-roughly 15% of FGM cases.

@ThinkyCrow @AdamMcquade Likewise, removal of the foreskin is MGM, and so is removal of the frenulum, and so is forced subincision, etc. Female circumcision and FGM are generally used interchangeably, same with male circumcision and MGM. FGM/MGM are the preferred terms because they emphasis the violence

@ThinkyCrow @AdamMcquade They are the same thing. No country that practices FGM doesn’t also practice MGM. Both FGM and MGM are spectrums and don’t actually refer to a specific procedure. Removal of the clitoral hood is FGM, and infibulation is also FGM.

@ThinkyCrow @The_Darwinist52 @AdamMcquade You just proved the point because “circumcision”/ MGM isn’t a necessary treatment for any of those conditions. In the rare cases in which adult phimosis doesn’t resolve without surgery, it can be treated surgically with a dorsal slit that doesn’t remove healthy tissue.

@The_Darwinist52 @AdamMcquade Yes, there absolutely are. Phimosis, paraphimosis, balanitis, and other foreskin complications can often be unresponsive to other treatments, and hence therapeutic circumcision is necessary.

@kcaloriezxx @tirmakfin @jess_ann_pin Keritanization functions the same for both the glans clitoris and glans penis: if the tissue is constantly exposed, it will become desensitized over time as a result of a keritanization as well as mental habituation in which the brain tunes out constantly overstimulating signals

@kcaloriezxx @tirmakfin @jess_ann_pin To my knowledge, there aren’t any cultures that practice FGM but don’t practice MGM, so the cultures that cut girls with rusty razor blades are also cutting boys with the same rusty razor blades. Likewise, cultures like Malaysia where MGM is medicalized have also medicalized FGM

An equal standard of care for boys and girls would involve doctors cutting into the penile shaft and severing the dorsal nerves of the penis, thus cutting the nerve supply to the glans during foreskin surgery (circumcision). This is equality dude: