A revealing lie of Operation Abraham
November 12, 2008 Circumcision, Jewish Community
Notice the woman in this video who claims that male circumcision has no effects on a person’s sexual experience in any way, neither for the man or the woman.
This is simply not true. Nor is it what normative Judaism has ever claimed.
Operation Abraham is resorting to lies to promote and further its vision of universal male circumcision in Africa.
11 comments
Maybe she just disagreed with the findings of the study you quoted.
http://sexual ity.about.com/od/malesexualhealth/a/sexcircumcised2.htm
(BTW it wouldn’t let me post before I split the URL like that)
New York, she didn’t “disagree.” She clearly wasn’t told about this BJU study by Operation Abraham or anyone else pushing circ on the population.
No one has disputed the BJU stuy. The BJU study actually tested points of sensitivity on the foreskin which are ablated with circ.
The essay you linked to did not reference the BJU article directly, and relied heavily on subjective attitudes of people all within a routinely circumcised culture. If you do a similar test in Somalia, you will find most partners will say they prefer women whose outer genitals are almost entirely removed, and the women themselves will say they prefer this as well.
Insisting that, “physical sensitivity is not the same thing as the experience of sexual pleasure” (which the article you linked to claims) should not be used to invalidate these studies. It does, however, implicitly validate that the relatively new BJU research proves that circumcision does take something way at least physiologically.
The “well, there is more to the sexual experience than that” is a pretty weak defense. A lot weaker position than, “it takes away nothing,” which the liars of Operation Abraham are claiming in this promotional video.
They are blatant liars.
From the article I quoted:
“A recent study using a randomised design and nvolving (sic) several thousand men in Uganda found that circumcision did not impact sexual satisfaction or pain during or after intercourse.”
Uganda is not a routinely circumcized culture.
” “it takes away nothing,” which the liars of Operation Abraham are claiming in this promotional video.”
What she said was it “does not reduce sexual pleasure”. The Uganda study said the same.
“Uganda is not a routinely circumcized culture.”
It is fast becoming one. And this was still a subjective study, which contradicts other such subjective studies.
What she said was it “does not reduce sexual pleasure”. The Uganda study said the same.
And the BJU published study on the five most sensitive points of the penis ablated through circ contradicts this Ugandan study.
“And the BJU published study on the five most sensitive points of the penis ablated through circ contradicts this Ugandan study.”
So it is still possible that a. she was not aware of the BJU study and was basing her statement on old studies or b. she did not believe the findings of the BJU study were relevant to the issue of sexual pleasure. The very fact the the men from Uganda experienced no decline in sexual pleasure despite the most sensitive parts being removed seemed to indicate that there is more to pleasure than penile sensitivity.
New York, you are missing the point. The problem isn’t limited to this woman. It demonstrates a serious flaw of Operation Abraham, in its willingness to ignore an empirical data, and choose subjective studies selectively.
Remember, this is an official propaganda film for Operation Abraham. They published this. This reveals their bias.
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David,
I encourage you to post a warning the next time you plan on showing a video that includes bare-breasted women. Some of us enjoy reading your blog, but prefer not to be surprised by what we’d consider R-rated material. Hope you understand.
Micah
Micah, no problem. I didn’t even notice it…
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