Jonathan Friedman: We have to create our own media!

Jonathan Friedman was raised according to Orthodox Judaism, and is now an ardent intactivist. He describes his awakening to the damage caused by circum­cision, how his frustration with that fact has been received by his mother, and the ways in which he has channeled his energies into productive work toward convincing others to relinquish this tradition of forcibly cutting up the genitals of completely healthy individuals.

Aubrey Terrón [Taylor]: “I just cried and cried and cried”

Aubrey Terrón (known widely as Aubrey Taylor) relates her own story of awakening to the distasteful reality of circumcision, from first hearing about the bizarre practice when she was a little girl, to experiencing a world of difference between intact sex and circumcised sex when she was a young woman, realizing along the way that the circumcision of little boys is not only unnecessary, but cruel.

Michael B. Wicks: I was circumcised as an adult and I get it

Michael B. Wicks chose for himself to undergo adult circumcision when he was 30 years old; he was suffering from phimosis, which is a relatively rare and frequently inappropriate diagnosis.

Today, Michael laments the fact that he didn't investigate—and wasn't informed about—less invasive alternatives to treating his condition, and he's been inspired by the way the Intactivist Movement has pushed the conversation around circumcision into the light of the mainstream, where the foreskin is finally being defended as a valuable part of a person's body.

The following conversation took place between shows in the Canadian Foreskin Awareness Project's Foreskin Awareness Booth during a Vancouver street fair on Davie Street.

[19] The Cut Podcast: The Psychological Consequences of Circumcision

Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon conversed with Dr. Ronald Goldman, a psychologist and published Intactivist, about the psychological consequences surrounding the practice of circumcision. Here is the recording.

Transcript
(slightly modified)

Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon

From the White Letter Productions studios in Los Angeles, California, I'm [Eliyahu] Ungar-Sargon, and this is The Cut Podcast.

Welcome to another special edition of The Cut Podcast; I'm very happy to be sitting here with Ronald Goldman, and we're going to be having a conversation today about some of the psychological aspects of infant male circumcision.

This is a field [into which] I've been a little wary to wade; I think when I talk to people who don't necessarily agree with my position on this subject, I find it much easier to talk about things like Meissner's corpuscles—the hard scientific stuff [to which] I can just sort of point, [and for which] we have hard data; my impressions—and I would love to get your reaction and your opinion about this—is that when it comes to the psychological data, just by virtue of where we are in our understanding of the human brain and the human mind, it's a little trickier to get hard data on these questions. Is that right? or is this a misperception [that I have]?

Ronald Goldman

Well, I agree with you; part of the problem is there's a resistance to doing these kinds of [study]. Most of the researchers who do the studies on circumcision are looking for benefits, not potential harm. They happen to be medical doctors for the most part, so they're starting with what they're familiar with, which is the physical body. Studying behavior is a lot more complicated. You can't so much put it in a box and put it under a microscope [to examine] it that way. So, human behavior requires a different kind of research, and we haven't had the will to do that for the most part.

Aubrey Taylor: a Circumcised Penis means Circumcised Sex

Aubrey Taylor is an intactivist based in Atlanta, Georgia. She runs the YouTube channel whatUneverknew.

In the following video, Aubrey expresses the fact that circumcision can diminish the quality of sexual intimacy for both partners, and that plenty of women love foreskin—even in cultures where circumcision is currently prevalent (like in Aubrey's country, the United States).

She continues this conversation with Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon.