I know many of you who have been circumcised/cut/mutilated feel as if it is normal and that it is a justifiable practice, you do not feel like victims, or that you have been mutilated.

Nobody is trying to say your penis doesn't work, or that you are a monster, or that you are somehow inept, we all know that circumcision doesn't result in complete dysfunction or lack of pleasure like FGM, and to us it looks normal because it's what we see on ourselves. How could we not see it as normal. We don't feel any dysfunction because we have grown up with it that way, we don't know any different.

However, if you look at the arguments used to justify IGM/circumcision, and the evidence for and against it, it should become clear that no matter how you feel about your own penis (you should be proud, how could you not), removing the foreskin of infants is not justifiable except for medical procedures for medical issues.

There is no medical basis for performing it on a healthy infant, even the proposed benefits of cleanliness and STD prevention are easily remedied by good hygiene and condom use.

Tradition and religion are not reasons to continue this practice, the only thing that matters is that infants are denied the choice of having an intact body. If they choose to be circumcised as adults, I support that, but when it is done to infants there is just no good reason. Religion and tradition are not inherently justified.

FGM is already illegal for reasons that are obvious to us, those very same reasons apply to MGM, and every child has a right to have an intact body until they are old enough to make the choice themselves. It doesn't matter that FGM is worse, or that there are bigger issues in the world, none of that matters here, and that is not a reason to turn a blind eye to this issue.

Just because you were circumcised and didn't remember it, and are fine with your own penis, doesn't mean that it is right to continue the practice and that it isn't harmful. All the information is there, just try to be objective and realize that as circumcised males, we will never know what it is like to be uncut, why would we use that mindset to deny our children the choice that we ourselves were denied?

Even if we don't care about that choice, or feel like the choice was right, we can never know the alternative, why not let our own kids have that choice?