Making America Safe for Foreskins

Does Male Circumcision Victimize Women?


To Dr. Ruth Westheimer, sex therapist (9/5/86):
       The other night on Larry King Live, when a woman called in and said her vagina hurt after intercourse with her husband, you advised her to see a doctor.
       Why did you assume something was wrong with her?
       Isn't it possible -- even likely -- that the pain she feels is the result of friction caused by the absence of a slick, sensitive, self-lubricating, movable sheath of skin -- a foreskin -- from the penis of her circumcised husband?

To Dr. Irene Kassorla, psychologist (8/6/86):
       Could there be a connection between the continually recurring theme on men's "detective" magazine covers -- the bound and gagged woman shrinking from a man with a knife -- and the fact that most men in this country had a similar experience when they were babies, when someone restrained them, ignored their screams, and cut part of their penises off?

To Gloria Steinem, feminist (9/8/86):
       Has anyone investigated the possibility of a connection between all of the unnecessary amputations and other unnecessary surgery performed on women in the U.S. (Caesareans, episiotomies, hysterectomies, mastectomies, etc.) and the fact that most of the doctors who perform those operations are themselves the victims of an unnecessary amputation: circumcision -- requested, consented to, or allowed by their mothers?