@NitzanPR is up first- discussing her study on male circumcision, and the personal experiences underpinning it. She contrasts it with how female circumcision is seen as a feminist issue, tied to questions of consent and agency. 1/6 https://twitter.com/rishie_/status/1306166336536576000
She remarks that any genital surgery can be seen as gendering act. Male circumcision is a largely elective procedure, performed for religious; cultural; prophylactic & cosmetic reasons. 2/6
Some argue that it has a negative effect on sexual pleasure (deriving from a belief that it reduced masturbation); but the findings on these are ambigious. 3/6
It has also been seen as a rite of passage into manhood. But it is also a gendering practice- circumcision fulfills the role of 'perfecting' the penis, making it more unambigiously phallic. 4/6
People share ideas of desireability, cleanliness, sexiness which surround the circumcised penis- indicating a preference. Is there, a link between male circumcision status & sexual functioning? And what are the cultural background factors? 5/6
@NitzanPR findings demonstrate that the implications of MC on sexual functioning cannot be understood through a purely biomedical lens- but needs to be understood through the social meanings attached to it, and the cultural contexts it's situated in. 6/6