1/15 It's been 20 yrs (& about a week) since #SexAndTheCity aired its infamous male body shaming episode ("Old Dogs, New Dicks," S2:E9, original air date Aug 1, 1999) in which Charlotte rejects a man for having a whole penis - & has sex w/him only after he's circumcised. #i2
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5/15 The only problem? His cut "works," if anything, perhaps a little too well: Mike decides he's so impressed by post-cut sex (& Charlotte's positive evaluation of it) that he announces his intention to become promiscuous (ironically, something
#circumcision is supposed to curb)Show this thread -
6/15 After 20 yrs, how does S2:E9 hold up? Judging by the growing numbers of men who resent or regret their circumcisions, & the ever-more vocal repudiations of the body shaming doled out by the shrinking ranks of
#circumcision defenders, not well. And before those defenders...Show this thread -
7/15 ...go too far w/their trite & predictable defenses of this factually-challenged episode (i.e., "it's about adult
#circumcision & a man should be allowed to get it if he wants it"), consider 2 facts. First, "A man should be allowed to do what he wants" is OUR argument.#i2Show this thread -
8/15 If a man can be allowed to decide to amputate his own foreskin, he certainly should be allowed to decide to keep it. Which raises the second fact: this episode isn't JUST about adult
#circumcision. Miranda volunteers that she is "SO circumcising" her kids (poor Brady).#i2Show this thread -
9/15 As if males could never rationally decide to keep their penises whole, despite all of the obvious good reasons for doing so (including Samantha's "love" for them). As if they certainly won't mind a lifetime of snide speculation from the Carrie Bradshaws of the world as to...
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10/15 ...whether they were forced to "budge" an "inch and a half" or just an "inch". (An average-sized man actually [has/loses] 12-15 square inches of movable surface area if he's [intact/circumcised].) As if males SHOULDN"T be allowed to control their own bodies after all.
#i2Show this thread -
11/15 That, it seems, is the intended takeaway. Or as the Jewish MD & cultural anthropologist Leonard Glick put it in his analysis of this episode in his book Marked in Your Flesh (pp. 269-71 & upon which much of my own discussion here is based): "However men may feel about...
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12/15 "...their own genitals, foreskins must be removed because women say no to the intact penis." Of course, the problem w/this premise is that it lacks basis in reality, as 100s of millions (if not billions) of women from the vast majority of the world that doesn't...
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13/15 ...circumcise will happily attest. As Glick himself notes (Marked in Your Flesh, p. 279): "The most deplorable effect of 'routine' circumcisions is loss of maximal sexual fulfillment for both men and women. Some circumcision advocates, while acknowledging the loss of...
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14/15 "...sexual pleasure, maintain that this is socially desirable. I leave that argument for you to judge." How will history judge
#SATC S2:E9's treatment of#circumcision? After 20 yrs, hasn't the time come to clearly express, if not apology or regret, then at least that...Show this thread -
15/15 The right to be free of nontherapeutic amputative surgery belongs to everyone, including infant boys.
#i2@CandaceBushnell#SexAndTheCity@CynthiaNixon@KristinDavis@KimCattrall@circmovie @Intact_Nation@intactamerica@Intaction1@IntactByDefault@AmerAcadPeds#PutKids1stShow this thread
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