The Menstuff® library lists pertinent books concerning circumcision. See also books: ritual abuse, and issues: circumcision and ritual abuse and videos. Also, check circumcision Issues, Resources

IMPORTANT BOOKS

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• Bigelow, Jim, Joy of Uncircumcising: Restore Your Birthright & Maximize Sexual Pleasure, Hourglass, 1992
• Boyd, Billy Ray, Circumcision Exposed: Rethinking a medical and cultural tradition. Infant male circumcision is the most commonly performed surgery in the U.S. - about 3,000 every day. Nearly sixty percent of all male newborns are routinely circumcised in the U.S. The practice is thousands of years old, rationalized by religion, medical theory and sexual repression. It has seemed like a good thing to do, a "simple" way to help your baby. The reason the U.S. is one of the few countries in the world still practicing this ritual, it's basically because of outmoded methods of thinking, superstition, tradition and religious beliefs and has little basis in medicine. It is understandable that parents, doctors and religious leaders have always wanted what was best for their children. It is only by changing this practice that we will stop hurting our babies in a manner that is not good for them. Circumcision not only destroys an important part of the anatomy and therefore, the male's physiology, but also psychologically and emotionally damages him. Crossing Press (Circumcision) 1998 ISBN 0-89594-939-3 Buy This Book!
• Boyd, Billy Ray, Circumcision: What It Does. Did you know...? That medical circumcision started out in the 1800s as a way to discourage masturbation? That it decreases sexual sensitivity and dries up a man's natural lubrication? That infant circumcision is painful, done without anesthesia, and the most common surgery in the U.S.? That the U.S. is the only country to circumcise most of it's baby boys for "medical" reasons? That in some cultures, girls are circumcised too?  That infant circumsicion is a human rights violation under international law? That Jewish circumcision originally removed only the tip of the foreskin, and that anti-Semitism made it more severe? That there are Bris ceremonies without circumcision and support groups for Jews who don't circumcise? That the main reason parents circumcise is not health or religion, but to make the boy look like Dad or other boys? That the U.S. circumcision rate has dropped from 90% to 58% and to less than 50% in California, so the circumcised boy will soon look like the strange one? That impotence, loss of penis, and death can, and do, result from circumcision? That infact circumcision brings US doctors $100,000,000 to $200,000,000 a year? This book can help you educate yourself on an issue of vital importance to the health and well-being of our children, and to our sexual fulfillment as adults. Taterhill. Available from C. Olson, Box 5100-CB, Santa Cruz, CA 9506 1990 ISBN 0-9616792-3-9
• Briggs, Anne, Circumcision: What Every Parent Should Know. Available from Birth & Parenting Publications, PO Box 134, North Garden, VA 22959 1985
• Denniston, George C., Frederick Mansfield Hodges, Marilyn Fayre Milos, eds., Male and Female Circumcision: Medical, legal, and ethical considerations in pediatric practice. In those countries where the circumcision of children is an accepted part of life, perfectly rational, intelligent, and well-meaning adults believe that they have a right to cut off parts of their children's sexual organs. They also believe that circumcision is an inconsequential matter. Others believe that they have no choice but to circumcise their chldren. Even in the rest of the world, most people are unperturbed by that fact that 13.3 million boys, and 2 million girls are circumcised each year. The paradox implicit in this situation is glaring. On the one hand, the world has become increasingly aware, as never before, of the child's need for special protections under the law. Children are now seen as complex beings with inalienable rights perculiar to their vulnerable status. On the other hand, the exploitation of children is on the rise. It is easy to object to sexual slavery and child labour - for here, the perpetrators are identifiable and the law is clear. In the case of circumcision, however, objection is more problematic, because the perpetrators are less easy to identify. Society must ask whether the abolition of circumcision is possible without vilifying caring parents who believe they are acting in the best interest of their children, medical doctors who believe that they are adhering to good medical practice, or religious leaders who struggle to maintain religious cohesion in an era of competing ideologies. Here is presented 554 pages of experts in the fields of medicine, law, ethics, sociology, anthropology, history, religion and politics to discuss these issues from a medical, legal and ethical viewpoint. This is the source to build a case against continuing the process of the last major crime being done to over 40,000 innocent children daily - genital mutilation and ritual abuse. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 1999 ISBN 0-306-46131-5 Buy this book!
• Denniston, George C., Frederick Mansfield Hodges, Marilyn Fayre Milos, Understanding Circumcision: A multi-disciplinary approach to a multi-dimensional problem. Every year, in the United States and the third world combined, 13.3 million boys and 2 million girls are circumcised. Whether because of perceived medical, cultural or religious necessity, most of these children's parents feel they have no alternative but to allow their children to undergo this surgery. Sparking intense debate, the circumcision of children is a highly controversial and complex phenomenon that touches upon a variety of sociological areas, such as religious beliefs, identity issues, medical conceptualizations, fear, and superstition. The contributors to this volume comprise an international panel of experts in the fields of medicine, psychology, law, ethics, sociology, anthropology, history, theology, and politics. In 18 chapters they discuss the history of circumcision; document the physical and psychological consequences of circumcision; present the latest anatomical discoveries about the male prepuce; analyze the role of circumcision in various traditions; reveal the medical industry's investment in the practice; describe current legislative efforts to protect children from circumcision; and outline effective, culturally sensitive methods that are being implemented today to safeguard the human rights of at-risk children. For its insights into this troubling aspect of culture, this book is a critically important contribution to the growing body of literature on this subject. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, www.wkap.nl 2001. ISBN 0-306-46701-1 Buy this book!
• Elium, Don & Jeane, Raising a Son: Parents and the making of a healthy man. Boys need to know three things:  Who's the boss?  What are the rules?  And, are you going to enforce them?  Sons need firm, kind leadership. One of the few parenting books that husbands steal from their wives, this is the straightforward, easy-to-read family bookshelf standard. The authors continue to chart new terriory with this new, updated, expanded and revised edition. Look of discussions on:  boys and ADD, teaching boys to nurture themselves and others at home, creating balance between work and home (what many fathers need to learn), a resource section for paents of gay sons and other sexual identity issues, new, updated parenting resources, an index for quick reference and more. Celestial Arts, Revised and updated. 1996 ISBN 0-89087-811-0 Buy This Book!
• Erickson, John, Making American Safe for Foreskins. Selected letters, $3 prepaid,1664 Beach Blvd, #226, Biloxi, MS 39531 Buy This Book!
• Fleiss, Paul M., Frederick M. Hodges What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Circumcision: Untold facts on America's most widely performed - and most unnecessary - surgery. Each year, almost two million boys are routinely circumcised after birth - even though there is rarely a sound medical reason to do so! The foreskin is more than just a piece of skin:  It's a very important, specialized, and unique part of the male body. Now a leading pediatrician exposes the myths and misconceptions of America's most commonly performed surgery, including little-known religious support for not circumcising, in this balanced, comprehensive, and compassionate guide that will change your mind about everything you thought you know about this procedure. Warner Books, www.twbookmark.com, 2002, ISBN 0-446-67880-5 Buy This Book!
• Goldman, Ronald, Circumcision: The Hidden Trauma. How an American Cultural Practice Affects Infants and Ultimately Us All, Ronald Goldman, Ph.D. This intense exploration of the psychological and social aspects of this increasingly controversial American cultural practice is a welcome addition to the literature on this issue. It has been endorsed by professionals in the field of psychology, psychiatry, child development, pediatrics, obstetrics, childbirth education, sociology and anthropology. This identifies an overlooked source of early pain and simultaneously points us in the direction of both healing and preventing this pain. It is of particular interest to men who seek to explore their sexuality and deepen self-awareness; women who want to understand men better; children's advocates and activists; childbirth educators and prospective parents; and mental health, medical and academic professionals. www.circumcision.org Also by Goldman, Questioning Circumcision: A Jewish Perspective. Vanguard Publications 1997 ISBN 0-9644895-3-8 Buy This Book!
• Lightfoot-Klein, Hanny, A Woman's Obyssey into Africa
• Lightfoot-Klein, Hanny, Prisoners of Ritual, An odyssey into female genital circumcision in Africa. This is an illuminative book...It is also an illustriously fairminded book. Among writings on genitl mutilatoins, there, it is unique in giving the reader a 360 degree understanding of the social and personal significance of such practices. It tells the truth and the truth is devastating. For small girls, it is catastrophically traumatizing. Yet, because the book does not sensationalize, wrath does not override compassion, and the gateway to change is unlocked and kept open. In addition to being a contribution to the scholarship of anthropological sexology, this book is an adventure story, an extraordinary midlife odyssey of a solo woman's desert "walkabout" through the spaces and the minds of Nilotic Africa. Therte's nothing else quite like it. Harrington Park Press, 1989 ISBN 0-918393-68-X
• Miller, Alice, Possessing the Secret of Joy
• Noble, Elizabeth, Joy of Being a Boy, New Life Images, 1994
• NOHARMM, Awakenings: A preliminary poll of circumcised men: revealing the long-term harm & healing the wounds of infant circumcision, 1994
• Parsons, Alexandra, Facts & Phalluses: A collection of bizarre and intriguing truths, legends and measurements, St Martins, 1990
• Purvis, Kenneth, The Male Sexual Machine: An Owner's Manual
• Ritter, Thomas, Say No to Circumcision: 40 Compelling Reasons Why You Should Leave Your Son Whole, Hourglass Book Publishing, 1992.
• Romberg, Rosemary, Circumcision: The Painful Dilemma, Bergin & Garvey Pub*
• Abu-Sahlieh, Sami A. Aldeeb, Male & Femal Circumcision: Among Jews, Christians, and Muslums. Originally published in Arabic and also translated into French, the author now makes his landmark study of male and female circumcision available to an Enligh speaking audience. He is an advocate in the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law and a leading figure in human rights issues. This major work explores the issues of circumcision in Judaism, Christianity and Islam from all aspects; religious, legal, medical and social. It serves as both a major reference work for the subject and monumental statement of human rights. As civilization advances, we increasingly recognize the value of debate and discussion. In the not so distant past, however, this was not so. Those who questioned the status quo, or merely sought to clarify it, were at risk of being persecuted, ostracized, punished, imprisoned or condemned to death. The author has meticulously and sensitively documented the lengthy and fascinating history of the various religioius and medical discussions over circumcision. His expertise in Islamic Law provides fresh perspective on an important aspect of the history of circumcision, largely unavailable to Western scholars. As his book carefully proves, debate over circumcision is as old as the practice itself. Official attempts to quell any debate are also of equal antiquity. I am confident, though, that valuable historical information in this book will strengthen current worldwide debate over circumcision and will infuse it with a greater degree of rational and historical perspective. Shangri-La Publicatons, 2001, ISBN 0-9677201-6-8 Buy This Book!
• Schutt, Carl, I Want My Foreskin for GiftMas. A book about when a boy discovers his parents had him circumcised at birth, guided by the advice from his penis, he darts to the mall and tells santa "I Want My Foreskin for Giftmas!" A heed to those expecting a child in the womb, if the sonograms detecting what the doctors can presume is that fifth apendage sprouting in the saddle of his thights, please, please, please, please do not circumcise! Foreskin isn't dirty, unclean, ugly, a curse. Consider it a giftmas gift from the universe! Inkus Imagination, cschutt@inkusimagination.com, 2004, ISBN 0-9753202-6-2 (See Carl's column.)
• Schwartz, Kit, Male Member:  Being a compendium of facts, figures, fobiles and anecdotes, St Martins, 1985
• Taylor, Gary, Castration: An abbreviated history of Western manhood. Stone Age man invented it, the Sumerians exalted it, the Christians banned it, and Freud got it wrong. Over the last century, castration has meant loss of manhood. But at earlier points in Western history, the author argues, it was a mark of power and divinity. This book is a lively history of the meaning, function, and act of castration from its place in the words of Jesus in the Gospel According to Matthew and the early Church - where Augustine and the Fathers shaped the basic philosophic concepts of sexuality and chastity - to its secular reinvention in the Renaissance and its twentieth-century position at the core of psychoanalysis. With wit and insight, he connects castration to the ancient (and continuing) human drive to re-engineer our own biology. In the medieval love story of Abelard and Heloise a violent castration makes Abelard a better theologian. In the year 2000 a sterile but otherwise functioning man is a boon to the woman who desires sex without the burdens of pregnancy. Clever, offbeat, and learned, ranging from allegory to zooarchaeology, the book turns an unusual and discomforting topic into a thoroughly enjoyable narrative on man's obsessive relationship to his genitals, his sexuality, and his manhood. Routledge, www.routledge-ny.com 2000 ISBN 0-415-92785-4 Buy This Book!
• Wallerstein, Edward, Circumcision: An American Health Fallacy, Springer Pub
• Walker, Alice, Breaking Down the Walls of Silence

*Out-of-print but may be available through inter-library loan.