intactivist / intactivism

[Wilson Gray]

On Sun, Jun 5, 2011 at 2:59 PM, Ben Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â intactivist / intactivism
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The anti-circumcision movement in San Francisco* has been getting a lot of
> attention lately. The proponents of the circumcision ban call themselves
> "intactivists" engaging in "intactivism":
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/us/05circumcision.html
>
> The terms have been in circulation on Usenet since the mid-'90s:
>
> "intactivist" - Oct. 1995:
> http://groups.google.com/group/misc.kids/msg/da2d63dd3246e05b
>
> "intactivism" - Feb. 1996:
> http://groups.google.com/group/alt.sex/msg/41f5700a0d0b8bfc
>
> The news databases begin recording the terms in 1998:
>
> http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-58340138.html
>
> *now championed by the questionable superhero Foreskin Man:
> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/djsaunders/detail?entry_id=90153
>
> --bgz
>
>
> --
> Ben Zimmer
> http://benzimmer.com/
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

I wonder whether any black men are involved in this stupid movement.
Amongst the colored - those of a certain age, at least - circumcision
is hip, though I don't know why. It's simply never occurred to me to
ask. If *everybody* is doing it, it's simply not interesting enough to
be questioned.

My three brothers and I are all "cut." A boyhood friend, upon reaching
the age of eighteen (1954), had himself circumcised. My old Army buddy
- he of "up the _skreek_ [= street]" fame - had himself circumcised at
the age of 25. The ridiculous part is that he intended to keep his
circumcision a secret from his girlfriend, divorced mother of four!

She was clearly cool with it, since this was in 1967 and the two are
together to this day.

FWIW, one of my greatest sorrows, WRT PC, is the change of the name of
the "holy day of obligation" - the equivalent of aSunday, should it
happen not to fall on a Sunday - from the "Feast of the Circumcision"
to the empty-of-content "Feast of the Solemnity of Mary," whatever TF
that means.

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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