The right of bodily autonomy is the chief defense of many women's rights concepts: the right to an abortion, the right to contraception, and defense against female genetial mutilation. All of these are noble goals that I agree with, and because of such, largely consider myself a feminist.
In Europe, the criticism I am about to levy is not true; many feminists take heart this argument and, in fact, do pursue the ban of non-medical infant circumcision. That is why in many nations where it is not a common practice, it is either outright illegal or very difficult to perform, and almost always not covered by the universal healthcare these nations often provide.
In the US however, where male circumcision is routinely preformed on infants by the million, there has been a noticeable silence on circumcision. While by no means speakers of the entire feminist movement, online feminists have routinely trivialized the issue and more or less claimed, even if they are personally against it, that circumcision is not an important issue.
The fact is, while many feminists in the US no doubt don't support circumcision, there has been absolutely 0 discussion about it by feminists, prominent or not. Some claim to oppose it is anti-Semitic or Islamaphobic, even.
The fact is, it does objectively hurt sexual pleasure; it eliminates a plethora of nerves and takes away a piece of skin that serves as natural lubricant. But that doesn't even matter, because it is almost 100% of the time, an unnecessary, cosmetic surgery. It is a permanent alteration of a person's genitals, the exact consequences of which we do not fully understand.
Yet despite this, most feminist groups are silent. The equivalent of male circumcision, the removal of the clitoral hood, is flat out illegal since 1997. This is because any alteration of a woman's genitalia was seen as a violation of her bodily autonomy, and thus was a barbaric act.
Yet this same logic does not apply to men; feminist groups either defend the practice or are silent on it. The right to bodily autonomy does not apply to men, in the US, nor does it in the Middle East, South Korea, or the Philippines.
It is for this reason why I, someone who agrees with most tenets of feminism, and who is in any other capacity, liberal, can not take seriously the majority of feminist groups or their leaders. They are intellectually dishonest, at best sacrificing people they claim to fight for, and at worst engaging in the systemic oppression they criticize.
After all, it is generally agreed that the patriarchy hurts men as it does women; and that men do not need a separate movement. Yet there is no movement that helps men escape circumcision, as feminism in the US, as an organized ideology and political group, has completely failed to help them.
