Permanent bodily modification includes tattooing, branding, some forms of piercing, genital cutting as well as various steps involved in gender transitioning.
Piercing of the earlobe as is traditional in Western culture is generally not considered to be a permanent bodily modification as it is fully reversible.
Throughout the world today children are restricted in law from making certain choices that would have long-term consequences. Children cannot sign legal contracts or consent to necessary medical procedures. In some cases these decisions are made for them by parents or guardians. There are a variety of choices, however, that a child cannot make and that cannot be made for them by a parent or guardian. These decisions must wait until they are adults. It is the position of A Voice for Men that permanent bodily modification must fall in to this category.
A Voice for Men rejects permanent bodily modification of children.
A Voice for Men supports the rights of adults to engage in permanent bodily modification.
A Voice for Men also encourages adults to fully understand the ramifications of the choices they are making.
The remainder of this policy is concerned only with genital cutting and gender transitioning.
Genital Cutting
Genital cutting involves permanently altering the genitals of an individual.
The procedure commonly known as circumcision is a form of male genital cutting. When performed on infant boys that cannot consent it is known as routine infant circumcision. Many men who were circumcised as infants seek to restore their foreskins but restoration can only partially restore lost functionality.
A Voice for Men rejects male genital cutting and female genital cutting of children.
A Voice for Men supports the right of adults to arrange for the cutting of their own genitals.
A Voice for Men also encourages adults to fully understand the ramifications of the choices they are making.
Gender Transitioning
While there has been widespread public discussion of the gender transitioning of children and teenagers in recent years this practice has actually been going on for decades.
In 1965 in Canada the penis of an infant boy was severely injured during a botched circumcision procedure. His doctors and parents agreed to reassign him as female. The young boy went on to have genital surgery in which plastic surgeons fashioned him genitals resembling those of a female.
On learning what had happened to him the boy started transitioning back to male at the age of 15 and took the name David Reimer. David Reimer subsequently took his own life at 38.
Starting in the late 1960s Intersex children have similarly been transitioned to male or female as infants.
In recent years gender transitioning of children and teenagers has become increasingly common.
A Voice for Men rejects gender transitioning of children even in cases of injury or where the child is intersex.
The individual should be permitted to grow up and make their own choices.
A Voice for Men supports the right of adults to transition gender.
A Voice for Men also encourages adults to fully understand the ramifications of the choices they are making. The long-term ramifications of gender transitioning are largely absent from public discussions on the topic at the present time. People who raise these issues are routinely cancelled.
Notes
The use of the term adult above implicitly assumes that the individual is of sound mind. This is consistent with the general usage of the English word adult in most discourse. An adult who is not of sound mind cannot reasonably make these choices for themselves.
The term sound mind has a specific meaning in Common Law jurisdictions such as the
United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and is generally understood by English speakers to mean that a person can understand and take responsibility for the consequences of their choices.
