I had the great privilege of spending time with Miriam Pollack, an articulate writer and eloquent speaker who is passionate about issues of gender, power, and violence. I urge you to read Miriam’s recently published article in the Huffington Post. A version of this work originally appeared in Tikkun Magazine, and is well worth re-publication, again and again.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/miriam-pollack/circumcision-identity-gen_b_1132896.html
Here is just a taste of Miriam’s article:
“The wounding of circumcision irreversibly alters both mother and child: the mother is fractured at the base of her deepest womb-wisdom, which knows that she must protect her child no matter what; and the baby, shocked and traumatized, is fractured in his ability to absolutely trust the protective arms of the mother he has biologically and innately turned to as his primordial source of safety. From the beginning, masculinity is now defined as that which must be cut off from the mother and all that is female, nurturing, and essential for human survival. . . . if a woman is forbidden to feel entitled to her instinctive need to protect her newborn child, what feelings of her own can she ever trust?”
Read it, and think about it. You will be glad you did.