I felt shaky. There are certain guiding cultural beliefs that allow actions to be taken that are oppressive to men. I find thinking from the Re-Evaluation Counseling Community helpful in understanding some of the psychology motivating practices like circumcision and vasectomy, involving alteration of male genitalia. There are certain guiding cultural beliefs that allow actions to be taken that are oppressive to men. One core belief at the heart of men's opposition is that we are expendable.
Men are expendable.
They are the stuff of which wars are made. If he is not proud of this, he is unpatriotic. If he is afraid or full of grief, he is less than a man. This is a lie. To justify this belief, people use studies indicating that within a day or two after circumcision, infants bodily homeostasis has returned to normal.