Birthers have now decided that what makes a person a true, blue, red-blooded American is not the color of your complexion but how much foreskin you have.


Commenters (and circumcised Americans) over at Free Republic struck on a revelation yesterday: if Barack Obama has not been circumcised, then he must not have been born in the United States. Why? Because all of their boys were circumcised. The exchange is amusing:

hoosiermama:

The only other thing that hit me was that [Larry] Sinclair said BO was not circumcised. When my son was born in a hospital that was done as a matter of routine without even consulting us. Would the same be for Hawaii? OTOH People born at home or in some other cultures are not circumcised. thecodont:

A relative of mine was born (in a hospital) a couple of years after BO's alleged birth date. He was circumcised also (as a matter of routine, not according to any family request). afraidfortherepublic:

My son was born in June of 1961 in a hospital in CA, and the nurses released us because of miscommunication in a day and a half before the circumcision was done. We had to go back to the doctor's office to have it done a week later, and the doctor was NOT HAPPY. My second son was born in the same hospital 4 years later. I don't remember them asking me about it. Routine procedure for little boys. hoosiermama:

Wish we had someone to make a phone call to the hospitols in HI and ask if they routinely do circumcism [sic] and when that practice started. MHGinTN:

You might want to make that call to a Canadian hospital ... MHGinTN:

No...it would have been in Kenya....not Canada. Natural Born 54

I am having a vision of a court room scene. The judge turns to O sitting in the witness chair to his left and says "I am sorry, Mr. President, but I am going to have to ask you to stand and drop trou ....."


What is perhaps most disturbing about the birthers discussing Obama's penis is a deeper obsession with black male sexuality. In Nancy Tuana's book, Revealing Male Bodies, she talks about the historic origins of white male obsession with black male genitalia.

The Black male penis became so important in the racist hysteria at the end of the [19th] century because penises are instruments of power. ... [W.E.B.] Du Bois was right about the intimate connection between White male control over women and racism. As Black men and women were threatening the established social, political, and economic arrangements and thus deprive the traditional White leadership of their power, that threat was translated into genital terms because men—then and now—see the penis first of all as an instrument of power. It gives them power over women, and in their comparisons of sexual performance and penile size, it gives them power over other men. That Black men were—for a while—more than they were during slavery is beyond question.

Obama is the ultimate threat to traditional white male power, a black man who has risen to the highest position in government. He has gone through a number of racial stereotypes, from the "magic Negro" to Felix the Cat. It seems like it was only a matter of time before the racial stereotypes surrounding black male sexuality would emerge. The root of this movement is increasingly showing itself to be rooted in white insecurities.

The Freepers may have also been inspired by actual news. U.S. officials are currently considering making circumcision routine as a potential means of preventing HIV/AIDS (Medicaid doesn't currently cover circumcision). They have been examining studies in Africa that show circumcised heterosexual men have lower HIV infection rates, but these studies don't cross over to men who have sex with men. Gay men tend to be more than half of new HIV infections in the United States, so making circumcision mandatory may not actually result in lower infection rates.


Barack Obama Show US Your Penis [Jesus' General]

Officials Weigh Circumcision to Fight H.I.V. Risk [NYT]

Related: Should the CDC Recommend Circumcision? [American Prospect]

Revealing Male Bodies