Reading Foreskin Quarterly: Aesthetics as Argument Against Circumcision

Abstract

In this article, I set out to study Foreskin Quarterly, which was the Official Publication of the Uncircumcised Society of America (USA). Over the course of its history, it changed editorial hands and publishers hands several times, and with each change the magazine shifted direction that influenced and affected its original goals of foreskin activism. I argue that this magazine braided together pornography and activism in a way that was novel and important because in arguing against circumcision, it also sought to reclaim and eroticize the foreskin in a culture where the foreskin was anomalous and rare. Unfortunately, this magazine has largely gone unread by scholars, not just of pornography, but also of circumcision, and men’s bodies more generally. This article, thus, contributes to a growing body of scholarship on anti-circumcision activism, while also arguing for the importance of pornography in that activist milieu.