Will the 3rd Millennium Be Circumcised? (2007)

Today, female genital mutilation is the subject of awareness-raising campaigns aiming to stop the practice. On the other hand, male circumcision, a distinctive feature of a large part of the world's population, is generally accepted. Systematically practiced until the 1970's in the US, circumcision is less common there today. In Europe, especially since the independence of North African and Sub-Saharan African countries, the rate of circumcision is experiencing an upward trend. It is estimated that nearly 20% of 18-year-old Frenchmen are circumcised, 5% of which without any relation to their parents' religion. At first, explanations given for circumcision seem reasonable albeit undeniably superficial, and are just as unfounded physiologically, despite research on current developments, as they are legally. Practiced on newborns and children without any consent, circumcision is a first form of violence. It is indeed an attack on one's physical integrity, a process through which, in an irreversible way, a man is rendered different from what he originally was. Although it is difficult to generalize, a circumcised man's perception of male-female relationships seems to be different from that of an uncircumcised man. Jewish and Muslim societies illustrate this difference via their more or less moderate oppression of women and a perpetual guilt-inducing condemnation of women's state of purity. In circumcision-friendly societies, a strong disposition towards clannishness, family tyranny and religious fundamentalism can be found. If the film suggests more than it affirms, a case is nonetheless made in favor of children. The film implicitly raises the question of abolishing circumcision, a very difficult goal due to the forces that support and tolerate it, namely the three monotheistic religions, supported by part of the medical world that has an interest in maintaining the practice. Will the 3rd Millennium be circumcised ? Is this tradition a violation of children's rights ? Specialists from every horizon offer us their thoughts on the religious, medical, social and generally silent legal debates examined throughout the film's interviews, confessions and disturbing documentary evidence, casting a provocative light on the entire issue.