emmanuel reynaud holy virility the social construction of masculinity

for example, in certain cultures, inflicted on the defeated enemy
by the victors who secured a trophy celebrating their triumph
and, at the same time, removed the criterion of the power from
men who, now they were slaves, were no longer entitled to it.
Circumcision, on the other hand, is an attempt to make the
symbol more convincing and the instrument more effective. By
mutilating his son's penis, the father engraves the symbolic
image of the sacrifice of sexuality in the struggle for power, in
his son's flesh.
[36 / Holy virility]
Christianity later abolished this rite to replace it with the image,
considered more eloquent, of the sacrifice of the entire body.
Since the Son became the Father under the strokes of the
hammer nailing his limbs to the cross, man no longer had to pay
for his future right to his father's power with the strokes of the
flint cutting through his foreskin. The symbolic mutilation as a
preparation to the assumption of power was replaced by the
mythical sacrifice, which justifies all the real sacrifices in the
power race.
Yet, using medical pretexts, Christians today are tending to
return to the practice of circumcision. The removal of the
foreskin obviously loses its symbolic significance; but, under
the surgeon's scalpel whose object is to make the penis
'cleaner' and 'more suitable' for its purpose, it is still an attempt
to improve the instrument through mutilation.
The symbol of power
Man's misfortune is that his penis, the symbol of power, is, in
fact, one of the most fragile and vulnerable organs of his body.
In spite of aft his efforts to strengthen it, his penis remains his
weak spot: the target to aim for to annihilate his strength. Man
has such difficulty recovering from a blow in the groin that he
has to protect it when practising violent sports, and, in fights,
punches below the belt are forbidden ― a prohibition which can
become brutal when a woman intervenes:
«When two men are fighting, and the wife of one of them
comes near to drag her husband clear of his opponent, if
she puts out her hand and catches hold of the man's
genitals, you shall cut off her hand and show her no
mercy.» (Deuteronomy XXV: 11-12)
Man is embarrassed by the vulnerability of his penis. He often
finds it ridiculous in its normal state ― the penis and testicles