This article aims to compare two medical practices of surgical intervention: male circumcision, an HIV/AIDS prevention strategy proposed by the World Health Organization, and surgical interventions performed on intersex children. The hypothesis is that the practices of male circumcision as a preventative measure and the so-called "corrective" surgeries performed on intersex bodies articulate two important mechanisms of body regulation that materialize into medical practices. The first is the construction of medical narratives around the technical and social validity of these interventions. These interventions are distinguished from practices considered to be ritual, religious, or mutilating by their basis in scientific "evidence," and must therefore be adopted for everyone. The second mechanism refers to the continuous medical interference with the body as a guarantee of health and normality, which leads to the emergence of new forms of "nature" and to (re)definitions of the normal and the pathological.
circumcision; Brazil; intersexuality; medicalization; HIV/AIDS