Circumcision? Bullshit.

Sam,

The problem is ignorance and a false sense of normalcy when it comes to be male sex organ in America. I once had to argue with an ex-girlfriend over whether or not I was circumcised because she had gone through twenty-five years of her life having only seen one kind of penis and assuming it was the norm (ie: the way god intended).

It doesn’t surprise me that when a generation of men and women are raised with only one real sense of what a penis looks like and vestiges of religious manipulation exist that a culture of stupidity prevails.

I can’t wait till I’m a father of a baby boy and have to essential accuse my life of disfiguring our child because of her false image of what a penis is.

Sam,
I think it’s a whole load of bullshit. This entire circumcision debate, that features reasons from religious beliefs (mind, these views were initiated when people lived in deserts, and didn’t have running shower, let alone water in most regions, and such views were incorporated in religious scriptures i.e. social control or order), to aesthetics, is just hogwash. I see it as a violation. A baby doesn’t have a choice, and I think any adult male is insane to mutilate himself for the sole reason of religious conversion (usually based on marrying into a faith).

Other researchers question it being yet another form of emasculation. Women who do prefer it, are usually conditioned. An erect, uncircumcized cock, looks no different to its circumcized counterpart.

Adult circumcision has been researched, and its effects aren’t something that males would be thrilled with (http://www.circs.org/library/fink/).

This procedure is such a ‘Biblical’ procedure, harking back to the days of the Semites (and I mean to refer to the broad spectrum of Semites here, just so no Jewish people freak out on me). While a man, circumcised from birth wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, pathologists have tracked the differences, histologically; an uncircumcized man has Meissner’s Corpuscles (skin mechanoreceptors that are sensitive to touch), whereas a circumcized man doesn’t have these corpuscles on the ridged area at the end of the foreskin.

Female circumcision is more drastic, removing the means for a woman to have an orgasm via the amputation of the clitoris (regardless of the method, the clitoris is always removed), and even this practice is always attributed to Arabs or Islamic cultures, when in reality, it originated in Africa before the consolidation of Islam as a faith, has been practiced for more than a thousand years). The difference between the two. A man can still have an orgasm, while a woman can’t, and depending on the extent of feminine circumcision (whether the vagina and urethra are sewn up to leave the smallest aperture), sex is physically uncomfortable, never mind childbirth.

I remember when I gave birth to my son, I was actually asked if I wanted my son circumcized, and the funny thing was that the staff on hand didn’t even bother to refer to my religion (listed in my medical records), because males in my faith aren’t circumcized.

I’ve had argument with friends of other faiths, particularly if we’d socialize, and I’d introduce them to males I’d known, who then formed relationships with them, and they’d whine about their penises. ‘He’ll have to get a circumcision if we marry,’ and mind you, their dicks were good enough to play with, just not good enough for oral sex. Insane.

For me, a person claiming to be sexually advanced, who freaks out over an uncircumcized cock, isn’t so sexually advanced. It is, and it isn’t, a surprise that this issue is still a hot topic. If I were male, I’d lobby for it to be outlawed as a practice. It may be thought of as a piece of skin (by adults), but it’s still mutilation.

Well, in the case of male circumcision, I’m surprised you haven’t come across this - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6176209.stm

I like how comments are ‘edited’ or censored. A person can leave a comment on many American websites, that relate to the topic, but if they don’t ‘fit’, then they’re omitted. Thanks Sam.

Maybe I’m too soft, but I started to watch the Penn and Teller episode and stopped after the second circumcision. I obviously knew about the circumcision (didn’t know however that is so spread in U.S. I always thought it was a jewish thing), but seeing it is kinda disturbing. Glad to be italian :).

To add another few cents to the discussion:

Why is it that people who argue about how hard it is to clean an uncut cock aren’t *ashamed* of themselves? Seriously, I would never want to sleep with a guy who’s too dumb/filthy to figure out how to wash his own penis. Why do so many American women swoon at the idea of a man who can’t grasp basic cock skills? If pulling back one’s foreskin in the shower is too mentally taxing, lord knows what else the guy is too inept to do.

When I was pregnant with my son, I asked my sister why she circumcised her sons, as my husband and I tried to decide which side of the debate she was on. She said because she didn’t want them to look different from other kids. Hearing that startled me, because she’s always telling her kids it’s okay to be different. But she’d rather cut off part of her sons’ penises than have them look different.

Beyond that, we researched. The deciding factors was discovering that the American Academy of Pediatrics no longer recommends circumcision. It’s not considered to be beneficial enough for them to recommend it. Yes, it cuts cases of HIV, but so do condoms, thanks very much. Be responsible. Same goes for the risk of infection - the parents need to responsible and clean it correctly until the son is old enough to be responsible and clean it. I’ve never known an uncircumcised child to get an infection, but I’ve known several circumcised children who did.

We’re expected to do what’s best for our children, and while I can understand the arguments for it, they just weren’t enough for me to cut my son. Sorry, but no.

As for the part about women liking a circumcised penis better? Sorry, but I don’t want my child to be with a woman who cares more about how his penis looks than what kind of person she is.

I’ve actually been posting about the whole circumcision thing a lot over on my blog, and I’ve been trying to hear more from men about it, so thanks for giving me a male perspective.

“We know circumcision was popularized by people trying to stop boys masturbating”

I didn’t know that, but I promise you, it doesn’t work!

Sorry Sam, it was just the odd timing factor of it and there’s a lotta moderation out there in the blogosphere. Do you reckon it’s due to the addition of links in comments (to articles/papers)? Anyway, I like the way you hit the nail hard on the topic.

I’ve done a fair amount of research into this issue myself (research paper in college) and I wonder why people are so afraid to suggest illegalization of circumcision entirely? I’m not sure that it’s anti-semitic to suggest that jewish families not be allowed to circumcise their boys anymore than it would be racist to not allow recently immigrated African families to circumcise their girls.

Again this falls under a “choice of the child” issue, if the kid grows up and decides they want to be Jewish, like their parents, they can get the surgery done themselves. If a child rejects their parents’ religion they’re stuck with a mutilated wedding tackle for their whole life because their parents bet on conversion. It’s just as brutal as secular circumcision and I don’t see why there is a stigma around the idea of outlawing religious circumcisions.

Thanks for your small part in educating people about circumcision. My twin brother had a botched one, which he disclosed to me when we were in our late 20s. I never thought much about it until then.

Having learned about circumcision, I now find the uncircumcised penis much more aesthetically appealing, and sexually arousing, than the circumcised one. Natural is beautiful. I have loved men with circumcised penises, of course, but there is always a bit of a feeling of sympathy for their loss, whether they feel it themselves or not. I feel sorry for those keratinized heads, having had to toughen up because of exposure.

Intercourse is more comfortable with an uncircumcised partner — I’m surprised that no comments have been made about that here yet. His foreskin takes more of the friction, which prevents me having that ‘raw’ feeling. The uncircumcised cock head tends to pull lubricant (natural or artificial) out of the vagina like a one way piston valve, while the circumcised head pulls back into its foreskin with each stroke, leaving the lubricant in the vagina to do its job. I need little or no lubricant, which I feel is healthier, and I don’t have to apologize about the taste of the lubricant if I want oral contact. I could go on, but you see the point.

I wonder if sometimes circumcised men reject the wrongness of circumcision because they don’t want to have to face the possibility of feeling a sense of their *own* loss, which never before even entered into consciousness. Loss hurts. And consequently, of having that loss possibly contribute to feelings of lowered self worth. (Men, if you do find yourself with those feelings, they are temporary.)

Cutting off the foreskin is loss of a body part. Please don’t do this to your kids, they will likely encounter that sense of loss sooner or later.

My .02, and thanks again for the blog.