Circumcision as genital mutilation.

[princealbertofb]

Don't even get me started on this topic....I'll keep my post short and sweet though. Male circumcision on an unconsenting infant is absolutely genital mutilation and is completely wrong, plain and simple.

@MikeW,I should post this on your "Mysteries of the Universe" thread: I just don't get why more men aren't enraged about it.

Thanks, @Jettalove, honey, it's nice to see some women who get it. My brother was born in the US and no sooner did he pop out than the surgeon asked if my mother wanted him circumcised. She, being European, was shocked and said "No Way!" (none of her four sons were cut).

The fact that said brother needed to get a circumcision later on in life was another matter. It was his choice to get one done, and it wasn't a very pleasant affair, from what I remember, though he didn't complain about it, since it was better than what was preventing him from having a normal sex life.

Note : my brother died of AIDS related complications so there's absolutely NO guarantee that a circumcision prevents transmission from happening, as is so often purported.

What is important in all this story is that he had his own adult choice in having the operation done.

[Edward]

I agree that circumcision is a barbaric thing to do to a child who cannot even completely consent to it. Everything has its meaning in human body and so does the foreskin.

[princealbertofb]

I sympathize with him but also found him annoying. I think he just talks to people on the internet rather than in real life given the stereotypes he was coming up with which sounded to me to come from privileged college age and younger people (though some might fancy themselves "social justice warriors" or some rot like that). Some of what he said got my mind veering way off topic and wanting to yell at him but I won't share that. Just that I don't know how convincing he is to people who promote circumcision for males, but he succeeded in alienating me (though I empathize with what was done to him and know that sometimes it gets botched a lot worse than it was with him) though I'm still against male circumcision (as I was before I heard him).

A woman (and a feminist, btw) I used to be close to decided against circumcision for her son because she was a nurse and saw how infants screamed when they were being circumcised (and was aware of accidents that damaged and sometimes severed the penis, admittedly very rare but why play Russian Roulette with a boy's penis who gets no say?) and saw no point in it (unless you blindly followed a religion she held in contempt) and also dismissed arguments about hygiene as plenty of men do just fine without circumcision and how much harder is it to teach males how to clean their pubic regions than females? (Not surprising to me as I'm aware of more females than males who are opposed to male circumcision, many of whom are also feminists. Some like to ask how God or nature could be so wrong that an entire gender had to be surgically modified at birth.)

As a response the male doctor had her drugged right after she gave birth and while she was konked out the doctor then pressured the husband to sign a consent form to have the infant son circumcised which was then done.

Just so wrong. The doctor and the father should be sued, lol. Well, I'm only partly kidding.

[meridannight]

i think we need to start telling uncut men just how amazing their male parts are (i think uncut cocks are beautiful, and they're also a bit more fun to play with due to the extra skin), just to set the record straight that there is absolutely nothing shameful or ridiculous about them.

the idea that it could be ridiculous is ridiculous.

[meridannight]

She, being European, was shocked and said "No Way!" (none of her four sons were cut).

yeah, that's a very European reaction.

i'm so glad i'm on this side of the ocean. the prevalent attitudes here truly are more sane and healthy than in the US. one of the reasons i'm so proud of the European lifestyle and mindset, and that it's my heritage.

[Steve]

Don't even get me started on this topic....I'll keep my post short and sweet though. Male circumcision on an unconsenting infant is absolutely genital mutilation and is completely wrong, plain and simple.

[MENTION=20947]MikeW[/MENTION],I should post this on your "Mysteries of the Universe" thread: I just don't get why more men aren't enraged about it.

Agreed. It may take many decades to free the populist thinking imposed upon us via religious and morally rigid propaganda. It is unfortunate (to say the least) that many men and women have been conditioned over time to look upon a circumcised penis as more aesthetically pleasing than intact male genitalia.

I'm not going to critique the poor kid in the video; I can only be grateful that Youtube wasn't around when I was his age. He seems to have an issue with women in general though, and I have to wonder where the shame he anticipated feeling if he told his family about his views took its roots.

Genital mutilation isn't exclusive to men. FGM occurs frequently in Africa and the Middle East. FGM via the WHO We hear about it, too infrequently, in the US, but the subject seems given less priority than it deserves.

Add in the myriad practice of body mutilation, currently in vogue in the US and UK, which can arguably be rooted in more extreme religious/cultural practices found in Africa, India, and Thailand among other nations. Extreme Cultural Body Modifications I once knew a guy who had cranial body mods implanted to make his skull resemble the ridges of a Klingon character from Star Trek. (Imagine that in a wedding photo!) We can also only hope that China's ancient practice of foot binding has well and truly run its course. Smithsonianmag.com: Foot Binding

I can't personally fault my own parents who were only falling in line with the usual standards of their era when circumcision was almost almost synonymous with birth. I hate being circumcised, and I do feel violated, but in my case that foreskin is long withered dust. I can wonder if I might not have survived my youth in LA had I not been circumcised (there is evidence that circumcision does increase HIV infection rates). Still, even given the idea that I might have died, I would have chosen non-mutilation. Someday hopefully this issue will be a page in history, with the exception of necessary corrective surgery.

[LONDONER]

I can't personally fault my own parents who were only falling in line with the usual standards of their era when circumcision was almost almost synonymous with birth. I hate being circumcised, and I do feel violated, but in my case that foreskin is long withered dust. I can wonder if I might not have survived my youth in LA had I not been circumcised (there is evidence that circumcision does prevent HIV infection rates). Still, even given the idea that I might have died, I would have chosen non-mutilation. Someday hopefully this issue will be a page in history, with the exception of necessary corrective surgery.

Steve: You might be interested in this:

http://cirp.org/pages/restore.html

There are plenty more articles on the Internet.

[meridannight]

he's not circumcised either:



askmen has a decent article up on the subject:

sex education -- uncircumcised penis

stats for uncircumcised men (excluding jews and muslims):
25% for US
41% for Australia
65% South Africa
70% Canada
94% UK

(according to WHO).

[princealbertofb]

Steve: You might be interested in this:

http://cirp.org/pages/restore.html

There are plenty more articles on the Internet.

I read this page, [MENTION=18457]LONDONER[/MENTION], and I thought to myself, men shouldn't have to go to those lengths to get their foreskin back. Just leave it on in the first place. But then, why not?

[princealbertofb]

Oh, and by the way, are you aware that there is a market for circumcised foreskins?
http://foreskin.org/f4sale.htm