The Straight Dope On Why We Circumcise Boys

Hello…

I happen to be an “EX Anti-Circ” Person And This Is My Story:

I was against male circumcision for the longest time, untill I finally did something about it.

See…the average anti-circ profile for a male is that of an uncircumcised man that strongly enjoys the look of a circumcised penis but remains uncircumcised because he either does not know how to go about getting himself circumcised, or he is too embarassed to actually approach a proffessional about having it done because he is afraid of the response from the doctor as to why he wants to have himself circumcised. In the profile of an ant-circ male that is uncircumcised, this desire to become circumcised, but his failiure to do anything about it causes him to have anger towards himself for not having the procedure performed. He will read testimonials from other adult men who have actually gone through with the procedure or actually meet in person other adult males that have had themselves circumcised.

This increases his self anger even more and results in an increasing anti-circ outburst towards men who are circumcised, as well and anyone that is supporting circumcision. It’s not that he hates circumcision or is against it…it is that he is so frusterated with himself for not having himself circumcised that he turns his self anger and frustration over the issue of male circumcision against those who are circumcised and those who support circumcision. This results in self denial and forms an even yet stronger false opposition to male circumcision.

Some of the men that fit into this profile of an anti-circ uncircumcised male, will eventually surpass this barrier that they have with themselves and eventually get themselves circumcised by a urologist or a private clinic that performs circumcisions. At this point they switch from “anti-circ” To “pro-circ”. This is a huge releif for them and the amount of preasure that is released off of there shoulders results in there self-confidence and self esteem going up and getting a major boost making themselves feel much better about themselves. This results in them having better relations with people, both professionaly, romanticaly, and physicaly.

I fit into this profile.That is why I am able to tell you about it so well with such detail. If you are an anit-circ male that is uncircumcised and reading this you will at this point be experiencing denial from my testimony. This is a normal human response as you are very frusterated with yourself right now. But if you think about what I have said to you,you will know that I am being honest…I have no reason not to be. No smoke and mirrors with me, just the plain factual truth from a guy who has lived as an uncircumcsied male for the majority of his life and lived the last 10 years as a circumcsied male.And would like to De-bunk negative things that are said about male circumcision.

Now the profile of an anti-circ male who is circumcised is that of a man who was circumcised at birth or when he was too young to have any say in the matter of his circumcision. This creates anger in himself because he was not asked if he could be circumcised and that he had not been able to give permission to the doctor that circumcised him. The profile of an anti-circ male that is circumcised is that of a feel of loss and that he has been robbed of a part of his body that may have allowed him to have more sexual feeling and sensitivity in the end portion of his penis. He will become obessed with the thought of having a foreskin and what it would be like to have one. He will constantly think about how having a foreskin might improve his sexual feeling and sensitivity. Now unfortunately the only information he will be able to gain is information from anti-circ men that are uncircumcised and fit into the profile that I first discussed. So right from the start the circumcised male anti-circ will be fed non-factual information from an angry uncircumcised man that wants to be circumcised himself. Also there are hundreds of web-sites as my readers all know that are anti-circ. To this day I have failed to see one anti-circ site that posts accurate factual information on there site that correctly goes over the subject of male circumcision and the reasons that it is performed and why it is still so popular in North American culture. Anti-circ sites devote all there time to throwing information at the reader that mostly comes from the imagination of someone that does not know or understand the actual and factual reasons behind why we circumcise our boys and why so many adult men want to be circumcised. Well I explained that already at the top of this letter why adult men want to be circumcised.

Circumcision is more or less cosmetic surgery, I will admit to that right off the bat to prove to you that I am being honest and that I have no reason to lie to you or mislead you about anything I write in this letter. Circumcision today is very asthetical and sexually appearling to the eye. Not saying that people can’t find the uncircumcised penis sexualy appealing in appearance. I am however saying that the visual appearance of the circumcised penis is very much liked and accepted by both men and women all over North American as well as Europe…even though circumcision is not anywhere as popular over there, it still happens and alot of Europeans are interested in male circumcision and sexualy enjoy the look of a circumcised penis.

Now this brings us to a very currently taboo issue. And that is
the reasons as to why a mother or father would be interested in the sexual appeal of there sons penis? Should a parent be interested in there child’s appearance? Should the parent be concerned about how there son’s future sexual appeal will be?

Well…the true answers to these questions weather you want to admit it or not is “YES” It is natural for a parent to want the best for there child. And what the parent thinks is best for there child all depends on there personal thoughts and feelings and is based on what they think is right and what they feel is good. That’s what makes kids different from eachother, is the fact that they are all raised by different parents that all impose there personal values upon there children…which is there right to as a person and a loving parent.And Each parents personal values and way of living differs from one parent to the next.And all parents want the best for there kids. There is no parent out there that wants there son to be unhappy or sad or feel out of place or different from his peers. And that is where there son’s Physical appearance comes into play.

Right from how you have there hair cut when they are young, to what kind of clothes they wear, to how cute they look. All parents like to have the cute kids and many parents like to show off how cute there kids are to there friends and parents often compare…Its kinda funny how it works, but any parents reading this will know what I mean.

And if a mother or father has decided that they personally prefer the look of a circumcised penis and that they prefer the look of a circumcised penis because they personaly think it is better looking than an uncircumcised penis…then guess what, chances are that that parent will have there son or son’s circucmised, based on there own personal view of how a penis should look. The feel that that a circumcised penis is more favorable and more visually appealing will be a part of there will to have a good looking child, which all parents want natrually.

But still the majority of the women that I have spoken to or have talked with about the topic, really and honestly are not educated that well on the subject of male circumcision and go on personal experience and some facts that they have heard about better penile hygene, less infections, and it being easier to clean and care for.

Now I will also admit that the above reasons to circumcised can be dismissed and thrown out. I know from having a foreskin for the first 20 years of my life that they are easy to clean and take care of. Yes I will also state that with a foreskin, as all men or boys with foreskin know that there is a substance called smegma that builds up under the foreskin that does indeed have a rather unapealing odor. Now I can vouch for this from my first hand personal experience of having a foreskin for most of my life that My penis would smell bad because of the smegma build up. Even if I showered and cleaned…within 3 or 4 hours the smell was back. NOTE: (after my circumcision I produce no more smegma and all bad odor’s dissapeared forever).

You hear of a loss of feeling that men who are circumcised have that uncircumcised men enjoy by having a foreskin. I will straighten this issue you up with you right now.

Yes when I had a foreskin I had alot of good sensitivity that oringinated from my foreskin…but I also had just as much of that sensitivity on the head of my penis that was under my foreskin. And after I was circumcised I realised that the majority of the sexual sensitivity that I felt durring masturbation with a foreskin was simply because when I masturbated, as most men do with a foreskin masturbate by sliding the foreskin back and forth over the head…producing great pleasure and feeling eventually leading to ejaculation.
Well most of that feeling you get is not from the foreskin, but it is from the fricion of your foreskin against the head of your penis,therefore the feeling you are having is mainly comming from the head of your penis and not your foreskin.

For male readers here who have foreskins…do a test and masturbate by sliding the foreskin back and forth over the head of your penis and then at the same time hold your foreskin back and masturbate soley by stroking your hand directly on the underside of your penis head…You will notice that the sensitivity is pretty much the same and that there is no difference in feeling as when you masturbate by sliding the foreskin back and forth over the head of your penis as by doing it soley with your hand making contact with the head of your penis. After you do this you will see my point and you will now for the first time really understand the myth behind more or less feeling of that a foreskin may or may not have compareds to a man with nor foreskin.

In all honesty I was circumcised tightly and high so that the scar line is about 3 inches down the length of my shaft making the remaining shaft skin smooth and tight durring erection…Now it is not too tight, do not get that confused. Circumcisions that are done incorrectly will never be too tight as a doctor that knows how to circumcise would never make the circumcision too tight as he would be seriously sued and loose his license. Any time you hear of a circumcision that is too tight and cause pain for the boy or man…it was done by a doctor or a person that had no experience doing circumcision and should not have been allowed by the parent to do it in the first place.

Not only is the head of my penis just as sensitive as when I had a foreskin. The shaft skin below it all the way down to the scar line is also very sensitive as after a circumcision the area of shaft that is exposed between the head of the penis and the scar line is still indeed the inner layer of foreskin that is not removed durring circumcision but is left… I bet alot of you did not know that!

I notice in reading alot of posts in circumcision forums that alot of the posts against circumcision are done by men using a female user name in the group. These men are a part of the male anti-circ profiles discussed earlier in this letter. Circumcsied penises are sexualy prefered and this is a fact based on life and experience and by being with women and lover’s and talking to mothers and parents, and girls, and doctors and nurses and the list goes on and on. And all those letters you read on anti-circ sites that are written from women that state how much they enjoy big long foreskins…are actully written by men who want women to love the look of there foreskins but can’t find any because they dont exist. Women like the look of a flared exposed penis head. It turns them on and excites them durring sex and sexual acts. Women simply love to see a nicely circumcised penis. They like how clean it looks, and how masculine it looks, and they like the permenantly exposed head of the circumcised penis and it represents male sexuality.
Now I have met women who dont care for the penis at all and those women are either lesbians or women who have very low self esteem and a bad self-body image about themselves and are the type that will have sex in the dark so that there partner can’t see there body becaue they are ashamed of the way it looks. And at the same time they can’t see the mans body either or his penis. They can only feel it durring sex. These women also have no or little interest in oral sex.These women simply dont care for the penis because they have never really seen one or had spent any time with it. I knew a woman in her mid 20’s who has had sex with men hundreds of times but had never seen a single penis of any of them men that she had sex with. And the men she had sex with were the same and suffered from low self esteem and low self-body image. She said that almost all the men she had sex with were uncircumcised men and they were to ashamed to ever let her see there penises durring sex. Now this same woman that I am talking about has changed because of me. I never had sex with her but I did alot of talking to her about it and male circumcision and I showed her my circumcised penis on a few occasions. she admitted to me that My penis was the first penis she had actually ever seen that was not in a porn picture. After viewing my penis she totaly changed with her sexlife and she started enjoying a mans penis durring sex and looking at it instead of being in the dark with the lights out all the time. She finally at 25 years old started giving blowjobs to men and told me that she now loved the look and feel of a circumcised penis over an uncircumcsied one. She became totaly confrotable around penises and has never turned back since.

Now An Anti-circ female profile is alot more simple than any anti-circ male profile. An Anti-circ female profile is that of a woman that has simply been mislead and uneducated about the topic of circumcision and the funtions of the male penis. The typical anti-circ female really does not understand all of the parts and sexual functions of the penis and then self educates herself from reading anti-circ litterature from the internet and then is taught right off the bat lies and un-truths about male circumcision and ends up with this idea of it being a horrible barbaric procedure that will ruin her sons penis for the rest of his life.

Now being an adult male that had a foreskin for the first 20 years of my life…I will honestly tell you that my penis was not ruined at all! There was not a single negatived effect to my penis or me after being circumcised. The only diefference that my penis had after haivng being circumcision was its appearance. As I described in the above about the false statement of penile sensitivity loss by ant-circ litterature Is indeed false and un-true. This is something that can’t be argued with me or any other man that was circumcised as an adult! Ask any adult man that was circumcised as an adult and he will tell you the same as me. That there is no loss of feeling or sensitivity. The sensitivity of the head of my penis and any circumcised penis is very strong and very enjoyable. I had the same level of sensitivity with my foreskin as without it…since the majority of male sexual sensitivity of the penis is almost entirely in the head of the penis and not the skin of the penis…a boy or a man looses no feeling as a result of a circumcision. I know that reading this statement from me will anger you and upset you because basically I am telling you that you are wrong. And nobody likes to admit that they are wrong about something…especially if it has to do with something they have been lobbying against for such a long time.

I have no reason to lie to the readers of this letter, but anti-circs feel that they do have a reason to lie to me in order to protect there ideas about circumcision. But You can’t lie to me because I already know the truth from actually being a man that had a foresking for most of his life. Please I plead with you and any persons reading this letter. Please believe me and everything that I have said in this letter. It is so unfair that so many women as well as men are lied to about the facts of male circumcision. I am saying to all you reading this that if you are a parent that likes circumcised penises, then by all means…have your son circumcised so you will feel right with yourself about it. And if you are a man that wants to be circumcised or has wanted to for a long time, I hope that my testimony helps you in your decision to actually go and get yourslef circumcised.

Circumcision is performed on hundreds of babies and men and even boys every single day of the year all throughout North America!! It has not lost its popularity or it’s desire to be done. If you want your child circumcised or yourself circumcised trust me you have no reason to feel wrong abut doing it.

Ask yourself this…If circumcision was so bad and so wrong and so horrible like anti-circ litterature tells you…then why do hundreds of parents everyday…who know all about circumcision continue to have there sons’s circumcised? I will tell you why, because they know that it is what they want for there son and they know that there is nothing wrong with it, and they know that there son will be happy with his circumcised status and that his future girlfriends or wife will also be happy with his circumcised status. Circumcision remains constant in our society and will stay and it will never become outlawed as there is nothing wrong or cirminal about it. It is a cosmetic procedure performed to enhance the asthetic appearance of the penis and enable visual and sexual enjoyment for the entire life of the male that has been circumcised. Your son will love his circumcised penis and you will feel good for giving him one.

P.S. I know you will have come accross some spelling mistakes…but I am not the best at grammer. Forgive me.

Yours Truly,

J. Gabariel

Any Comments E-Mail Me candybags@shaw.ca

Jack321, I’m moving this to a more appropriate forum for discussion.

where you moving it to?

I would agree with the OP that it is OK to have your kid circumcised, and that it is OK not to. I would also agree that if you are not circumsised and feel strongly about wanting it, you should go get it done. Similarly, if you are circumcised and don’t want to be and want surgery to restore your foreskin, go for it.

I’m cool with all of that.

On the other side of the coin here, it’s probably not particularly healthy or desirable to spend great deals of time agonizing about the state, or lack thereof, of you or your progeny’s foreskin.

Jack, I’m glad to hear things worked out for you. But judging from your post, I have to say you are speaking only for yourself and probably nobody else in the world, pro-circumcision or anti-circumcision, thinks about this issue the same way you do.

I’m uncircumsised and happy that way. I also regularly encourage family members not to have their babies circumsised. This has nothing to do with jealousy or anger. It has to do with the fact that I’m happy being uncircumsised. Its not a health risk as long as you have good hygiene. It certainly hasn’t affected my sex life, since most women don’t even notice unless I tell them.

Some of my family members grew up in the 60’s and 70’s and insist on having their boys circumsised because of highschool locker rooms. I am not making this up. Evidentally, in highschools, in the 70’s they would actually make fun of you for being uncircumsised.

I went to highschool in the 90’s. Nobody made fun of me. Nobody made me feel like I didn’t belong.

I wouldn’t say that I’m anti-circumsision. however, outside of a religious reason I certainly wouldn’t support it. The main reason for this…I don’t like seeing babies cry.

I’d also like to add that I think you should spend less time thinking about your penis. Read a book. Play the guitar. Get a hobby. Jesus man.

Wow, so many generalizations! Either you really are omniscient, or you’re making this up.

Hi…my response is…

I dont spend alot of time thinking about my penis ever since I got circumcised, before I was circumcsied I did.

Now my only concern is that people don’t really understatand male circumcision, because only a man who has been both uncircumcsied as well as circumcised can really understand the full spectrum of the topic.

Anti-circ is a strong word, but it is true that because of my experience of being both uncircumcised as well as circumcised that when I read anti-circ literature about loss of feeling or mutilation, I see what they do not see, because of me having the experience of being uncircumcised as well as circumcised. where they only see it from one side of the glass.

In my letter I tried my best not to talk about my own penis…but I had to a certain amount in order to get my point across. I am simply using myself as an example to help people understand the facts about what it is like to be circumcised comming from a man who has also been uncircumcised. There really is nobody better to answer these questions then a man in my situation. And I am not alone… there are thousands of men who have been circumcised as adults who can relate to my testimony.

I simply don’t like people being told things about circumcision that is not true. Yes if a man likes having his forsekin,right on, that is good if you like it. but I am so tired of people that dont know the facts about circumcision telling others not to get there kids circumcised for reasons that are not truthfull or backed up by actual factual information. That’s where I step in…I am the facts and the truth behind the questions about circumcision because I had a foreskin for most of my life.

I am sorry that you did not understand what I was trying to tell you and you, but read it again and maybe you will understand it the second time around.

Nope…just being honest and telling you how it is. I am sorry you have guilt and anger but I hope you get over it in the future so you can be happy with yourself.

I’m sure there are also men who’ve been cirucmcised as adults who would disagree with your testimony. Everyone has different experiences.

In that case, I hope you don’t mind backing up these assertions from your OP with facts:[ul]
[li]all uncircumcised men who oppose circumcision actually like the look of a cut penis but are unwilling or unable to have themselves cut[/li][li]all the online testimonies allegedly from women who like the look of uncut penises were actually written by men[/li][li]all women are aroused by the appearance of cut penises[/li][li]all women who oppose circumcision are misinformed[/li][li]all men who were circumcised as adults agree with you[/li][/ul]

This may [note: MAY] be true of the women you know, but is not necessarily true of all women who are not fond of “penii.” There are plenty of reasons why a heterosexual woman might dislike penises, including an ingrained notion that sex is dirty, negative experiences with men and sex, and general aesthetics (the fact that a woman is heterosexual does not mean that they like penises, just that they like men. Admittedly, this would cause some problems, but it is not unheard of. I self-identify as lesbian, but, unfortunately, I have no great fondness for the appearance of either penises OR vulvas. And, yes, before you ask, it IS a problem.)

At any rate, I thank you for posting and hope that you are equally passionate about other areas of life and have much more to contribute to the board in future. No need to get upset by those who disagree with you. That is a virtual inevitability around here.

I agree with you!! I can assure that I am passionate about other areas of life and I thank you for you honesty.

So JDT’s finally gotten out of therapy, eh?

Well this is only words on a screen my friend…If I could physically back it up I would…If you could meet all the women I have been with and talked to about this subject I certainly could meet your request of backing up my statements. As I said I have nothing to lie about regarding this topic and no reason to as I am telling the truth. The only people that lie about it are the ones that cant back up there statements. I am sorry you are angry and confused…but I hope you can get past that in the future so you will be happy with yourself.

I agree: if a man wants to restore his foreskin then that is totaly up to him and is an OK choice…as long as he understands that a foreskin restoration is just as cosmetic as a foreskin removal (circumcision). Its like any cosmetic surgery…it is all about visual result and appearance weather it be a boob job or a face lift or a foreskin restoration or a circumcision…IT IS ALL COSMETIC SURGERY.

Although I do have to say that foreskin restoration techniques are very poor and undeveloped at this point and involve alot of stretching with weights on the circumcised shaft skin which is far more dangerous than a foreskin removal and will have the abillity to have serious side effects.

Heheh! You can’t backup your statements, but the only people that lie about it are the ones that can’t backup their statements? I like the cut of your jib, kid!

Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Board. In this forum, Great Debates, we are expected to back up our factual claims with references to actual facts. If you have no facts to back them up, I urge you to retract your claims.

No, that wouldn’t prove anything about all women, only the ones you’ve met. It would also do nothing to prove your claims about men who oppose circumcision or the online testimonies.

You just admitted you can’t back up your statements.

For the record, I’m neither angry nor confused. You may have guessed from my name that I’m male, but you don’t know anything about my position on circumcision, nor whether I have undergone such a procedure, and you obviously know nothing about my emotional state.

Well brutus I told you the facts…you choose to be in denial of them…that is your choice… I told you if you were here I could back my facts up in person but that is not obvioulsy possible. You tipically are trying to make me look like a fool for my post…but that only shows the other readers of this letter that you are in denial and full of anger…for some reason or the other. I dont really see any point in you responding any further to my letter as you can’t accomplish anything by doing so.

I hope you understand.

And I most readers of my letter will understand what I was saying and a few like yourself will not…but in my letter I also talked about readers such as yourself that would be angry about my truth telling because it gets in the way of you lie telling.

Remember one thing my friend …the one who tells the truth is recongnised by the people in a good way and the one who tells the lies is recognised by the people as well…but not in a good way.

I dissagree…if anti-circs thought about this issue the same way that I did…I would have had no reason to write my letter.

Sorry you are angry …but I hope you get past it in the future so you can be happy with yourself.