There is one analogy that can be made. All the people who were spanked but came out saying they were just fine, and that it was no big deal. Later on, it was shown that spanking does actually make psychological problems more likely.
But that last part is important. No one was convinced by people screaming about how horrible spanking was, or how immoral it was. They’d experienced it and were just fine.
They had to actually do studies. And, until such studies, people were perfectly justified in dismissing the people who got bent out of shape over spanking. Just like we who are circumcised are perfectly justified in dismissing the idea that this is a big deal.
On the other hand, FGM has been shown to actually be harmful. There have been studies showing the reduced function. The decreased functionality is often explicitly the point. They get brought up every time FGM is mentioned. Therefore there is a reason for people to agree it is morally bad.
If my kid was born with a useless extra bit of skin, and it would not harm them to cut it off, I would do it. I would not wait until they were older and it becomes harder to do. So you can’t get me on the “no unnecessary operations” aspect.
At most you can push the idea that it makes no difference, which is probably the best way to actually get people to not do it. Why bother if it does nothing?
There’s NO need to do it!
Also, there’s NO benefit in cutting it off, there might have been a shower issue 2000 years ago, but that’s sorted now.
No sane person would cut a piece off their penis! Why put a child thru that?
And the very rare times that surgery is actually needed, that can be done then.
A poster on another board I frequent is a retired RN and has some relatives by marriage who are from Nepal, and somehow, the topic of circumcision came up when one of the relatives, an older Nepali woman, was at their house. She had never heard of the concept, and when it was explained to her, she got an incredibly horrified look on her face and asked, “Why would anyone do that?”
:eek:
I don’t have an opinion one way or another except for one thing: It used to be done on newborns without anesthesia, because it was believed that newborns didn’t feel pain, and even if they did, they wouldn’t remember it anyway. :eek: :mad:
I enjoyed being circumcised. Sometimes when it is really cold or I’m sitting in an awkward position, I have retracted and been temporarily trapped inside the skin and it is the worst physical sensation I’ve ever felt.
My brother got his done when he was 7 or 8. There was a medical reason for it, but I don’t know what. Other than him, everyone I know got it done at birth. I’m not defending the practice but it’s a ritual that has nothing to do with religion, just standard custom at this point, like atheists celebrating Christmas.
For me personally, I don’t see how I’m missing out on anything. I had my appendix removed, too. While that literally saved my life and the circumcision did not offer any real benefits, I hardly miss that skin.
For most of the later half of the 20th century, I believe that the best thinking was a circumcised penis was safer for the male’s female partner. (I don’t really want to argue the point, it was just my impression at the time.)
Back when my wife was pregnant the first time, my father sent us a number of anti-circumcision articles, mostly from the American Legion magazine. Perhaps he felt guilty about what had been done to me. I didn’t ask why nor did I ever discuss the matter with him on the phone or face to face.
In those days we did not use ultrasound or amnio to find out the gender of our baby. My wife and I had more or less decided that mother nature knew best and not to circumcise, but the decision was taken out of our hands when we had a daughter. (And more daughters and no sons later.)
Had a pediatrician strongly recommended the procedure we might have changed our minds. We’re not medical experts. I probably would have let my wife make the final decision.
Isn’t the title of this thread something of a misnomer? Isn’t the OP railing against exactly how united the (dick slicers) pro circumcision crowd is? As opposed to his tiny band sporting tiny turtlenecks?
Could have better been called ‘non dick slicers unite!’, in my humble opinion.
No, the condescension is all on you, pal. I was merely stating a truism - that which has never been known can not be missed. I don’t know what’s going on in your head (either one). I never called anyone a victim. I feel sorry for you and your brethren like I feel sorry for color-blind people (though of course, theirs is not a man-made condition). It’s certainly your right to tell me to cram my sympathy up my ass. But I sincerely feel it’s a lamentable state of affairs.
:dubious: You were the one going on about “Oooh! Smegma! Gross! Smells like doody!” like a freaking 5-year-old. I’m glad you’ve chosen not to further pursue that line of reasoning.
Yes, I’m the one who’s insincere. In spite of the fact that I’ve acknowledged an error in my original position which your cite drew to my attention. Surely, you have me accurately pegged as a fanatic. Whatever, dude… :rolleyes:
Sure, if you focus mainly on the USA. But most of the world’s men are uncircumcised. I was hoping that the pro-circ crowd could enlighten the rest of us and spread their beacon of reason to the rest of the befuddled planet, including my evidently clueless self.
“Look, I acknowledged a point, then said it was meaningless anyway, and then made a thread to mock you! I’m sincere!”
I’m not entirely sure why you started yet another thread on the topic. You’re apparently all worked up about something and you saying “Nuh uh!” is kind of silly while we’re posting in the thread you started about it. If you want to pretend that you don’t really care while we post in the thread you started for “all the lovers of penis mutilation can gather and regale us with the wonders of male circumcision”, have at it, I guess. And make sure to stomp your feet and pout in feigned offense over and over again when you’re called out on it.
I will absolutely cop to having had a pretty severe tendency toward premature ejaculation when I was younger. But I also had a very short refractory time (by American standards, anyway), and could go many times, going longer each time. And now that I’m in my forties, I hear friends refer obliquely to using Viagra and the like, and I have absolutely no need for anything like that (knock on wood). The only times in my life I haven’t been able to get it up was when I was absolutely shitfaced, blind drunk, suffering from whiskey dick. Moderately buzzed or sober, never ever a problem.
Yes, this is it, exactly. I never walked around with “the one-eye exposed” until I was in high school and had sex without a condom for the first time. After condomless sex, for me anyway, the foreskin tends to stay retracted even after going flaccid, unless and until I fix it manually. So putting on underwear and walking around, just having the glans brush ever so slightly against my underwear was YOWWCH! :eek: Now, since **Fuji **and I are the ones with glanses that stay moistened and internal most of the time (sort of like your eyeballs or underneath your tongue), and it can hardly be denied that our equipment is configured as nature designed it, it’s not much of a stretch for us to get the impression that infant circumcision must lead to growing up with a glans that is just not as sensitive as it was “designed” to be (I use quotes because I don’t believe in “intelligent design”).
They are not made aware of the “fact” that most of their *peers *(in the U.S.) are not circumcised, because that is simply not true for the vast majority of circumcised men. Although for the youngest circumcised men living on the West Coast, it is just beginning to be true.
But when I was growing up, in the late '70s and '80s, being intact was by far the norm. There’s no way all those circumcised guys felt any sense that they were not the norm on a worldwide basis; and if they did, they’d probably just see it as American exceptionalism anyway.
I don’t think there is a correlation between circumcision and stamina. I’m 46 and can STILL go just as many times as I did when I was younger. My GF was quite taken aback by my stamina. She claims she never got that even in her younger days. I can also perform while drunk. So…
Of course, even if we take the “less sensitive” bit as gospel (research indicates otherwise), your own example teaches us that “sensitive” doesn’t equate to “pleasurable”. I have an abrasion on my finger right now that’s significantly more sensitive than the surrounding skin but it’s much more of an annoyance than a boon. Having more sensitivity in an area is not automatically a good thing.
Likewise, as you mention in not believing in “intelligent design”, having something in its natural state is not automatically a boon either. Evolution doesn’t push towards perfection, it leads towards well enough to get the job done and make babies without sufficient defects to trip you up. A sensitive penis that causes you pain while you’re wearing pants (not exactly “natural” in of itself) isn’t innately better than a circumcised penis that isn’t causing you pain just because one is “natural”.