# My wife did not know about even the concept of circumcision **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 2, 2007, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-did-not-know-about-even-the-concept-of-circumcision/402526 "2007-05-02T20:48:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-did-not-know-about-even-the-concept-of-circumcision/402526/21 "2007-05-03T00:37:19Z")
Ever cut your big toenail, and there’s this grey stuff under it? That’s dead skin cells; they accumulate because they’re trapped under the leading edge of the nail. In an uncircumcised male, a similar substance, called [smegma,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smegma) can accumulate under the foreskin. And there are bacteria living in the smegma. That’s why. Besides, what use is a foreskin? ---
**Author:** ![Merkwurdigliebe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/74df32/32.png) [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-did-not-know-about-even-the-concept-of-circumcision/402526/22 "2007-05-03T00:44:19Z")
[QUOTE=Kimstu] Huh? I know that Jews, of course, have practiced circumcision for millennia, but Jews were only a small fraction of the early European settlers in North America. Was there really a significant tradition of circumcision among **Christian** Europeans in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when North America was being settled? Could I see a cite for it? [/QUOTE] Ditto. Of course I know that Americans didn’t start circumcision. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-did-not-know-about-even-the-concept-of-circumcision/402526/23 "2007-05-03T00:54:16Z")
[QUOTE=blinkingblinking] The aspect I cannot communicate to her is why any parent would want to have their son mutilated [/QUOTE] Many cultures practice body [modification](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_modification) for purely religious or cultural reasons. Some Pacific cultures even practice [subincision.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subincision) Your wife is from Cambodia – compare it to that culture in (I think) Burma where the women, from childhood onward, wear a progressively augmented stack of neck rings that gives them really long necks (well, actually it just pushes the shoulders downward); or Chinese foot-binding. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-did-not-know-about-even-the-concept-of-circumcision/402526/24 "2007-05-03T01:03:21Z")
[QUOTE=Ensign Edison] Not at all. They’re just as nice as the other kind, and feel the same. [/QUOTE] Right. The keratinization effect in the circumcised glans is too often described in a way that sounds much more radical than it is. It’s more like being able to stand it if your drawers’ fabric rubs against it all day or that you won’t shudder from someone even breathing softly upon it… which to some people is a woeful loss. And as for smegma, proper and frequent washing takes care of that. Unfamiliarity with circumcision in a person from a culture where there is a minority that practices it, does not surprise me; not every culture is so ready to share TMI as ours, and it may be that in that culture both groups will keep their privacy about “such things”. I’ve known people from Western environments that have admitted that they were adults before they finally found out exactly what that word that kept popping up in the Bible meant. When it comes to explaining “reasons”, good luck. Cultural custom and religious precept are the main drivers. In the end it’s Body Modification, similar to piercings, distensions, tattoos, etc., only that it’'s applied to a part of the anatomy where in some worldviews it is considered extra-shocking to do any tampering. I dunno about you but I’ve met Jewish, Muslim and Boomer-American males for whom it seems to not hinder their enthusiasm for getting it on. ---
**Author:** ![Merkwurdigliebe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/74df32/32.png) [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-did-not-know-about-even-the-concept-of-circumcision/402526/25 "2007-05-03T01:20:35Z")
Also, regarding the whole glans argument…The difference in sensitivity can’t be that high. When I started wearing boxers for the first time i found it slightly irritating. I wear briefs now. But anyway, it’s not like the bottom of your feet, in terms of skin thickness! And as of this point, I’ve never had problems in taking too long either… :o :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-did-not-know-about-even-the-concept-of-circumcision/402526/26 "2007-05-03T08:12:35Z")
[QUOTE=Merkwurdigliebe] Come on, mutilation? A lot of times it is done with a clamp that simply cuts off the circulation until it falls off. [/QUOTE] I’ve never heard of circumcision by this technique. How the heck would it work? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-did-not-know-about-even-the-concept-of-circumcision/402526/27 "2007-05-03T08:16:30Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] So they’re..uh…pink and glisteney and mucusy, like the inner labia? [/QUOTE] No. More like the texture of your lips (the ones on your face) when they’re in their normal, dryish state (but not so dry as to be cracked or anything). ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-did-not-know-about-even-the-concept-of-circumcision/402526/28 "2007-05-03T08:18:18Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Ever cut your big toenail, and there’s this grey stuff under it? That’s dead skin cells; they accumulate because they’re trapped under the leading edge of the nail. In an uncircumcised male, a similar substance, called [smegma,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smegma) can accumulate under the foreskin. And there are bacteria living in the smegma. That’s why. Besides, what use is a foreskin? [/QUOTE] Ever been in a bathroom and seen that oblong bar of white, slightly fragrant stuff? Uncircumcised males apparently call it ‘soap’. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-did-not-know-about-even-the-concept-of-circumcision/402526/29 "2007-05-03T08:27:41Z")
Well, as the mohel said when he bungled the bris, it won’t be long now! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-did-not-know-about-even-the-concept-of-circumcision/402526/30 "2007-05-03T08:57:28Z")
Sorry if that was a bit tongue-in-cheek, and I know how emotive and polarised a topic this is, but if hygiene was a seriously good reason for the prevalence of circumcision, I don’t think foreskins would be the only things we’d be routinely lopping off. ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-did-not-know-about-even-the-concept-of-circumcision/402526/31 "2007-05-03T08:59:22Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] Ha. My best friend was married to an uncircumcised man for two years without knowing it. While she was pregnant with their son, she made some sort of “But they just so so gross and unhygenic with foreskins!” argument for circumcision, and he, rather shocked, went, “Uh, you know I have one, right?” She didn’t. Hadn’t noticed, somehow! :eek: In her defense, she said she was only interested in it when it was standing at attention, and (apparently) the foreskin retracts so you can’t tell the difference. I wouldn’t actually know, as the only uncircumcised males I’ve seen are infant and toddler boys. [/QUOTE] This was me and my SO for 5 years. FIVE YEARS! I don’t remember how it came up, but she made some type of deroggatory remark about uncircumsized penises looking like “ant-eaters”, and I had to ask her, "Honey, you know I’m uncircumsized y’know? :dubious: She was shocked, and it’s not like we never have seen each other naked, we were perfectly comfortable being nude around each other. Sleeping nude, showering together, getting dressed and whatnot. What proceeded was this: “I wanna see it!” :eek: “No, you cannot see it, you’ve had your chances.” :mad: “I wanna see it!” “Inspect me some other time woman!” **SO begins grabbing at my pajama pants** “Hey, get off, get off!” “I wanna see it!” **Me, pulling my pants up trying to knock her hand away** “Get away, get away, aaaaahhhhhhhh!” Any other time and I would be happy to oblige her curiousity of my package, but this assault was not under the most romantic of circumstances. That’s c-i-r-c-u-m-s-t-a-n-c-e-s. Honestly, I really don’t think women understand the concept of circumsized vs. uncircumsized. That’s why we have a couple of female dopers replying with “ewww, uncircumsized = dirty”, when we have multiple real life occurances such as my own where a woman is completely oblivious to the distintion. PS: ewwww, labia. ---
**Author:** ![blinkingblinking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@blinkingblinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinkingblinking)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-did-not-know-about-even-the-concept-of-circumcision/402526/32 "2007-05-03T09:02:07Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Ever cut your big toenail, and there’s this grey stuff under it? That’s dead skin cells; they accumulate because they’re trapped under the leading edge of the nail. In an uncircumcised male, a similar substance, called [smegma,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smegma) can accumulate under the foreskin. And there are bacteria living in the smegma. That’s why. Besides, what use is a foreskin? [/QUOTE] You should actually read some of the sources used for wikipedia articles, rather than just reading the wikipedia article. [smegma](http://www.cirp.org/library/normal/wright1/) Is Smegma useful? Yes, certainly. It lubricates the cavity between the foreskin of the penis and the glans, thus allowing smooth movement between them during intercourse. In its fresh state, smegma is a wholesome and functional lubricant. Freshly formed smegma, washed away regularly and constantly replenishing itself, is a wholesome lubricant - making for ease in erection and smoothness in sexual intercourse. ---
**Author:** ![blinkingblinking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@blinkingblinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinkingblinking)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-did-not-know-about-even-the-concept-of-circumcision/402526/33 "2007-05-03T09:11:36Z")
[QUOTE=Merkwurdigliebe] Come on, mutilation? A lot of times it is done with a clamp that simply cuts off the circulation until it falls off. I’m circumsized and I don’t feel it to be a horrendous tragedy. I don’t really know if I’ll have it done to my son or not. I don’t really care one way or another. Leaving out the fact that I disagree that it’s mutilation, is she not familiar with customs of other people? What about people that have those gigantic plates in their lips, or stretch their necks? What about foot binding? It’s a custom and it was started in America for some puritanical reason, I’m sure, or maybe on perceived health benefits. But to answer your question as to why people in America do it still? One is the fact that everyone does it. There is pressure for the parents not to want their kid to be ridiculed in life for being different. And with that organ, people can be sensitive. It’s a routine procedure that would save a lot of possible stress in the teenage years. Secondly, there is also the idea that parents don’t want their kids to be confused when seeing their father’s penis. These are just a couple of reasons. It’s not barbaric like the female kind which is very painful and meant to oppress women. The proof for this would be the men that go around after being cut as adults. You don’t really see them complaining. Of course we have the foreskin restoration crowd. I would possibly do this if it didn’t take so long, but only out of curiosity. I don’t think it really matters either way, personally. [/QUOTE] From [here](http://www.ask.com/reference/dictionary/ahdict/81003/mutilation) mu·ti·late (myūt’l-āt) [Latin mutilāre, mutilāt-, from mutilus, maimed.] transitive verb: -lat·ed, -lat·ing, -lates. 1. To deprive of a limb or an essential part; cripple. 2. To disfigure by damaging irreparably: mutilate a statue. See synonyms at batter1 3. To make imperfect by excising or altering parts. From [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutilation) Mutilation is an act or injury that degrades the appearance or function of the (human) body, usually without causing death. Well, I would certainly say that circumcision is irreparable disfigurement and it certainly degrades the appearance and function of the penis. Just because you consider it a small mutilation does not show that it is not mutilation. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-did-not-know-about-even-the-concept-of-circumcision/402526/34 "2007-05-03T09:13:11Z")
[QUOTE=blinkingblinking] Well, I would certainly say that circumcision is irreparable disfigurement and it certainly degrades the appearance and function of the penis. [/QUOTE] If it degraded the **function,** the Jews would have died out centuries ago. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-did-not-know-about-even-the-concept-of-circumcision/402526/35 "2007-05-03T09:24:21Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] If it degraded the **function,** the Jews would have died out centuries ago. [/QUOTE] Not to mention the Muslims - almost a quarter of the world’s population - who also practice it! ---
**Author:** ![blinkingblinking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@blinkingblinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinkingblinking)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-did-not-know-about-even-the-concept-of-circumcision/402526/36 "2007-05-03T09:31:50Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] If it degraded the **function,** the Jews would have died out centuries ago. [/QUOTE] I am not going to have to quote dictionary entries every post do I? Try looking up a dictionary some time. I did not say that it renders the boy infertile, did I?! Just because you consider it a small mutilation does not show that it is not mutilation. ---
**Author:** ![Merkwurdigliebe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/74df32/32.png) [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-did-not-know-about-even-the-concept-of-circumcision/402526/37 "2007-05-03T11:45:33Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] I’ve never heard of circumcision by this technique. How the heck would it work? [/QUOTE] how does it work? It cuts of circulation until the skin dies and falls off. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-did-not-know-about-even-the-concept-of-circumcision/402526/38 "2007-05-03T12:00:26Z")
Are you sure that’s how they’re used? Amputation of tissues by tying/clamping off takes _days to weeks_ - how would that be practical for a piece of tissue that encircles the urinary opening? I thought the clamps were used to hold stuff in place in order to slice it off with a scalpel. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-did-not-know-about-even-the-concept-of-circumcision/402526/39 "2007-05-03T12:08:14Z")
> [@](#): > > Quote: > Originally Posted by **blinkingblinking** > Most of these threads about circumcision appear in ‘Great debates’. That is why I am putting this here. > > Okay, but do you have a debate? Well, it had to be only a matter of time! I’m surprised there were so many even-handed posts before the Great Debate started. I daresay few people outside of a roomful of geeky urologists could spend more than a few minutes talking about circumcision without it turning into a debate. ---
**Author:** ![fisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@fisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fisha)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-did-not-know-about-even-the-concept-of-circumcision/402526/40 "2007-05-03T12:15:17Z")
Thread about actual procedure. > **[How Does The Technique Of Circumcision Actually Work?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=419246)** > > I am a 33 year old circumcised male with training in the biological sciences that can’t figure out how the operation is actually done. In my obviously flawed way of thinking, you have a cylinder (the penis) wrapped in excess skin that can move and... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-did-not-know-about-even-the-concept-of-circumcision/402526.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-wife-did-not-know-about-even-the-concept-of-circumcision/402526.md?page=3)