Okay, female reproductive organs probably require, in general, more medical attention than men. But in terms of maintenance, I don’t think I do any more washing or hygiene or upkeep than the average male.
I agree. Just like I think guys should be disqualified from the abortion debate.
(I maked a lil joke here, just like I was thinking wierdaaron did.)
I get what you’re saying here, w.aaron, and I agree. Women do have lots more to do in terms of keepin’ it clean. Men, on the other hand, have these genitals that swing around outside their bodies and seem to be magnetic of small children, pouncing animals, and random baseball bats. I don’t know how you guys walk around without armour-plated jockstraps on.
That’s a good idea to educate myself (the reason I asked about other parents’ experiences, and thanks to those who responded).
On second thought, I recognize my emotional reaction of “DON’T HURT BABIES NO MATTER WHAT!!!1!” is irrational, and watching videos would prolly just upset me and make me want to get involved in decisions that are none of my business.
Think how much pain the babies could be spared by not cutting the umbilical cord.
If watching a video of circumcision is supposed to convince people not to have them done, watching a video of a birth should convince people to never be in the same room as a vagina.
Good points. Over the past 14 years of my career as a parent, I’ve learned that my knee-jerk response to any discomfort in my child doesn’t serve my child’s best interests. She was terrified of the potty, but I figured the discomfort of being forced to use it served her better than sending her on dates wearing diapers.
And god forbid I should become convinced not to be in the same room as a vagina. Don’t want to spend my life laying in doorways.
Well, it’s not so much that the government plans won’t cover it but that they used to cover routine circumcisions, and then decided not to (presumably because they decided it’s not actually a good idea medically)
I’m not sure I’d say the pendulm as swung strongly in favour of benefit yet, and the very fact that it seems to swing back and forth every decade or two makes me wonder how good the upside could be. Since the benefit seems fairly minor I’ll stick to the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ position of non-snipping.
Whether snippage is good or bad, mandatory snippage is bad. The government should not require anyone to permanently body-modify his or her child. Both my boys are snipped for religious reasons*. If not for those religious reasons, I probably would not have had them snipped. Either way, if the government had stepped in and said YOU MUST, I probably would have rebelled and neither boy would be snipped.
This debate is very heated, and many people feel very strongly about one side or the other. Until there is significantly more evidence that one way or the other saves lives, I think the government should not mandate either way. By significant evidence, I mean evidence that 500 boys a year have their lives saved simply by being one way or the other in the U.S.
*Once upon a time I was a devout religious person. I had these boys during that time.
No. But when the CDC “promotes” something, some states soon after make it a mandatory item. They did this with prophylactic eye drops for newborns in nearly every state in the union. It is actually something parents can’t opt out of in 3 states right now, even for “religious” reasons, though most states allow opt-outs. I can see state governments making law out of this recommendation, and citing “health purposes” for demanding that all male newborns be circumcized. Not all governments are national.
Um… yes, the periods are messy, but I’m not with you on the rest. I’ve never had a yeast infection, or any other sort of infection down there, never worried about the pH “balance”, use the same soap on the genitals as on anything else (well, OK, not the orange scrub stuff for removing engine grease from hands, but then, I don’t apply engine grease to my nether regions). I’m puzzled what sort of “high maintenance” you imagine those bits require?
I didn’t pick a gynecologist at 16, either, and I don’t go to a gynecologist “many times a year”.
Just wait until your prostate starts causing you problems. It’s about the age that your women friends don’t have to worry about periods any more, so they’ll be low maintenance and you’ll be high.
I’ve been looking around a little for information about this. cirp.org seems to be a good reference here.
To me, the hygiene argument seems like an American myth. My guess was that the foreskin has a protective role, and that seems to be the case if you trust the sources below.
I’ll quote some parts of the site, without having had time to read through all information and references (there’s really a LOT of info).
On STDs:
So the STD argument seems to fall to pieces there, though feel free to give more sources towards either side.
On HIV:
Well, to be honest I didn’t read the entire page on HIV as there is a LOT of information. I picked out some pieces that I found. Feel free to find contradictory statements on the same page from another study :p. My quick pass over the page didn’t find any strong supporters of the fact that it helps prevent HIV, but in any case, it seems far from conclusive that circumcision helps prevente HIV spread.
That page cites 94 sources, so have fun reading!
Here is the page about pain, which somebody asked about:
Complications (WARNING, possibly disturbing images of penises with complications):
Well, you get the drift. Here’s the index page:
I just don’t see any clear arguments FOR circumcision yet.
Circumcision reduces the chances of penile cancer to zero.
Foreskins and dickcheese are nasty and gross.
Circumcision is marginally more hygenic, and there is no compelling reason NOT to do it.
I’ve only had girls, but my wife and I decided during all three of her pregnancies that if we ever have a boy, we’re cutting that shit off. I ain’t retracting no foreskins to clean no dicks. Not even for my own kid. I’ve never for one second missed my own foreskin. I’m amazed at how self-righteous people can get about an issue that matters so little, and which has absolutely no measurable effect on a person’s life except to make them a little cleaner and a little less susceptible to disease.
