Wash, don’t amputate.
Why do people get so bent out of shape over clitoridectomies being performed on young girls? :rolleyes:
Because it essentially destroys the sexual function of the female genitals?
If you’re trying to argue that male circumcision does the same to the penis, I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with you right before I sleep with my girlfriend.
Because it can cause extreme difficulty during childbirth for woman who had the procedure and can kill? The two procedures are not at all comparable.
Cite from the WHO - http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2006/pr30/en/index.html
As I said in the thread you did recently about this topic, I am not in the slightest trying to tell you how to feel. This thread asked for opinions and I am simply giving mine.
Keep in mind that a clitoridectomy (aka sunna circumcision) only involves the removal of the clitoral hood, not the entire external female genitalia as in infibulation (aka pharaonic circumcision). A clitoridectomy is a better comparision to male circumcision. Women who’ve undergone both procedures have still reported having orgasms. What would you say to a woman who’ve had a clitoridectomy and wanted to have the same done to her young daughter?
Beats me. I’m not qualified to say, Wiki links and emotional appeals not withstanding.
Which is neither here nor there when discussing male circumcision.
This thread exemplifies the tragedy of the incomplete archival of the Straight Dope. I must mention our long lost poster Jack Dean Tyler, the epitome of anticircumcisionists. As far as I can tell, only second hand recollections remain.
I was in Coral Beach, Florida, and there was a guy who might have been JDT. His minivan was plastered with anticircumcision rhetoric. I somehow doubt that this got him laid much. Unfortunately, he seemed extremely antisocial and I was too intimidated to snap a photo. I found it odd that he was driving a minivan, I thought that it would be much more appropriate to be driving a Hummer.
AHoosierMama, I doubt that you can draw any conclusions from adult circumcision as compared to that of infant circumcision. Most of the guys I know are circumcised, and they seem to think that screwing is just fine. We just wish that it happened a lot more often.
What about what the boy thinks when he gets older?
However your son could also wind up at a school where most the other boys are intact and they could make fun or him for not having a foreskin. Or, more likely if you live in the States, he might never actually have to shower after gym.
Sure you like the way it looks, but not every circumcised guy does. It’s much easier (and less time consuming) for an intact guy who doesn’t like the way his penis looks to get his foreskin removed than it is for a cut guy who doesn’t like the way his penis looks to try to develope a faux foreskin. And have any studies actually proven that circumcision is more effective at preventing HIV that condoms or abstinence? Also AFAIK thoses studies only apply to vaginal intercourse, not oral or anal. If a boy grows up and turns out to be gay or decides to become a priest he’ll have been circumcised for naught. Why not wait until a boy decides to become sexually active and let him make the decision?
Let me go on record as saying that male and female circumcision have nothing in common beyond their name. Male circumcision is a significant bodily alteration but it doesn’t (significantly) affect function. And it’s not medically unsafe, something that is manifestly untrue about female circumcision even under the best circumstances.
I was afraid the discussion was going to veer into this territory…
Most of the studies I’ve read noted that the medical benefits were most pronounced in cases of neonatal circumcision. If you’re doing it with potential medical benefits in mind, waiting until he’s grown would defeat the purpose.
You might be. In my circle of friends (which is probably 80/20 gay men/straight women), any time the subject comes up the universal response is that foreskin is icky and I agree. Cut looks nicer, looks cleaner, more appealing, etc.
However when I look around on gay cruising sights I do see a high percentage (perhaps almost half) of foreskin lovers. I wonder if foreskin appeal is more of a fetishism like the way some people lust after latex or get excited over body piercings.
In the more than 45 years I hauled around circumcised penis I can say I didn’t give it much thought until the now legendary and apparently lost to posterity Jack Dean Tyler One-Trick Pony & Chowder Society meltdown threads. I always thought myself to be natural, or normal at least.
Never had children, but I suppose I would have pretty well left it up to the mother if she had strong feelings one way or the other.
And let me third or fourth the motion that a lack of foreskin is in anyway desensitizing. I would say it is a good thing, because if having a foreskin made sex any more pleasurable, I would probably never leave the house.
I think it is a little too late by then. :eek:
Why is it too late? 
Because no adult male in his right mind would do it voluntarily, unless it was medically indicated with equivalent urgency to other forms of surgical intervention.
I’m consoled by the fact that more and more parents in our generation are opting to forego circumcision, so he won’t be so abnormal (although it’s still relatively common in this part of the world, North Carolina).
In any case, anybody who likes everything else about my kid but can’t handle that doesn’t deserve him.
Then I would say this is a strong argument to not circumcising babies. “Let’s do it before he knows what happened.”
Huh, I’m seeing an ad for singles in Pittsburgh-considering the subject here, that’s pretty scary!
Okay, on to the topic: I think it should only be done if medically necessary-which it sometimes is. Otherwise, I don’t see the point.
spazurek, did you intend for this to be a poll or a debate?
Well, in terms of the OP, the point is that it is part of the covenant between the Jewish people and God.
Actually, it’s catching on among adult males in Japan for cosmetic reasons.
I was circumsized in infancy and have had no problems or emotional hang-ups connected with it, but I’m not having my son circumsized. First, until some situation arises when it becomes a necessity, the benefits don’t outweigh risks of complications, and second, it’s just not done on infants here, so finding a doctor willing and able to do so would be difficult.