Circumcision.

[Hakaryu]

So right now I'm taking a human sex class in college and we ended up talking about the old male operation of circumcision and they sparked a huge debate in class over its effects and shit, so now the teacher has us doing a paper on it, stating if we support it for now.


So here's a question for the gents and ladies if they care to chime in. Do you support it or not support? Whats your general thoughts on the whole thing being done for religious reasons or for health.

[Tensen01]

After watching the episode of Bullshit! about this I hafta say I'm against it for any but religious reasons.

Before that I never even thought about it

[theDreamer]

Bullshit! did an episode on it? Wow. Though, and I was raised as a Jewish male, so I am circumcised, I'm under the impression that its healthier and cleaner. Especially cleaner. Foreskins seems so gross, what with urine getting caught in them and what not. That's just my impression though.

[Hakaryu]

I haven't seen that episode yet. What'd penn and teller say about it?

[TheRocket]

Circumcision = yes.



I would go into detail why, but right now I am about to go sleepy byes. Mayhaps tomorrow!

[Xolani]

I'm circumcised. For medical reasons, though I have a cultural background where circumcision is usually performed around age 15-17, anyway.

I have to say, the claims that it reduces sensitivity etc. are a load of crap. I'd know from being circumcised after I'd already discovered sexuality, masturbation, and sex.

The debate over the ethics of it that you find in the USA and Canada seems pretty stupid and dumb from my perspective.

[Master Gunner]

I'm not circumcised, but if there are sound medical reasons, I am for it (of course, I haven't seen the most Bullshit! episode, so that may discredit those), so long as the parents want it. For religious reasons, sure, although I'd hope the parents/individual actually understands the religious reasons for doing so and isn't doing it as a matter of course. When it comes down to it, it's the choice of the parents (or individual in the case of adult circumcision), and I'm not aware of any detrimental effects to it, so there's no reason to prevent it.

[Hakaryu]

I'm not circumcised either but I've been having thoughts about getting it done because its a bit tight and makes love making not so fun.

[Cake]

Meh. I don't know what the difference in feeling. My parents had that part taken from me when I was a baby.

[Matt]

As far as everything I've read and seen (and according to bullshit) the medical reasons are total bunk, in fact, it is my understanding that at best it is no better than uncut, and at worst it actually causes more problems than it solves. I am uncircumcised, and I am against it for any reason other than a medical issue arising after birth that requires it.

we're born with a foreskin for a reason, and it's supposed to stay there.

also, for future reference, if a doctor wants to come anywhere near my baby's junk with a scalpel without medical neccessity, he can expect to walk away missing a few teeth.

-m

[Hakaryu]

Well here's a question then. Should circumcision be up to the boy or should parents still be allowed to have it done to them when their a child?

[Matt]

I'd be pretty pissed with my parents if they'd made the decision to have me cut, since I've had no problems with mine for 26 years.

-m

[Matt]

suffice to say, you're drastically moreikely to develop appendicitis during your life than have an issue with your foreskin, but if doctors suggested we give every newborn an apendectomy, parents would riot in the street.

-m

[Hakaryu]

Doing research, I've seen more parents regret doing that to their children then those who thought it was a good idea. They feel guilty for putting em through that pain.

[gcninja]

I feel nada now Im cut and it makes no difference. I have no medical issues down there, and the only ones i can think of off the top of my head that might happen are testicular cancer, STI, or UTI but that could happen to either cut or uncut

[Hakaryu]

Being uncut can increase the rate of UTI slightly but even then proper hygiene usually stops that, course some males can be lazy ( ew)

[King Kool]

Ok, there is definitely no way to discuss this without tempers flaring, so let me share a seemingly unrelated observation. Genericizing an argument is a quick way to derail it and invoke Godwin's Law, but I'll take the chance.

From when I was 14 or so till I was maybe 20, I was pretty staunchly anti-religion. Something about the whole enterprise pushed me away, and if I were not an athiest, I was certainly not far off. I hated that some people had these cockamaime rules about how we ALL should live our lives. F that, I say.

Then I remember discovering an artist I knew over the Tubes was a devout Christian. Her site had a small part dedicated to Christian art. But what was different about it was that she was talking about herself ONLY. She talked about how Jesus saved HER, not everyone else.

To me, that made a gigantic difference. There are the people who feel the need to spread their beliefs to anyone it will stick to, and then there are those who are content with knowing that what they learn in their own life only can truly apply to themselves.

OK, back on topic.

I don't know if there's going to be anyone anywhere that will argue in the opposite condition to their own member. And since somehow the johnson can be a sensitive issue with men, there's no way for this sort of argument to NOT be from emotion.

As far as any statistics that support one thing or the other, when you're talking about half the human race and a ceremony that's been performed (or not) billions of times, I doubt even the most amazing sample size could give you data that would ever be meaningful. So, all statistics saying that it's either healthier or not, that one gets less sensation or more, I don't think there's ever going to be a comprehensive study that will prove one right or wrong. (If I'm not mistaken, there's a movement in Africa for men to get circumcised to help prevent the spread of AIDS, but I think that's a bit drastic. I think there are easier means of prevention...)

This leaves me in an awkward position. I cannot really say that there's any reason to do it, but then again, the penis I most identify with was created only because of that procedure. And I have to say that I'm perfectly satisfied with the prince just as he is, the only way I've ever known him. So there's no way I could ever take a stance that was anti-the procedure that brought him to where he is now.

As far as the idea that it's traumatizing to a child, as much as I support the snowball theory (that small pains early in life grow into large ones), I just can't get behind the idea that somehow my many dysfunctions were caused by this (you'd think this would be apparent in the statistics if it was, and maybe it is, but I just have to doubt it).

Leaving the choice up to them when they're adults is basically saying "it will never happen," because part of the reason I have trouble picturing my dong in any other form is because I had formed a self-image that included it. I certainly wouldn't have done it any time after I was, say, one. If no knife had touched it before then, then chances are very good it never would. That's not to say that there aren't things I think shouldn't happen to children (for instance, I kinda wish I wasn't baptized, and that they'd let me choose THAT for myself).

I don't know what else to say except for... what's done is done. Of all the things we should worry about... whether or not other men whose penises I will never see or interact with are type A or B is not one of them.

[Cake]

Wait... What???? How does getting cut stop AIDS?

[Hakaryu]

The foreskin is a mucus membrane, so its easy for a pathogen to get into your body that way.

[tak197]

They way I see it, you have to play with your balls during puberty to check for nut cancer, so being uncut and having to clean it up properly predisposes you to be keeping healthy down there.

Hak, I challenge you this too. I read in GQ or Details or one of those men's magazines that there is a trend among some men to be decircumcised, often by using a skin stretching device on the penis. Write about this too.

[Hakaryu]

Actually a friend of mine who was cut at birth wants to do that. Problem is it only makes it look somewhat the same but it doesn't have the sensitivity of a real skin since it doesn't even have half the amount of nerves a real foreskin does.

As for my friend, he said he'd kill me if i get mine cut off =P though i do want to.

[King Kool]

Actually a friend of mine who was cut at birth wants to do that. Problem is it only makes it look somewhat the same but it doesn't have the sensitivity of a real skin since it doesn't even have half the amount of nerves a real foreskin does.

As for my friend, he said he'd kill me if i get mine cut off =P though i do want to.

I guess that shoots a hole in what I thought, that most who've kept it wouldn't want to get rid of it.

[Hakaryu]

For me its about comfort and such. The frenulumn on my johnson is tighter then normal so it makes pulling it back, and sex in general not very enjoyable. So i rather get it done and go back to enjoying carnal pleasure.

Your theory is still sound, since I want to do it for medical reasons rather then wanting it gone just to be gone.

[tak197]

I really can't believe this popped into my mind just after reading that but...

Can't you just stretch it to loosen it up?

[Hakaryu]

The frenulumn isn't stretchy like the foreskin. Its the little band of skin on the back of the head that connects to the foreskin.