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NOTICE:
The images below are graphic in nature for the purpose of education.
They may not be suitable for viewing in the workplace.
Peaceful Parenting takes a strong position against all forms of violence and aggression toward all babies and children. Through education we strive to make the world a more peace filled place.
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The penis and clitoris are analogous and homologous organs: they perform similar functions, share a common design, and biologically develop from the same tissues inutero. The glans (head) of the penis or clitoris is an internal organ. It is meant to remain covered for the majority of its livelihood, in similar nature to the way that the eyeballs are covered for a good portion of our lives (when we blink or sleep), and the way the ends of our fingers and toes are protected by our nails.
If we surgically amputate the eyelids or fingernails, we will face the repercussions of making an organ that was designed to be internal, external. In order to survive this damage, the organ must adapt. To do so, a variety of features will change (both immediately, and progressively over the years): pH will be altered, temperature will no longer remain stable in that organ, moisture and lubrication levels will not be maintained, leading to dryness and potential chapping, antibodies and healthy microflora that previously served to protect will cease to exist, and callusing (the build-up of multiple hardened layers of skin) will take place. Our body may attempt to heal itself by forming skin bridges or re-adhesions over the amputation site. Our eyeballs and fingertips would become thick, dry, discolored, and no longer function in the manner they were designed to.
So it is the same with the glans of the penis or clitoris. If we remove the very organ, the prepuce, which serves to cover, protect and regulate the health, pH, temperature, lubrication, antibodies, movement and functioning of the genitals, we've altered form so dramatically that the purposes it was created to fulfill can no longer be realized.
Not only is this evident in research: human development and sexuality especially, but the dramatic difference is also readily apparent to any lay onlooker observing the intact human genitals versus those that no longer remain in their original whole state.
Female and male genital cutting, especially in the manner that prepuce amputation is carried out in U.S. style male circumcision surgery (most often via Gomco or Plastibell amputations), is not only immediately damaging to a newborn baby; it is also permanently altering and forever changing the adult male body, and impacts all future sexual partner(s) as well.
Below: Adult men in their normal intact state (left) and others who had their prepuce amputated via infant circumcision (right) forcing the glans to adapt as an external organ: something it was never meant to be.
Above: Newborn boys in their normal intact state (left) and those who have had their prepuce amputated via circumcision (right). Top left = Plastibell. Bottom left = Gomco.
Below: Adult men in their normal intact state (left) and others who had their prepuce amputated via infant circumcision (right) forcing the glans to adapt as an external organ: something it was never meant to be.
To learn more about the many purposes of the prepuce, see: Functions of the Foreskin and related articles linked within.
Today, approximately 250,000 men who were circumcised at birth are restoring some of what was lost. If you are one of these men, you are not alone. Find resources and discuss the topic with other men via articles, sites, organizations and options for foreskin restoration here.
Related Reading:
How Male Circumcision Impacts Your Love Life
Male Circumcision and Women's Health
A Change in How Intercourse Works
Improve Marital Sex: Keep the Foreskins
Sex As Nature Intended It [book]
Sex As Nature Intended It [website]
How Male Circumcision Impacts Your Love Life
Male Circumcision and Women's Health
A Change in How Intercourse Works
Improve Marital Sex: Keep the Foreskins
Sex As Nature Intended It [book]
Sex As Nature Intended It [website]
(work safe version)
It's a tragedy that so many people do not know about. When a person takes the time to understand the facts and figure out the nature of all of it, then they understand the tragedy. This is a tragedy that still continues and that is the most difficult thing to understand!
ReplyDeleteI cannot imagine seeing my children's perfect bodies hurt and altered in that way....
ReplyDeleteI agree. I'm glad we didnt circumcise my son.
DeleteI am not cut and I have no problems, matter of fact I am glad my mom let me be. If we were meant to be cut (circumsized ), we would have been born that way. Parents, don't mutilate your kid s.
DeleteI'm the same, check out my website http://dollyknot.com/circ.html
DeleteRegards Peter.
Totally agree and I am so happy that we left our son's in it's natural state. There are no medical reasons as to why he needs to be circumcised.
DeleteWe don't have children yet, but we are adamant about our boys being natural. I am from the US, but moved to Sweden last year. I had never thought about circumcision one way or another until I went to the lake and saw all the tiny little blond boys running around with pointy penises. I am so used to the old American norm of circumcision that I still thought it was in the best interest of the child. It only took me about five minutes of reading to change my mind forever. These pictures solidify that even more. I can't imagine how we got into the habit of believing this was acceptable.
ReplyDelete...and people wonder why I'm so against circumcision... I still can't understand HOW anyone could think a circumcised penis looks nicer - it's more unappealing!
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you completely! I have never been a fan of circumcision and at the age of 51 I finally have (for the last 4 years) a partner who is uncut and completely natural (who is 65) and his penis is smooth and silky and very sexy. I don't understand, and never will, how people can choose to just 'lop' off parts of bodies that God saw fit to make a certain way for good reasons. Makes no sense whatsoever.
DeleteMy first sexual partner was circumcised and I remember being afraid to touch it because it was all dry and all I could think about was how I would NOT want someone touching me down there if I was all dry - how it would be so uncomfortable. So I made him go out and buy lubricant because I couldn't bear the thought of the dry rubbing (Sorry if TMI). Anyways, my next boyfriend was Greek and I was so RELIEVED that he had this lovely protective layer of skin that you could move around. I ended up marrying a Chinese man (also uncut) and I gotta say to any ladies who claim to be weirded out by it - sex is so much more comfortable and PLEASURABLE! You MUST try it. I guarantee you'll never go back. Plus, if you're anti-circ like me, then you don't have to worry about them making the "I want the baby to look like me" argument and they can take care of all the "how to keep your penis clean" talks.
DeleteLindsay I almost wonder if your Greek was my dad, xD He's an uncirced Greek guy who is in Oregon now, but who has been across the US.
DeleteThe pictures of those babies makes me sick. How could a parent do that to their child? I am SOOOOO glad that I knew better when my son was born.
ReplyDeleteit's so pretty and shiny! I NEVER thought I'd say that. lol! It just looks so much healthier than a circumcised penis! I feel horrible for robbing my son of that. :(
ReplyDeleteI hate having to use lube every single time! My husband's circ'd and I've been with intact men, as well. We've talked about restoration. Thanks for this post.
I feel the same way! I should have fought harder to protect my son. My husband is cut and belives all the talk of how it's better and safer and it's normal to look that way. I've never been with an intact man so I don't know what I'm missing. If could could do it again my son would NOT be circumsided.
DeleteI HATE lube too, Amanda. :(
ReplyDeleteI just don't get it - how can American women actually find circumcised penises more attractive? They look so sad and damaged... and crusty, like they fell off an Egyptian pharaoh.
ReplyDeleteThey find it more attractive because they have never seen an intact one. I just recently have started reading about this and determined when I have a child they will always be intact unless they choose otherwise.
DeleteI agree, as an American who has never seen an intact penis in real life, it looked a little weird when I saw my friend's babies intact. But I very quickly educated myself and easily decided not to circ my son (due soon). And after seeing this post and watching those videos, I feel the same as you do. A circumcised penis looks so sad and damaged, now that I know that it is, indeed, damaged, and the way an intact penis looks and works just looks so natural and normal to me.
DeleteCongrats to you and your son! Way to go, educating yourself and realizing circ is a bad thing, not a good one. As an American women who's been with both intact and cut men (Thankfully my hubby is intact as any future sons we may have will be), women who are "grossed out" and haven't been with a whole man don't know what they're missing! There's no need for pounding, painful "rabbit sex", no lube needed, the penis glides the way it's suppose to so no soreness, etc.
DeleteI think it's quite sad to hear anyone say that a penis is unattractive, sad, or damaged. Regardless of whether it's circumcised or not, both are beautiful and functional, and I find that each has it's unique differences that make them appealing regardless of foreskin status. However, I do agree that circumcision is an unnecessary and brutal mutilation and should be stopped. But, let's not criticize those sexy members who have no foreskin!
DeleteI agree with Anonymous in that I would never want a man to feel bad for having been circumcised—after all, in the vast majority of cases, he didn't choose to be that way. I wouldn't want him to be victimized twice for what is not his fault and would want him to be assured that I love him no matter what. That being said, the sooner we stop the butchery that is circumcision, the better! People shouldn't try to outthink 2,5 million years of evolution.
DeleteI'd never noticed the differences between the actual head of the penis when intact. It's obviously a very distinct, serious difference - and I think that further pushes the point home! And the pictures of the little boys, well.. I don't understand how anyone can look at those pictures and still think circumcision is the best option for ANYONE. :((((( I'm so sad that Hubby's circ'd and wish he would consider restoration, but am SO glad he was adamant (as I was) about keeping our boys whole!
ReplyDeleteI was hoping that the baby pics were extreme ones, but apparently they are normal! Curious - how old are the gents in the adult pics? Is the one on the left of an elderly person, or someone, say in their 20s or 30s? I'm wondering how long it took to look dried out like that. I think that's relevant :)
ReplyDeleteI'm an unfortunately circumcised male, and the age of the person in the circumcised picture is absolutely irrelevant.
DeleteAs long as I can remember, my glans has looked EXACTLY like that, and for one reason or another, as a child, I used to touch my penis and testicles all the time; not in a sexual way, but for some reason it was just comforting to hold my own genitals... So yeah, let's say at the age of 5, it already looks like that.
I am extremely upset that this continues today, and that anyone ever thought to do this in the first place. I'm also extremely upset that my parents ever had a doctor do this to me. Luckily, some of my foreskin remains, so I still have enough skin to do the sliding/folding over thing, but I can only imagine what I've still lost as a result of this horrible mutilation.
Yup, every penis I have seen up close and personal has been circ'd and they all look like that, from my teenage years till today. It does look old in comparison, huh? I was really surprised. I still have not seen one that is intact in real life other than my friend's babies (and soon my own). Interesting that while erect they don't look that different, except the tough skin of the head in the circ'd one. It makes me wonder how many women have encountered an intact penis and never knew if they never saw it flaccid and never noticed a difference that made them think this may be why.
DeleteMy boyfriend is 26 and his is dry like that as well.
DeleteTydomin - it's only because so many American women have no clue what an intact man looks like. Literally, they have never seen an intact guy so they are only going off crazy myths and fairytales. When erect, an intact man and circumcised obviously look pretty much exactly the same, except that one has all the parts he needs, and the other, sadly, doesn't.
ReplyDeleteThings like this are great. Maybe more women in the States will see reality for what it is and stop robbing their sons of a full sexuality.
JAEL,
DeleteI find it interesting that you choose to Blame Women for this Custom, ( that I personally, as a Woman, do not Agree with either )
Why is that ?
I agree ^ I was against circumcision for my son for the many reasons stated in the article, but went ahead with it because my (uneducated and stubborn) husband refused to allow his son to be different from him. Very sad :(
DeleteI am so glad that I made the decision not to alter my son's body. A coworker of my husband was complaining recently that she would have to pay out of pocket for her son's circ when he was born. She had a jar out at her baby shower with a label "Pretty Penis Fund". I just about choked trying to keep my rage and shock in check. I discreetly slipped a Saving Penises info card into the jar and I'm hoping that she did some reading into circ.
ReplyDeleteIt makes me want to cry, seeing those babies cut and altered in such a horrible way...
That is insane... hard to believe. How can people be so selfish?!
DeleteBecause they don't know any better. That's what our society teaches us so we don't question it.
DeleteI'm so glad my DH is intact and so is my son. Dh was born 3 months premature in 1969. I'm sure if he had been full term he would have been circ'd. He almost died when born, but thankfully the circumstances of his birth prevented him being circ'd. And his mother never went back to have it done. :)
ReplyDeletemadasapoon.. When I was a teen the penises that I saw looked dried out and crusty like that.. these were in teenage boys. Yes, I was a lot *out there*.. I saw many penises as a teen.. they all looked hard and crusty like that. :( It isn't "old" men that look like that only :( So So SAD! :(
ReplyDeleteMy oldest son was circed. Thank God the doc that did him gave him a very loose circ, so he looks intact to this day (he's almost 9). My other two were not circed. Our experience with my oldest was traumatic enough for a lifetime. Thanks for this vivid picture. I hope many people can learn from it and make healthy choices for their sons based upon it.
ReplyDeleteit sucks the first born is the lab rat... i being the first born....
DeleteMadasaspoon - My husband just turned 28 and is circ'd. He looks like the adult pictures there and has since I first saw him. I've never seen an intact adult (and haven't seen/been with anyone other than my hubby), so it was a surprise to me to see the difference. Makes me feel even worse for him. :(
ReplyDeleteExcellent post. The baby penises are disturbing.
ReplyDeleteNot that I have seen many, but to the person asking about the adult circ'ed pic...Even the teenage penises I saw as a teen experimenting with boyfriends myself were just as dried out. My husband and I were 17/19 when we started dating and his looked like that then.
Before my circ research, I thought that was normal.
Thank you for this excellent and concise summary.
ReplyDeleteNotice the exquisite sensitivity of the intact adult penis, compared with the calloused, numbed down circumcised adult penis. Wanna know why circumcised men need to thrust and thrust to feel enough sensation for orgasm? Look to circumcision.
ReplyDeleteWhy someone would choose to do this to their child is beyond me. =/
ReplyDeletenot enough education :(
DeleteI didn't know how different they look as adults. the circ'd penis looks so unhealthy and rough in comparison. :( I wish I had a time machine so I could go back and keep my first son intact.. but at least I realized the error of my ways and my second & our new baby won't have to go through that.
ReplyDeleteI don't plan to have any more babies. BUT if I were i'm so thankful you post all these things about circumcision and such because I would've (if we were to have another and it be a boy) gotten the baby circ without knowing all this stuff. so i'm happy that I am informed =]
ReplyDeleteI've never seen a cut penis - wow they look awful - as for the baby cut penis - it's so wrong and looks so abnormal. I wish everyone could see it through my eyes :(
ReplyDeleteI am so incredibly grateful to my grandfather, who for some reason I never did find out, urged my own mother to keep me intact 36 years ago. Makes me want to go thank them both.
ReplyDeleteYou should thank them - it would make their day!!
DeleteYou should! they may have always wondered how you felt about it. As a mother, I love to hear anything I did (or didn't do) was right for them :)
Deletepretty sure if I was a circumcised male that I would be totally jealous...... it looks so smooth and tender! ;-)
ReplyDeleteI myself am circumcised and when I see an intact penis it does make me jealous. I wish I hadn't been cut. You are lucky.
DeleteMy husband is "un" ... And I can tell you the difference between the haves and the have-nots for me ... Is Amazing ! (in the politest way possible). :)
ReplyDeleteMine is cut... but one of my ex boyfriends was intact... and I can tell the difference too :( night and day...
ReplyDeleteAfter researching and reading the differences my husband feels like he was robbed of 'super amazing sexual feeling' is what he says
My (intact) son came in the room while I was reading that article and saw the pictures. He was horrified, and asked me a lot of questions. "Why would anyone do that? How do they do it? Does it hurt the baby?" and then, "I"m glad you didn't do that to ME."
ReplyDeleteYep my 2yr old son just seen the pics and was saying "yuck, yuck" "Ouch, ouch". Its amazing kids know how wrong it is yet many adults have no clue.
DeleteThat comparison sure makes it clear. The whole idea really is just so bizarre. All I can imagine is how angry I would be if somebody made my clitoris turn all dry and desensitized like that.
ReplyDeleteWow, that is truly a striking difference! Never realized just how different it is!
ReplyDeleteMichelle - do doubt. If I was cut I would be PISSED. Guess I have a lot of buddies who are. :/
ReplyDeleteI once heard there are fewer instances of rape in societies with a large percentage of intact men. hmmmm.
ReplyDeletethat would be because victims of sexual assault.. and that's what circ ultimately is; often become perpetrators because they are angry or screwed up mentally over it, even if they don't realize that it has harmed their psyche. I feel very compassionate towards them actually because I cannot imagine WHAT they went through to make them that way.
DeleteBut if a person rapes someone else they should still do time in prison.
I think they were saying more intact men in an area and less rape...
Delete''societies with large percentage of INTACT MEN''..
I dont agree, but maybe saying because they enjoy sex more, all my brothers are intact, and they have the up most respect for woman, would never hit/rape anything like that!
Excellent analysis!! I agree 100%!!!!
DeleteWoah, woah, woah. Abundant "whatever" just says that societies with a higher percentage of uncircumcised males have lower rates of male perpetrated rape against women and everybody else just gets in line and says "UMM, YUP, SHO NUFF, YOUBETCHA"? ROFLMAO, WHERE ARE THE STATISTICS TO PROVE THAT? You heard? That sounds about right? Statistics people, facts, people!!! Maybe you're right, maybe you're not, but the only way that could EVER be determined is if you back up your statements with data that is quantifiable and can be cited.
DeleteWhat. The. Fuck.
DeleteI'd be curious about the stats associated with the first comment here, but seriously, no one is going to question Roger here? I know I'm 3 years late, but I don't care.
"The Jewish men are upper middle class and never commit rape"
What?
.....What??
WTF about someone being upper middle class means they don't rape? Literally, never rape? OBVIOUSLY only poor people rape amirite? No. no no no. No. Do I agree that rapists never carry lube? No. I fucking don't, because I don't know what most rapists do, but I do know that there is no nevers invovled with rape. Like- what the fuck man seriously. Sometimes upper middle class people rape, and I bet that sometimes, rapists carry lube. Maybe, I don't know and I don't really care but I do care about the ridiculous classism, and I'm guessing racism? Involved in that senseless post lol
Though I started crying, Thank you for this post.
ReplyDeleteRachael: that looks pretty representative to me. I met my circed husband when we were both in our 20s and the picture here is not one of an old man...that is what circing does to the glans. It's tragic and sad. And although that aspect of our marriage has been very good, I had an intact boyfriend before I met my husband, so I do know that there is a difference with sensitivity and thus with sex in general.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why mothers and fathers still continue to say it's a parental choice to circ. It's their adult son who will have to live with the consequences and I bet the vast majority would have wanted to retain the extra sensation and sensitivity.
Because unfortunaitely it is a parental choice, until there is a law to say different :(
DeleteThe picture of the adult penis on the left is typical for most circumcised men. There are some variations, though. I was circumcised at birth and my dorsal corona was not so keratinized when I was younger. It had a slight pink-purple color. By the time I was in my 30s my whole penis was skin colored. It also was no more sensitive then the rest of my skin.
ReplyDeleteThe picture on the right is from an intact porn actor. It is not uncommon for intact men to have a pinkish-purple glans although the pictured glans is extremely smooth and pink. The glans and inner foreskin are mucous membranes and typically have the same coloration as the tissue under the eyelid or in the mouth. Notice the color difference between the shaft skin and the glans and inner foreskin.
After restoring my foreskin and dekeratinizing my mucosal tissue, my glans and inner foreskin remnant have a nice pinkish-purple color. But, alas, my glans is not as smooth as shown in the pictures. My glans is shiny and has a good color, but it is not smooth. I have bumps and unevenness on the surface. I attribute the rough surface of my glans to the damage caused by the doctor ripping my foreskin away from my glans. At birth the foreskin is fused to the glans. The first step of circumcision is to separate the foreskin from the glans.
I've read on this site and on many other anti-circurcision site that a reason often told by pro-circumcision is that "He will never get oral sex if he's not circurmcised" or something to that effect.
ReplyDeleteSeeing these pictures I really don't understand because I'm a girl and even though I'm not married and I've never had oral sex in my life, I would choose the one the right anytime! Sure I will welcome any men in my life as they are but if I had to choose... easy choice. Maybe I'm weird.
not weird at ALL as a teen I was rather active and even then I had a firm preference for intact guys..
Deletenone of my three brothers where circ'd and I was used to seeing natural as NORMAL infact the first time I saw a circ'd penis (on a baby as a child) I didn't react very well I wanted to know what was wrong with his penis! thankfully I wasn't asking his parents, my mother was babysitting him and my mum quietly told me that when he was born a Dr had cut the end of his penis off to which I was horrified and asked if it was an accident and then full of rage when she replied his mum had asked for it to be done. I was 8 but even then I knew it was WRONG
I feel fortunate that my husband was left intact (however silly the reason) and that he is wholly on board with keeping our children the same. These pictures are a very disturbing comparison, indeed. I didn't even realize how sad my early boyfriends penises looked until I ended up with someone intact.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the post, this was very informative. I don't really have an opinion, given that I am Hungarian and this has never been an issue in Hungary. For us, circing is something that religious Jews do, it's their business and no one else really bothers. I know that the situation is very different in North-America and there is huge debate about it. I have never seen a circed penis (come to think of it, never really seen ANY penis that did not belong in my immediate family, i.e. father, brother, husband, son), and I appreciate the photo illustrations.
ReplyDelete//"For us, circing is something that religious Jews do"//
DeleteNo, it's something that religious Jews force others to go through.
Children are not religious. They don't choose this.
Religion is no excuse for allowing circumcision to be performed on a child. It should be illegal, with no exception other than medical necessity.
I get so sad when I see those pictures.
DeleteI live in Norway and here 98% of all boys are NOT circumcised!
I have never seen or been with someone who has a circ`penis in my whole life and I doubt that i ever will.
The only one who does it is muslims and jews.
(It doesn`t make it right even for religious reasons!)
Thank god this is not in our culture! I really hope in the future that US parents will end infant circumcision.
(sorry for the bad english :S )
Im circumcised and luckily dont have any probs. If anything my sex life is very active and my partner doesn't have an issue with it. I didn't cut my bo up tho. My parents were ignorant to this info. I can't blame them. But now i know im breaking the cycle in my family
ReplyDeleteThank you, Conscious! I am glad you have left your son as nature made him and he will be able to have a normal and natural sex life. I know many parent's cut their sons because they thought they were doing the right thing for them and were misled by medical professionals and doctors. Remember people, doctors make $$$ by doing circumcisions and the majority of them are also cut so they don't know what the foreskin is and how important it is to men and women. In the 18 states where public medical insurance no longer covers circumcision (it is a cosmetic procedure), more and more boys are growing up intact. 85% of men in the world have foreskins and less than 1% choose to circumcise as adults for medical or personal reasons. That means 99% of men circumcised as children would have kept their natural bodies. Thank you again!
DeleteMy husband is "semi-"circumcised (?) due to a sort of botched one 31 years ago. He is cut but not all the way so his glans still didn't get crusty or dry like my past boyfriends. When we found out we were having a boy, I didn't even think about it; I was more worried about my baby registry than a decision of a circumcision. I did lots of research and I felt my personally beliefs aligned with natural parenting and I never looked back. I brought it up with my husband and he immediately agreed as if I asked it we wanted to order pizza tonight. Since this, I took polls between our friends with sons and, to my surprise, a majority left them intact! Our son is perfect in our eyes and I hope parents will see that of their sons and take them home that way.
ReplyDeleteI agree, our sons are perfect, every inch of them, why change it?!
DeleteThanks for posting this blog and for providing visual indications as to why circumcising a baby boy is the wrong thing to do! I'm a middle aged Catholic intact male, and my Baptist father is also intact...circumcising was never as issue in my family, thank God, and if I ever have a son of my own, he too will "look like Daddy" and remain intact as well! I have never experienced any ill affects from not being circumcised...retracting and cleaning the foreskin is just as natural as washing behind the ears to me. I never gave being intact any thought growing up, although in the school shower rooms some boys did stare at me...now that I'm fully aware of the damage circumcising does, I pass on my knowledge to friends who are also expecting baby boys! So far I have spared two infant boys from the knife, and I'll continue to spread the word that circumcision is a barbaric and senseless act that needs to be stopped permanently in this country and throughout the world!
ReplyDeleteI always thought that parents who circurmcised their sons just didn't know better and were doing like everybody else but now that I manages to look at those pictures of circumcised babies (yes it took me a while and all my might, it's awful!) I understand for the first son, but the younger brothers??? I can't understand how a mother who see what was done to her poor little boy can agree again for a another boy!
ReplyDeletePersonally, I really thought it was a "little" thing but now that I look at the pictures I can see it's major, not little! We talk much about the pain of the surgery, but what about the pain while healing?? It's hidden in a (not always clean) diaper! I really don't understand.
These pictures make me want to cry. I cant imagine willingly having that done to our little boy. Thank goodness we did our research before he was born. He's perfect just the way God made him!
ReplyDeleteThe difference in how intercourse works has always interested me too. At the very least, this should be required education before circumcision is to be performed on any innocent child.
ReplyDeleteThat circumcision can adversely affect the pleasure and mechanics of penetrative sex is a Big Dirty Secret kept in the cupboard of American sexuality! The media, women's magazines, sex therapists, medical schools are all in denial about this. The USA is still unable to face the possibility that the American Foreskin Holocaust of the last century may have materially reduced the average quality of marital sex in the USA. The main way the truth has snuck out is by everyday women blogging bits of their sex lives anonymously. Absent the internet, we would probably all still be in the dark.
Deletethe 2nd infant pic is what my 1st son's looked like after circumcision. first night home I ended up in the ER w/baby screaming for 4 hours/bleeding & they just told me to put pressure on it (I thought whatever...the bleeding was minimal but his screams will be w/me forever) & tylenol - they kinda laughed at me for which I am still enraged by. Therefor, 2nd son & daddy/hubby (dad of 2nd son) IS INTACT! THANK GOD BUT i cant help but feel sooo much guilt for my 1st son seeing these pics. ;-(
ReplyDeleteno wonder why so many people have disatisfying sex lives.
ReplyDeleteThis makes me feel so sad. So many men have been gypped of having normal genitals. At least my son is intact. I can't help but feel sorry for my nephews and brothers though. :-( I have 6 nephews between the ages of 22 and 4. Sadly, I was not an intactivist before any of them were born. (My son is 7.5 and I knew enough to keep him whole, but I was not as informed or outspoken as I became a few years after he was born.)
ReplyDeleteI can't help but feel bad for my hubby... seeing the difference between the 2 makes me feel like we have both been robbed.
ReplyDeleteI am SO SO SO glad we didn't have boys b/c i know we would have circumcised b/c i had not educated myself about this topic until recently. We would have done it "just b/c that's what most people do around here" and "b/c my husband is"...not good reasons...so glad that i now realize that it doesn't have to be this way, that boys need to be kept intact.
ReplyDeleteI had my first orgasm during intercourse with my intact husband the very first time we ever had sex. I remember thinking "he fits so perfectly inside me. No man has ever felt like this". I didn't know that he wasn't circumcised like all the rest because I never saw it flaccid until a year after we were married, due to him being embarrassed of it. But, it looked so wonderful compared to the other penises I had seen, and was so velvety soft and perfect, I told him all the time. When I found out why, I was shocked. I actually thought that uncircumcised meant that it worked and looked similar to a dogs penis, and that they were weird and ugly and hard to maneuver and please. Now I know the truth, and under no circumstances should little boys be mutilated in this way. It makes my heart break for them and their future lovers. Every woman I know has problems with sex of some sort with their mutilated partners, and my only complaint is not getting enough time alone. It's just so sad. It think it's even more sad that my husband grew up thinking his penis was ugly and different when his penis is exactly how it should be, and the most attractive and wonderful penis I have ever seen.
ReplyDeleteThis is a beautiful tribute...your love is evident.
DeleteTributes like this are the most powerful evidence there is against RIC. You are not alone in feeling as you did. You are also not the first woman to reveal that she first saw her husband's foreskin some time after her marriage. It takes a practiced eye to distinguish cut from uncut when both are erect. (Hint: frenulum!)
DeleteI too grew up thinking that my natural penis was sexually repelling. Thus I was a virgin when I graduated from college. I learned the truth only well after I married, because the internet made it possible for women like yourself to air the truth.
Wow...I have to work up my courage to look at things like this b/c I circ'd my son beforeI knew better. This is crazy. I have never seen an uncirc'd before. What a difference. As someone else stated, I feel so sad for what I robbed my son of :,(
ReplyDeleteSo glad I kept my boys intact. Their little penises look so much better than the circ'd penises of other kids. One of the arguments my MIL gave for circ is that he will look weird and no girl will want to have sex with him (mind you, he was days old at the time!). I just told her "Good! That just means he will find a girl worthy of him who does not judge him on his foreskin!" The ridiculous things people come up with to defend circ.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen an adult intact penis before and there is an obvious difference. I was completely mind blown when I first saw this comparison. It hurt me to see what was taken from my husband without his consent. It's not fair! :(
ReplyDeleteMy husband is circumcised, and I do believe it has affected our sex life. However, he will deny that the circumcision has anything to do with it. But let me say that all in all, our sex life is great ;)
ReplyDeleteI should also say that my husband is very supportive of my desire to not have any sons we have circumcised. I'm grateful for that! But he is pretty defensive of his own circumcision.
"My husband is circumcised, and I do believe it has affected our sex life. However, he will deny that the circumcision has anything to do with it. But let me say that all in all, our sex life is great ;)"
ReplyDelete@Laura, what you describe is not unusual. A man's sexual being is centered around his penis. For many men, their ego is located in their penis. Many circumcised men cannot admit that their penis is anything less than perfect. Perhaps in time your husband will come to accept the harm caused by his circumcision. Maybe he will even take up foreskin restoration. Restoring my foreskin has done wonders for me and my wife.
"Myths about Circumcision You Likely Believe" Psychology Today *CIrcumcision does great harm to babies
ReplyDeletePublished on September 11, 2011 by Darcia Narvaez, Ph.D. in Moral Landscapes http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/moral-landscapes/201109/myths-about-circumcision-you-likely-believe
@ mothers who are sad about circumcising their son, please consider collecting all, everything pertinant to your son's circ., anything that he may want to know, and may help him with bringing a lawsuit if he so wishes. It's even more sad, when grown male find all the info is dumped. He may want to know who. what method, where, why, what was and wa not told for consent, the consent form itself.
The intact penis feels stereoscopic pleasure, therefor in breadth and depth, when coming from two unequal pleasure sources, the ridged band playing with the corona. This is all destroyed by cutting off all the ridged band and part to all of the frenulum (a 85% loss of sexual receptors). The sexual function of the Dartos muscle that surrounds the penis and is kept under tension by the ridged band is also destroyed. Cutting off half of the penile skin brings the scrotum closer to the body thereby impairing the scrotum's dartos muscle to fucntion properly in regulating heat for optimal health of sperm. Circumcision destroys many functions and sexually handicaps.
ReplyDeleteI am so very glad I took my whole baby home! I was weirded out the first time I saw a circed baby penis! I think whole baby boys look a bit like rose buds :-) I try to advocate for leaving boys whole when I can, and it's really hard for me when someone has their mind made up to have it done! Perhaps I should simply direct expectant mothers to this blog!
ReplyDeleteDespite being exposed to tons of information on the good sense of keeping a baby boy intact, with the birth of our first child four years ago (who we thought would be a boy) my husband and I strongly disagreed on the subject (him pro-circ, me anti-) like on no other issue in our relationship ever! To my delight we wound up not having to face the issue when our baby girl was born. But 6 months ago, when our son was born the circ issue resurfaced and again we strongly disagreed ... I promised my baby I would not let him be harmed and am incredibly pleased to say he is intact. Thankfully, my husband did not demand or pursue having our perfect baby boy circumcised (thank goodness for a non-hospital birth!) and so it miraculously just never happened, although I was physically ill over the topic for much of my pregnancy. If my husband had pushed the issue it would have gotten ugly, but I am happy my husband of course accepts our son as he is, despite not "looking like" his father (the dumbest argument in favor of circumcision, by the way)!!
ReplyDeleteAnd the saddest part is they don't even realize what they are missing!
ReplyDeleteactually this is a blessing, once you find out that all the problems you have had with your sexual response are the result of this mutilation that your own parents allowed, it's quite devastating. I almost wish I had never figured it out. I am 54, and have known/suspected that there was something wrong with my penis for as long as I can remember, since about 4 years old. This is how I eventually figured it out on my own, the constant suspicion caused me to research it on the internet about 10 years ago. When I first realized what had been done to me by my own parents, I tried to commit suicide.
DeleteI was blissfully unaware of what had happened to me until my first night at school - a boarding school with totaly open, communal dormitories and shower rooms. We were sent into this room with a row of tubs for our evening bath, and it was immediately obvious that some of the other boys had a penis that differed from my own. I was clearly missing something, and I had this sick, instinctive feeling that it was something important. I was shocked.
DeleteThat moment started a lifelong curiosity and search for information on what I had been subjected to and why. It was not until I got access to the internet that I found very much. Viewed objectively, circumcision can only be seen as bizarre and perverse. Not only are the physical effects extremely damaging for both partners, but there is mounting evidence that there are profound psychological ramifications also.
I will be saving these pictures and then sending them to any woman who ever tells me that they just "like a cut penis so much better because uncut ones are so gross." Really now?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great blog post.
@Cassie - any woman who says that has never actually seen an intact man (let alone slept with one).
ReplyDeleteI wish I had known more about such things before I'd had my sons. I feel terrible for having them circumcised, but I honestly didn't know better. I thought it was best. :/ Now, my issue is convincing my husband that our future sons should be intact even though our first two and he are not. He says I can't change his mind no matter what. The thought really upsets me.
ReplyDeletemake him hold a baby down while they do it, I'm sure it'd change his mind.
DeleteGenital cutting on minors is a crime, a sexual abuse on behalf of medical professionals. They do not inform parents about the purpose of the foreskin as well as the irreversible damage this amputative surgery creates. I'm so sorry for all the little boys and girls as well as their parents who became a victim of the horrible brainwashing surrounding the practice of genital mutilation. It shows just how much more work we need to do to move from the dark ages...
ReplyDeleteCircumcision is a barbaric practice that belongs in the bronze age with superstitious religious beliefs where it originated. The reason it became popular in North America was because some religious zealots in the 19th century thought it would curb the evils of boys masturbating.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most difficult issues for men who are circumcised, is that they just can't accept that their penis is not "normal". Natural is normal, it's only common sense. The next most difficult thing is accepting that their sexual functioning is not "normal" either. When a man is young, he may not even realize his sexual functioning is different (he doesn't know any different), and unless he has a partner who is feeling the effects of this and willing to bring it up, he may not know until he is a much older man and experiencing some of the sexual dysfunction that comes with circumcision. Then the problem is accepting that his penis isn't working as it should and that is really hard for the male ego. Some men will just ignore these problems because they don't want to admit them. It's not very hard to understand why there is so much sexual dysfunction in the U.S. and unhappy relationships. Some problems have solutions, but it takes a dedicated relationship to find them. It's sad when you think that it could have all been avoided by not messing with Mother Nature in the first place. And what about babies? Circumcision is just wrong on so many levels.
ReplyDeleteMommy for Tots, some advice I have is to have your husband read everything you can find that details the benefits that one with an intact foreskin possesses (the link in my next paragraph is one page I've read and am highly supportive of). (Include information about foreskin restoration so he can learn about what he can do to restore some of the functionality that he lost by having been circumcised. Learning about foreskin restoration should help him become more willing to accept the view that a natural penis is better than a circumcised penis. [Without that hope for improvement many men who have been circumcised may simply opt to deny that they have been wronged or violated {e.g., by maintaining their ignorance about the functionality of the foreskin} as it's easier for them to blindly assume that circumcision is what's best for a man than it is for them to accept that a very important part of their penis was removed without a medical need and without their consent.]) (I have an intact foreskin so I know quite a bit about how a natural penis feels and how it functions. One of the functionalities of the foreskin that I feel all men should be in support of is that it helps reduce friction - something women benefit from as well. Circumcised men who haven't thoroughly researched the subject don't know what they and their partners are missing out on - and if they're wise they'll do the research before choosing to permanently alter another male's penis. No compassionate man would ever choose to have his son circumcised unless it is medically necessary - which is quite rare.)
ReplyDeleteAlso, show him videos of infants being circumcised (see http://www.drmomma.org/2009/09/functions-of-foreskin-purposes-of.html and perhaps also search YouTube and/or Google Video) and ask him if he really wants any future son(s) to be violated the same way that he was violated, and if so, why.
This site certainly has a lot of good information about circumcision on it that he should read (I've only read a few pages though - namely pages that were linked from other discussions about circumcision that I've read), and one other page (if not their entire site) I'd like to recommend is: http://www.cirp.org/library/anatomy/ohara/ - which is a study about the sexual satisfaction of women who have had both intact and circumcised partners.
And I personally am sympathetic towards parents who have one or more circumcised boys and would like to have future boys stay intact as that can cause the older boy(s) to be jealous. Some advice I've heard (and would be willing to accept from my parents if I was circumcised and had a younger brother with an intact foreskin) from another about this is (if this may be the case with you) to simply tell the older boy(s) that you didn't know which option was the better option so you simply went with what the doctor/nurse advised. And now that you've done your research you've made up your mind, and that you're sorry that you can't change the past - but you can help him with foreskin restoration.
My view is that I have no right to damage my son's body. It is his body and when he grows up, if he wishes to get it done he can do it on his own. He has the right to decide for himself. I have the right to protect him until he can speak up for himself.
ReplyDeleteI teach my kid to clean himself properly and when the time comes we will talk about safe practices. If he wants to get circumcised after all this then he can get it done when he can make that decision. He is at the receiving end of the scalpel and he should be able to have a say in it.
It does not have to be done when boys are babies. They can make their own decision later, they won't be causing anything for any woman until they grow up so why not let them make that decision that affects their whole life.
I'm a circumcised Father of two intact (uncircumcised) boys, ages 2 and a newborn. Making the descision for my first son was difficult. Everyone in my family is cut, but I coudn't find a legitimate reason for us to do the same. So I solicited opinions from several NYC medical professionals, who offered tepid advise, essentially saying "if the father was circumcised, then so should the baby". In the hospital, we had several young, female Pediatricians check-in on us; each spoke coyly, always stressing that circumcision is a "simple procedure", but it was "fine if we choose not to". The subtle implication however, was that we should. On her last visit, the Doctor bluntly advised we should have our son circumcised, claiming teenage girls don't like to perform oral sex on uncut boys, because they think it's "dirty". Now I didn't know what to do! At the last minute, a surgeon advised me to stick with my original decision to leave our son intact. And I thank God to this day that we did.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I have some degree of sexual dysfunction that I believe is related to his circumcision. I still enjoy sex, but at the end is always uncomfortable for me and rushed for him, because it simply takes so long and such intense thrusting to satisfy him. He has several brothers and their wives have all mentioned that that part of sex is just "too long" for us, and although we laugh it really isn't funny. It was not like this with my intact boyfriend. We didn't have to use artificial lubricant every time either, like I do with my husband. If we don't use lube sex can *hurt me* and that's really sad. When I was pregnant I knew that if I had a son (I had a daughter instead) that I could never do such a thing to a tiny newborn baby, but it's so much more than that. It will affect one of the most sacred aspects of not only his life, but the lives of his futures partners. Forever. I'm really sad my husband is circ'ed, but I know his mother did the best with the information she had at the time. I just can't believe that became the norm in our culture.
ReplyDeleteThis has definitely been interesting for me! I had never seen an intact adult before! My husband of 14 years is circ'ed but we don't seem to have the issues mentioned here. Rarely have problems with lubrication, in fact sometimes I make too much. He doesn't need intense thrusting to orgasm at all. And the head of his penis is smooth, although it is the same color as the rest of his skin.
ReplyDeleteBut I do believe that it is not natural and we have left our 4 boys intact from the get-go. Like a previous commentor, I felt that I should not make permanent decisions about my sons' bodies. If they feel later in life that they want to be circumcised, then it's their bodies -their decision. (although I would try to talk them out of it). My question is always "why?" If you are Jewish, then I understand- it's the Lord's commandment of his people. But if you're not Jewish, then why mutilate your son? As a Christian, it specifically says in the Bible you do not need to get circumcised.
My thoughts on circumcision.
ReplyDeletehttp://yourbirthcoach.com/2011/09/12/video-of-birth-best-birth-prenatal-class-baby-classes-childbirth-coursesmy-thoughts-on-circumcision/
My oldest son was 5 before he noticed the difference between his (intact) penis and dad's. He told me when he got older, his penis would "shed its skin, like a snake, the way dad's did." I explained that wouldn't happen - that the extra skin on dad's penis had been cut off when he was a baby. I will never forget the look on my son's face - somewhere between horror and disbelief. If only adults could have the same sense of wrong.
ReplyDelete20 years ago when my son was born, i took him back to the birthing center for his 7 day checkup and said no to circumcision. to this day, i can hear the cheering sounds of joy and relief coming from the nurses who were standing by to perform the amputation. i didn't know as much then as i know now, and i asked the midwife, "why are they so happy?" she replied, "circumcision is horrible and they hate having to do them." that is the first time i realized the extent of the trauma that i had saved my son from.
ReplyDeleteI wish more nurses and doctors that HATE performing them would conscientiously object.
DeleteAs an RN in labor and delivery, more and more of us are conscientious objectors to circumcision. I would say that 90% of the nurses and physicians I work with have intact sons. We are out there, I consider it my job to protect and advocate for newborns and am always willing to educate and inform patients about why they should keep their son's intact!
Deleteto anonmymous: i'm jewish, and i certainly didn't hear any lord commanding me to mutilate my son!
ReplyDeleteHow can our leaders ban the protection of our infant boys? NO ONE would ban the protection of a girls prepuce (clitoral hood). In fact, to even suggest a pin prick lifts lawmakers and human rights activist eyebrows. But when we talk of our sons, suddenly we have our leaders actually blocking the effort to protect them. What has our society become? :(
ReplyDeleteAndy Harglesis says:
ReplyDeleteMost girls at my school find uncircumcised hot. ;)
Im having a tough time with this. I am Jewish and so is my Husband. He is of course circ'ed, is there a way in which our son could be circ'ed but not to this extent? Is there a way to only remove part of the foreskin? This is our first child and everyone is pressuring us. Im not sure what to do.
ReplyDeleteTo the last Anonymous -
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I are also Jewish. I'd highly recommend checking out a few of these resources:
"Circumcision: Identity, Gender and Power" (article) http://www.drmomma.org/2011/10/circumcision-identity-gender-and-power.html
"Questioning Circumcision: A Jewish Perspective" (book) http://astore.amazon.com/peacefparent-20/detail/0964489562
Several of the sites, links, videos and articles on the Judaism & Circumcision resource page: http://www.drmomma.org/2009/06/circumcision-jewish-fathers-making.html
Shalom. שָׁלוֹם
Anonymous said...
ReplyDelete"Im having a tough time with this. I am Jewish and so is my Husband. He is of course circ'ed, is there a way in which our son could be circ'ed but not to this extent? Is there a way to only remove part of the foreskin? This is our first child and everyone is pressuring us. Im not sure what to do."
Please check out this site. There are plenty of Jewish people who reject the idea of this blood ritual.
http://www.jewsagainstcircumcision.org/
"On her last visit, the Doctor bluntly advised we should have our son circumcised, claiming teenage girls don't like to perform oral sex on uncut boys, because they think it's 'dirty.' "
ReplyDeleteThe quoted sentence was grossly unprofessional behaviour. Being a realist, I am resigned to the fact that some younger male doctors make uncouth remarks of this nature. But I simply cannot understand how a woman doctor could speak that way to a parent.
Several times in my life, lay people have spoken to me in this fashion. It is also pathetic nonsense: infant males must loose their foreskins at birth in order to make teenage girls more willing to perform fellatio in parked cars late weekend evenings?? Responsible intimacy should always take place within 20 feet of a bathroom, in which case a quick last minute rinse of the preputial sack is a trivial option.
The quoted sentence is an excellent example of how RIC is grounded in urban myths pertaining to human sexual behaviour. RIC is also grounded in the unspoken American class system. Before 1940, a bald penis marked a man as having been born into an educated family having money to spare. It was a cattle brand signalling that one had been born in an American maternity ward. It was evidence that one's mother appreciated that the odour of unwashed intact male genitals could offend; hence she was attuned to sexual and hygienic propriety. As my grandmother put it when I was born, not circumcising is "unsanitary." RIC was evidence that one's parents had a proper moral disdain for childhood masturbation and so wished to discourage it. By 1970, all births took place in maternity wards, and Medicaid enabled the indigent to afford bald penises for their sons. But prejudice against the natural penis as a sign of socioeconomic deprivation persisted. And of course, RIC made the cash register ring!
Many of you above find the circumcised penis visually and sexually unappealing, and are puzzled why American parents last century did not have a similar reaction. 20 years elapsed between the time I became curious about sex and my reading of Wallerstein's 1980 book. During those 20 years, everything I read about circ asserted that it was cleaner, less embarrassing, and did not detract from sex in any way. To me, this is hard proof that American common sense and self-awareness about sex left a great deal to be desired.
The high American birth rate during much of last century is clear evidence that American couples had lots of sex. But this sex took place in the dark, and men and women had little self-awareness about it. To concentrate the mind on sexual acts and the appearance of the genitalia was deemed unseemly, even pornographic. You people cannot imagine how talk of genitalia used to make people blush and rush to change the subject. Hence American parents and doctors were oblivious to the fact that RIC could detract from sexual pleasure and functionality. American doctors know little about any aspect of sex, even in the best of circumstances.
Before the internet, women who were not sex or health care workers went through their entire lives with little awareness of what an adult penis looked like. The internet has made it possible for everyday lay people to blog their sex lives, and to greatly further their sex education -- and knowledge is power. Most women have multiple sex partners before marriage, some of those partners are intact, and some women blog that intact works better for them. American doctors defending RIC simply do not understand these facts about how our mores are evolving.
I just wanted to say, Both oral sex and other fore-play (with hand) is much easier on an intact male. because the skin moves! I found it very hard to swap to my partners circ'd penis!!
DeleteSo glad my premature son won't be circumcised :))
ReplyDeletewow seriously thats what an intact man looks like? i was shocked its so pretty lol all smooth and pink wow we didnt cut our boys cuz it scared the help out of me and it cost like $200 to do it no thanks! i spent less than that on cloth diapers!!!
ReplyDeleteI was a tad promiscuous in my earlier life, and only experienced an intact penis once. Having been adept at fellatio with circumcised males, I was taken aback when the intact male reacted so incredibly differently. Apparently, the 'moves' in my repertoire were over-stimulating his sensitive organ to the point it was causing him discomfort, and I had to tone it down a few notches to accommodate him. It really is tragic. My husband was circumcised, and after some research, rather than pursuing foreskin restoration he opted for a Prince Albert piercing, which increased his sensation abundantly. He still regrets that his parents did that to him, but doesn't blame them because they did think it was in his best interest. Thank goodness we are able to share this information and educate others such that the circumcision rate is dropping in the US.
ReplyDeleteMy ex was circ'd. When we had our 3rd child, a son, I said hell-to-the-NO and refused to allow him to be circ'd, ex was smart enough not to argue with me. We divorced and the man I am with now isn't circ'd (and he was born in the early 80's when circ rates were VERY high, yaaaaaaaaay to his parents). The difference it HUGE. The satisfaction he gets from oral is amazing, the foreskin makes an enormous difference for ME. I love it. Seriously. NO boy should have to endure a circ. Ever.
ReplyDeleteOh my. This is so awful. I am from New Zealand and this is not something that we do here, it's a religious thing and I don't know if doctors even perform them anymore. I have never seen an adult circ'd penis until I saw those photos and I can say they look terrible. I just wouldn't want it near me... and do you always have to use lube? I never use lube. As a child I remember seeing my friend's brother at about age 2 years and he had been cir'd, I was really shocked and thought he looked mutiliated compared to my 3 uncir'd brothers. This is just as bad as female genital mutilation, this is male genetial mutilation, why is this not illegal?
ReplyDeleteKiwi here. Between 1920 and 1960, circumcision shortly after birth was all the rage in New Zealand. But Otago's medical school began teaching against it in the 1950s. As older doctors retired and were replaced by more recently trained doctors, circumcision gradually faded out in New Zealand. Starting in 1969, the Crown stopped paying for it. By 1985 or so, no maternity ward offered the service. Where I live, there is one paediatrician in the entire city that advertises circumcision as an outpatient service. I have no idea how much custom he has.
DeleteOver the past 50 years, it has been common in New Zealand for a cut father to raise intact sons. Nobody talks about this, much less stresses over it. We New Zealanders find it natural that medical and sexual fashion changes over time.
I submit that a deep motivator of circumcision among the English speaking peoples was mothers daunted by the prospect of having to inspect and clean the penis of a son, of having to check his progress to retractability, and of having to teach a son that masturbation was immoral and disgusting. The circumcised penis was seen as a penis that required no attention. Circumcision died out in NZ and the UK simply because young mothers became less prudish, a daily shower became the norm, and boyhood masturbation ceased to be a worry.
I wish I'd researched this better before DS#1 was born. Instead we went with what was "normal" for those around us and for our families. We chose not to cut/circ DS#2, and I'm very glad. Wish we could reverse the decision for DS#1
ReplyDeleteAs somebody wishing jail terms for circumcising parents and doctors, I am very impressed by the proportion (all) of the comments disapproving circumcision. I do not know if you edit the comments which are for circumcision. Any way I am very happy to see Americans (i assume) feel this way. Stop yor charities and Bill Gates and your Presidents Relief fund from mutilating African penes with lies about AIDS.
ReplyDelete34 States controlled Medicaid in the United States still approve what is considered "not a medical necessity". Removal of healthy skin should be a crime punishable by imprisonment, fine and suspension of medical licence. Removal of healthy skin is not medical necessity it is mutilation of the skin because we do not remove healthy skin on the false maxim that the less skin you have the lesser will be the future medical problem. Circumcision is a lucrative business because the cost of procedure is more than $600.00 with an added bonus that infant skin cells of foreskin is used for botox and beauty products and therefore in demand from medical labs. People in europe do not die because they have stopped circumcising their population. All 34 States in America should be fined for allowing to carry on the un-necessary medical procedure without medical necessity. Those that are actively involved in the medical field are aware of the fact that all procedure has to be supported by medical necessity otherwise insurance will not cover or pay for the procedure. There is no law that prohibits an eighteen year old when he decides to undergo this procedure.
ReplyDeleteIt is un-ethical for hospitals and clinics to remove healthy skin or healthy skin tissue from a baby without a medical necessity and the AMA and the CDC should have sent directives to the medical health care providers not to practice something that is contradictory to the code of honor of doctors. The removal of healthy skin and tissue is not the decision of the Governor of California. The Governor or anyone else does not hold the power to go beyond the wrong doing because anything that is unethical and not in favor of baby health and baby welfare should be banned because it is illegal. All 50 States in America must meet ethical medical standards.
ReplyDeleteNote that Intact Canada is currently organizing a massive Class Action Lawsuit on behalf of more than 100 Million North American men who were circumcised without their consent. Contact me at: tinarip@yahoo.com if you are interested in joining this Civil Action. Dr. Paul D. Tinari
ReplyDeleteThis is a beautiful site and a very insightful thread. It is amazing that so many people in the United States have never even seen an intact penis (let alone experienced one) whereas so many people outside the States have never experienced a cut one.
ReplyDeleteCircumcised men shouldn't have to suffer insult on top of injury, so if you are cut and like your penis just fine the way it is, go ahead and enjoy the fact that your cut is quite "fashionable" in America; plenty of people will find it sexy. But PLEASE stand up for the rights of others to remain natural, including/especially your own sons.
If you are unhappy about having been cut, look into foreskin restoration, know that you are not alone, and understand that some of the people who made the decision to circumcise you (like your parents) didn't know enough at the time to make the right decision on your behalf, or weren't in charge.
If you are an intact male - especially an American one - thank your lucky stars and your sainted parents and any medical personnel or relatives or friends who helped protect you when you were a baby. And please "pay it forward" by speaking up on behalf of others. Also, enjoy your foreskin!!!
When I was pregnant with my first boy, it wasn't really an option to have him circ'd. My husband, his brother, their father and up the male line, were all natural and intact. So it was more like keeping the tradition. I didn't mind keeping it that way with our boy. My husband was the first person I had ever been with that WAS still intact. We see how that went.. ;).... I then had 2 boys and they are both intact. I also think it looks much better and apealing.
ReplyDeleteI hate hearing people say that it's harder to clean or they can get infections if they are intact.... WHAT!? are you kididng me right now!!!?? Like you think cutting it off wont get infected at all. Your lazy if you think it's harder to clean. Anyways, I could go on forever, but this was a good post and I am proud that my boys are intact and they will make wonderful husbands and lovers one day! When they are like 30....LOL
I so agree, and mine is the same story! : )
DeleteIt amazes me how brainwashed so many of Americans are! You shouldn't change what you are born with! They become enraged over female circumcision, and say "it's different" for boys! I have 3 male children 23, 21, and 13, and when I took my 13 yr. old for a preschool physical (10 yrs. ago) this young female Dr. said "oh, he's not circumcised? Let me show you how to care for this" I said don't even touch his penis, and you are not supposed to pull the foreskin back, and she got all indignant, and said "yes you are" I had to argue with her, that I have 2 older boys, and a husband (and his whole family) who are not, and I know what I'm talking about, and she questioned me, saying "and they don't have any problems?" as if I was lying. Needless to say, she got a piece of my mind, and I never went back to her. It infuriates me how people can be so uneducated about something so natural!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI have friends that say the same thing about the Dr's telling them to do it. We were lucky that our Dr was more about staying natural and telling us about the pros and cons of both... But, there were no cons with staying intact.... So, that was the logical choice for us.
DeleteLOVE THIS!! "Notice the exquisite sensitivity of the intact adult penis, compared with the calloused, numbed down circumcised adult penis. Wanna know why circumcised men need to thrust and thrust to feel enough sensation for orgasm? Look to circumcision."
ReplyDeleteFrom Jeanice.
Thank you for telling men what is sensitive or not. LOL!
I think it may have been a hygiene issue back when baths were taken monthly or less, but in this age of 'hyper hygiene' an intact penis would not have problems with infection. My ex is intact and he had a very healthy relationship with his penis, and masturbation/sex was much easier and pleasurable, rarely requiring lube. My husband and his son were both circumcised, the son to look like daddy, and I notice a difference in girth, sensitivity and lubrication with my husband. His son has often had soap cause a great deal of pain whilst showering, something that never occurred with my intact brothers as children. Plus I firmly believe that God has made men with a foreskin for a reason, and I think it was to keep the sexual receptors as sensitive and internal as the female gets to enjoy. A foreskin is not something a parent should be able to choose to keep or not; I believe it should be more of an 'age of consent' thing - if at age 18/21 a male hates his foreskin, he should be able to decide to have it removed.
ReplyDeleteThankfully, my husband is intact, as was his father. When his mom asked me if we were going to circ our son I said "hell no!" and she said that was good and that my husband's father was intact and said that no way would anyone ever do that to his son. My husband's penis looks like the one in the photo, very smooth. i can imagine that sex with a circ'd penis would much less satisfying.
ReplyDeleteMy husband is circ'd, and had it done at age 3! He still remembers parts of it. I can't even imagine how traumatic it must have been. His penis looks like the above pictures, but with visible scarring. We have girls but decided long ago that any sons would remain intact.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering what circumcision was? But now i know. I was looking at the photo on the left and thinking why his thingy looks different than mine and where is the skin. Then i read the comments and realized that's how a circ' thingy looks like. Sorry to say this, but it looks disgusting and awful. No offence. And girls who say circ' penis look good are actually talking about the natural one's. SILLY WILLY.
ReplyDeleteSadly my son is circ'ed as i didnt know any better so i mad him look like daddy :( after doing research and now realize i really would prefer an intact penis (they are so pretty!! lol) I dont understand why this is the norm here in America. All i can say is "If it aint broke, DONT FIX IT!"
ReplyDeleteAfter seeing this post, and many others on this site, I've now gone from having no opinion about this issue (and even rolling my eyes when reading what I thought were overly-dramatic comments elsewhere by intactivists) to being 100% anti-circumcision. I am seriously in awe of how a penis is SUPPOSED to look and work (I had no idea!) and so SO incredibly disturbed that so many people in the US have had such a significant part of them harmed in such a way ): Thanks to the authors and commenters on this site for opening my eyes and inspiring me to talk to others about this issue. Hopefully the circumcision rates will continue to drop drastically and soon it will be proponents of circumcision who are looked down upon for continuing to support such an archaic, horrific and damaging act!
ReplyDeleteI always have wondered what part the foreskin played in the body. Now I know! :) I grew up thinking that circumcision was just what everyone did when a baby was 8 days old. My partner is circumcised. when i first had sexual contact with him i saw that his penis was all red from the tip down about 2 inches. i thought this was odd and maybe an irritation but realized later that his penis was permanetly like that(at that point i had no clue what the difference was between circumsized and intact) Later on in life we became pregnant and i started to look up circumcision and realized through research that i wanted to leave my baby intact due to realizing the cruel nature of circumcision. I also realized that the red ring around his penis is a scar from his own circumcision as a newborn. when ever we are intamate i see the scar on his penis and it kills the mood for me everytime and makes me feel sick to my stomach. I hope in the near future more people question circumcision like i did and choose NOT to cut off part of their babies sexual body parts. CIRCUMCISION = PHYSICAL ABUSE,SEXUAL ABUSE and ABUSES THE HUMAN RIGHT TO CHOOSE
ReplyDeleteyeah, they look awful, never understand people telling me that they are better looking?! And my OH friends telling me sex is better for a circ guy!!! and the girl likes it cos it goes on longer?.... they are so wrong, but no matter how much I lecture them they dont listen, I just pray his best friends baby is a girl! their little boy is cut already :(
ReplyDeleteI remember the first time I saw an intact penis on an adult. It was my husband. And he said he used to hide this from his partners and only show them his penis erect so they'd think he's circed, but now he doesn't care and he tells women upfront. I thought it was the nicest looking & feeling penis I had ever seen/ had sex with. And I started to wonder why every single guy I had been with before was circed, why is this so common?
ReplyDeleteI remember the first time I saw a cut penis on a baby. My son was about 3 months old (and intact) and we were on a playdate with my SIL and a few of her friends. A woman with a 10 month old laid her baby down for a diaper change and I noticed the tip of his penis was bright red and angry looking. I almost said something until I realized it was circed, and I didn't want to be rude. But my gut reaction was to ask what the heck happened, is he OK? It looked so painful. And even though the circumcision explained the look if it, he was 10 months old. Wasn't it supposed to be healed and look normal & healthy by then? I was just in shock and wanted to go cry for this poor little boy :( She just changed his diaper the same way I would change my sons, so I convinced myself it must not hurt him or be problematic. But in retrospect, it had to hurt. It had to be horribly sensitive. It's heartbreaking.
I was scrolling thru the Saving Our Sons Facebook page and reading stuff and I just thought some people might find it useful to know that in my opinion, as a hetero woman, intact penises are quite normal for me to come across! Most of the men I've slept with are intact, and they are all fantastic!
ReplyDeleteI was circumcised as an infant. I'm not sure of the exact reasoning for me being circumcised, but I was born right at the peak of circumcision rates in the United States, and in the region where it was most common. I am unhappy with the decision to have me circumcised. If I have a son, I will not have him circumcised, because it takes away his right to bodily integrity.
ReplyDeleteThere is no way for me to know exactly what I am missing, but I have begun the process of manually restoring my foreskin. Sensitivity has definitely increased because the keratinization that inevitably occurs on the glans of a circumcised penis is reversing. Keratinization occurs because of constant exposure of the glans to clothing and drying of the glans. In addition to the keratinization, circumcision removes a large amount of nerve endings.
While there will inevitably be people that encourage you to circumcise him for hygienic or health reasons, hygienic and health problems related to the foreskin are so rare and easy to avoid and treat without circumcision. Arguments about him fitting in with others in the locker room are becoming increasingly less valid. In 2005 only a little over half (56%) of newborns were circumcised. In 2009 one report showed only 32.5% (although this only counted circumcisions performed in hospitals). Chances are in his future cohort of friends there will be more uncircumcised boys than circumcised.
The bottom line though is that once he is circumcised, it cannot be undone. It is a permanent alteration to his body. If he chooses later in life, when he is able to understand what circumcision is, to get circumcised he will still have that choice if you leave him intact.
I was circumcised the same day I was born. I was taken back on day two for tight foreskin and they circumcised again. I was taken against my will a few months shy of my third birthday for another circ because the first two were botched and left "residual redundant foreskin" in the doctor's words. The people who were supposed to protect me were the antagonists. My parents said they didn't like the jagged skin left behind as reason for #3. I alone have to cope with yet another surgery as an adult for webbed penis. They cut off so much skin that the stiches tore out which was agony for a 3yo on no pain medication but tylenol. No shaft skin remained so skin from my testicle sac and abdomen was pulled onto the penis shaft as I grew leaving behind a webbed penis with pubic hair on 3/4 the shaft making sex impossible. (my testicles would get drawn up my webbing and enter or smash against my gfs vagina.) I had so little feeling left from the surgeries and gradual keratinization (drying out of the mucus membrane) that I gave up on relationships, sex, and any hope of family after my last serious gf left because I could not please her in bed. Nor did I get any pleasure from sex which caused her to start doubting herself as well. I didn't find out until many years later the extent of my surgeries nor what psychological problems I was carrying throughout my life that were a direct result of infant & toddler circumcision trauma. Reading stories of people that continue to blindly accept/advocate circumcisionis proof to me that human beings are still very stupid. DO NOT CIRCUMCIZE YOUR BOYS. THEIR GENITALS BELONG TO NO ONE BUT THEMSELVES. It is firm belief parents should have zero legal authority to make the decision to circumcize. Of course I have a somewhat unique opinion based on my own experiences. Stay strong and just say no. Scream it if necessary. Your boys will love you for it when they are old enough to understand.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that it is small consolation for the pain and loss that you have experienced, but you are very brave for sharing such a personal story, and I truly believe that the circumcision rates would go down if more Americans were aware that these types of complications are more common than reported. My own brother endured repeat surgeries to "fix" problems with his initial circumcision, and I have not asked him about side effects that he may have now as an adult, but I always wonder what price he paid for my parents to have a son with a "pretty penis". It is stupidity that we allow RIC to continue in the U.S.
DeleteYikes! Coming from England, where this is not the norm this is shocking. My husband has a beautiful INTACT penis so soft to the touch. Tender, delicate. I feel sad for those circumcised. I have twin boys and we never even considered circumcision. I hope INTACT becomes the norm for all your future sons.
ReplyDeleteMy sons father has one seen him 3 times since birth. At one of his visits he saw that I had chosen to forgo getting him circumcised. He said that we were going to "fix that" to make him look NORMAL. I was appalled!! I never once considered getting him circumcised because of the initial pain and the after effects... Ive noticed on just about any circumcised adult male that they look as though they have been pieced together due to the scare it leaves. Why would I intensionally leave a scare on my brand new baby?? Why intensionally leave a scare on my beautiful child at all? I hear about all of these supposed "medical" issues that occur when you leave your child intact. If that were so I believe men would have been made like that in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI never thought twice about circumcision until I worked in the NB nursery of a hospital and saw circumcisions being performed. I was determined from then on, if I had sons, they would be left intact. To me, it's no less horrifying than the female mutilations done in some countries.
ReplyDeletereading all of this makes me hurt for having my son circ. he is almost 6 months now, and i was wondering- when he was circ. the doctor never told us to pull the skin back, so we never did. other docs have confused him for being uncirc. Will it be harmful or helpful to keep leaving the skin over his penis? will the body adapt and return to as close to normal as possible? Also, alot of the comments here make it seem like ppl who circ. their sons KNOWINGLY mutilate them. this is not the case as i did tons of research and spoke to countless professionals and they told me it would help prevent infections and disease. I feel sick having done that to my son so please, take it a little easy on us.
ReplyDeleteInteresting article:
ReplyDeleteCircumcision - Conditioning the Adult by Torturing the Child
Corey Schink
Sott.net
Mon, 30 Jul 2012
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/248940-Circumcision-Conditioning-the-Adult-by-Torturing-the-Child#comment72046
Anonymous - no one is trying to make you or anyone who has forced circ on their sons to feel bad. It's not like you can undo the amputation. But the fact is that you *did* knowingly choose to mutilate your child. You knew before you paid for the circ that you were having a portion of his body that he was born with, surgically removed. You might not have researched all the ramifications, you might have been lied to, but you still chose it for him without giving him a say in the matter. Instead of feeling guilty, why not go forth and do good? Share what you've learned about circ with others. Tell your son about foreskin restoration. Learn about the care of an intact penis and share it with other moms, doctors, and anyone else who needs to know.
ReplyDeleteSome male perspective, not addressing my own personal non/intactness status, as being irrelevant to the points I wish to make:
ReplyDelete"So that he looks like his father"-- why should a boy even have to know what his father's penis looks like, I've always wondered! If a father displayed his genitalia to his daughter, believe me, we'd be all up in arms, wouldn't we? Why should he do so with his son (at a very young age, like preschool)? A little boy looking at his father's penis is going to see a much larger organ surrounded by plenty of hair, unless Dad is a compulsive "man-scaper." The little boy is going to know, almost immediately, Dad's is different from his, by definition, putting aside the question of intactness for the purposes of this discussion. And of course, this all assumes there's a father in the home, not such a safe assumption today, where a lot of "baby-fathers" have been known to disappear during their son's infancy!
"He'll be teased at school"-- Trust me, if he has a small penis, cut/uncut, he's going to get teased, or has one that curves noticeably, or is thinner/thicker than "average." But this usually happens before puberty, at summer camp or Boy Scouts, where kids are pretty much Lord of the Flies anyway, and will pick on anybody for any reason. By the time boys are showering together after HS gym class, at the risk of offending some people, it's really too "gay," as some kids use the word, to be noticing the penises of other boys; once or twice I would hear one boy rejoin to the one that had passed a remark: "And you're the 'Official Dick Inspector,' right? I need your approval, huh? Hey guys, 'Johnny' wants to check out all your dicks to make sure they're OK with him!", to which the boy who had been making observations would usually have been so shamed that he'd shut up and never mention guy's penises again. And for those who might look furtively but not mention anything, seeing an uncut boy retracted while washing himself would have told him "it's just a little more skin to have to keep clean" and that a retracted penis (without respect to softness/roughness of the glans) looks the same as a cut penis, without an obvious scar.
And to the one who said that a female MD had told her "teenage girls won't want to give him blow jobs," I would have answered,"Well, now we know how you spent YOUR teen years, Toots, thanks for sharing!"
Once you leave high school, what your penis looks like to other men ceases to matter forever. So here's the deal. If I am intact in America, I am at risk of being mocked from about age 10 to 17, what with Boy Scout camping trips, skinny dips, locker rooms, pissing up the wall contests yadda yadda.
DeleteSometime when I'm of college age, my sex life begins, and the ladies bond better to me because sex with me is gentler and more passionate. Oral is elementary, my dear Watson, if I detour for 20 seconds via the bath on the way to the bedroom. So we have 6 years of being at risk of ridicule at the hands of ignorant boys, followed by 60 years of delicious sex. At that price, I'll have mine with foreskin, please.
I appreciate that this is drmomma's blog, a very foreskin friendly place. Even so, what many of you ladies have written above amounts to eloquent praise of the sexual virtues of the natural penis. American is changing, one parent at a time.
In the UK we only do this for explicit health reasons, not routine, we would never even think of it, but I don't blame the parents. It's social brainwashing on mass and that's hard to defy.
ReplyDeleteMy ex-partner was cut due to an overly tight foreskin and was bitter about it as an adult, even though I'm sure it was warranted. I have to admit, I didn't find it attractive - all scarred and dehydrated. I cannot deny that, by its very nature, it was cleaner than an uncut one, but I've never had a partner who didn't clean and look after his enough to consider it a problem that should be fixed by amputation. I've never been with an uncut partner who presented anything but soft, clean skin.
I simply cannot ever imagine giving my healthy baby to a doctor for them to cut a piece off him and throw in the bin for the sake of a barbaric fashion ritual. In years to come we will look back, like we did at the Victorians, with their wacky ideas, and say "They did WHAT to their newborn babies?"
I agree with the notions above that circumcised men can 'hammer' away where my current partners' frenulum would get sore, so maybe being uncut makes for a gentler lover.
I knew an American woman that moved here and found love for the uncut man. To quote her "They're just more fun to play with."
Tight foreskin is not a valid reason to circumcise. There are more nerve sparring methods, like manual stretching (with or without steroid ointments), and perputial plasty (a more conservative form of surgery that doesn't remove anything).
DeleteI can't help but notice that (adult male on the right) looks exactly like my clit: shiny, smooth, pinkish, healthy.
ReplyDeleteHow did we ever arrive at the conclusion that we could improve upon nature/ evolution is beyond logic. Makes me very sad. No son of mine will ever go through this.
unfortunately I was born with out a foreskin, hypospadias
ReplyDeleteAnon - I, too, was born with a mild form of hypospadias. This is not the same as being born without a foreskin, however. You may be interested in this article on the topic: http://www.drmomma.org/2010/04/hypospadias-surgery-and-circumcision.html
DeletePlease understand, most people are not trying to mock you.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the truth is that circumcision is unnatural by definition. Cutting off a healthy body part is far from natural. Circumcision does rob a large amount of sexual enjoyment from both partners, as it negates the foreskin's gliding/lubrication function.
Inactivists are simply trying to point out that there is a huge loss in their efforts to save boys from the damage of circumcision. I'm sorry that you and all other circumcised men were robbed of your bodily autonomy. It's not your fault and no one means to attack you personally.
I hope you will consider restoring.
ReplyDeletewww.norm.org
My husband is partial to the tlc tugger :)
My husband just ordered his TLC Tugger.. TODAY! I am beyond excited, and we can finally restore some of what was stolen from us.
ReplyDeleteCircumcision is an attack on sexuality. Painful, dry sex is not what was intended. Artificial lube is not what was intended.
Thank you Jesus that we have been given the intelligence to see beyond the social standards of America.
I was circumcised at age one for "tight foreskin" , and living in Europe , have been feeling like a freak for the last 40 years ...
ReplyDeleteAlso , being gay , I'm regularly confronted with intact penises ( wich are the norm here in Europe ) since the beginning of my active sex life , wich made me feel even more inadequate , thinking I was abnormal for having nearly no sensation when being given head ( = no erection ), while all my uncut sexpartners react immediately in a very intense way when I'm the "giver" ...
Also , I hate circumcised dicks , and when I meet someone who is circumcised , I usually try to find an excuse to not have sex and go away , not only because I find the scar and the dryness so off putting , but also because I become overwhelmed with feeling of rage and depression about my own circumcised ( = ugly ) penis .
I'm 49 now and the thought that I will feel bad about my circumcised penis for the rest of my life has made me consider suicide several times , also because I suffer from CFS (Chronic fatigue syndrome)which makes the foreskin restauration exercices nearly impossible to complete in a sufficient way to have satisfying results ...
Circumcision is really the worst thing that ever happened to me , and the more I read about the side effects , the more I realise circumcision has spoiled my sex life from the beginning , making me feel self conscious and inferior compared to uncut men ,suffering from recurring and overwhelming "foreskin envy" when I look at intact men , feeling embarrassed for not being able to come for hours while my uncut partners must do extra efforts to NOT come to quickly , having felt disgusting and sexually unappealing since puberty because under my frenulum , left intact but folded on one side in the dark brown hideous scar , there where two little pieces of skin that where not cut and looked like some venerial disease before I found the courage to show them to a dermatologist and had them removed , and the feeling of sheer ugliness of my mangled penis , that would have looked PERFECT whithout circumcision .
I'm so happy I found this article! I kept telling my friends when it came to talking about circumcision that I think it's not natural, hence bad. I'm not a doctor so I could not go into details when I tried to explain why, I just said the skin is surely there to protect! I never had experience with a circumcised man so I could not tell whether their penis is different but I always thought they must be.. now I'm sure. DON'T MESS WITH NATURE PEOPLE! I feel so sorry for little baby boys who don't even have a choice :-(
ReplyDeleteI am one of those kids who were put under the knife, although at the age of 18 months. Apparently I had some manner of infection and the best way of dealing with it was creating an open wound. Smart doctors. Ironically my parents were intending to leave me intact, as it was my choice. Oh well. Before last weekend I had always assumed it was so I would look like my dad, amazing the amount of resent that I managed to build up. Now I'm trying to restore, knowing that it's better than nothing. Still amazing that doctors can't manage to figure out that it does people harm, even to this day.
ReplyDeleteI'm an intact male though my father isn't because he left it as my choice. Untill this I never relized how lucky I should feel about getting that option. I alwayse have been for keeping intact most people say your pinky toe is useless too so I guess it's really importaint to relise how much damage this really deals to people.
ReplyDeletemy father was cut back in the 50's, much to my grandmother's irritation, because that's whatthey automatically did. but when my little brother was born he left him whole and when my son was born he was left whole. the only thing I needed to convince myself the foreskin belonged there was the knowledge that all mammals have a protective covering over their genitals, obviously its there for a reason and no way am i removing it from his body without his permission. If my son as an adult wants to get circed he will have the ability to make the choice. there are somethings in his life that are my choice, such as his not having a diet consisting of only m7ms and cracker sandwiches, but life long altering ofhis body is never my choice.
ReplyDeleteI grieve for my husband's lost foreskin.
ReplyDeletethis is all making sense now! my boyfriend of 5 years was cut and despite my strong desire and youthfulness he rarely wanted to make love- sometimes many months would go by...and in those years i had an orgasm a couple of times. now my husband, who is asian and uncut and i make love daily and i orgasm every time, usually many times- and this is even though we are parents now (aka more tired and less time/privacy, etc.)
ReplyDeletei think this is at least partially due to his intact penis. i love his desire! finally a man with a match for mine. :) yes, let's stop genital mutilation of children and spread the awareness. stop messing with the perfect design of our bodies.
it should be illegal and punishable with jail time for any parent or doctor or rabbi to circumcise any male child under any circumstances what so ever, including for the religious beliefs of the parent. After 18, the adult male can do what he wants to about it
ReplyDeleteI am a mother and I gave birth to my son,Brandon A.Nelson November 24 1974.and yes I had him cut.. I feel so awful. I did not know ..I was not informed..my Dr said..it is done all over the world now to keep him cleaner..God forgive me..and hopefully my son will too.I took a part of my sons manhood.. He is now 39 now ..and believe me I have just now tried to call him and tell him I am so sorry..God please.. Forgive me..if I had only knew..
ReplyDeleteYeah Deanna, Drs. will tell you anything to get your signature onto the Consent to Circumcise Form. And so will the hospital nursery staff. But listen, don't forget to tell your son's mate/wife how sorry you are. The lack of his foreskin will really make their lovemaking sessions unrewarding to say the least. Gordius Knot.
DeleteI am a 42 year-old circumcised male. It was the norm to mutilate little boys when I was growing up in Canada. Growing up I remember seeing only a single classmate who was intact - we all thought something was wrong with him. It's sad that I really don't know how my own penis should function (I've had to ask ex-girlfriends who have been with intact men). I've always watched girlfriends orgasm with curiosity and disbelief - their experience is nothing like mine. I have always had a strong sex drive, but ejaculation is merely a means of relieving that drive. It's similar to the urination; like urination, ejaculation is something I do merely to relieve an urge. I don't think I have ever had an orgasm as I've seen women experience it. The build up is nice, but the ejaculation is 'anti-climatic' so to speak... it's always a disappointment to be honest and I always feel let down after the act. I also can't ejaculate without stimulation of the frenulum - the tiny remnant of the foreskin I was fortunately left with. As I get older what was taken from me bothers me more and more and it has made me angry at my parents. I have borderline personality disorder which I suspect might have also been influenced by my circumcision. The glans should be covered except when aroused - how can the constant simulation of the glans by clothing during childhood and adolescence not impact sexual development? The added issue of having an urge which can never be truly satisfied is rather depressing and has certainly hurt me emotionally in relationships and made me experience mixed feelings towards my partners. The fact that something important was taken from me; that a part of my body was removed without my consent has hurt my relationship with my parents (although it is unbeknownst to them) and has damaged my trust.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that you have borderline personality disorder, I do as well and I blame circumcision.
DeleteThe psychological damage done by this barbaric practice is so much greater then the physical, though the physical is still great.
I have a hole in me that I will never be able to fill.
In the future I hope circumcision is looked upon as sexually abusing a child, but it's even worse then molesting a child, because the damage is physical and permenant.
Please include my video, The Prepuce Anatomy and Physiology of the Foreskin, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBlIHE8Y3pU&list=TLz-lUyYFsHZI
ReplyDeleteWhere was this 3 years ago...I feel absolutely horrible! I have learned things i didn't know before. I circ my son, he's 3, i hope more peopl learn and educate themselves. I feel like a horrible, horrible mom. I just feel horrible!! I wish i would have had a Dr like one of the previous post that said not to (in a clever way) please the education! The more you know, the better a young mother can make a better choice!
ReplyDeletegeez....I never knew mine looked so sick. I feel sad. one looks smooth like the rest of my bodies skin and the other looks like the rough bottom part of my feet.
ReplyDeleteIll be passing on this knowledge to a sister due to have a boy.
I am an adult male who is circumcised. I loved my parents dearly but I truly do resent the fact that they had me circumcised. This was too important a decision for them to make on my behalf. My exposed head rubs the inside of my underwear and often irritates it.
ReplyDeleteThis part of the body was made to be covered, not exposed! I never did ask them why they had this procedure done to me as my dad was uncircumcised. But for whatever reason, I just wish they had left me intact and let me make my own decision later on in life. If they had, I will promise you I would have a foreskin today. And I would not have a sore penis head.
I didn't circumcise my son. I couldn't imagine harming him or changing him in any way. His body was made that way for a reason. Although not as drastic, I also have not pierced my daughter's ears. I'll leave these decisions up to them.
ReplyDeleteBeing an American woman, I guess I was lucky never being with a circumcised man before, since it appears most women have. I've seen pictures growing up of men with circ'd before and don't find it attractive. Never looked into it before, either, but now know for sure I'll be sticking with the all natural decision if I ever have a boy. Cutting anything off sounded wrong to me anyway. Just like I cannot imagine a Doberman's ears and tail being lobbed off. Living things are born just the way we're meant to and this article makes that even more obvious to me.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised to learn that many of the men in the porn industry are actually intact... many people are under the false assumption that the intact penis looks different when erect, but really, most of them look pretty much the same - the glans is exposed almost always in porn, and with an erection, we aren't going to be seeing much slack foreskin. ;) A buddy of mine who works in the field (controversial, I know) says that it is very intact-friendly. So maybe the myths in culture are projected upon other things (like porn) rather than that being the cause of such myths.
ReplyDeleteI am the mother of 3 grown sons between 30 to 40 years old. During the time they were born, circumsicion was the norm..I was told it was a minor surgery (like hangnail removal), and that it was necessary for health reasons.
ReplyDeleteFast forward to present day.. all 3 of my sons entered the medical field, all 3 wish they had NOT been circumsized and one is attempting foreskin reversal. And they chose NOT to circumsize their sons. That is the best testimony against circumsicion I can think of!
I was genitally mutilated and circumscribed as a baby in 1979. It was a choice given to me. I'm not Jewish but raised Catholic. I'm an adult at age 35 and recently have been told that the other person prefers uncircumcised penis.Wow that is what got me as an intactivist. Researching all this I realized I lost 50% of my penis sensation and satisfaction because I was genitally mutilated. Initially I was upset at my partner I was sexually active with. But I recently came to the conclusion that it was the greatest gift to me. I was the typical stupid American male that thought it was cleaner and was done to me for a good reason. Doing my research I found and evil doctor named John Harvey Kellog in the late 1890's made that choice. He was a doctor that took the oath do no harm. He decided that genitally mutilating me or aka circumcision would prevent and cure male masturbation. It didn't and I do masturbate and have sex without my born foreskin. After the person told me they prefer intact, I decided to do research. Being cut or genitally mutilated as a male I'm angry that it was chosen for me. I'm also angry at the over 200 male baby boys that die due to this unnecessary procedure. I recently read on the huffington Post that males in South Africa are in his early 20's getting a penis amputation. Yes it was done due to a bothced circumcision. And its going well. Apparently the male is reporting better than expected results and he has full function of his penis. 85% of the world does not circumcise or genitally mutilate boys and if you look online women prefer it. They say sex is less thrust and grind and more sensual and less vigorous and more sexually pleasing to women. Yes women prefer an intact natural penis the way nature intended for. It is done for profit. In the Unites States, hospitals make approx 600 us dollar and hospitalsCosmetics: Foreskins are used to make high-end skin creams. The skin products contain fibroblasts grown on the foreskin and harvested from it. One foreskin can be used for decades to produce fancy face cream like the SkinMedica products hawked on Oprah.
ReplyDeleteSkin grafts: In addition to making products for skin, a baby’s foreskin can be turned into a skin graft for a burn victim. Because the cells are extremely flexible, they’re less likely to be rejected. Currently, this technology can be lifesaving in providing a real skin “band aid” to cover an open wound while a burn victim heals. Researchers at Harvard and Tufts are working on advanced skin replacements that use human foreskins.
Cosmetic testing: All those cruelty-free cosmetics you buy? Some of them are tested on foreskins. This yields better results, since they’re human skin. And it saves the lives of the rodents your shampoo would otherwise be tested on. sell the foreskin of males up to 3,500 and on top of that, male foreskin in the United States is put into a European skin creme. Yes our male foreskins are sold for profit. Just don't accept my opion. look it up. In the United States there is a federal law passed in 1996 protecting girls from circumcision which still happens in the United States. But males routinely don't have the same protections in the United States. In fact male genital mutilation bill was tried to be passed in the United States and most congressional attitudes were its up the the parents. Its an outrage that we protect females genitalia from circumcision but allow it to males in the United States. We are just asking for equality so that baby boys in the United States have the same rights to not be genitally mutilated or circumscribed like baby girls. Its an outrage that many condemn female genital mutilation cutting of their genitals but allow the cutting of the genitals of baby boys. Seems sexist Hugh?
Having been born uncircumcised, I do not see how a man cannot be. Sex life is great and the foreskin has so much sensation that I do not see the reason for having it removed unless there are countries that want you to have sex for the sole reason of having children and not pleasure. If my foreskin is pulled back and my penis rubs against my clothes, it is very uncomfortable and it desensitizes my penis. My father had eight boys and we all were uncircumcised until one of my brothers decided to join the club in his twenties and had his snipped. Suffice it to say, it killed most feelings in his penis and he could not keep an erection for half the time he was used to which eventually led to a divorce. I believe that if you are born with it that way, then that is how it is suppose to stay to do its job. I don't see any other creatures doing it. Bottom line, leave it alone!
ReplyDeleteI grew up where I heard circumcision was just customary. It was for health reasons according to my parents and there was nothing more to it. It was healthy, so it was good. I'm a female so I didn't suffer from the procedure, but I did go through my childhood and into my early twenties believing this was necessary for male health. I was ignorant but innocent, I just didn't stop and literally think. Luckily my bf at the time (now husband) was appalled by the thought of it and that I supported it. Today we have a beautiful healthy son, I'm so glad that he is intact and unharmed. Regardless of any possible benefit (which I now feel hardly exist) the nature of the procedure on a minor against his will is an atrocity. We need more mandatory education in this subject. I really believe any parent who intends to have this done for their son should be required to watch a video circumcision prior to their son's. It needs to be brought to the attention that this is abuse!!
ReplyDeletePisses me off knowing this was stolen from after birth. I will protect my future children and their children from this mutilation!
ReplyDeleteHi, I am a woman from Europe. I find circumcision ugly, cruel and disgusting. I am glad, it has never been customary here. I have never seen it before (for the first time these pictures here).
ReplyDeleteI have a question about penises... since I am not the owner of one, but the partner of someone with one, but have become really confused lately. He says he hasn't been circumcised, but the tip of his penis is always exposed, whether soft or erect, and his foreskin never comes over the head unless he pulls it down, and then it doesn't stay there. I don't want to make him feel weird by asking too many questions about it, and I'm guessing every penis is different, but is that a normal way for a penis with a foreskin to be? Also, the underside of the foreskin isn't slimy like you'd expect of a mucous membrane, and like I see in the pictures above. I just want to know if he's really uncircumcised and if the lack of coverage might be from someone forcibly pulling the skin back at a young age...
ReplyDeleteI had never heard of or seen a natural male. My husband had a circumcision after birth. I had a premature son born in the 1980's and he spent a few months in the NICU. I don't ever remember any of the Doctors discussing this with me. One day I went to the hospital to see my son and after visiting for a while he wet the diaper and started screaming. The nurse whisked him away to change him. I had not even been allowed to hold him yet, he was about 45 days old. I seen a lot of blood on the diaper that's when the nurse told me he had been circumcised that morning. I was told all the boys get it done and just accept it since it was to late to do otherwise. About 2 years ago when my son had his first boy we had discussed the pros and cons and that is when he told me I was wrong for having him done and that his boy would be natural. I felt horrible for not being able to prevent this and blindly accepting this was normal. I'm glad he has more info available to him than I did 30 years ago.
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