Non-consensual circumcision, be it male OR female circumcision, is disgusting to me. I know there is a massive movement fighting against female circumcision, which I will probably discuss in a future post, but unfortunately there are many that don’t bat an eyelid when it comes to male circumcision. In America and Third World Countries, it is viewed as a ‘cultural practice’ and ‘more hygienic.’ This has already been refuted online and I will put links to articles at the end that discuss this further. So to give my personal opinion on it:
It’s gross, it’s creepy, and it’s non-consensual. If an adult man wants to have his foreskin removed for surgical reasons or any other reasons, he has every right to make that choice. But to cut off a part of your baby’s penis when they have no say on it is wrong. I'm partially of African heritage, and there are males in my family that are circumcised; their viewpoints on it may differ from mine. I would never circumcise my son because I believe it’s barbaric to cut off part of an infant’s penis.
So why do people do it? What are the reasons for it?
It’s cleaner. Actually, this is not true. Being circumcised doesn’t make you ‘clean’ any more than being a virgin makes you ‘pure.’ What is with people and these old ways of thinking? Cleaning under your foreskin is not hard, or so I’ve heard from guys. As long as you wash daily just like you wash any part of your body daily, it’s fine. If a guy isn’t cleaning under his foreskin then, well, he can revel in his dirt. Saying ‘it’s hard to spend a few seconds washing a part of my body, I’ll just cut it off instead’ is a lame argument to me. Would you cut off your ears because they produce wax, or your nose because it produces mucus? My hands sweat constantly, shall I cut them off too?
It protects against STDs. The only thing that 99.9% when used perfectly protects you against STDs are condoms. However, there is some evidence that has been carried out that shows that in African countries, circumcised men are less likely to contract HIV than uncircumcised men. Perhaps this is why circumcision is so highly practiced in Africa. Nevertheless, condoms work every time, so again there is no need to circumcise your baby to ‘prevent STDs’ when they can use condoms. Also, being circumcised prevents condom use, and leads to the mistaken belief that being circumcised means not needing to use condoms.
Religious/cultural practices. ‘Well, scientifically speaking, traditions are an idiot thing’ to quote Rick Sanchez. I don’t have anything to say about this; doing it because of ‘tradition’ or ‘religion’ or ‘culture’ is an invalid argument to me. It’s different if it was something beneficial, like passing down wealth, but there’s no benefit to having your foreskin removed. (Unless you have to have it for medical reasons, which I will come to). Having your foreskin removed as a ‘rite of passage’ is, well, gross. Cutting off a part of your penis doesn’t ‘make you a man.’ Why would you go against nature like that? Nature gave you a foreskin for a reason.
Harms that come from circumcision:
Affecting sexual function. This is clearly a big one. The foreskin has 20,000 nerve endings, and is there to protect the penis from becoming too sensitive. It also protects against rubbing against abrasive clothing. If the foreskin is cut off it can make the penis desensitized which can decrease sexual pleasure. Moreover, a circumcised penis doesn’t produce natural lubrication. Circumcised men have more difficulty achieving orgasm. The five locations on the foreskin that get removed are the most sensitive parts of the penis. The foreskin also increases male pleasure by sliding up and down the shaft skin. And it increases female pleasure; studies report that women were less likely to orgasm with a circumcised penis and less likely to ‘get wet’ due to the dryness of the circumcised penis.
Psychological effects. Feeling harmed, violated, like ‘less of a man’; feeling cheated of having been robbed of it against their consent, feeling embarrassed, having scars from it; all that jizzle-jazzle. Naturally, having these feelings would lead to depression, negative feelings about sex, and negative body image.
Pain. Circumcision puts infants in a great deal of pain and can be a very traumatic experience for them. Complications such as bleeding, infection, surgical injury, and death in rare cases, can occur.
There are no ‘health reasons.’ There’s no necessary reason to remove the foreskin. An example is ‘circumcision prevents UTIs.’ Women are more likely to get urinary tract infections than men, but they are not subjected to routine circumcision as babies (in Western countries). 96% of infant males do not get UTIs in their first year. Moreover, the rate of harm from circumcision (between 0.2% and 38%) is higher than the ‘harm’ from being uncircumcised. Being uncircumcised cannot affect or harm your health in any way. My proposition for this ‘justification’ is simply in order to protect male circumcision as a ‘ritualistic’ practice. Studies I read online claiming that circumcision is ‘healthier’ have been refuted.
A note: there are some medical necessities for circumcision. When the foreskin won’t ‘retract’, some men prefer to have it removed. However, they decide to do this AS ADULT MEN. I am a pro-choice person in most applications of the word. If a grown man chooses to get circumcised, then he absolutely has every right to. But to cut off the foreskin off a baby who has no say in what’s happening to him is not right.
A final, dark reason on the ‘pro-circumcision’ argument. This one is purely disgusting because it’s messing with one of my favourite things: masturbation. In the 19thcentury, masturbation was believed to be ‘evil’ and something that only the mentally ill participated in. Hence having young boys circumcised was supposed to stop them from masturbating. Doctors would thread silver wire through the foreskin in order to prevent masturbating and erections. (And Dr Kellogg, the guy who invented corn flakes, was one of the perpetrators of this crap).
Fucked up as hell, right?
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