The least logical arguments for routine circ are “if he’s uncircumcised, no girl will ever give him a BJ” and “most girls of the sort we would be happy for him to be involved with will stop dating him, once they find out what he looks like down there.”

Being teased in the locker room is a risk boys run only when they’re of middle school and high school age. Once in college or in an adult gym, a man’s penis is never talked about. I spent my youth living in terror of being mocked for having a “weird dick that looks like a worm.” That terror made me better appreciate the self-torture many young women go through about their bodies. The deep insecurity of Jewish boys when they attended European public schools. And the fear gay teenage boys have of being outed.

Circumcision after the neonatal period is a lot more expensive. But that’s in good part because corners you can cut with a 1 day old cannot be cut with a 15 or 30 year old. Circumcision after infancy is less risky than infant circumcision, because men don’t wear diapers. Men can actively cooperate in their recovery. It is much easier to do circ right when the penis is full grown, and when the foreskin has detached from the glans.

I would not have like the idea that my parents had me circumcised because they adversely prejudged my ability to practice sex responsibly while in my teens. I do not like to be on the receiving end of an assumed worst case scenario. That deprives me of a chance to prove my ethical worth.

Where I live, the circ rate in the 1970s was about 40% (it is now zero). A careful study of STD incidence in a group now 35 years old show no difference in STD infection rates between cuts and uncuts. The supposed evidence that uncut is unhealthy fails to control for the fact that in English speaking countries, cut is upscale, and boys born in better families tend to behave better as group. They bonk a better type of girl, and are more likely to use a condom when they do it.

I understand all too well why many American mothers are reluctant to hang up the scalpel. They have never seen foreskin in the flesh and are grossed out by the idea. (In many parts of the USA, the only reliable way to find an intact man is to have a fling with an immigrant who is neither Jewish nor Muslim.) They know that they would probably terminate a sexual relationship upon discovering that the dude was intact, and project their feelings on their son’s future dates. Mommy has never seen a foreskin in the flesh, and doesn’t want to be reminded of foreskin every time she changes her boy’s diaper or gives him a bath. Daddy is deeply unsettled by the thought of seeing his son’s “weird dick.” So the foreskin’s gotta go, in the interests of being like other proper middle class Americans and out of respect for sexual propriety. Circumcision is a hard bastion of American prudery.

http://xrl.us/ForeskinSexualFunctions

http://xrl.us/ChristianeNorthrupMD

http://xrl.us/WhyWomenLikeNaturalSex
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My child would sooner eat lint than have a needle near her body. :)

I don’t have as strong a reaction to the ears thing either, but I’ve certainly met some who do. I didn’t have my daughter’s done, because I don’t think I should assume to know if she will want pierced ears or not. Plus I had mine done at about 5, and since I wasn’t really old enough to take care of them properly, and my mom was distracted by my brand new brother, they grew in and I have to have them re-pierced at 11. The second time I was the one who really wanted them and therefore took the initiative to keep them clean/etc.

I’m also not a fan of those awful guns they use (one got jammed on my ear during the 5-year-old piercing and I screamed bloody murder) so when she is old enough I’ll take her to one of the reputable body piercers I know and have it done properly.

Shasta

I don’t have nearly as strong a reaction about ear piercing. It’s reversible! And has nothing to do with the genitals! :)

Before our son was born, I had somewhat grudgingly agreed to have him ‘cut’ as my husband is, and felt that it was important (for medical reasons) for our son to be as well.

Labor was a long-haul for us, my son was born purple, not breathing, in serious distress. Half an hour after he was born, when I finally got to hold him, I decided I couldn’t possibly let him experience anything else horrific, that wasn’t totally necessary. Due to his jaundice, they had to take blood from him 15 times before we left the hospital, and that was awful enough.

My husband and I fought about it a little, but in the end I just flatly refused, and now Jack is glad that I didn’t just give in. None of the boys in my family are circumcised, and none of them has ever had an issue with it. As my mom said, it’s like teaching them to wash behind their ears, not a bid deal.

When my son is older, if he wishes to have it done for his own reasons, he will have the freedom to do so. I can only suppose, if I were male, that I would appreciate the same rights to my own body and my own decisions.

Perhaps we should begin discussion regarding piercing the ears of infant girls? LOL

Shasta

I have a 2-yr old daughter, and during my pregnancy with her, I scoured the internet, read books and talked to doctors, searching for the circumcision answer just in case I had a boy. See, I have a 16-yr old boy whom I had circumcised at birth, and I have felt tremendous guilt for a long time now for subjecting my new baby to an unnecessary procedure that is painful and causes extended discomfort.

My brother laments his lost foreskin, angry — if the topic is raised in conversation — that he was denied the right to make his own decision about permanent body modification on his own.

I don’t know if you are familiar with Mothering magazine, but they have a large community of mostly-natural-minded, Natural Family Living members (some of who are a bit extreme and wild in their ideals), but there is a HUGE amount of information on circumcision and why you should not choose it for your baby boy.

Good luck coming to your own answer. I know it is a difficult choice to make.

But here it sounds like John thought that Champagne and Benzedrine said Jews and Muslims should go to hell.

Have I missed something? I’m quite confused.

Wouldn’t making male circumcision illegal in the USA give it the same status as female circumcision, which, along with cultural reasons, is also practised for religious reasons by some Muslims elsewhere? And if that’s so, does that mean that at the moment the first amendment applies to boys but not girls in regards to circumcision?