Ask Lemmy

Male circumcision is genital mutilation.

If it’s your culture, your culture is dumb.

Don't do it. Let your kid choose as an adult. You can't undo circumcision.

Dude I have a foreskin and it's fucking rad. I can pinch it closed when I pee and it'll fill up like a balloon. How could you deny your son that?

You can't be bullied if everyone is uncut. And as you say it's cultural, it makes absolutely no sense for me and I don't understand parents who voluntarily butcher the genitals of their children. I can't believe it still exists.

I’m uncut and went through my childhood and teenage years in the US. No one cared in preschool, and no one cared in the Highschool locker room, none of the women I slept with cared. It might be painful as an adult to do, but it’s a choice the person gets to make for themselves. I am grateful my parents stopped the doctors from cutting.

Frankly, it's a bloody weird thing to do unless medically required. Leave him be.

Don't mutilate your kid. If there's a medical reason go ahead, otherwise leave it be.
Your son can't put it back if you remove it, but he can remove it if you leave it. Let it be his choice over his body.

Parents who perform unnecessary surgery on their children because society says they should are bad parents.

That might seem harsh, but it's true. You have a responsibility to make the right choices for your kids, and "society" doesn't get a vote.

I faced the same question, but found it to be a no-brainer. You don't perform unnecessary surgery on a baby.

The reason it is performed in the US is to stop boys from masturbating.

Ignore any excuses for doing it that people have come up with since. That's the only reason the US started doing it, and every other reason is just people trying to rationalize why they keep doing it.

The "reasons" people come up with to explain it now are based on extremely unlikely events. All the serious issues that come up are avoided with proper hygiene. Unless they still have a stupid masturbation hangup, it all comes down to this:

Parents feel icky about having to explain to their child how to wash their penis.

If you can't handle that, I'll tell you right now that you're going to have a hell of a lot tougher conversations.

What I told them was to imagine they were wearing a hoodie in the shower. You'd need to pull the hood back before shampooing your hair. Same thing goes for the little head, but don't use shampoo, that might burn.

Not circumcising my kids only caused me one problem:

My mom reacted like it was a direct personal attack on her, because I was circumcised. She saw it as me saying she was wrong. I found it difficult to convince her that I was not judging her. She didn't have the same information available to her as I did. When I was born, she didn't really have a choice.

Don't do it. That guy in high school had a choice and he made it, you'll be robbing your child of any choice and it does have many downsides.

A few counterpoints to the circumcision pros that you mentioned:

• Circumcision rates are dropping across America. In some areas they ared dropping faster than others, but from what I recall the get are basically dropping everywhere to some degree. So I expect bullying about it is on the decline as it becomes less common.

• Also, the simple fact is that bullies will find any reason to be shitheads. So if it's not circumcision it'll be something else.

• Any straight women who are grossed out by a natural penis are idiots, and your kid will be dodging an asshole bullet if they do reject him over that.

• Better to let him decide if he wants to get it cut later or leave it uncut than to take away his free agency.

No sane beings cut off parts of their children as part of a retarded ancient ritual. Let alone part of the genitals; unfathomable perversion.

Pardon my French, this angers me.

Edit: Oh, and pro tip: Mutilating children leads to antisocial behavior.

Don't mutilate your child. Just remember to teach them to retract the foreskin and wash under it, by the time they are 10, it should be unfused from the glans.

The idea of wanting a circumcision has never once occurred to me. The notion of having my most sensitive area permanently exposed... eugh.

No I find it revolting. Might as well ask me to cut the tip of my nose off.

I'm a chick, responding because you mentioned some women are grossed out by intact dicks.

Every penis is different in its own weird way so whether there's foreskin or not is just an extra thing. Size/shape/foreskin/existence doesn't affect how I think about the person.

Any person who thinks men ought to be mutilated to be attractive is lacking in empathy and judgment, and my entire friend group thinks the same thing.

The idea that you would cut off a part of your kids genitalia just so they could 'fit in' culturally is kinda blown away by the fact that it is now less common to be circumcised than being natural, even in the USA. By the time your kid is old enough to care, it will be a complete non-issue, and they can always get one as an adult if they want. Don't take that agency away.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/pediatrics/generalpediatrics/117464

The idea that it has a population-level health benefit is completely debunked. It is medically advisable in only a tiny fraction of kids (sub 1%). The fact that %60 of the US population is circumcised is all thanks to religious hooey from puritans who don't want children to masturbate, and think chopping a sensitive part of their genitals off to make it harder to enjoy is the best way to go - thanks to education and a wider exposure to the rest of the world via the Internet, US parents are finally realising this which is why it's in decline.

Definitely not but I'm not American.

Please do not mutilate your child because of tradition.

Genital mutilation is inexcusable disgusting tradition - don't do it.

Do you approve of genetic mutilation* for cultural reasons?

I think your answer lies there.

*)

Circumcision was associated with frequent orgasm difficulties in Danish men and with a range of frequent sexual difficulties in women, notably orgasm difficulties, dyspareunia and a sense of incomplete sexual needs fulfilment.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21672947/

I'd never sacrifice 50% of the feelings for the sake of a shriveled tip to please some invisible sky daddy.

Male genital mutilation should be as outlawed as female.

And... Kids bullying others over their foreskin? I don't think I ever saw any classmate's dick in my life. Why is that even a thing?

it is his body, nobody else’s i dont understand this. the human penis is not a flawed organ needing intervention and aesthetic is not a good enough reason. barring medical, what the fuck lol.

"Hey internet I was thinking of cutting some of my babies dick off"

"Bro wtf what"

"Just a lil bit, just the tip!"

"Aw okay that's fine mate!"

Did you think this would be how it goes?

Don't.... cut parts of your baby's dick off dude, it's a weird thing to do.

IMO circumcision is genital mutilation and that's always wrong in general. In the very few cases where it actually has health benefits you can still do it later in life, it's not a big problem. You're not missing out on anything if you don't do it.

I'm uncircumcised and I'm thankful every fucking day. Don't do it to them. If you're being bullied for your penis, there's other problems at hand there. And women who won't sleep with you over this aren't worth sleeping with anyway.

Tbh I love my foreakin, it's fun to play with and overall just enhances the penis having experience. 10/10 would recommend

Ooo something for me!

I am FORMERLY uncircumcised. I have a skin condition which led to phymosis a few years back forcing me to have a medical circumcision this year.

Uncut is superior in every way. Sex is better, it's more comfortable when exercising, it's generally less of a nuisance. And in Europe, I never had an ick reaction.

If I didn't medically need it I wouldn't have done it. That said, it's better than phymosis, I do last longer in bed, and my partner says it's actually a really nice oral experience now.

Remember: most countries don't have a preference for circumcision, and a lot of people outside of America that are circumcised have it done due to medical issues, not moral or religious reasons.

No, why would I wish to be mutilated?

I have no idea where this American obsession with male circumcision comes from. It is an unnecessary medical procedure that you only share with Jews, but they at least can cite their ancient religion as an excuse.

Anyone else in the world just shake their heads about this.

Oh god no.

Grew up in the US. Heard one girl mention it was gross (she didn’t see mine) and one see it for the first time as was more curious. Never bullied but I also wasn’t swinging my dick out in the open.

Live in Europe now where the script would very much be flipped.

So thankful my parents didn’t mutilate me.

Don't do it.

I was cut for medical reasons but i wish the had tried an incision instead. My parents however were the bunch that thought the foreskin is worthless stuff because god commanded the jews to cut it (and god is always right). I remember the pain to this day. You will also steal pleasure from you son.

No, don't ever mutilate your kid for bullshit reasons. Cutting his penis just so that he can fit it in with others is nonsense.

Fuck. No.

I am grateful every single goddamn day that my mum took a stand against my dad's very Catholic parents when it came to circumcising me. She wasn't able to with my older brother, in part because of how wrecked she was from a 48hr+ labour. With him it was also "oh he'll feel weird if he doesn't match his father though" which,,, just,,, ooft 🙄

Don’t do it. It’s his body. Apart from medical issues it should be his choice. And bullying always finds a way and is hard to influence from the victim‘s part. You can only help in raising your child to be a confident person that is sure of your love and knows they can talk to you about anything.

Nope, not even once. I find the idea of circumcision really bizarre.