Jump to content

To Circumcise, or not to Circumcise


Guest
 Share

Recommended Posts

As you all know, I have a son, he was born on the 29th of last month.

Tonight I was talking to my Dad, and he asked me when I was going to have him circumcised.

Well, I know what my answer is and was, but I want to hear what you commanders think.

I don't want to hear, yes, you should, or no, you shouldn't only. I want to know why.

Why would you or would you not circumcise your son?

I am very interested in knowing.

Thank you

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is a tough one. Really tough. There are reasons for it and against it.

For:

Like Kiran said hygiene easier. I imagine it traps lint and various fluids and you would have to clean it till the child could do it for himself.

If later on the noncircumsised man does not have enough room in the sheath of skin it can cause a forced ummmm "readiness" which can be painful and detrimetal to the entire organ itself over time.

There is also the being different thing.

Against:

Trauma to the child.

Missing a natural part of biology.

Desensitizes the exposed area.

I really have no thoughts myself yet but have often wondered what I would do if I had a son. Wonder if a half type thing is available.

I would pin your/the child's doctor down and weigh all the reasons. Whatever YOU decide the child will have to live with it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh dear, just the kind of think I think about every day

I would say don't get him circumcised. I don't know about the hygiene angle, but I do know that there is no health reason for circumcision; the process exists mainly as a means to generate hospital profits and for such individuals who find it necessary for religious reasons. It does seam a rather unpleasant trauma to inflict on the child though as I don't believe they use any form of anesthesia, and it's not unheard of for them to goof rather badly and cause permanent injury (or in some cases burn off a section).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

NO because:

1.) There is no proven medical benefit, and any arguments otherwise are simply based on hearsay.

Reference: Men's Health Magazine.

2.) It's loaded with nerves, so you lose some ability to enjoy being properly "stimulated"

There are no good reasons for circumcision unless you're jewish, and plenty of reasons why it's better not to be.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

YES. Do it. Have it done when the child is small.

I speak from personal experiance. I wasn't circumcised as a little kid, and eventually opted to have it done when I was a teenager. Health reasons were not what prompted me to do so, but rather cosmetic concerns. I was embarresed by it, no one elses where I came from looked like mine. It was a big deal, I was starting to get involved with girls, and I was embarressed to lets girls see it. It may be a cultural thing, as I don't know the demographics on those that do or do not have circumcised penises. But I was concerned enough about it to have it done, and it sucked because I was aware, no details but just imagine, *stiches*.

A baby that young will truthfully have no recollection of the event, and I know that from experiance. When I was a child I had a lot of surgury done and I don't remember a bit of it. Thats why my mother didn't want me to become circumcised, as I had already gone through so much. But ultimately I wish she would have had it done when I was a baby.

As far as reduction of sensitivity, I'll just say thats its just skin, not sensitive in and of itself, rather part of the whole system. In fact, it can be argued that because the skin naturally covers the head of the penis during intercourse, it might reduce sexual pleasure. And from personal experiance this is quite plausible, as I know what it is to be both circumcised and not.

Have it done when the child is younger, if he's American I'll venture to say that he'll be glad you did.

[ 12-12-2002, 01:52 AM: Message edited by: goaliejerry ]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting topic as my son (he's now almost 3) has to get it done in the new year, for medical reasons.

As for should it be done by choice? We have two sons and another kid on the way and Glenn will be the only one to get circumcised. The only reason I can give is that we have just never considered it, I never had it done and only 1 other person in my family has had it done so it never even cropped up. Think we'll have to sit down and think about it a bit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Boy Jag you certainly know how to get one started!

The only reason I can see is the Goaliejerry mentioned , the different angle. I know that afew guys I played football with used to catch Hell for being uncircumcised but I don't think they were permantly scarred.

On the other hand any surgical procedure always has the chance of leaving a scar.

Whew! Thank God I have a little girl!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think it really boils down to a question of social norms. While I hate that such is the case, conformity, especially for children, is an essential part of the creation of a positive self image. Seeing that "they" are like "me" confirms my own self-worth, as these people I see are alive and functioning harmoniously with each other (when viewed simplistically), and because I am like them, I am also alive and functioning harmoniously. Perhaps ultimately such concerns are both unfounded and worthless, but just as being afraid to go swimming because you are too fat or too skinny, or being afraid to let a girl see you with a shirt off because of acne problems, so too might being uncircumcised cause hesitation when pursuing a member of the opposite sex, or even worse, mortification might result by being rejected or made fun of by a girl who is uncomfortable with the cosmetic apperance. In each of these examples, stigma is attached to purely cosmetic variables, who by themselves have no effect on the worth of the individual. However, seeing how others percieve and react to these cosmetic variables, either favorably or negatively, leads to our assignment of value to these cosmetic variables, either good or bad, and ultimately leads to our perception of ourselves as either good or bad. This is a sad but true occurance, where self worth is formulated from variables that have no worth, and then this false judgement is accepted as true. This results from cultural perceptions of differance. I'll conjecture and say that American society views un-circumcised penises as not normal, (normal in the sense of common, not the sense of "right" or "good") with my evidense being that the vast majority of our pornography depicts men with circumcised penises. (forgive the vulgarity of the referance but I feel it serves a purpose) Pornography, i.e. porn-star type, not amature type, aims at presenting ideal sexual interactions, whereby fit and well endowed women interact with fit and well endowed men, who in the majority of cases are circumcised. Seeing this, we extrapolate that being circumsized is an ideal our culture accepts, just as we feel that large breasts and penises are ideal, when in fact an absence of such ideal has no bearing on our worth as a human being whatsoever. Just as a parent should be wary of assigning a name to a child that may evoke ridicule or jokes, so should a parent weigh any factor that may result in a child being unable to favorably compare themselves to thier peers. The bottom line is, kids can be cruel, and the risk involved in the removal of one extra source of possible ridicule pales when compared to the risk of possible social-acceptance problems caused by the assignment of the title "different from us." Having the procedure done is probably one of the most routine and safe medical procedures done on children today, and while I am certainly not saying that there is anything wrong with being uncircumcised, all I am saying is that having the procedure done removes any need to worry about so trivial a problem, and instead allows you to focus on ensuring your child experiances the best life they possibly can.

[ 12-12-2002, 04:01 PM: Message edited by: goaliejerry ]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had my son done the day after he was born. I really didn't think about it. To me, it seemed the thing to do. They numb it now, so it isn't as brutal as it used to be, it healed up in a couple days.

I personally have never saw one that wasn't (not that I have seen a million and Please no photos!)

PS: I did spit water all over my screen. SC that was classic!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:

I was circumcized when I was a little boy, but that was before the sex change oper.....oh wait, wrong thread!!


Wrong thread? I think you got the wrong board SC!! LOL

And I spit chablis all over my keyboard, thanks a LOT!! LMAO

That's a kind of wine for you youngsters..

Anyway, We decided, BEFORE my first daughter was born, because we didn't know whether she was gonna be a girl or not, that if we had a son, we would NOT have him circumcised.

For a number of reasons, but the most basic?

HE WAS BORN WITH IT, if it doesn't fall off, he keeps it!!

The "if it doesn't fall off" is for the belly button, umbilical cord, for those of you who do NOT have children and don't get to watch it fall off and freak out the first time, because it bleeds for a week afterwards.

Anyway, Aric, the lucky little devil, gets to keep his foreskin, why? Because,

I am the ALL POWERFUL Daddy, and I say so,

and because Mommy agrees with me....

And thank you all for your opinions, my mind of course was already made up, but I was interested in hearing what you guys and gals had to say about it.

[ 12-13-2002, 01:20 AM: Message edited by: Jaguar ]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Grayfox

i think it would come down to personal choice. i dont think there would be anything majorly wrong with having it either way.

i dont have a mudflap, and i had my sons removed the day after he was born... that was just something i wanted to do. its YOUR choice to do so, but for me personally i would say yes. mainly for the hygeine issue.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello all the master lurker reappears for a short intermission.

I have a 1 year old son. Before he was born my wife and I had a very serious discussion on the this very topic. This procedure was done to me at a very early age (2-3 week after birth) of course in 1976 this was the normal thing to do and my mother didn't think twice about it.

With my son I did a lot of research and from that I was really close to saying no I didn't want him to be "Cut" because I felt that there is no real reason anymore to have it done. But, I came to relize that in this American society if your are different in anyway you become ridiculed because of it. I went through a difficult childhood because I was overweight, not overly so but big enought to get made fun of.

Now if I was getting hounded because of my weight just think how they would react if they saw that I was "uncut" as well I just don't know how I could have handled it all.

I really sat down and thought about this. I also wanted to make my son feel as normal around me as I am around him. If he were to see me unclothed and notice a difference in me compaired to him I know it would be a difficult conversation about it, especially since he would probably be very young and not understand everything I was saying.

Overall, I had it done. The process went preatty smoothly. They did a local numbing and even though there was some cries from my son he went through the process really well. He was healed up within 2 weeks. I am not going to look back on this and regret because I felt I did the right thing.

So my feeling in all this is if your in a society that has this procedure done I would do it just for the sake of keeping your son less of a target in their younger years. Also, if your "Cut" yourself think about that conversation that you might have to have with your son.

I hope I am making some sense here I tend to babble a lot. =)

-Enderlin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bah! Nonsense. Fendi, uncut is exotic and therefore sexy, sorry, it's the truth. Enderlin, worrying about making your kid is normal is the worst thing you can do. Look out the window sometime, observe all the miserable boring normal people out there, and decide if being normal is all that great.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But Dragon Lady, there's no point in being exotic and sexy if it only works for 30 seconds.

Anyway in Java, when the men is cut, they stuff ball bearings where their foreskin was at. I think its called Batak. Ask Jeff as he probably knows more about it than me. Now that is not only sexy but functional.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK, I will add a post to this.

My son is NOT going to be cut.

First of all, I want him to ENJOY sex, any idea how many nerves there are in that foreskin?

second, there is NO reason for it to be removed, what is all this stuff about hygiene? It is no more less hygienic then not having it.

Third, the AMA American Medical Association calls the procedure unnecessary and with too many possible complications if it is done wrong.

fourth, about him "being different" It won't matter a hill of beans because he is NOT going to public or private school. He will be homeschooled just as my daughters are. He will not be stripping down naked in front of a bunch of other guys in the locker room after gym class or whatever. So unless somebody decides to watch him take a leak, the only ones that will know, will his parents, his sisters and when he decides, his girlfriend, wife, etc.

I made my decision and for the below reason.

"He was born with it, if it doesn't fall off, he keeps it" End of story.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...