Brian Leaf thinks insisting a son’s genitals must match his father’s is a ridiculous assertion to start with.
I’m a bit depressed. Our midwife gave me a book about circumcision. I’ve started the book and can’t put it down. I’m not sure that I’ll ever fully recover.
The book tells me that the foreskin is like an eyelid protecting the sensitive mucous membrane underneath. Circumcision removes this protective skin, so the skin underneath keratinizes, meaning it hardens and desensitizes, like a callus. Therefore, the book posits, circumcision removes length and girth from the penis and decreases enjoyment of sex.
You do not say these things to a man. I’m trying to climb out of the hole. I tell myself that most men in the United States are circumcised, so it’s a level playing field. It just means that uncircumcised men are heroes and that we are at a disadvantage when we leave the country.
Now, keep in mind that whether or not sex is less pleasurable without a foreskin is, of course, very difficult to test. Nobody is lining up for a double-blind controlled study: Have sex. Rate it on a scale from 1 to 10. Then lose the foreskin, heal, have sex again with the same partner, and rate it again from 1 to 10. Any takers?
So it’s difficult to test the reduced-pleasure hypothesis. And people don’t talk about it much, so we don’t gather much anecdotal evidence, either. Unless you are a professional sex worker or my friend Adeline, you probably rarely talk about sex, especially the specifics. I don’t even know which of my friends have a foreskin and which don’t. Maybe I’ll ask the question on Facebook: “Share or Like if you have a foreskin.”
We all know about circumcision’s Jewish roots in the covenant between God and Abraham, but whom do we have to thank for the mass popularization of circumcision? When did it cross the gentile line? In Victorian England, of course. Yes, the same folks who made sex and farting socially unacceptable. Will Ferrell and Judd Apatow owe Queen Victoria big-time. What if nudity, masturbation, and farting weren’t funny?
In the 1800s, germ theory was gaining attention and people believed circumcision could fight the ultimate germ demon, smegma. Sounds like a Batman villain. They incorrectly believed smegma to be a breeding ground of bacteria. This is hogwash. Smegma is actually found in most animal genitalia and, in fact, serves to clean and lubricate the genitals, moistening the sensitive mucous membrane between the foreskin and the penis. The word smegma itself is Greek for soap.
Circumcision was the new snake oil. It was touted to prevent or cure syphilis, epilepsy, hernia, headache, clubfoot, alcoholism, gout, and, god forbid, masturbation! As I read older parenting books, I am absolutely astonished at how often people bring up masturbation. They were obsessed. “We must stop this epidemic!” I suppose things have changed. Just last night I watched Seth Rogen masturbate right on screen at the cinema.
Lots of folks, these days, defer the decision of whether or not to circumcise to the thinking of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Seems sensible. But the AAP is about as reliable on the matter as Steve Martin’s Theodoric of York, Medieval Barber. The AAP has flip-flopped its position at least four times. In 1971 the academy officially concluded that it was not a medical necessity. In 1989 they announced that there were good medical reasons for it. In 1999 they were neutral, stating in a report that the health benefits of the procedure were slim. And most recently, in 2012, the AAP changed their official stance, saying that the health benefits of circumcision outweigh the risks.
One of the founders of the American Medical Association, Lewis Sayre, in the late 1800s started recommending circumcision to cure paralysis and gross motor problems. He believed that a tight foreskin threw off the nervous system. “Hmm, this patient is paralyzed. Must be a tight penis.”
All this is another perfect example of why we must, in parenting as in life, gather data, but ultimately stay grounded and follow our own hearts and intuition.
In the end, my wife and I chose not to circumcise. People ask me, “What will you tell your son when he asks why his penis is different from yours?” I don’t understand this concern. Why must his penis match mine? Our hair color is different. We have different noses and his teeth are better than mine. Should he get braces and a retainer to mimic my overbite?
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Excerpted from the new book Misadventures of a Parenting Yogi ©2014 by Brian Leaf. Published with permission of New World Libraryhttp://www.newworldlibrary.com
BRIAN LEAF is the author of Misadventures of a Parenting Yogi. He has studied, practiced, and taught yoga, meditation, and Ayurveda for twenty-three years. Visit him online on facebook at www.facebook.com/Misadventures.of.a.Yogi.
What can I say? From where I sit (Scandinavia), it’s decidedly weird that circumcision is something you guys even consider. It’s just, well, alien I guess.
It is my understanding that foreskin removal inhibits cervical cancer potential in women, so there appears to be some benefit, as well as overall cleanliness. I am like millions of other males, unlike my father, who have been circumcised, as my boys were too. I am glad I was, for no other reason that this is how I’ve always known myself, and don’t really think about it one way or the other. I certainly don’t feel it as beingmutaltion in any sense of the word, nor do I think there was any residual trauma from the event. So to other… Read more »
I am a mother of three boys from the UK. Things are totally different here. Circumcision is not even discussed or offered never mind being routine. No leaflets handed out either. Unless there is a medical reason for it baby boys are left the way they were born.
Well, at least this article is honest and forthright in its intent. But it’s interesting… The author paints the AAP as flipping, but what the paragraph indicates factually is that, since 1971 (at least), the AAP has stated that the procedure is not a medical necessity, but it is beneficial. Over 40 years, their finding is that the benefits are anywhere from slim, to outweighing the risks. According to the article cited, the decline in circumcision coincides with the rise of HIV/AIDS. It also includes discussion of a carcinoma which I have previously never heard linked to the circumcision debate…… Read more »
Why should you cut off a functional part of your body to protect other people?
You do know there are studies indicating that female circumcision correlates with reduced HIV infection risk too, right? But no-one is making that argument in favour of FGM, because female bodily integrity is respected on this issue.
And if you’re going to make it pro-choice for (I assume) fully matured individuals, then why not just encourage them to wear a condom instead?
There is no rationality here.
It’s also interesting to note that a woman wouldn’t have any risk of breast cancer if we cut off her breast buds as an infant, but absolutely no one in the world thinks that’s a good idea, even though we would be perfectly capable of giving her fake breasts as an adult if she wanted them, and we have formula for feeding infants if she chose to have children. Because that is obviously insane. Why routine infant circumcision isn’t considered to be obviously insane completely eludes me.
There are many articles on this website against circumcision, and I endorse all of them, and this one is very well-written. Thank you!
The United States Agency for International Development is planning to spend $24.5 million to circumcise an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 male infants and males aged 10 to 49 in the kingdom of Swaziland by 2018.
I think this is a separate issue and it is disingenuous to state the scope of the circumcision program without explaining WHY it will be implemented. Studies have indicated that circumcision has the potential to decrease risk of HIV/AIDS and other STD infections http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/prevention/research/malecircumcision/. In a country like Swaziland where the HIV prevalence is estimated to be as high as 26% (not sure of most recent estimates, but you get the picture) I think that a possible decrease in sexual pleasure is not that high on the agenda.
I had to be circumcised as an adult because of phimosis. I have lost a lot of sensation in the glans. Fortunately my doctor suggested a partial circumcision, I don’t want to imagine what it is like for fully circumcised men.
Mike I am sorry to hear you had to be circumcised as an adult. Have you tried restoring?