For context, I’m circumcised and expecting a son and my wife and I are torn about the circ. We’re American so from a cultural standpoint circumcision is the default choice. Thing is, there’s no real benefit besides practicing a religion we don’t believe in, and I’m uncomfortable about cutting the tip of my son’s dick off.
On the other side, I’ve met a guy who was bullied in high school so bad for it he got a circ as an adult. Apparently crazy painful recovery. I’ve also talked to women who are generally grossed out by uncircumcised men. I don’t want to make him feel like something’s wrong with him his whole life because I was uncomfortable with the idea.
From a moral standpoint I’m against it, but from a social and cultural standpoint I feel like I should do it? It’s a crappy situation. If there’s any uncircumcised American men who want to talk about their penis I’m all ears.
Edit: I really appreciate everyone’s responses I never expected to hear from so many people. With the decision hinging on social and cultural norms it’s been really helpful to be able to take the temperature like this. I obviously need to talk to my wife, but given the overwhelming support of dick hats I don’t thing we’re going to do it. Thanks, lemmings!
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.
Why are you thankful?
Linking back to your other comment I replied too, because it drastically reduces sexual pleasure. Other reasons include the fact that most people generally prefer not to be mutilated.
Ahhh… how do you know how they feel?
Personally I don’t feel mutilated nor have I had any issues with sexual pleasure, alone or with other people. It’s news to me this could be an issue.
Looking at the other comments there is a good chance they will reply with something similar but damn you’re pushing a narrative and I think overstepping by speaking for someone here. Especially since you, as you said, already replied to me with the same message / assumption.
Because I have spoken too many, many people who were circumcised, including my own older brother, who felt like they were mutilated/incomplete/disfigured. That’s generally how you would find out someone’s feelings on a subject? It seems like no circumcision would be the only way to guarantee someone doesn’t feel that way, because it’s always possible to have it done later in life by choice. That’s not pushing a narrative, that’s just facts.
Let me ask you a follow up question. Are you for or against minors that are transgender having sex change surgeries? Why or why not?
That’s a hell of a jump. I’m very ignorant on that topic and it’s a minefield. Which is what I suspect you’re aiming for here, baiting.
Back to where we started though… how would they know there is a difference if that’s their baseline experience? And it sounds like you learnt some individuals experiences, it can be risky expanding on those and assuming other people’s experiences are the same. But ironically… asking an individual what their experience was is exactly what I was trying to do when you jumped in
You’re right, it’s much different. Minors that are wanting sex change surgeries are both consenting, and have a medically necessary reason for getting them.
Then let’s also recommend removing every newborn’s left eye. If their baseline experience is having no depth perception, how would they know the difference, right? Pirates with an eye patch are sexy, and they won’t have issues with eye infections on that side anymore!
Do you know how it feels to be uncircumcised?
No, I clearly don’t know what it feels like for an uncircumcised person and nothing I have said has come close to that. I’m not pushing back on the idea that it might feel better for an uncircumcised person. I’m pushing back on an outspoken individual hoping to hear from more individuals on this thread
I honestly would be curious to see studies that people thought were trustworthy that showed it one way or another. Accounting for it in an adult is easy (ask before, ask after, large enough sample) but its not inconceivable that it’s different when done on children (they heal better in general and the practice is relatively widespread) and I think a study that managed to do demonstrate difference there would be difficult. That said, most of what I saw at a glance seemed to indicate little change and the voices on this thread seem to be shouting it’s a large change in feeling. It would be nice to be able to account for that difference. And I struggle a little with the idea that there is a large change in most individuals since that would imply it could be feeling a lot better and it already feels amazing enough that it already gets me into plenty of trouble.
You only need to look a one fact: the only people defending the practice are people who it was done to.
When I read this, it seemed like an attempt at a pithy comment that included a logical fallacy but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I think I have it now.
If you take the position that’s basically the opposite of the posters and simplify you could end up with an imaginary world with features like: circumcisions cause no lasting pain and have no effect on sexual sensation. In that world, trying to make sure there are less circumcisions is still pretty reasonable, you’re cutting up a baby for no reason. But what behaviour would you expect to see from people in this thread? I’d expect to only see circumcised people saying that many of the comments in this thread didn’t reflect their experience and for people opposed to circumcision to take those comments as defending the practice. Only circumcised people saying that a lot of these comments don’t reflect their experience would also be a quality in worlds where:
The fact that only circumcised people are saying a lot of these comments don’t reflect their experience doesn’t give us information about which of these worlds we live in (or more realistically, how much of each is part of our world since the last two obviously have some effect)
People’s personal comments about their experiences before and after the operation do help differentiate, but that wasn’t part of the pithy comment.
It was. But I also think it boils the topic down pretty well. One thing you seemed to have skipped is that there are plenty of circumcised people expressing regret. So the resulting logic table is very straightforward.
People who went through the procedure at a time in life where they can remember both also corroborate this - while it’s generally not the end of the world, nobody wants to be circumcised unless it’s all they’ve known.
It just seems odd for the practice to have started in independently, in multiple places around the world, and to still be done for different reasons if that were a fact and not just a bias in framing (since a lot of people here seem to be strongly/angrily pushing a message). And that isn’t me saying that the practice should exist, or that the effect doesn’t exist, just that the practice gained momentum independently multiple times and both cutting up your child and lowering sexual pleasure are usually something that would slow down or stop that momentum. I guess there are plenty of counter examples, it’s not hard to find cultural habits that run from weird to terrifying in other cultures so plenty have to exist in yours
The sensible part gets less sensibe if always exposed. In short, sex feels less good.