There is no greater political/sexual issue than circumcision. I generally feel like I’m beating my head against the wall with issues, but It’s a good way to get a discussion going on my blog.
Circumcision is the weirdest thing we do to newborn males that there is. All I hear out there is that children come first, protect the children’s rights. But one of the first things we do to newborn males in America is subject them to a very extreme body modification procedure that can hold its own amongst the most primitive tribes in the amazon. In fact, I’m pretty sure that primitive tribes don’t whack off pieces of their children until much older when they go through coming-of-age rituals. If you try to get your doctor to circumcise your daughter, they will take your baby away from you and declare you unfit to parent, if not put you in jail. But try getting out the door of the hospital with your son in one piece… It will be like running the gauntlet. I’m not comparing the act of female circumcision to that of males… the girls clearly are the ones more at medical risk with the procedure that is performed on them. It is right for it to be banned outright. I just don’t see why we allow one and not the other. Usually, it comes down to this infection thing. It may get infected, so we better cut it off now. If we follow that logic, then we may want to gouge out your children’s ears – they will almost certainly get infected someday. There’s nothing else like it in modern medicine today. There are no other preemptive amputations that take place in the name of preventing infections. If you really press the medical staff on the issue, sometimes it just breaks down to emotional appeals about your son not being able to fit in with the crowd or not looking like his daddy. I once had this discussion with a female doctor who, after becoming exasperated at my never-ending rebuttals to her arguments for circumcision finally told me that it just looks prettier! I felt like slapping her, but at least it was the closest thing to honesty I ever got out of a doctor on the issue.
I have a friend who was caught masturbating by his mother one day when he was 16 years old. How she didn’t know that her son wasn’t circumcised I do not know, but she was in shock at the sight. The next day she brought him to the doctor and had him circumcised. The brutality of this act will not leave him. he’s scared for life – pun intended. Other men I’ve talked to who had a circumcision later on in life (yes there are times when circumcisions are medically required, but they rarely have to be completely removed. I also have no problem with an adult deciding to get a circumcision for himself) have described sex before and after circumcision as the difference between seeing in color and black and white. The head of the penis is not regular skin that covers the rest of our body. It’s more like the inside of your lips, or your tongue. The foreskin is there to protect the head of the penis. All the constant rubbing of an uncircumcised penis on underwear and pants, over time, lessens the sensitivity of the head of the penis.
God didn’t make a defective product when he made the penis. All of it is there for a reason, and the hubris, selfishness, and arrogance of parents, doctors, and insurance companies are outrageous and criminal. Maybe if parents or doctors or (heaven forbid) insurance companies start getting sued or put in jail we can finally put an end to this very clear violation of human rights.