routine infant mutilation: how fucking barbaric can you get?
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See now, when you read that headline, you agreed instantly, didn't you? "Infant mutilation?! Good gracious, nobody could get behind that!" Yeah, nobody except for the parents of 70% of the men in the United States … quite possibly including you, dear reader. Yes, YOU. I personally know the list includes my mother and the mother of almost every man I've been to bed with … Ritual infant genital mutilation, friends. Circumcision. Unnecessary removal of an infant boy's foreskin. That's what I'm talking about. Not the universally-decried-by-every-decent-white-person-on-earth female version of the procedure. No siree. If you are an American parent of a son, you are more than likely in the group that had your son's cock cut to ribbons at birth.
Aren't you? Yup. Go on. Admit it parents … you did, didn't you? Thoughtless fucking sheep that you are.
Why? Because it's "cleaner" that way? Sorry, but unless your son was born so fucking retarded he'd never be able to bathe himself, that's a bullshit excuse. Do you really think that thousands of years of human history were plagued by the constant risk of young men dying of penile gangrene? No, see, the problem here is that fucking Americans are so goddamn uptight and squeamish, and terrified of anything vaguely suggestive of any kind of sexual anything … I'd bet at least half of American parents would be afraid to wash their own baby's genitals properly, and the poor kids would end up being given emergency circumcisions as toddlers due to massive neglect-induced infections.
But hey, if your kid can survive to adolescence with his dick intact, I'm sure the companies that bring us such clever products as Massengil douche, FDS "feminine deodorant spray" and various anti-bacterial "intimate cleansing wipes" would be thrilled to have a whole new market for their unnecessary germ-o-phobic bullshit "personal hygiene" products. I was not even going try to imagine what they might come up with, but nonetheless, images pop into my head unbidden: Massengil bottles in powder blue packaging, with innovative attachments at the end of their irrigation nozzles … they'd see to it that your baby boy could keep his cock nice and clean without ever having to actually touch himself, I'm quite certain.
And then there's the "peer pressure" argument. Everyone else is doing it, and you wouldn't want your boy being made fun of in the school locker rooms, right? Because LORD KNOWS, mutilating your children in the name of conformity is exactly the right thing to do. That's right. Teach that kid that fitting in is SO important that physical pain and injury are a fully worthwhile price to pay. Good old American values there. Fuck that individuality shit. It's overrated.
Hell, I bet there are even still those out there who somehow believe that circumcision is going to stop their children from masturbating themselves straight to Hades … but I can assure you that the circumcised men I've known didn't seem to suffer any major lack of interest in that area, so I'm afraid you're shit out of luck on that count. Your best bet, foreskin or no, is to just scare your child half to death with threats of eternal damnation and lakes of fire, and perhaps beat him whenever you catch him beating himself, until you're left wondering why he's still living in your basement at the age of 40, and has never had a girlfriend. Problem solved.
And then there are Jewish boys. Not only do they get their foreskins hacked off as a matter of course, but they even get to wait a few days after birth to have it done. You know, there's that myth that newborns don't really feel pain like older babies … so maybe they just want to make sure the kid really is permanently traumatized on some level he'll never quite remember? Right-o … so before you go screaming something about anti-Semitism, understand I'd be just as harsh on Christians or any other religious group if mutilating their infant sons' genitals was a basic tenet of their religious practice. But, more to the point, my mother converted to Judaism when I was a child. I even went to Hebrew school for a few years. And I was present when my baby brother was circumcised. So fuck you.
I would just like to let everyone know … if, for one small moment, you doubt even slightly that circumcision is a painful procedure … if you're tempted to drink the medical establishment's Kool-Aid about cleanliness and babies not feeling pain … you do not know the meaning of the phrase "blood-curdling scream" until you have heard a fully conscious baby boy having part of his penis cut off. The memory, 20+ years old though it may be, still puts my stomach in knots. I have heard kids scream when they fall down stairs and split their scalps open on the pavement. I have heard kids scream when they accidentally burn themselves. I have heard various children howl for many various reasons over the years. And nothing compares … no sound I have ever heard in my life, ever, anywhere, for any fucking reason … to the utter, yes even blood-curdling, horror of the scream that boy let out. That noise will follow me to my fucking grave.
So fuck your "cleanliness" you uptight fucking ridiculous germophobic cunts. Fuck your pathological fear that washing your baby's dick is going to turn you into a pedophile, you ridiculous squeamish twats. And especially fuck your covenant with your sick, sadistic excuse for a God. If THAT is your religion's idea of how to treat your children, fucking STERILIZATION should be the first rule of your covenants, you sick fucking bastards.
And thank god I was born a girl.
Spot on. About the only valid claim left is that circumcision reduces the risk of penile cancer, but the risk of that is much less than the risk from circumcision complications, so that doesn't hold water.
There's also a reduced risk of HIV with unprotected sex, but the solution there is obvious.
Nobody can tell me that sex can possibly be as good with a glans covered in thick desensitizing skin. Does any woman think that her clitoris would work as well if it rubbed against her panties all day? It'd get covered in a protective layer of skin like the circumcised glans does.
It's all the fault of Mr Kellogg, of Corn Flakes fame, who thought that it stopped masturbation, and masturbation caused insanity. Wrong on both counts.
21st November 2007 at 8:06 am | permalink |@james: I'm pretty sure removing your penis entirely would reduce the risk of both penile cancer and HIV transmission even more, but I wouldn't recommend that either. ;-)
21st November 2007 at 2:27 pm | permalink |Nice to find something I disagree with you on…..
I am a circumcised man who recently, along with his mother, circumcised our new born son. I come from a Cuban American home where my older brother was not circumcised when he was born in Cuba but I was when born in a US hospital. When my son was born, needless to say the decision to do so or not weighed heavy on us…. I just can’t be lead like sheep.
Why do it?
Religion…who cares. Each has there reasons. Today these are rituals that symbolize things done for practical reason when the traditions were begun a millennium ago. To use them as a guide in a world no longer based on the same rules would be barbaric.
Health….this is a point where I (or better yet my brother) would disagree. We come form as well adjusted a home as anyone can hope for and our cleaning habits are on par the best of homes. I discussed this with my elder and was simply told that he had circumcised his son…. This came from a man that understands the potential sexual sensitivity losses and all the issues of why not to circumcise. His memories of thinking about doing certain activates or risk unimaginable discomfort every day, were significant enough to want to spare his own son his fathers fate. One, that upon reflection, I never had.
Sexual…..Okay, this was the biggest point of why not. But it came down for me that we only really know what we feel in this world, nothing more. I love sex, I could not imagine it being more intense. I still have to think about soccer matches to make it through and feel like a man and not an immature 16 year old. Circumcised or not I think we feel what we feel, not what others believe we feel. Unless something went horribly wrong it looks like my son will have no problem enjoying his experiences with his little buddy.
Physical…..Pain is fleeting. I heard my son cry during the circumcision and he laughs with me so hard know that sometimes I forget that he even knows the concept of pain. They did it to me and I don’t remember it or have nightmares about it. And yeah, boys and girls do look upon ones with helmets on them with a judging eyes. And that is a emotional hurt that can easily stay around longer than the physical ever will.
It’s a difficult decision that does not have a clear cut answer for everyone involved with the subject, but one that thankfully we have options on how to deal with. We can only hope we did not start the inevitable screwing him up process with that decision…..
22nd November 2007 at 10:07 am | permalink |@ray: Thanks for such a thoughtful reply. I'm particularly curious about this comment: "His memories of thinking about doing certain activates or risk unimaginable discomfort every day, were significant enough to want to spare his own son his fathers fate"
I would be very interested to hear a specific argument in favor of circumcision from someone in your brother's position …
23rd November 2007 at 7:10 pm | permalink |When my son was born, I was torn. I did not want to circumcise him but my wife all ready had two boys by a previous marriage, and they were circumcised, so I had it done. I was a feet away, behind a door when it was done and I have never heard a child scream like that. I would never do this again.
24th November 2007 at 11:33 am | permalink |My brother said that he remembers trying to be clean as a young boy but inevitable
getting infections that were painful and embracing. It was compounded when it happened after he tried his best to be clean. He had to create a routine to make sure he cleaned properly. That memory of always having to think about it has stuck with him into adulthood. And while he no longer consciously thinks about what he has to do, habit at this point, he still has moments that he catches himself questioning if he paid enough attention to it. He felt that if this was something he could spare his son from having to deal with then it is was the right thing for him to do.
We had the good fortune (dumb fucking luck) of having our son also born tongue-tied (fraenum under the tongue too close to the tip of his tongue) He had trouble breast feeding and sticking out his tongue. To fix it we would have to have the the fraenum cutback. Don't do it now and he could have speech problems later in life. Do it now and its quick and as painful as a circumcision. Do it later (when we know he has a speech problem) and risk putting him under and stitches. That would have been horrible for a 1 year old.
I don't think that this an argument in favor of circumcision but when taken as part of a larger view of the pros and cons of what we do with our kids, it was the right argument for us. I take my moms advise with these types of things, cross my fingers and pray for a lot of fucking luck.
24th November 2007 at 12:18 pm | permalink |@stephen: Yep. That noise was unbelievable.
@ray: Thanks so much for sharing all that. That does definitely give the issue more depth than I'd initially considered.
That said, as a child I had some horribly bad urinary tract infections, and as awful as they were (and made me super paranoid in the tub for years), I'd hope that if a surgery that would permanently alter my sexual responsiveness were available to "fix" it, my Mom would have said no.
Hope you continue having luck with your kid though … sounds like he's got great, thoughtful parents, which is definitely good luck for him. :-)
26th November 2007 at 2:38 pm | permalink |A-fucking-men. "Hey, honey, I have a great idea: Let's cut the tip off our infant son's penis!" Idiots. Woops, I meant FUCKING idiots :D
25th February 2008 at 10:14 pm | permalink |Have you ever watched the show Penn and Teller: Bullshit? One of their topics was circumcision. I learned quite a lot about it from that episode!! Im sure you would like the show
25th February 2008 at 10:36 pm | permalink |@amanda: Technically, they're cutting off the skin that normally covers the tip of the penis … but yes, I'm sure if the kid were old enough to have a say in it, most of 'em would say no.
@katie: Haven't seen it, but I love Penn and Teller … they're on the short list of reasons I wish I had a TV. ;-)
25th February 2008 at 11:42 pm | permalink |