There are memes like “when you have to prove that you’re jewish” or crass jokes about people standing out due to their lack of foreskin, but i remember hearing that a huge swathes of American men are circumcised - it’s like 49%. Jesus.

If literally half of every men are circumcised, why is it even a remarkable topic to Americans? How did it become such a meme?

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 @pawb.social
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    2 days ago

    As a circumsized man, I don’t even know what all the fuss is about. Shit’s easier to clean and if there was any sensitivity loss from it, then I think I would have been a premature ejaculator if I wasn’t cut.

    The argument that it’s cruel to a baby is valid; but most of the time, I’m seeing arguments from men who have no foreskin seemingly lamenting the loss of something they never really knew in the first place.

    • Phil_in_here@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      I think maybe you nailed exactly what the fuss is all about.

      If no one had ever been circumcised before, and you pitched the idea of infant genital mutilation/modification, do you really believe any proposed benefits could possibly outweigh the revulsion of elective surgery on a baby?

      I get it: no one should be judged for whether they are circumcised or not, and I can absolutely forgive people who have circumcised their babies for “normalcy” in the past. But the conversation right now is “what are we even doing here, guys?”

    • blockheadjt@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      What makes you think the arguments against circumcision come from circumcised men?

      I am delighted that I was circumcised, and I think this is the most prevalent position for circumcised men to take. If it wasn’t, the practice would have died out due to fathers not insisting on it for their sons.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      When both “conventional wisdom” and our pediatrician advised it for hygiene and as something almost always harmless, and everyone I know had it done, I had no facts to decide against it for my sons

      It’s normal. Almost always no negatives. reduces dick cheese

      I realize there are horror stories but like with vaccines they are vanishingly rare

      • velma@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        It’s normal. Almost always no negatives. reduces dick cheese

        It’s not normal. What’s normal is allowing the natural design of the penis and foreskin to remain intact.

        Wanna reduce dick cheese? Teach your sons how to clean their dicks.

          • velma@sh.itjust.works
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            22 hours ago

            Not anymore, it dropped to 49% recently.

            My statement could have been “it shouldn’t be normalized” to be more accurate tbf.

            • AA5B@lemmy.world
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              20 hours ago

              I think history adds valuable context here ….

              My kids are now in college. When they were babies, I literally heard nothing against the practice.

              So 20 years of being public awareness and changing practices

              • velma@sh.itjust.works
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                20 hours ago

                I literally heard nothing against the practice.

                It seems like you never went looking either.

                I understand succumbing to social pressure unconsciously and I believe in “know better, do better”. I’m not trying to be harsh on you for choosing what you thought was best at the time. Now that you know, why do you still defend the practice?

    • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz
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      2 days ago

      The sensitivity loss thing is mostly an internet myth, most studies on it show no difference with some studies reporting increased sensitivity instead. The foreskin does have nerve endings, but those are mostly “touch” nerves and aren’t really the nerves that contribute to pleasure/arousal.

      As anecdotal evidence, I have a family member who got circumcised as an adult due to medical issues, and he’s very positive about it. I haven’t questioned him on if he had a change in sensation, but I know he’s happy with the outcome.

      While I’m talking about benefits, I’ll mention it lowers penile cancer risk, reduces the chance of UTIs, reduces the chance of some STDs, and prevents phimosis/paraphimosis. Only real negative I’m aware of is the procedure itself.

      • TheFogan@programming.dev
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        2 days ago

        The sensitivity loss thing is mostly an internet myth, most studies on it show no difference with some studies reporting increased sensitivity instead

        It’s worth pointing out as a myth, it vastly predates the internet. The reason it’s common in the USA, is because the puritans believed it would make it easier to stop kids from masturbating.

          • MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca
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            2 days ago

            Teenagers will jerk off to anything. I’m sure some neolithic cave teenagers were jerkin it to boob shaped rocks or baboon asses. Hormones gonna hormone.

            • UnequalExchange@lemmy.world
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              1 day ago

              the usa has the biggest or well ome of the biggest porn industries on the planet today despite the fact rhat mostt americam men have been circumcised since the 1900s …so…

              Is this not proof that theyve failed? the american masturbators continued and continue to walk on despite their mutilations! …or well continue to jack on 🤭

      • velma@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        I’d be interested to see those studies. Anecdotally, the nerves on the foreskin can absolutely contribute to pleasure/arousal just as almost any nerves on the body can do so. I wonder what criteria they’re basing that on and what differences they found.

        Usually when people get circumcised as an adult, it’s because of health issues like phimosis where the foreskin is unable to retract over the penis glans. So yeah, I’m sure your family member was quite happy to have his penis work better when it gets hard.

        • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz
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          2 days ago

          Here’s a study on it. Basically the foreskin nerves are “touch” nerves, and all touch nerves get reduced sensation with arousal. The number of those touch nerves drops significantly with age as well, with a 90% reduction by the time your 45+. It’s other nerves (mainly in the corona and near the frenulum) that are focused on vibration and temperature, which mainly contribute to pleasure.

          Ultimately the “ejaculatory latency time” doesn’t show a difference, even across various reasons for a difference in the quantity of touch nerves.

          • UnequalExchange@lemmy.world
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            18 hours ago

            …bro that study that you linked is from brian j morris.

            The RACP, the most notable medical authority in Australia, has denounced morris who is the author of this meta analyses . morris is an aussie and also a founder of a circumcision organization in Australia https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7691872/ this meta analyses is a sham by the quack brian.j morris. he was denounced by the australasian college of physicians. https://jme.bmj.com/content/circumcision-bioethical-challenge

            Also you can research deeper and you will fimd the brian j morris was friends with a currently convicted pedophile , a pedophile who created a ‘sexual gratification group who’s members get off to thr thought of circumcising boys and to the thought of being circumcised’ Edit: I found it https://circumstitionsnews.blogspot.com/2013/11/london-gilgal-societys-quaintance-faces.html?m=1 Theyre both members of the gilgal society and they both get off to the thought of circumcising young boys, only one of them has been convicted of anything though

            • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz
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              17 hours ago

              Didn’t know that, was literally just the first source I found.

              Wikipedia’s article has a section on it, with about 4 difference sources that all seem to conclude the same though. Maybe they’re all bug circumcision propaganda, I haven’t really looked into that part of it.