Current mood:

amused

Foreskins and peenies and brises - oh my!
Yay for Salon.com. While many of their articles (on such topics as the Iraq war, socioeconomics in the far East, and the latest electronic gadgetry flying out of Steve Jobs' ass) generate letters that are interting, thoughtful and even civil, when they put up what are commonly called "lifestyle" articles, the splooge can fly so thick and fast you could very well drown in it.

Herein a tale of a Jewish husband caught in the Circumcision Wars.

A rather amusing story of what can happen when your wife and your parents Do. Not. Agree. on something you really don't care about one way or the other. (Since it's a Salon link, you have to click an ad to get the whole article.) But the real fun happens in the Letters section.

352 letters so far. We got it all here -

"Circumcision is barbaric!" "No, it's clean and healthy!"

"It's religious, so it's idiotic!" "Don't you DISRESPECT MAH JEWISH AUTHORITAH!"

"It's nothing compared to female circumcision!" "That's not relevant, you hairy feminist!"

"It's no big deal!" "It's traumatic and scarring!"

"I did it to myself!" (No, I'm not making that one up.)

And the occasional appearance of a few head-scratchers wondering why people get so freaked out about this. (That included me, by the way, but since I posted my reply very early and nobody responded at all, I don't think it counts in the splooge explosion, which took a while to gather steam.)

NOTE: In order to get the wank stream flowing correctly, remember to click the "Oldest First" button on the first page of the letters, otherwise Salon will list them in the reverse order.

Boy, nothing like an article about bodily functions to make the crowd at Salon go APESHIT.

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	lerefuge 2007-01-11 02:39 am UTC (link)
	I am from Canada and circumcision is so rare that I really don't know what to say or think about this debate. I don't know anyone who has been cut so yeah, I have problem understanding why this procedure exists (apart from a strict cultural ritual). What I can say tough is that I think uncut dicks are prettier. /my thoughts on yaoi (Reply to this)(Thread)

	seiberwing 2007-01-11 03:30 am UTC (link)
	It's supposedly healthier. And all the ~~Jews~~ cool people do it. (Reply to this)(Parent)

dragonfangirl
2007-01-11 04:24 am UTC (link)

In the 1950s, the medical community made a big push for circumcision in America. Oftentimes the kid would be cut without ever bothering to consult the parents. If the parents were unsure that they wanted it done, they were pressured. Doctors told parents that it was healthier, hygenic, decreased infections, decreased diseases.

Which had very little to do with the real thing the medical community hoped to reduce via circumcision. Masturbation.

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	lerefuge 2007-01-11 04:27 am UTC (link)
	ROFL. Are you serious? Although, I am not even surprised. It would not be the first time medical procedures would serve moral/religious concerns. Do you know what was the reasoning behind circumcision preventing masturbation? Because I don't get the logic. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

dragonfangirl
2007-01-11 05:54 am UTC (link)

You have probably seen repeated a number of times in this wank that circumcision reduces the sensitivity of the penis, which it does. They were pretty much hoping that if they could reduce it enough, then boys wouldn't be tempted to play ding-a-ling with their dongs. Given that most of these people were adult males themselves, I have no idea what they were high on when they came to this conclusion.

But a bit of digging in 1950s sources will turn up boatloads of anti-masturbation propaganda. Masturbation was blamed for everything from low grades to delinquincy to mental retardation to syphillus. I either never studied, or now can't recall, how much this was actually influenced by varying religious organizations, but I suspect it had parallels with the temperance movement, earlier in the century.

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lerefuge
2007-01-12 04:21 am UTC (link)

But isn't the reduction of sensitivity a myth? I dunno, it's like we can't get any straight answer on that topic :D Odd.

Aw man the Temperance movement. That was something. Funnily enough, all this talk of circumcision and the scientific explanation for it reminds me of those medical books in the beginning of the century that listed depression in women as a result of a lack of orgasm. There were procedure described for the doctor to make the woman orgasm every week or something to treat her 'woman problem'. LOL.

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	lukita 2007-01-12 01:32 pm UTC (link)
	But isn't the reduction of sensitivity a myth? I dunno, it's like we can't get any straight answer on that topic :D Odd. We need to test this theory out, know any uncut guys? shot (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	it's easier to masturbate with a foreskin (Anonymous) 2007-01-17 02:50 am UTC (link)
	first time posting here, but I thought I'd just add that uncircumcised men don't need a lubricant in order to masturbate - the skin slides easily, so lotions/spit is less needed. monkeys_on_n2o (Reply to this)(Parent)

	napalmnacey 2007-01-11 06:20 am UTC (link)
	I'm there with you, dude. I just don't get the whole thing. ~~Plus it's fun to see a guy's face when you play with it, and I couldn't do that with a cut one.~~ (Reply to this)(Parent)

	rachel_pi 2007-01-11 07:47 pm UTC (link)
	I think it was initially started because of the whole cleanliness issue. Most religious laws have some practical basis usually related to the sanitary conditions of the time. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	baskinglizard 2007-01-12 04:12 am UTC (link)
	Wait, what? Rare in Canada? Really? I also am Canadese (I wish I had that icon!) and in my somewhat limited experience (and we're talking less than 8 guys here) it's been 50/50 cut or not. Maybe it depends on the part of the country. Or something. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

lerefuge
2007-01-12 04:17 am UTC (link)

Yeah, I should have told my province too but I was lazy. I am in Quebec and I don't know cut guys. Maybe because of catholic heritage? Who knows! I know that in our silly highschool classes about puberty and such we had a section about how boys had to wash the head properly and etc :P It was sort of expected that all the boys were uncut. (I just can't believe we are debating something like that :D)

Where do you live? I'm curious.

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baskinglizard
2007-01-12 02:14 pm UTC (link)

Nova Scotia. Which also has some pretty church-based roots in certain areas but I think it's more common than not here. I don't remember anything about it being specifically taught in health class. ~~But then that was quite a handful of years ago.~~

That said, the guys I've been involved with that were uncut were on the more catholic/christian end of the spectrum (and one was batshit fucking loco, but that's a whole other story).

(Heh, I can't believe it either. :D Also your icon makes me giggle!)

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	heddychaa 2007-01-18 04:18 am UTC (link)
	one out of three has been uncut for me, so I don't know where she gets this "circumsizion is uncommon in canada" thing from >.> (Reply to this)(Parent)

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