Circumcision by JMcQ

I’m circumcised. Don’t want to ask my parents why, but I’m sure they looked into it and thought it was the best thing to do. Still, I keep hearing horror stories about individuals who don’t want their children circumcised are not given a say into the matter, and religious zealots in the form of doctors are handicapping a child for their entire life. Fact is, there is no need for circumcision at this point in society where the overwhelming majority of individuals have easy access to daily baths or showers. At one time in our past, sure it may have made sense to circumcise but still, there are a lot of things wrong with the involuntary mutilation that a large fraction of male babies have to go through. We hear all the time about female genital mutilation – what about we give the guys a chance to share in the outrage and continual pain of their injuries?

As with most things to get me incensed, I first began to realize what sort of horrors were being perpetuated on masses of American children through other independent magazines and websites like fark.com . Since most of us are not aware of a circumcision unless it is a public ceremony, like a bris, an explanation of what is done in the current times is necessary. First off, the babies are shackled into a set of restraints so they don’t flail and cause even more harm than the doctor is “humane” enough to allow. No local anesthetic is given to calm the pain – an understandable move (as the penis can swell at the injection site) but what about allowing the child to be placed under a general anesthetic? The procedure is done, but what about the child’s decision in the matter?

The most common explanation for the necessity of circumcision is of hygiene – having a foreskin will aid in the growth of smegma and rashes. However, any attentive parent will be continually cleaning the area after each change, and the point becomes laughably moot after that point. Pretty much the only reason that circumcision happens to so many infants is the fact that it is socially acceptable to do so, and one will be hard pressed to figure out a reason to keep it on. However, enough studies have been done that show that the benefits of maintaining a full foreskin are much more in number than for being circumcised.

The intense pain caused by the circumcision deadens nerve cells that would otherwise make sex even more enjoyable –just recall a time in which a piece of your anatomy was caught in a zipper, and multiply that pain exponentially. The hardened skin marking back the pulled-back foreskin is ridged, and as such, is a breeding ground for dirt collection and embedded particles, creating much of the same problems that many would claim could only happen if someone does not get their child circumcised in the first place. While it is only in a few documented cases, tuberculosis, meningitis, hemorrhage and diphtheria can all grow in a wound that will, at the next bladder release, be covered in human waste.

What really irks me in the matter is that a massive amount of attention is paid to African tribes that commit atrocities to their women (the attention is needed) but a completely blind eye is turned to essentially the same processes that happen in our hospitals every day. Instead of pieces of glass and sewing thread, as some of the poorer tribes have used for centuries, we have sanitized things a little, but the fact is that there just is no tangible use for infant-mangling operations like this, not in a nation renowned for its cleanliness, not for some back-ass-wards religion (tribal or Judeo-Christian). If you have a child, let them decide when they can actually communicate and consent to the operation. Don’t let the fact that your parents and grandparents did it; do you really want to allow another human being to assault your child?