For context, I’m circumcised and expecting a son and my wife and I are torn about the circ. We’re American so from a cultural standpoint circumcision is the default choice. Thing is, there’s no real benefit besides practicing a religion we don’t believe in, and I’m uncomfortable about cutting the tip of my son’s dick off.

On the other side, I’ve met a guy who was bullied in high school so bad for it he got a circ as an adult. Apparently crazy painful recovery. I’ve also talked to women who are generally grossed out by uncircumcised men. I don’t want to make him feel like something’s wrong with him his whole life because I was uncomfortable with the idea.

From a moral standpoint I’m against it, but from a social and cultural standpoint I feel like I should do it? It’s a crappy situation. If there’s any uncircumcised American men who want to talk about their penis I’m all ears.

  • Nanook@lemmy.zip
    1163·
    9 days ago

    Male circumcision is genital mutilation.

    If it’s your culture, your culture is dumb.

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
      18·
      8 days ago

      Except it has more upsides than downsides. In fact, except for extreme outliers there are no downsides. Not once in my life had I ever thought “I wish my parents would have not circumcised me as a baby”. From a US perspective, I think it looks better, most women think it looks better, and it saved me from cost, pain, and awkward teen years of waiting until adulthood to make the decision.

      OP, you said it yourself, really. You aren’t unhappy to be circumcised. You know at least one guy in real life who hated not being circumcised. Do you know anyone in real life; not the internet where people with negative outlooks on an issue tend to be the most outspoken, and not from all the other countries with different cultures and norms, but that you actually know that was mad about being circumcised? I work in a field that’s very… Not shy about bringing up things like this. I’ve never met a guy who wished he wasn’t circumcised.

      Nanook can go ahead and call it mutilation, trying to lump it in with a dangerous and sexual pleasure ruining practice done to women in a handful of places, but I’ll hard disagree. Mutilation is “a severe and disfiguring injury.” I don’t see circumcised as any of that, and neither do most people where OP or myself are from.

        • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
          15·
          8 days ago

          You’re doing the same thing, but hey, we can both start throwing links at each other to back up our points, if you’d like.

          But you know what, lets just say for the sake of argument neither dick has any medical or hygiene or STI risk differences (because there’s loads of evidence showing uncircumcised people are at a greater risk of getting those)

          I think it looks better, and most people in my country think it looks better. Personal preference? Sure. But personally, we got better looking dicks. The other medical benefits are just a bonus.

          • heyitsmikey128@lemmy.world
            6·
            8 days ago

            You’re not going to bring up the sensitivity arguments? Foreskin is a natural part of the body, the fact that it’s the norm is meaningless. If we were chopping off the tips of ears or male nipples would there be “no downsides” either? Why not just NOT do the thing? You can’t undo a circumcision.

            • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
              14·
              8 days ago

              Sensitivity arguments? Go check Google search trends and tell me if the searches for guys trying to last longer is larger than the searches for lasting too long.

          • Caveman@lemmy.world
            01·
            8 days ago

            The infection risk only becomes an issue when you’re old. I’m getting circumcised at 70, I’m keeping my dick whole until then. Your dick looks ugly, sorry not sorry.

            Also, I’m happy you like your dick, I’m sure you’d also like it if your parents didn’t remove a piece.

        • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
          11·
          8 days ago

          I mean, there’s groups for everything. If just 1% of men in the US were unhappy about having been circumcised, while the other 99% were happy or indifferent about it, that’s still over a million people unhappy. It’s still a super minority of people.

          • Icytrees@sh.itjust.works
            3·
            8 days ago

            If any other elective medical procedure had a 1% chance of extreme regret, it would be considered psychologically risky, in addition to the chance of complications.

            Do we know the actual numbers for how men feel about the procedure? I think that’s important if we’re debating this on the merits of joy/regret.

            I couldn’t find any good sources that surveyed adult men on their parents’ circumcision choice.