Culture

Before this post I have mostly tried to just stick to the facts and not get into too emotional topics. I have no choice but to make this post subjective given the topic. Now, ONWARD!!!!

Circumcision has been so successfully ingrained in our culture, we typically don't think about it anymore. It is even a taboo topic of conversation making the questioning of this practice even harder. As a result, circumcision is no longer a logical decision anymore. It is simply, "Oh its a boy. Circumcise him like everyone else." Given the information I already posted about the benefits of an intact foreskin, the less than substantial evidence of medical benefits, and the actual pain of the procedure, this thinking should be all but gone. However, some cultural concerns still remain.

One popular reason to circumcise babies is so they will match their father. I have even read several blogs on WebMD that recommend that parents make the son match the father. The theory is that the boy will be traumatized if he ever sees his circumcised father naked. If parents believed this, I could see how they would want this done as quickly as possible. The only problem is that this reason is nonsense if you think about it. So when exactly will father and son sit around naked comparing penises? And shouldn't you be worried if your girlfriend told you "wow! You look just like your dad!"?. In all seriousness, a child's genitals looks nothing like an adult's genitals. Another hole in this argument is that most children rarely if ever see their parents naked anyway. It is actually the parents that see the child's genitals all the time during changing and bathing. Maybe making the boy match the father is more for the father than the boy?

Another similar reason to circumcise a son is to avoid awkward situations in the locker room. This is one of my favorite arguments. It goes something like this. "Everyone is doing it so we did it too." Don't you just feel like telling your parents, "Well if everyone was jumping off a bridge would you do that too?" Parents hate it when you justify something by, "Everyone is doing it" yet that is exactly what many parents do themselves. Another reason this argument is silly is your son won't be alone in the locker room anymore. Five years ago the circumcision rate was between 55-60 percent in the United States. This number has been steadily declining over the past several decades. If you use a linear regression analysis, the current circumcision rate is about 50 percent. It is hard to find data about current rates, so 50-55 will have to be close enough. In addition to this, showering in public is becoming rarer and rarer. The vast majority of public showers have curtains.


Some people will not talk about how traumatized their son will be when he sees circumcised men. Instead they just say that the circumcised penis looks better. They did it for cosmetic reasons. I apologize, but this deserves a rant. How sick are you? You performed an extremely painful cosmetic surgery on a newborn so his penis would look better? Do you want your child to turn you on? Really. A parents perception of beauty shouldn't matter when circumcising their son. It is after all his body. Should he not do with it as he sees fit? How do you know that his future wife has the same view of beauty that you do? It is just completely moronic and shallow. Why don't we give all girls breast implants? We want our girls to be attractive to. End rant.