Circumcision is an ancient genital mutilation ritual no less barbaric than the African practice of carving off female pleasure centers. The ritual goes back thousands of years, a fact that is sometimes laughably used to argue for the practice, as if an ancient civilization managed to discover and fix with surgery an actual flaw in the million-year evolutionary development of our species.
The Truth Hurts
Ancient Christians swiped the bloody practice from even more ancient Jews who had adopted the idea as a blood sacrifice compromise that spared the lives of valuable first born boys. In a move that will go down in history as nothing less than diabolical, perversely repressed and judgmental Christian leaders co-opted the ritual as a means of demonizing and curtailing that which boys (and girls) are by nature prone to do. Less than two centuries ago church leaders put their long-running evil intentions in writing:
In cases of masturbation we must, I believe, break the habit by inducing such a condition of the parts as will cause too much local suffering to allow of the practice being continued. For this purpose, if the prepuce [foreskin] is long, we may circumcise the male patient with present and probably with future advantage; the operation, too, should not be performed under chloroform, so that the pain experienced may be associated with the habit we wish to eradicate.
Source: On An Injurious Habit Occasionally Met with in Infancy and Early Childhood. The Lancet, Vol. 1; 7 April 1860
Evolution, Baby!
The human body is a marvel of evolution, so it makes sense that sex and self-pleasuring should be equally pleasurable for both sexes. The woman's pleasure point is near the surface and responds well to bumps, grinds and hard-pressed embraces. Men have a similar center, but it's designed to encourage penetration. The hooded tip. Clit on a stick.
The foreskin contains 85% of the sexually receptive
nerve endings of the penis. The "ridged band," also known as the
"preputial sphincter" is the most sensitive part of an intact male's
body, containing 20,000 Meisner's corpuscle nerve endings. These are the nerve
endings that sense light touch, as in the anus or lips...also found in
highly concentrated patterns on the palms of our hands and soles of our feet.
[To get a rough idea of the difference between cut and uncut on the sensitivity dimension] compare the sensation of gently gliding a
finger over your palm versus the back of your hand.
The hygiene argument arose in more modern times and betrays a crazy idea that rational parents would reject if they actually thought about it.
Consider: Girls have much more to deal with and they take care of themselves just fine, but boys need to have their tip snipped because they can't be trusted to clean under the hood?
And instead of cutting the son to look like the father, this century dads will show the scar and tell the uncut son the story of how it was decided to save him from that abuse.
New century parents!
End the scourge of circumcision!
Keep knives away from your already perfect baby boy!
Stop the Madness!
Break with tradition
Trust evolution
Leave the hood!
He'll be wanting that.
Look. Parent. Evolve.
