Circumsurdities

Absurd claims about circumcision

If we believe absurdities,
we shall commit atrocities.

- Voltaire (1694-1778)

 

The prepuce seems to exercise a malign influence in the most distant and apparently unconnected manner: where, like some of the evil genii or sprites in the Arabian tales, it can reach from afar the object of its malignity, striking him down unawares in the most unaccountable manner; making him a victim to all manner of ills, sufferings, and tribulations; unfitting him for marriage or the cares of business; making him miserable and an object of continual scolding and punishment in childhood, through its worriments and nocturnal enuresis; later on, beginning to affect him with all kinds of physical distortions and ailments, nocturnal pollutions, and other conditions calculated to weaken him physically, mentally, and morally; to land him, perchance, in jail or even in a lunatic asylum. Man's whole life is subject to the capricious dispensations and whims of this Job's-comforts-dispensing enemy of man.

- Remondino, History of Circumcision, 1891, pp 254-5

 

Penile skin bridges are an uncommon complication of circumcision that are often found in general practice.

Office management of penile skin bridges with electrocautery.
Naimer SA, Peleg R, Meidvidovski Y, Zvulunov A, Cohen AD, Vardy D.J
Am Board Fam Pract 2002 Nov-Dec;15(6):485-8

 

Adam's blood was drained from his body after he was killed, but his genitals were undamaged. A further clue lies in the fact that Adam, who was between four and seven years old, was also circumcised.

"Thames torso boy was sacrificed ", Guardian (UK), June 2, 2002

 

Bill Maher: You're comparing cutting off children's arms to cutting off the end of a penis of a little baby for -
Christopher Titus: Snipping. Not cutting, snipping.

Politically Incorrect, Feb 1, 2001

 

The movie has nudity of native people and of an artist's model, plus brief scenes from a public mass circumcision of young Asmat boys put on for tourists. No cannibalism, violence or sexuality is shown, just discussed.

- Review of "Keep the River on your Right"
by Louis B. Parks Houston Chronicle
Thurs 9 August 2001

 

Stretching or 'growing back' the foreskin is a form of genital mutilation....
The men who choose this route have psychological problems.

- Prof. Brian Morris in "The Unkindest Cut?"
(Australian) "Men's Health" July 2001

 

There are no deaths today from medical circumcisions in developed countries.

- Prof. Brian Morris on his website in 2006.

 

There is a big anti-circumcision campaign out there run by lunatic-fringe organisations
and unfortunately they've infiltrated the medical profession.

- Prof. Brian Morris in The Australian, August 27, 2007.

 

Lamenting the loss of parts we discarded as children, whether it be baby teeth, appendixes or even tonsils, is not only misguided, it's downright silly.

- Prof. Brian Morris in his website, (August 31, 2007)

 

The mohel ... places a shield on the penis ... and draws the blade along ... along the shield, making sure that no injury can come to the child.

- Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence in "The Naked Penis"
on TV3 New Zealand, March 30, 2001

 

Nobody has ever complained [about being circumcised] before.

- an administrator in the Australian College of General Practitioners, early 1980s

 

To see circumcision as "carving off a piece of an infant's genitals" - now that is sick!

- John Pritchard on alt.circumcision, September 28, 2000

 

SHMENDRICK, no scars on my CIRCUMCISED SHMECKLE!!

- DarrinT68 on alt.circumcision, August 16, 2000

 

[To circumcise to cure hyperactivity] is certainly more natural than using drugs like Ritalin

- chelle_ken on ParentSpace, Feb 24, 2000

 

Although it doesn't cut away anything from the penis itself...

- "Everything you always wanted to know about sex*
*but were afraid to ask"
David Reuben, M.D. All New Edition, 1999

 

Getting cut does not reduce the size........that is the stupidist thing I have heard.....

- Intoxicatingmoon on alt.circumcision, 21 Mar 2003

 

circumcised men aren't missing anything

- Stuart Brown

 

Nothing is removed.

- a poster on alt.men

 

it's only like having your hair cut off

- a poster on alt.men

 

Man is the only creature on earth that has a foreskin.....

- a poster on alt.men

 

Ah, you hate >forced< circumcision. But you apparently have nothing against forced non-circumcision [of neonates].

- wadi

 

No Hugh my penis is all there, just the redundant sheath has been removed.

- wadi

 

... it is not part of the penis but rather a mammalian penile sheath of no sexual value.

- wadi

 

[Circumcision] needs no justification. Its as natural an occurance as taking a dump.

- wadi

 

Nobody is "hacking off pieces" of anything.

- wadi

 

I was stunned by the natural beauty of the large, brownish, denuded glans that was proudly exposed to everyone's eyes.

- a Hungarian writing on Circlist

 

The breast provides, but the knife protects. It channels a father's natural anger and jealousy [at the son's intimacy with his mother] into one controlled cut. He takes off one small part in order to preserve - and love - the whole.

No father should be denied this experience, even vicariously, of inflicting upon his child a ritualised blow so intense as to make him both shake and recoil, yet so controlled that no damage is done, to signify that this will be the worst the child will ever know from his father's hand.

- Rabbi Joshua J Hammerman in "Good Weekend" May 28, 1994

 

Among those preferring a circumcised penis, the reasons they indicated ... Seems more natural (77%)

- Williamson ML and Williamson PS,
Women's Preferences for Penile Circumcision In Sexual Partners,
Journal of Sex Education and Therapy,
Vol. 14, No. 2 (1988): pp. 8-12

 

He is Dr. Fred Kogen (pictured below), and he is the most popular non-rabbinic mohel (pronounced moyle) in Los Angeles - meaning, for the untutored, that he is an M.D. who performs the bris, the natural circumcision of 8-day-old Jewish boys.

New York Times
12/96

 

Smegma is not a natural body odor.

From: darrint68@aol.com (DarrinT68)
Newsgroups: alt.circumcision
Date: 31 Mar 2003 19:38:43 GMT

 

circumcision does not reduce the size of a fully erect penis.

- bob <bobbob@ix.netcom.com>

 

There's really no way a circ can affect penis size (outside of rare instances of clear medical malpractice).

- Paul Hagen <prhagen@bitstream.net>

 

...the foreskin is the remnant of a sheath from when we were primates.

- the "From Sex to Superconsciousness" List

 

Anyone who is against circumcision is obviously anti-God and anti-religion.

- "Dr" Laura, Jan 19, 2000

 

'Women who have sex with circumcised men enjoy better health in general.'

- unattributed

 

I have polled many women on their thoughts on circumcision, and their responses were all the same. . . :"eeewww! that's just nasty, [an intact penis] looks like a friggin mutation!"

Clay C Winslager
June 22, 2000

 

Clamps are used during circumcision to protect the penis...

Reuters Health
August 29, 2000

 

Circumcision is trivial: Circumcision is vitally important:

What is it about the snippage of these few crepey millimetres of skin that makes circumcision the magnet for such a shower of ideological filings?

There's the thought that if we stopped doing it, it would be the end to the Jews.

Barbara Kay
"So this is what passes for 'abuse'?"
National Post (Toronto)
Feb 13 2001

Anita Diamant
''The New Jewish Baby Book.''

But the Canadian Jewish Congress says the Association of Genital Integrity's case is frivolous

and dangerous.

Montreal Gazette
March 28, 2001

 

After the ceremony, this is what I felt -- cutting my sons’ foreskins had made me more of a man than losing my virginity, getting my driver’s license, getting hitched, or even becoming a parent. Any fool can become a parent. My actions were a public declaration that I am responsible for my sons’ lives, and that I will protect their lives by any means necessary.

 

The Day I Cut Off My Sons' Foreskins
by Daniel Silberman Brenner
on CLAL on Culture

 

From the autopsy of Charles J. Guiteau, the assassin of Presedent Garfield, after his execution:

"The sexual organs were well developed; the mouth of the urethra was moist. (During the suspension of the body, erection of the penis took place, and the clothing was afterwards found to be moist.) There was also phimosis, on reducing which, a considerable accumulation of smegma was observed." The rest of Guiteau's body was found to be perfectly normal. Many American physicians readily accepted the conclusion that President Garfield had been assassinated as the result of phimosis-induced insanity.

- from The History of Phimosis
from Antiquity to the Present
by F.M. Hodges

 

A little pain never hurt anyone!

- "Intoxicatingmoon" on alt.circumcision, September 9, 2002

 

Also as American farmers needed sons to take care of them when they could not farm. Circumcision was used as a last attempt to have male offsprings!!!!!!

- "Pegasus 1959" on alt.circumcision on May 30, 2003

 

Lon Vaughn and his wife, Jennifer, were divided. She was of the "if it's natural, leave it alone" view, he said. But Lon prevailed, he said, because he'd once been a boy in gym class and knew how important it was to be "normal."

"It's hard enough for a kid to grow up," says Vaughn, a small-business owner who lives in Ballard. The last thing you want, he says, is to "draw attention to your genitalia." Being laughed at, he thinks, could scar a boy for life.

"The circumcision decision: Merits of procedure debated"
By Carol M. Ostrom
Seattle Times, July 9, 2003

 

Infant dies after home circumcision

... Detectives found no visible marks on the infant's body....

- Munster Espress Online, August 22, 2003

 

The CA service is remarkably efficient. No patient has had to wait more than two weeks from consultation to operation (compare that with NHS waiting lists!). As a result, more adult men than infants are booking into an Agency clinic for the convenience.

- The Circumcision Agency website

 

"Flatt was not forced to be circumcised, or prohibited from being circumcised. The medical decision was left to him and his parents."
(Flatt was one day old at the time.)

- Douglas Bahr, assistant attorney general
Grand Forks Herald, May 12, 2004

 

"With this clamp, used correctly, there's zero chance of hurting the baby's penis."

- Elizabeth Lister, Ob-Gyn, in Penn & Teller's Bullshˇt!
explaining her "proper circumcision" technique.

 

"That there is necessarily an interference with bodily integrity does not mean that the child's right to bodily integrity is thereby infringed. Parents are only doing to their children what the overwhelming preponderance of them would wish done were they able to express a view. The ritual removal of a child's foreskin enhances that child's bodily integrity."

A child's right to circumcision - M. Freeman

 

I don't think that circumcision is necessarily body modification.

- Benami {/wiki/User:Benami} on Wikipedia Talk: Circumcision, 23 January, 2006

 

And it’s not cutting your penis it’s just cutting the excess foreskin.

Bloghead commenting on Andrew Tavani's "To chop or not to chop", February 25, 2006

 

"You cannot compare a male and female circumcision! Male is done for medical and other reason and keeps the penis intact and fully functional."

"IsThereAnyName" writing at MSN, March 7, 2007

 

"my son's genitals were NOT CUT ... he had some excess skin removed and his penis was left hole and healthy and functioning.."

"danger within" writing at MSN, March 11, 2007

fintax wrote:
You thought comparing a part of the penis to warts was brilliant?

No, I was comparing the foreskin to warts. That, sir or madam, was brilliant.

Barrow19, implying the foreskin is not part of the penis, at MSN , April 7, 2007

 

I don’t know if they are “intact” whatever that means. I am intact and circumcised.

This is not a “human rights” issue nor an “ethical” issue.

- "Shriber" in the Jewish Daily Forward, July 22, 2007.

 

There´s no "less penis" after circumcision - just a more favourable ratio of penis to skin - where on earth did you get the ridiculous idea that circumcision makes for "less cock"?

Richard Yorkshire writing on Fathermag.com, 2007-10-18 02:26

 

A top Israeli rabbi was injured in a circumcision accident.

Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv, leader of the powerful Lithuanian religious movement, served as godfather at a Jerusalem brit Wednesday but suffered a deep cut to his hand, apparently when the mohel slipped.

The 97-year-old sage received stitches and was declared well. The baby was unharmed. ...

"Sage hurt in brit mishap" JTA, November 15, 2007

Ive circumsized my boys but to each his own!

Bossy304 writing to BET.com</P>

The bell fell off and there was no bleeding, no infection, no scarring, no destruction to the penis or organ at all.

Kimanika writing to Birthtalks ®</P>

...there is no invasive procedure done...

Mark T. writing to the New York Times, December 3, 2007

Those opposed to circumcision say you need to foreskin [sic] for sex, but this doesn’t make sense. Sex is very complex -- it starts with hormones in the brain, and it just wouldn’t make sense if the foreskin had anything to do with it. [Try that with "penis" instead of "foreskin"...]

Dr Edgar Schoen, writing in The Nest Baby

 

Complications of circumcision

Happily, complications of circumcision are relatively rare, although they may be under-reported following religious or cultural circumcision. For this reason, figures on the rate of complications may not be reliable. Complications include:

  • reduction in penile sensation (an almost universal experience) ...

NHS Borders homepage
(National Health Service to the region
north of the English-Scottish border)

 

Attributed Contributions are welcome.

Back to the Intactivism index page.

 

 

"wadi" <wadi@bigfoot.com> is a pro-circumcisionist living in Durban, South Africa. His contributions to alt.circumcision are long on sneers, short on content.

Circlist is a circumfetishist website.