The Tip of the Iceberg

• Ben Affleck
• W.H.Auden
• James K. Baxter
• Frank Capra
• Marc Christian
• Chuck Edwards
• Dick Gregory
• Christopher Hitchens
• A. E. Housman
• Rock Hudson
• John F. Kennedy
• Joseph Kallinger
• Lincoln Kirsstein
• Sir Geoffrey Langdon Keynes
• Tom Leykis
• Wink Musselman
• Jason Paige
• Erik Rhodes
• Brad Roberts
• Andrew Sullivan
• Howard Stern
• Andrew Tavani
• Alan Turing
• Auberon Waugh

• A poll at Burning Man 2011
• Not forced, so no resentment, but regrets

Housman and his brothers were circumcised in 1873, when Alfred was 14, at the command of his father, who had recently remarried. His brothers "made open complaint...of the ill-treatment which had befallen them" according to his sister. Housman's own reaction is not recorded, but several facts are suggestive. His poetry is preoccupied with "lads" (who would virtually all have been intact) and their death by violence, he was fascinated by Greek and Roman antiquities, especially nude male statues, his work was the restoration of incomplete and mutilated texts, and he told an enquirer his poetry was the result of a physical condition.

Graves, Richard, "A. E. Housman: The scholar poet" 1979, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul (pp 21, 253)

John Maynard Keynes
Economist

Sir Geoffrey Langdon Keynes
Surgeon, scholar, bibliophile

Both were circumcised in childhood (Geoffrey at three; if at
the same time, Maynard was seven) to stop them from masturbating.
Geoffrey never forgave their parents.

- R. Darby, A Surgical Temptation, p 298

Alan told his friend [Fred Clayton] how much he resented having being circumcised, and also of his earliest memories of playing with the gardener's boy..., which he thought had perhaps decided his sexual pattern.

Source: Alan Turing: the Enigma of Intelligence
by Andrew Hodges, p. 77
Hodges maintains an extensive Turing homepage

At the age of seven, in 1914, about the time that he went to boarding school and his father went away to war, he was circumcised. ... Auden's operation remained an unpleasant memory.

Auden by R. Davenport-Hines, p31

Rock Hudson, actor
Pillow Talk
Magnificent Obsession

Not too far from the Leith water
My mother saw the mandrake grow
And pulled it. A professor's daughter,
She told me some time after how
She had been frightened by a cow
So that the birth-sac broke too soon
And on the twenty-ninth of June
Prematurely I looked at the walls
And yelled. The Plunket nurse ran in
To scissor off my valued foreskin,
But one thing staggered that grimalkin:
Poets are born with three balls.

Letter to Robert Burns (1963)

At the age of six, Joseph Kallinger, an abandoned orphan later taken in by a Catholic couple in Philadelphia, had to go into hospital for a hernia operation. When he came home his father Stephen, a poor German immigrant working as a shoemaker, explained what the doctor had done.

For the rest of his life Joseph Kallinger ... was to suffer ... violent, overwhelming anxieties about the size and performance of his penis, with recurring episodes of impotence. ... the terror, and the rage against the terror, of being a 'No-Dick' set Kallinger's feet on the trail of the series of hideous sexual murders with which 'The Shoemaker' terrorised a 1960s America drunk on dreams of peace and love.

- Rosiland Miles, The Rites of Man p 42

My first memory? A first memory of violence, being circumcised at the age of three. There were good medical reasons for it, of course. [Perhaps.] Nevertheless, I remember it vividly - it was very unpleasant!

- quoted in Rosiland Miles, The Rites of Man p 37

"... I am circumcised, and I tell you something, I despise it. I despise it. I despise it."

A listener called in and said he had had genital crabs at one time and they were embedded in his foreskin. He claimed that he had to be circumcised because of it. [Isn't he lucky the crabs weren't embedded in his scrotum! Crabs (pubic lice, P[h]thirus pubis) infest only hairy parts of the body, not the foreskin: the call may have been a hoax.] He was only 19 years old at the time. Since he had had sex both before and after his circumcision, Howard asked him which was better. The man told Howard that sex was better after being circumcised. Howard was surprised to hear that, because he thought it would be better with the extra skin [not actually extra - standard equipment]. Howard bailed out on that call and said he didn't want to hear any more about that stuff. He took a break shortly after that.

"I may have foreskin-reattachment surgery.
I’ll either come back as a woman
or with my foreskin reattached."

Interview in OCWeekly

I lament the circumcision of my foreskin. A circumcision removes about 70 percent of genital nerve endings. That sounds like a party in my pants. There is no telling what lingering psychological effects I’ve suffered as a result of the pain experienced during my neonatal circumcision.

It’s vexing that the medical community allows the removal of a body part we could actually find useful. Why not circumcise my appendix at birth instead of my foreskin? My appendix could potentially kill me one day if it bursts and I don’t receive medical attention swiftly.

My foreskin posed no such diabolical threat. ... I say, save the foreskins.

Boston Metro March 1, 2006 or Alternavision, Feb 22, 2006

Ben Affleck was reportedly circumcised after suffering an injury. Jon Stewart brought it up briefly on the Daily Show of September 19, 2006 (4'45" in), and Affleck said,

I can testify to the truth of the sentiments expressed in this recording, having been circumcised, unnecessarily (if I knew then...) at the age of 16, 26 years ago, following bad advice from an ignorant doctor and surgeon. The sensations possible with a foreskin are widely varying, intensely exciting, deeply satisfying and exquisite, just as nature intended. Without a foreskin? sex is dull, uncompelling, disappointing, and frankly, hardly worth the effort. Circumcision is a damaging mutilation.

- bjpitts on the same Youtube, 2009

Louis Kirstein, deciding his first born son should be circumcised, calls in the family doctor instead of the traditional mohel, to carry out the procedure, but after botching the job, "septicemia set in, and Lincoln nearly dies.["] To save him, the sweat glands in his groin were surgically removed, leaving physical and psychological scars, locker-room concealments, and castration nightmares that would haunt Lincoln into adolescence.

- Gay City News, 17 May, 2007

Caller: Ok, so, I'm calling because I have a newborn ... what is your opinion on circumcision?

Tom: My opinion is ... I think that people should get to decide that stuff for themselves.

Caller: That's what I said.

Tom: It shouldn't be decided by rabbis, or the family, or anybody else... I think it's barbaric.

...

Tom: Isn't there something kinky... everybody wants to know about your baby's penis? I mean what is that?

Caller: I don't know, and they're like "Well he can get infections" and all this other stuff, but,

Tom (disdainfully): Oh come on, you can get infections...

Caller: yeah, but I heard that, um, if you get em circumcised it takes off length and like uh, ten percent of the feeling when they get older so, but they're, they're like all,

Tom: I have no idea what I'm missing, I know. I'd rather have found out for myself, you know what?

Caller: Yeah.

Tom: You know what, if I would have had a couple extra infections over the years but it felt better? Would have been worth it.

- the Tom Leykis Show, open phones, March 11, 2005

• I think I could have accepted a deformity that was an accident of nature, but I can’t accept that someone did that to me.
• The fact that other boys were circumcised too never made me feel any better.
• I used to think there were 2 kinds of boys: circumcised boys like me and real boys.
• I was circumcised when I was a year old. I remember my foreskin. I want my foreskin back.
• My feelings about the doctor who circumcised me are too violent to describe.
• What circumcision did to my body is bad enough, but what it did to my mind is worse.
• I was just a baby - I couldn’t stop them.
• [10.] There's a story by Harlan Ellison with a title that exactly conveys my feelings about having been circumcised. It's: ‘I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream’
• I feel like half a man.
• I have revenge fantasies about circumcision.
• I have resented my circumcision ever since I saw my first intact friend when I was 5 or 6.
• It cast a pall over my entire life.
• It's a life sentence at birth.
• I want to kill the doctor who circumcised me.
• I have never been able to accept the fact that someone cut part of my penis off when I was a baby. The sheer monstrousness of it haunts every waking moment of my life. Sometimes I think I'm beginning to make some sort of adjustment to it, but then I see an unmutilated man in a magazine or shower and I become overwhelmed by uncontrollable feelings of outrage and disbelief that I was made the victim for life of something so sick. Sometimes I feel I'm at the edge of madness and just can't handle it.
• I think of myself and other circumcised men as amputees.
• I feel as if part of me had been murdered.
• [#20.] Fear, pain, crippling, disfigurement and humiliation are the classic ways to break the human spirit. Circumcision includes them all.

- from Circumcision, what it does by Billy Ray Boyd

-

To: circumcision_pro_or_con@yahoogroups.com
From: "philip"
Date sent: Tue, 28 Oct 2003 16:22:24 -0000
Subject: [circumcision_pro_or_con] ruined
Send reply to: circumcision_pro_or_con@yahoogroups.com

i was cut right after my 13th birthday before then i was proud of my uncut dic but was told by my Mom and Doctor how much better it would be to be cutwhat a LIE!  Now it is so ugly that i am ashamed to let anyone see it and there is almost not feelings in it anymore most times i cant even jack off for the skin is so tight and doesnt move at all and i go soft from the lack of feelings.  And the pain i suffered while it heal was almost embarable for weeks it hurt the head was so tender and hurt for so long from rubbing my briefs then the head peeled so bad as it dried out that it left sores it was horrible i hate my Doctor and Mom and always will for ever for what they did to me!

US News
December 19, 2007

Circumcision

Posted by Benjamin in Addiction

I am against circumcision because I was not circumcised until I was 45. They said I needed it for medical reasons. If I had it to do over I’d tell them to go to hell. I lost so much sensitivity it’s almost unbelievable. No one should do this to anyone unless there is no other way to fix the problem. An if there is no problem it should never be done. To me it is child abuse to circumcise a child for no real reason.

breastimus onYoutube, May 24, 2009

100% DONT CUT IT! I am polish/European and was born uncut. I moved to USA when I was 2 and felt different from other boys. I didn't like having foreskin so when I was 18 I got cut because I couldn't [bear] the insecurity. I'm no[w] 26 and TOTALLY regret doing it. I lost SOO much sensitivity. There is NO need to cut your foreskin. It's not JUST a piece of skin. It PROTECTS the penis. My girl and I are NOW expecting a baby boy and we are DEFINITELY NOT CIRCUMCISING!

Posted by gunner777 on Dallas Morning Views blog @ 8:56 PM Tue, Aug 18, 2009

At the age of 21 I allowed the US military to talk me into getting circumcised. It would prevent disease, they said, and I would be cleaner, which the girls would enjoy (not much clearer than that) and such.

What they didn't tell me was that intercourse would never be quite as enjoyable, that the reduction in sensation while excited would make the area feel almost numb compared to before, and that the increase in sensation when flaccid would lead to make the rest of life uncomfortable.

I still wish I had my foreskin back.

cirecire90 Wrote 6 months ago [February 2009]

i m jealous...i m cut n really m mad at my parents 4 having me circumsized...

My penis was butchered at birth and I resent it. Wait until men are 18 and let them make their own decision. Otherwise this constitutes forced genital mutilation. How did this barbaric religious practice spread to the general population?

These gay men ...

queerty "If circumcision halves the risk..."

No. 17 · Jesse
... I myself was originally not circumcised but when I was 12 I slowly began experiencing Phimosis, the closing of the foreskin, my parents ignored it even though I kept telling them I wanted to see a doctor about ti and it wasn't until I was 14 when it began to become difficult to urinate that I finally got to see a urologist, who told me before even looking at the problem that the ONLY way to fix it was circumcision, so I got circumcised and it was a terrible experience, especially since I was going through puberty, imagine having to avoid getting an erection because it would cause the stitches to dig into your penis, AND YOU'RE 14! The age when anything will cause an erection.

It was only after I finally recovered that I learned there actually WERE other ways to stop Phimosis and that my urologist had LIED to me! In order to push a surgery I didn't need.

And being one of the few people that can remember having foreskin and now doesn't have it, I REALLY miss my foreskin, it is terrible not having it, I lost 2 inches!

Posted: Aug 24, 2009 at 2:57 pm

No. 29 · unimac
I wish my parents never had me circumcised. I didn't care about it until a few years after I started becoming sexually active, and then it hit me like a brick wall…the fact that I had something removed from me, surgically, and that it has happened to millions of other men without their consent. I thought about it a lot and became upset about it. It is a serious problem and indicative, i think, of an obscene medical system.

Posted: Aug 24, 2009 at 4:10 pm

No. 49 · Jeff K.

I can't. At least not during normal sex. Only while masturbating. I was hoping to leave that detail out, but oh well. :/

Posted: Aug 24, 2009 at 6:32 pm

[#30.] No. 51 · Nobody
F*** no. It's my body and I'm still annoyed that my parents had the audacity to cut off part of my dick.

Posted: Aug 24, 2009 at 6:47 pm

No. 52 · Shawn
@Nobody: I agree, but I more mad at the doctor than my parents

Posted: Aug 24, 2009 at 6:58 pm

No. 66 · Mark
My boyfriend is cut. No, he (unlike the other, uncut ones) cannot come unless with his own deathgrip, and yes, it was a very traumatic procedure for him.

Nobody in their right mind should be advocating circumcision especially in the industrialised world.

Posted: Aug 25, 2009 at 1:40 am

queerty "Even if circumcision helps..."

No. 23 · David

Circumcision whether male or female is a fucking disgrace..
The fact this bronze age bullshit still occurs is utterly disgusting..
I'm furious with my parents for doing it to me as a child..

Posted: Jul 28, 2010 at 1:56 pm

No. 24 · Whoddafunk?

I agree with you David, circumcision is genital mutilation and I wish more people would talk openly about this. When I asked my parents why they circumcised me they didn't want to talk about it and they said it was just what is done. I couldn't believe they would just do something for that reason without thinking about it more deeply, and I couldn't believe how nervous they got when it was brought up. That they would do something to their child that they can't even talk about or justify without getting really nervous is crazy....

Posted: Jul 28, 2010 at 2:10 pm

I certainly have enjoyed my share of foreskins, don't like the look of scars on cocks and regret the fact that I have to wrap the head of my un[?]cut penis in silk or some other supersoft material to protect it during sweaty physical activity. Despite the callouses developed on the glans of an uncut [sic a cut?] penis, my head gets irritated very easily, on into pain, making it difficult to ride a bike or run. So yeah, I have been a bit annoyed at my parents.

- ps on homosuperior’s posterous August 29, 2009

If I’m going to bare any scarred or partially-amputated body part in the gym shower, it should be because it had to be done for medical reasons or because it was my choice. My penis is no different in this regard. I don’t want my cockhead permanently exposed to strangers because some religion told my parents how much of my penis I could keep or because I was unlucky enough to be born in some country where boys go through surgery to lose half their penis skin “to fit in”. That’s beyond crazy. Males who get penis plastic surgery at birth will never know what it’s like to be a whole man in control of his own body. For me, that control was ceded by proxy during my first week of life. From then on, I’m just a slave; I’m living someone else’s idea of how I should explore my body, develop and enjoy sex.

Worse than that, it’s taboo to complain that my (unnecessary) penis scar is crooked, or that I lost so much skin that my erections hurt, or that my penis bends because my circumcision is lopsided. Skin bridges? "Live with it." Hardened lymph fluid, fistula, cold glans? "Live with it." Meatal stenosis? "Everyone’s got it, it’s normal. Shut up."

Listen up: It’s my penis and I’ll decide how much of it I’ll keep. I’ll decide what’s “beautiful”. I’ll decide what’s clean. I’ll decide how safe to keep it from disease and especially from anyone’s scalpel. Yeah, I’m angry that doctors and my parents are too brainwashed to understand all this, but I’m really pissed off that the law doesn’t spare them from having an ethical dilemma. It sure stopped anyone from even wondering whether to cut my sister.

...I don’t feel I’m cleaner, or more attractive, or more normal for having been put through this surgery. All I really feel is that I’m permanently branded, like a steer.

- John, from Washington, DC

I was circumcised as an infant, and as an adult I feel both violated and mutilated. Not a day passes in which I fail to contemplate the fact that my genitals were modified in a way that I did not consent to nor could control - when I did not suffer from any medical issues whatsoever.

Neil Dustan, Canada on the Petition to the CDC, November 22, 2009

My penis was mutilated without my consent when I was a baby. Like many thoushands of men, I suffer pain as an adult from this horrific act...

Trevor on Student Life (Washington University), December 2, 2009

I have had nothing but grief from being circumcised at 14 days of age for no medical issue whatsoever. ... Due to the constant discomfort and irritation of having an exposed glans I am forced to pull the shaft skin forward over the glans and taping up with medical tape every day just to get relief and feel normal. ... To this day I find it difficult not to boil over with anger over the injustice of this inhumane, cruel and barbaric procedure.

Jack Mister on GlobalPost, December 2, 2009

Having been so tortured in 1950, I am only lately coming to grips with the induced PTSD. My sexual feeling has so blunted that sex is a chore now rather than a joy.

Michael Laakso, Washington on petition to the AAP (#914) December 6, 2009

I was not given a choice. Nobody asked if it was alright to disfigure me.

Joseph Rissetto, California on petition to the AAP (# 2,158) December 21, 2009

I had phimosis, and was circumcised at the age of 11. ... I never got a choice as far as how I wanted it to look. Years later, when I read about the condition online, and realized that removal of the entire foreskin was not necessary… well… needless to say, I got very bitter.

- Al on Butt magazine January 6, 2010

I really don't understand how doctors can do this and sleep at night. First do no harm! Then again the ... doctor that amputated my glands did not even apologize. He also did not have parental consent. He was sent here in the early 60's to civilize the Hillbillys by Uncle Sam. I am sure he is in Hell now. Being that he died before I reached 18 and brought suit against the bastard.

coalbear_1 on MSNBC Newsvine, January 16, 2010

No evidence of psychological trauma?? That is only because they weren't looking.

If they knew the rage that I have for my mutilator runs so deep that I would willingly "return the favor to him" in the way he did me they might change their mind.

lochinvar00465 on YouTube September 2010

I had a medical circumcision when I was 18, and I can report that there IS a difference. Afterwards I was really pissed off because at the time they offered me a new procedure where they just make a cut in the skin rather than hacking it all off.? Being totally ignorant I turned it down thinking it would be good to have shot of it. If I'd known that I'd be left with scar tissue and the end of my knob less sensitive, I would have taken it. But they never told me anything about that.

Dangerman5 on YouTube February 1, 2010

My mother was advised to circumcise. The procedure was botched according to a distressed nurse in attendance. I am over 60 and have virtually no sensation in my penis. I have no sensation during masturbation and sexual penetration and have never ejaculated while conscious. I still have occasional wet dreams. I am married to an understanding wife, we find other ways for affection.

Would some circumcision advocates please reply and explain why my circumcision was the right thing to do.

Bill on Marketing by Permission blog, February 6, 2010

I do have a circumcision. I hate whoever did this to me. It's spilled milk, though, I realize. You say that I'll never know unless I have a circumcision. Well because I do, I can attest to bleeding and complete destruction of sensitive nerve endings in the glans. Yes, even a chunk of my glans was taken along with the foreskin. I can't feel nearly as much as my husband. What else am I missing? I can only imagine.

Just so you know... I was circumcised and then abandoned to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. How is that for child abuse? How is that for "cut and run", huh?

What do you say for people like me? What sort of rationalization do you have for children who had body parts sacrificed to god or the gods of the medical establishment?

Where was my consent form? Where are my rights for bodily integrity? I will say this again:

At birth in the United States, I had less rights than dogs in Switzerland. At birth in the United States, I had less rights than dead bodies here. At birth in the United States, I had less rights than girls at birth.

The allowance of circumcision in the United States for parents' whim is sexist, ageist and places the rights of dead bodies higher than my rights at birth. Where is the outrage? My body, my rights!

nhguy78 of Hudson, NH, on Rant/Rave February 21, 2010

to be honest the whole circumcision thing has gotten me paranoid and scared, I would never put my childern through something like that. my parents were very nieve for having me circumcised because they thought it was better for me but in the long run it left me with a skinbridge and im still goin through hell because of it!

jjtiojohn12 on YouTube, March 2010

Okay, circumcision is bad i was circumcised at birth and after reading this article and many others i feel like a lost arm at birth. i have never felt the foreskin i am starting the restoration process but you lose so many advantages being circumcised. I now hate my parents for removing part of my body a very important part may i say. When i have kids if the woman wants to circumcise the kids i will say fuck her and ask for a divorce.

in teenage years (hitting puberty) i felt lots of discomfort in becoming erect and i ask some of my friends if they had the same problem i found out that only the ones with a circumcised penis had them and they reported occasional bleeding as well.

and so i think F@#$ MY PARENTS FOR CIRCUMCISING ME!!!!!

joe on Mark's Daily Apple March 31, 2010

i am extremely pissed off that my mom forced me to get a circumcision. ignoring the obvious pain that i had to endure as a goddamn infant (seriously. i dare you to watch a video of a circumcision all the way through), and all the sexual pleasure i'm going to miss out on, i can't believe she'd put me through a barbaric ritual that is purely religious.

- poptart2nd on HealthKicker, April 13, 2010

Since my brainwashed parents were obedient, and my jackass doctor didn't start the cut where he ended it, I have a weird "red storm of jupiter" where he tried to change course on my penis. Thank you doc. I will never know what it's like to have the normal, natural penis I was born with. Idiots.

hotblack on Scientific American, April 24, 2010

After I received this torture, I apparently rejected my mother and my parents had a difficult time finding a replacement for her milk. Then I was so stressed out that it took extra years before I stopped bed-wetting. The result was to make me a more inward-looking, less emotional kind of person than I would have liked to be.

I am sure that I would have been a different person if I had not been circumsized.

Trowbridge H. Ford on The Local (Sweden), April 29, 2010

I am a circumcised male and I have suffered for years as a result of a decision my parents made.

This video is very significant and deserves more publicity.

lilwing89 on YouTube, April 2010

Be allowed? - no
If I had a son... no!!
I've done enough reading that this whole thing with circumcision is barbaric. I am jealous of guys that are still fully intact.

jayessence on Vorpal's Live Journal May 4, 2010

I don’t buy that line that male circumcision is harmless, because my Bris resulted in some pretty severe damage. I have a large irregular band of scar tissue, and when I was a teenager erections were painful and sometimes resulted in ripped, bleeding, skin, making the scars even worse. Ever since I was a little boy I knew something was wrong. I was told that circumcision was a good thing, without even knowing what it was – as it turns out, amputation of about half the skin of my penis. I did not ask for part of my penis to be destroyed, and I’m furious when I read clueless articles like this one that dismiss the harm with clueless chuckling. ...

Circumcised Jew on the Big Think May 8, 2010

I’m a man who had his foreskin removed without his consent. If this was done to me as an adult, how much money would I be entitled to and how much prison time would the perpetrator receive?

I didn’t want to be mutilated. Fuck you if you have come to terms with it and want to tell me to get over it. Fuck you. Really. That’s about all I have to say about that. Comment #145: on 05/10 at 09:30 AM

3letterjon on Pandragon May 10, 2010

I was born a muslim and was circumsised. I feel that I had something taken away from me, which is not natural. Nobody had the right to take something away from me.

Why don't we force kids with big noses to have plastic surgery? Humans deserve the right to choose what happens to their bodies once they are adults.

Johnny on Dutch News May 30, 2010

I was mutilated at birth and i deeply resent this terrible decision. Most people don’t know or even care to look but 4 out of the 5 most sensitive parts of the penis are amputated by “circumcision”, and if that wasn’t terrible enough the last remaining sensitive part “the glans” becomes “keritanized” which means that due to abrasion a substance called keratin, the same substance that forms your nails, builds up in the glans to help protect itself, further reducing pleasure. it is a crime beyond comprehension to mutilate children male or female. Lets stop this wave of mutilation. NO EXCEPTIONS.

Equa on Jersey City Independent June 11, 2010

By MeBrandonB on 06/16/2010 at 12:59pm

As a male-bodied individual, I am really upset that my parents made the decision to have me snipped when I was fresh out of the oven without me even having a say in the matter. I am against controlling other peoples bodies in any way. If the statistics on the health benefits of being circumcised were accurate, which I deeply doubt they are, it should still be a decision left for an adult-male to make about his own body when he is of age to safely undergo the procedure of his own free will.

mebrandonb on New York Magazine June 16, 2010

Its just my luck that i was born into a jewish family. i cant even prove to them that circumcision is bad because their so brainwashed! I hate them for it. If they come out with a way to genetically regenera[t]e foreskins so its like you never even lost it ill be first in line

theb3rn7 on Medical Magazine - (Foreskin Restoration) July 12, 2010

fuck my parents. they said they did it to me to fit in. fuck that, likes its such a big deal to be a tiny bit different. yea i agree it might be a little more attractive to females but that is by far not a good enough reason to go through with it. not only that but as a baby it is out of your control weather it happens to you or not. thats the fucked up part. is your body and its not even your choice. its honesty fucked and i can not put into words how pissed i am

tylenator552 on Medical Magazine - (Foreskin Restoration) July 12, 2010

Just turned 70 – had a badly botched infant circ excessive skin removed with significant scarring and irreperable nerve damage – result left me unable to enjoy any kind of mutual sex activity – not only is it non-productive, but it is just plain painful. There has been considerable emotional damage over the years as well, plus eventually the complete estrangement from my entire family – I feel mutilated and raped – at this point, I hope I will live long enough to see the end of this monstrous practice, and the best would be to see it made totally illegal as FGM is now -

Jon on About.com - Sexuality August 25, 2010

I was cut as a baby and have suffered because of it…. and I’m very angry with my parents because of that decision. Sure there’s a lot of risk in life. But circumcision is NEEDLESS amputation and mutilation of a normal, healthy, functioning body part.

Chad J. Rivera on Naked Nith Socks On, August 30, 2010

Circumcisers are child rapists, most just don’t realize it. My mother’s OB/GYN inflicted circumcision on me, and I’m beyond PISSED about it. How does anyone except ME have the right to cut off important parts of MY penis? If you get the urge to cut up your baby, cut yourself instead.

Integrity on Naked Nith Socks On, August 30, 2010

Another reason why religion should be keep away from EVERYTHING! Any docter who thinks this should be done should have their profession denied by law.

Anyone who performs this should got to jail on MULTIPLE felony charges. The doctor who did this to me…I wan[t] to behead with his own damn scape[l] knife.

lonercs on Medical EMR Software September 10, 2010

Man, I wish I wasn’t circumcised. I was circumcised at birth, so I never had a choice. Now I have all these embarrassing scars. I can’t forgive my parents for doing this to me.

ignatei on Medical EMR Software September 10, 2010

I was circumcised, It has many problems, the most severe being the desensitization on the glans (penis head). Over time, after rubbing on rough fabrics in the underwear, it keratinizes, meaning a thick layer of dead cells form over it, eliminating a lot of sensitivity, and on top of that the millions of nerve endings are damaged or even destroyed.

This makes it take very difficult to do things normal men can do like masturbating and having an orgasm.

Is there any way to get my foreskin back?

CowHoofOnAHotPlate on Medical EMR Software September 10, 2010

I was circumcised at birth and I AM mentally scarred and resent it deeply. You only have to work out how a foreskin acts like lube during masturbation and sex to know us cut guys are missing out on a lot of pleasure for no good reason at all.

Geoff on 7 news September 20, 2010

One of my best friends killed himself because he was so disturbed by being circumcise.

strivealivebrian on Moms Health September 30, 2010

I have got cut when i was 10 years old & i still have sleepless nights. I choose to do it as my dad said everyone has it. But my mom said if i leave pakistan then i don`t have to have it done & people die Also i will miss my dick ( i regret it ) she was right.

na163113 on Moms Health September 30, 2010

My mother was not in the room when I had my bris. I confronted her about it when 27 yrs old, she said she would still have done it to me even if she knew I would kvetch about it to her when I was 27. If I could have been self aware & able, I would have put the moyls head through the wall and used his instruments to cut off his genitals and ram half down his throat and the other half up his tokhus.

lyutsin21 on YouTube, September 2010

It would be a giant leap in the right direction if they ban infant circumcision. I had no choice, my body was cut and altered. That is mutilation by the very definition of the word. Men are getting information on what circumcision really is and more importantly, what it removes. Ill tell you that I deeply resent the fact that forced genital cutting was imposed on me, and millions upon millions of others (most of them infants: unaware of sex, diseases, pain).... And if you argue about hygiene issues, take a walk to your local pharmacy and look at all the products to help maintain and aid in female hygiene, try to find a product that men need other than soap. None, and they cut me so that i would be cleaner? WHAT THE F...!!! All I can say is i hope future generations will be spared from this genital cutting so they can enjoy the pleasures of an intact body.

Equal on Eco Child's Play October 2, 2010

"My grandfather was circumcised with a reed, and my father and I were circumcised by a Gillette blade. I still remember it. When the man came to circumcise the boys they were taken to a separate place and kept behind a kind of screen. I was five years old and very curious to see what was happening. I went to see, and they saw me and grabbed me too. I am still angry about that."

A Ugandan businessman quoted in "The Masque of Africa" by V. S. Naipaul, October 2010

80jasey on YouTube 25 October, 2010

I am a victim of infant circumcision. The "ancient" Greek and Roman civilizations did not practice circumcision, so I am uncertain why we did so in the twentieth century, when modern sanitation and medicine precluded the need for this unnecessary and barbaric practice. I cannot forgive my parents for subjecting me to Judaic religious practices when we are not Jews. STOP INFANT CIRCUMCISION NOW! The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child bans it in most developed countries. [It doesn't explicitly, but that's a logical interpretation of it.] Why not the USA?

NYCAustinNYC
@80jasey

I am also "a victim of infant circumcision". My nominally Christian mother had it done because she was told the lie by her doctor that doing so would eliminate the chances of me giving my future sexual partners vaginal cancer. :-(

jimmymastiff (26 October 2010)

circumcision is disgusting....let the child choose if he wants his own penis mutilated when he grows up...I HATE that I am....it really is barbaric and unnecessary....

I wish I were no circumcised. I feel cheated out of that extra sensitivity it gives a man down there... the glans were meant to be covered up and protected... it's false to say that the extra skin will spread disease. If a Father did his job right and TAUGHT his son how to clean himself properly there would be no argument or discussion about that. ....

Richard McCormick on Care2 Nov 13, 2010

Circumcision infringes on the rights of the powerless. I had NO say in the mutilation that was performed on my body. Is that right?

marco01 on the Huffington Post November 13, 2010

I don't forgive my parents, and I was 2 days old. the reason most boys don't get mad at their parents? because they don't UNDERSTAND what happened to them.

...trust me, if I could have I would have killed the people who did it to me...

Derium on CNNNovember 20, 2010

I am SO GLAD someone is doing this [the San Francisco ballot]. I strongly resent having been cut. Circumcision is medically unjustifiable genital mutilation of uninformed, non-consenting minors.

Religious reasons for doing it are not acceptable, for you can create a religion to sanctify anything (e.g. Mormons with polygamy, Rastafarians with marijuana). Mutilating babies' genitals is nothing short of barbaric.

Chris on Paging Dr Gupta November 20, 2010

"If you don't want to have it done to your kids then fine"

I didn't want to have it done to ME.

Charlie on Mother Jones November 17, 2010

I am very dissatisfied with the results of my unauthorized genital alteration - what would you say to me? What you say to many men who are offended by our culture's lack of respect for bodily integrity?

GregH on Mother Jones November 18, 2010

I wish my parents and the doctors hadn’t shoved THEIR beliefs down MY throat when I was helpless to speak up about it. They cut away more than my flesh, they took away my freedom of choice over MY OWN body. I agree, NO ONE has the right to force their beliefs on anyone else. That includes my parents. My body, MY choice.

Garrett Wolfe on Peachy Keen's blog, November 22, 2010

I was circumcised as a baby, and no I am not happy about it. Did it prevent me from getting HIV? NO! I know a many who are HIV+, all but 2, my boyfriend and one other guy I know are circumcised. If the study were performed among gay men in the US most likely the majority of men infected with HIV would be circumcised, simply because this barbaric practice still rules in the US not because there are really any meaningful differences among the risk of infection between circumcised and those left intact.

Circumcision is a barbaric practice whether preformed on males or females, and male circumcision has been used as a means to prevent or cure every malady imaginable, now HIV. It is simply ridiculous to treat a natural part of the male body as a defect and a cause of disease.

To prevent HIV nothing beats a latex condom!

Mike Arnold on Change.org Jun 4, 2009

I was circumcised at birth.  Now, as an educated, sexually active, 27-year-old adult, I wish it had not happened.  I won't say anything about the pain and suffering of the physical event, because it's true that I don't remember it (though anyone who has witnessed one can tell you the baby is in horrific pain throughout the process).  What I am going to talk about is how I feel now.  I feel a sense of loss for the fact that a physical part of me is permanently missing without my ever having known it.  More painful than that is a sense of violation.  Something was unnecessarily done to me as a baby that I would not have chosen to have had done if I had been given the choice as an informed, consenting adult.  (And yes, I do know it to have been unnecessary because I have been able to discuss the issue with my father.  He confirms that he and my mother were undecided about it and asked the doctor for advice.  The doctor said that everything appeared healthy, but that he recommended it anyway for the cosmetic and societal reasons.  It was this preferential, non-medical recommendation that led to my mutilation at birth, and many other baby boys in the 1980's and other decades.)

The only thing I can do about it is to undergo foreskin restoration, either a surgical or mechanical process.  I am choosing to do that, but I also know from my research on the subject that it is not a reversal of my circumcision, but only a physical simulation which may or may not be successful in fully amending the altered appearance and function of my penis.

I have heard it said that many women prefer circumcised men.  I have been with many women and found through my own sexual experience that I prefer women with natural pubic hairstyles and small nipples on medium-large breasts of a certain shape.  I have respect for my sexual partners and feel that I can either accept a woman's body or find someone else who better fits my preferences.  I would never ask a woman to change the way she grooms her pubic hair or expect her to surgically amend her breast shape or nipple-to-breast ratio.  And I hope a woman would have more respect for herself than to change her body to please a man who felt his preferences outweighed her body's natural form.  I was appalled to see a woman's contribution on Circlist where she proudly recounted consistently nagging her boyfriend to be circumcised, and his subsequent compliance despite initial strong refusal to do so.  I wish I had been his friend so I could influence him to see that he deserved better than a woman who would criticize his body, and I wonder whether she would have been willing to change herself if he had imposed a preference on her that didn't match who she was physically.  So I don't think the old "women prefer circumcised men" argument holds up.  Every individual in the world is different and has different preferences about the appearance of sexual partners.  Imagine how we would look if, when we were infants, our parents had surgically altered everything about us that they suspected our future sexual partners might not "prefer."

Another concern I've heard is that circumcised fathers want their sons to look like them.  My father is uncircumcised, and when I occasionally saw him undressed as a child, I didn't think anything of the fact that his penis looked different from mine.  And I imagine that if I had thought anything of it, the presence of a foreskin wouldn't have even made the Top 10 list of differences between a 34-year-old's penis and a pre-schooler's.  Now that we are both fully-grown men, we have not seen much, if any, of one another's penises in many, many years.  As someone whose penis did not (and still probably doesn't) look much like his dad's, I have the experience to say with full knowledge and authority that that particular question is a complete non-issue.

Then there's the hygiene argument.  I just ran my theory by my uncircumcised roommate, and he confirmed that an uncircumcised penis does not develop odors, accumlated smegma, or an inability to be retracted healthily if its owner invests a few seconds a day in quickly cleaning it in the shower.  Unless I'm the only circumcised guy in the world who washes his penis in the shower, that doesn't sound like an added burden in any way.

This is the perspective of one circumcised man who wishes he were not.  I know that a lot of guys who have been circumcised don't mind that they are (some report a sense that they "got it over with" without having to remember it, but of course circumcision isn't an inevitable event that you must submit to sooner or later, so I don't know where that frame of mind comes from).  Anyway, I'm glad that many them don't mind, because I know from my own experience that it's a very painful thing if you do mind.  I'm glad they don't have to face those feelings.  But the fact that many men are fortunate in that respect doesn't mean that it should continue - what if the next baby boy who undergoes routine infant circumcision grows up to feel the way I do instead?  I would rather not take the risk of letting that happen.  If a man reaches adulthood with his foreskin intact and decides he doesn't want it, let him choose to have it removed.  Options are far more limited for men who reach adulthood without it and wish it hadn't been taken away.  (Question:  are there any health insurance plans that treat infant circumcision, or even adult voluntary circumcision, and adult foreskin restoration the same way?)  If I'm fortunate enough to become a father, no son of mine will be circumcised.  That's for him to decide, and I will not rob him forever of the opportunity to make that choice for himself as an informed adult capable of making it.

Kevin, by email on December 19, 2010

I too am a victim of circumcision. My quality of life because of the botched penis "fix" makes me a very depressed person.

FraggedMind on YouTube, December 20, 2010

Every time I look down at my penis, I get angry that I had absolutely no choice in the matter of something that should only involve my say so.

ZombieBite1991 on YouTube, January 18, 2011

I have no problem saying I am mutilated, I don't see why I shouldn't see the truth of what was done to me.

I'm more pissed about this topic than most people. And my parents laugh at me for it. :/ It was my fathers idea, after all. That asshole.

DesmondMcMillian on YouTube, January 18, 2011

I was circumsised as a baby and ended up with a super tight circumcision which has literally scarred me for life and is uncomfortable. I blame my parents for what they did to me and this has affected our relationship no doubt. I cannot understand how any intelligent free-thinking individual can agree to have their son mutilated for no medical reason whatsoever. If it was my choice I would never have done it (and my 1 month old son won't be mutilated either).

Why take the risk?!

fbnaude on Parent24.com on January 26, 2011

I am a 20 something male that deeply wishes his mother hadn't circumcised him. I feel that this North American society seriously ripped me off. This is individual liberty 101 folks. It is my body, it should have been my choice to remove a perfectly healthy body part- not my parents, not anyone, me, the person whose genitals these are.

...

BrandonCheshire in the Chicago Tribune, February 16, 2011

I was circumcised, so I know quite a bit about its damaging effects. Circumcision does cause many men severe psychological problems. It has caused me feelings of being raped, sadness, depression, betrayal, and deprivation. I am constantly reminded and it causes me pain and sadness everyday that i was mutilated and my body was scarred. I first learned of circumcision when i was 12. I feel like i have been stabbed in the heart and am depressed that people would do such an inhumane and asinine thing to children. ...

david on MedCity News, April 1, 2011

I'm 29 years old, and was mutilated-oh sorry, let's use the politically correct phrase-circumcised shortly after birth. It has severely affected both my body and psychological well being. I have no sympathy for my parents who allowed it to be done, the doctor who performed the barbaric act, or my community that did not protect me from this form of physical and sexual abuse. But I do have plenty of anger for them, with enough extra for people like you.

How dare you spread your filthy propaganda trying to persuade people to have HEALTHY, FUNCTIONAL tissue amputated from those who cannot consent. You probably have no idea what the functions-yes plural, there are multiple-of the foreskin are and yet you have the audacity to write that disgusting, baseless pro-circ drivel. People like you are shameful and if you ever have a circumcised son don't be shocked if you find out some day that he resents you for it once he learns all that was lost.

...

The bottom line: It is WRONG to amputate healthy tissue from those who cannot consent. All people should have a right to genital integrity.

Jonathon on MedCity News, April 2, 2011

... I hate being circumcised. It should have been MY choice because it was MY body. ...

Why cant I have my natural foreskin? It was mine, so why isn’t my right? I want MY foreskin back!

Mcorrison on KXLY News April 30, 2011

I am a man that was non-consensually circumcised as a neonate and I really wish I wasn't. I wanted to have the choice to keep my complete genitals and find out for myself if my foreskin was significant.

Dave S. on Parkville Patch, April 23, 2011

My muslim parents had me circumcised as a 3 or 4 year old in a Glasgow hospital by a jewish doctor. I am now 40 and have always resented the procedure done to me without my informed consent. I still cringe at the humiliation and shame.

mwrkhan on the Independent, May 8, 2011

I was circumcised after birth and wish I'd been left intact. My body healed poorly from the procedure and I was left with a skin bridge that made me very self conscious after puberty. Many years later I had surgical correction but I have vowed that I would never put my son through the same ordeal

David on Queerty, May 18, 2011

I'm for it [the San Francisco ban]. There's not a good enough reason for it [circumcision]. Mine was botched. I still resent my parents for doing it based merely on aesthetics and tenuous claims of hygiene.

Atagahi on CNN.com, May 20, 2011

Although I'm not Jewish, I was circumcised at 5 months of age, and now I'm older I am really suffering the consequences. A numb penis is no pleasure, intercourse is unproductive, even masturbation is often a failure.

Keith Rutter on Shea's Blog, 23 May, 2011

I’ve endured a lifetime of discomfort, pain (physical and emotional), recurrent infections requiring massive and lengthy doses of antibiotics to cure, which have now caused life-long digestion issues ALL because of a (botched) "perfectly routine circumcision." Do NOT try to tell me it’s not a big deal. My penis should have been left alone so that *I* could decide what to do with it, not some quack doctor looking to pocket an extra fee at my expense.

-eJohn on The Edge, 31 May, 2011

... I consider circumcision rape, I am circumcised, I consider circumcision rape and mutilation. It was against my will, and ultimately I Speak that now. I wish it were legal for me to execute people.

- Brian Brandt on Comic Book Resources, June 4, 2011

My DH was cut at birth, has a yuckie scar and Wishes every day that HE had been given the CHOICE to destroy his man hood or not!

- Kathlyn Schofield on The Stir, June 15, 2011

...you could also count me as one who realizes that his own infant circumcision was an infringement of his physical rights.  A significant one.  And the realization has been an emotional burden to me.  I cried every day for a while back when I first realized, ten years ago or so.  I haven't cried about it for a while and usually it's forgotten but sometimes I read something or someone says something that flares it up again..  The San Francisco thing flared it up again.

- Aaron to this site, June 17, 2011

As a male in my early 40's I was the victim of circumcision for no more reason than it was the fad of the 60's and 70's and explained away as hygienic. I blame my parents for this and their decision to go along with prevailing fashions rather than make their own investigation and moral decision. I feel robbed as a man both of my foreskin and more importantly my choice to make decisions about my own body.

- Malcolm_01 on CBC.ca, June 7, 2011

When I read about the functions of the foreskin, how much more sensitive intact men were, and how much more pleasurable sex was for intact men, I had a mixture of feelings come over me: anger, depression, resentment, hatred, among a number of other things. Long story short, it drove me into a deep depression.

- StatelessPilot at Healthkicker.com, June 28, 2011

I'm a man who is circumcise­d and nobody asked me. It's a permanent choice inflicted on me.

It also has damage they don't speak of. I'm numb there. Obtaining orgasm is incredibly difficult for me and always has been. Either by myself or with a partner.

Gee thanks.

Plain and simple this is genital mutilation­. You are cutting off part of a person's body. Not YOUR body. Someone else.

That is physically inflicting your beliefs on another person who can't defend themselves­.

I'm all for making this barbaric practice illegal to be performed on children.

It is cosmetic and non necessary and those criteria alone should prevent it from ever occurring again.

-John Smith in Orlando on the Huffington Post, July 5, 2011

... Personally I do consider circumcision mutalation and lament my Catholic parents having been talked into allowing our family doctor into taking away a large number of my nerve endings. To cut or not to cut should have been my choice.

- Dabeef on KQED, June 22, 2011

I was circumcised - and I am NOT happy with the results. We need a worldwide end to this torture and genital mutilation of children. Adults can cut, pierce or tattoo their own bodies if they wish. 4 months ago

- Chadolution on YouTube, August, 2011

I am a Latin American man who has been circumcised. I did not have a choice in the matter being an infant at the time. I can wholeheartedly state that I wish I had my foreskin. ... The real issue here is choice and the fact that there is no, NO scientific proof that circumcision is beneficial in any way and all it does is desensitize the penis. Males lose about 35 to 40% of sensitivity when circumcised, all based on religious mumbo jumbo and a perpetuated lie that circumcision makes the penis more hygienic and safer.

- Robert on Dutch News, September 15, 2011

I feel as if something that by all means should have been my birthright has been taken from me - the right to even have a say over what is and isn't done to my own body. ...

I feel that if someone like me would finally step forward, someone who has been so badly damaged both physically and emotionally by what supposedly is a preventative health measure, [then] so would others. I think that it could be the very thing necessary to start the cascade that could derail routine infant circumcision everywhere.

- Dan in Minnesota, by email, September 23, 2011

My father converted to Islam in 1990. I was early in my third year. I remember being circumcised. It's my earliest memory. It's too vivid. I can't shake the pain every time I think about it. I've been mutilated. Between 10000 and 20000 erotogenic nerve endings taken from me and I had no say in the matter. I'm? mutilated.

I want to kill the doctor who did it to me. And I'll never forgive my parents for letting it happen.

- StraightOuttaDC on YouTube, October 2011

From my own personal experience, circumcision did not make it feel better. The doctor cut too much skin off. It is a very imprecise procedure and it really depends on how much the doctor cuts off. It is hard to estimate how much to cut.

The doctor cut too much skin off. It was way too tight and it is extremely painful when stretched. I absolutely hate it. I regret having it done. After circumcision, the skin on the organ becomes extremely dry and is prone to severe irritation. Also, they supposedly say circumcision makes you last longer in sexual relations. This is not correct. In fact, after circumcision, there is so much irritation of the skin from the missing foreskin that you go off sooner.

...

I hate the effect of circumcision. If you were circumcised as a baby, you don’t know what you are missing. I don’t believe people should live in ignorance. I don’t believe we should go on being a society that says sexual pleasure does not need to be as good as it can get. I don’t support, “As long as it is kind of good feeling, it is enough. Settle for ho-hum pleasure. Who cares about full sensation and feeling.”

- Anonymous on Claycord.com, October 3, 2011

My husband is very upset that he was circumcise­d. He has scar[r]ing, nerve damage and a fistula that won't heal. All from routine infant circumcisi­on.

Kirsten Veronica William on the Huffington Post, October 4, 2011

Two teenaged sons are now asking WHY did I allow doctors to DO THAT TO THEM??? Wish I hadn’t… Parents now have much more information available to them to help with the decision. If I knew then what I know now – I would have left them intact, just the way God made them, practically perfect in every way!

- smc626 on , October 4, 2011

I've lived with it 50 years and I fucking hate it.
I should have been given the choice at least.

-Hal Renfield on the Raw Story, October 4, 2011

As a man I feel robbed by this act based on nothing more than mumbo jumbo.

-MaxBunko on the Raw Story, October 4, 2011

I had no choice when I was cut. I had a friend who decided to have circumcision done when he was twenty so he would "look like everyone else". Many months later I asked what was the difference. He said " my sex world went from full color to black and white and I can't go back". I feel I was abused and robbed of a important experience.

- JamesLoughran on the LA Times, October 4, 2011

I hate being circumcised and I hate the monsters that forced their creepy religious sacrifice on me. It has done major damage to my sexual function. Anyone but a parent would go to prison for this sexual mayhem.

- EddieMoon on the LA TImes, October 5, 2011

I was circumcised at birth—and it wasn’t to prevent HPV or HIV. The reasons to do it change each year.

...

...

- Marcus Andersson on ABC News, October 6, 2011

Hi, I was just a baby - I couldn’t stop them. My mom said they had to tie me down and also hold me down so they would not screw up. But they did anyway. They cut off too much skin and when I was younger I looked like a peeled banana. I feel like only part of a guy. I have never been able to accept the fact that someone cut part of my penis off when I was a baby. ... I have never been able to accept the fact that someone cut part of my penis off when I was a baby. The sheer stupidity of it used to haunt every waking moment of my life. I was jealous of the guys I knew that had been able to retain their 4skins. My brother had his first son circumcised and then he had to take him in for "corrective surgery" to fix something that should have not been done in the first place. He said "NO!!" to his other 2 sons and I said "NO!!" to [having] my son circumcised. He has no problems with his penis or his 4skin. I saw a lot of screwed-up penises in school and the YMCA when I was younger. It really freaks me out when I hear people say that they are going to have their son cut.

- Bill Bristol, CA on the Petition Site, October 31, 2011

When I was about 5, I observed most boys in my class weren’t like me, as circumcision almost exclusively religious in my country (My family aren’t Jewish or Muslim) plus my second brother was born around this time, and he was left intact. I only learned this year that my two youngest brothers were allowed to keep their penises in their proper state because of money issues, and that my mother was dead against circumcision, but eventually gave in to my father’s demands.

...

As for complications, I’m all too familiar with them. In the past I’ve been asked by partners what was wrong with my penis. I’ve recently come to learn that the abnormalities are called “skin bridges”, previously, I didn’t even know there was a name for them. Smegma gathers beneath them, but instead of simply retracting, then washing, which is what I’d do were I…unmodified, I have to poke out the smegma with a paperclip, a most annoying task. And here I thought circumcision was meant to be cleaner. ... If i could make my penis normal again, I’d do so in a heartbeat, but short of a scientific leap in tissue regeneration or time travel, or finding a magic lamp, I don’t see that happening. It’s easier to destroy than create, and sadly this is especially true where infant circumcision is concerned.

- Jason on Academic Ob/Gyn, November 22, 2011

I was circumsized and it was botched. I am 42 and never had a satisfactory sex life or long term relationship. The scarring is horrible and I have no sensitivity in my penis. Think on this. My life, while not ruined, is very unhappy. I also hate my parents for letting this happen to me. Parents let your children make up their minds as adults PLEASE. Do not let their lives become mine.

- Peter in the Sydney Morning Herald, November 21, 2011

I had "the op" at birth and wish I hadn't. ... - so it is all about "grossness"? Ever thought about the **complete loss of sensation** "down there" for those of us who have "been done"? No, of course you haven't. I now have no more sensation down there than the back of my hand. ...

- Z on Stuff.com, November 21, 2011

It angers me that I'm circumcised. I had no choice in the damned matter. Looking at my dick makes me hate my country.

- PeeWizzle on N4G, November 29, 2011

I wish I was never circumcised after doing research, and I hate the fact I can never reverse it. I wish parents were more informed, my folks just thought it was what they had to do. So please, do the research, understand, and perhaps you’ll leave your kids intact.

- Neil on Birth Without Fear, November 29, 2011

i was circumcised as an infant because of my parents being jewish. because of my circumcision, i am now 19 and i cant have sex. my penis has severe keloidal scarring and lacks the skin i need to have an erection without pain. the only hope i have is undergo more surgeries to remove the scar tissue, which has a 50/50 chance of growing back, and undergo foreskin restoratin to try and regain skin. because of my circumcision, i am not on a speaking terms with my family because their ignorance and lack of compassion for me as their child has cost me the chances of having sex, a relationship, and children. ive also become an atheist so the irony is that circumcision doesnt profit me anything in eyes of a god either so it was truly all for nothing. ill probably never get an std though. you have to be able to have intercourse to get one.

- Cameron Christopher Cross on Facebook, December 2, 2011

My own mother was, I imagine, very easily talked into to sexually mutillating me when I was first born and I have NEVER forgiven her (I never will, either), in spite of her and many other of her defenders’ excuses...

- DruidV on A Voice for Men, December 10, 2011

As a man circumcise­d at 5 months of age, who is no longer able to orgasm when having intercours­e, and being able to masturbate only with great difficulty­, I am filled with loathing of the man who did this to me... Bear in mind that he was paid to do this...

I have consulted a urologist, and though he said that the cutting was neat, he said the loss of sensitivit­y was inevitable sooner or later. This is why infant circumcisi­on is very rare here, except among Jewish and Muslim parents, and whilst adult circumcisi­on is possible, very few do it, and for very good reasons.

- Supermog on Huffington Post, December 12, 2011

... I feel violated that my foreskin was removed at infancy. For me it's an issue of consent.? An infant cannot consent to circumcision. If an adult male wants to hack away at his own penis, let him have at it but I think ANYONE seeking to mutilate the genitals of a child, male or female, should be criminally prosecuted.

- Textra1 on YouTube, December 16, 2011

I am circumcised, and I hate it. I hate the way it looks and it feels very tight and painful when I masturbate. It may not have caused any of you pro-circumcision activists any problems, but it has definitely caused me problems. Just because something works for you, it does not mean it works for everyone. I am living evidence that circumcision can cause people problems.

- sabby123456789 on YouTube, December 16, 2011

... I was circumcised as an infant. I discovered this at about the age of seven, and I still remember my anger, my childish outrage. Who gave them the right to do this to me? For much of my life I had no idea what I was missing. Now I do. Now I understand that my penis was mutilated and desensitized because of anti-sexual values that originated with perverted religious loonies and then were adopted by the medical profession.

... If it’s cultural pressure that is causing the practice to continue, it will only end when the counter pressure builds to a scream.

I’ve started screaming. I hope you all will join me.

- Darwin Harmless on Butterflies and Wheels, December 18, 2011

At 63 I have perhaps 5% of penile sensation left due to neuropathies. Being intact would left me with an intact nervous system and probably a signitficantly increased amount of penile sensation. I can tell you with the redundency of our nervous systems, losing the first 80% of sensation is much less noticable than losing those next few percent which starts leaving big holes in what we feel. I have been genuinely pissed off at those who damaged me in this way for at least 40+ years. ...

- Alchemistfd on the Atlantic, December 20, 2011

I did some research on a random whim when I saw a picture of an uncircumcized penis, and after learning all the fact, I wish I still had my foreskin. I honestly feel victimized that I was not involved in the decision. It's incredibly unfair to make a decision for somebody else when it is his body and he has to live with the effects the rest of his life....

- Noxendi on YouTube December 20, 2011

I'm circumcised, I'm also desensitized leading to the near inability to ejaculate. My parents aren't even religious, my mother just thought they look better circumcised, which I think was absurd because the moment I start dressing myself regularly she would never see it again.

However, I generally don't engage in this debate because I hate arguments from personal experience. I recognize that my experience is the statistical rarity. But my personal opinion is that it should have been my choice.

- BusinessIDBAI on YouTube, January 7, 2012

It was done to me at birth and not a day passes when I don't regret this unnecessary and unwanted mutilation. Loss of sensitivity, sexual disfunction and discomfort in walking (it is there to protect a very delicate part of the body). Those who seem to think they are better off without will soon find out how necessary it is as their skin ages. this process should be outlawed in any civilised society (as it is for women), whether practiced for assumed medical (phimosis) or fundamentalist reasons. Barbarism...

- DavePage, London on the Daily Mail, January 26, 2012

I am cut and i wish that i could go back and make the decision for myself because there is no way that i would have that crazy as quack of a doctor cut my sh!t off! uncut lover here! 10 hours ago

- shebermibin on Youtube, January 30, 2012

circumcision is retarded. I am circumcised and did it when I was 18 because I felt I wasnt normal. I enjoyed it for about 6 months until I started to realize how much it SUCKS. You lose SOOO much feeling. It's funny cus guys who have been circmszd since birth don't know what it's like to have a normal penis.? They miss out on SOO much. It seriously removes 200% sensitivity to ur penis. Plz remember that I WANTED TO be circumcised.

breastimus on Youtube ~June 2009

As male who was circumcisied at age 29 and is now 31, I can say with 100% certainty, it was the absolute worst choice I have ever made! I did it because I wanted to fit in so to speak. The circumcision debate is identical to the vaccine/autism debate. It’s based on crap science and cultural “norms”. After living both sides, circumcision is as evil as Euginics!

Woods on Reuters January 8, 2011

I was circumcised at the age of 18 for medical reasons.

But i have had a taste of life before that event and i can assure everybody that capacity for enjoyment is radically different.

While before the operation, a feather could rattle me, sandpaper today can barely make me budge.

Pro advocates have no idea of the difference, otherwise they would be totally mute.

I could go into more details but i would probably be deleted by the overseers.

CIRCUMCISION SHOULD BE BANNED. period.

mellowg on the Globe and Mail January 14, 2011

I was circumcised as an adult so I know what's it like to be sexually active male both with and without a foreskin. I had a full foreskin until the age of 26 when, due to phimosis, my doctor recommended circumcision. I wish I'd known when I agreed to it what I know now.

With a foreskin, the glans is covered most of the time, so it's like a very sensitive (almost painfully so) mucous membrane. During sex when the foreskin retracts it provides extremely strong sensations both from the friction on the sensitive glans and the foreskin rubbing back and forth across the corona. Post-circumcision, this very sensitive skin becomes "keratinised", i.e. it toughens up like any other part of our external skin so the sensitivity is vastly reduced. A good before vs after comparison of the change in the degree of sensitivity would be the difference between touching your eyeball with your finger and touching your fingertip with your finger. Try it and see if you can judge the difference.

Re: hygiene, I washed regularly, I never experienced any hygiene problems when I had a foreskin. No smell, no smegma, nothing.

Re: pain, the surgeon insisted he do the procedure under general anaesthetic. Quite likely the adult penis is far more sensitive than a baby's, but even so, I think the fact that I needed a general anaesthetic tells you something. When I woke up it was extremely painful even with a healthy dose of painkillers.

In retrospect, I feel stupid having agreed to circumcision. I feel I have lost a huge part of myself. I feel my libido is far lower, when I have sex I feel a fraction of what I felt before.

My circumcision was very neatly and professionally done, I've suffered from none of the horror stories mentioned above. But with the experience I've had, I don't understand why anyone would feel the need to circumcise anybody, let alone a child, unless it offered a better, fuller, more enjoyable life experience than what they currently have.

Anonymous on Psychology Today, September 15, 2011

I wasn't cut until I was in my 20's. If I had it to do over, I never would have had it done. The sexual experiance and sensations are a lot more intense for an uncut male than a cut male because the foreskin keeps the head of the penis moist and it's a heck of a lot more sensitive to the touch. By circumcising your sons you are robbing them of ever having the maximum sexaul satisfaction possible. Teach them to wash it under the foreskin and cleanliness shouldn't be a problem. I'd never have my kids circumcised. To cut or not to cut is something for them to decide once thay get older, not me.

TheCosmicCowboy on StarPress.com, September 19, 2011