this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2024
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Was just talking at dinner with family, and it seems a logical action to ban circumcision, as in most cases, doesn't have consent, and is a major (genitals are important) body modification. Can we ban it at the state level? Just a thought.

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[–] AuroraZzz@lemmy.world 229 points 9 months ago (50 children)

Circumcisions should be banned because they are mutilating children's genitals without consent. At least trans medical procedures have consent.

I think it's just religious people being hypocrites again. Hard to convince delusional people of facts when they make up what they believe based on the circumstances. The decisions of religious cults shouldn't have more power than the decisions of individual people. Completely crazy what this country is devolving into

[–] Silentiea@lemm.ee 73 points 9 months ago

Trans surgical procedures have some of the best outcomes of any major procedures. they are performed on consenting individuals who are always well informed and at or very near adulthood, and only after many other interventions have been ongoing. People who receive these interventions show incredibly low rates of regret (compare for example the percent of people who regret knee replacements or probably circumcisions), and enjoy increased happiness and satisfaction by almost any metric.

Basically every major medical organization in the world (and certainly in America) agrees these interventions are medically useful and should be performed. While there are doctors who dissent, they are in the vast minority and almost never actually work with any trans people, but rather insist all the doctors who do work with trans people must be wrong. It's not a controversy in the medical world, just the political one.

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[–] voltaric@lemmy.world 116 points 9 months ago (1 children)

There is a lot of misinformation in this post. Here's a snippet of my research about the anatomy of the penis and the damage of circumcision causes.

The foreskin has specialized nerve endings called Meissner's Corpsucles located at the tip in an area called the ridged band. It is connected to the penis by the extension of the shaft skin in areas called the outer foreskin and the inner foreskin. The inner foreskin is rich with sensory receptors and is a inner mucosa similar to the inside of our cheeks. It keeps the glans moist and protected from the environment. The inner foreskin is attached to the head of the penis by a membrane called the frenulum. The frenulum is an erogenous zone that is mostly removed by a circumcision procedure.

When a child or baby is circumcised, the foreskin is forcibly removed from the glans which scars and damages the glans. The foreskin is adhered to the glans like a fingernail. When a boy hits puberty the foreskin naturally retracts. In rare cases, phimosis happens which is when the foreskin is unable to retract. Non-surgical solutions to phimosis are stretching the foreskin over a span of time and/or applying steroid creme.

Circumcision is extremely painful for babies and children. Cortisol spikes in babies when they are circumcised. Babies will pass out during the procedure as many circumcisions are done with inadequate anesthetic.

The foreskin is self-cleaning like the vagina. Rinsing in the shower is enough usually for hygiene. Caregivers who retract the foreskin of their children will damage the child's genitals. The only person who should retract the foreskin is the children as it will naturally retract with age. Some boys are unable to retract their foreskin until their late teens or early adulthood.

This information is not foreign to the medical world. Most medical and political professionals have a bias for the circumcision ritual. Circumcision is the same for boys as it is for girls as the objective of circumcision is to harm the sexual function of the child.

Modern circumcision for males is extremely harsh as it removes 60-80% of penile skin. Many men do not have frenulums from the procedure. It is possible to repair some of the damage by using mitosis to restore skin coverage. It is not currently possible to repair tissue that was completely removed. Foregen is a non-profit researching ways to completely repair the damage caused by circumcision.

For men impacted by this and want to do something for themselves

  • Look into foreskin restoration
  • Donate to foregen

Warning that this topic draws a lot of insane people with genital mutilation fetishes. Any of the comments advocating for circumcision are either men who were circumcised against their will, women who circumcised their children and haven't accepted the truth, or weirdos who want others to suffer.

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[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 100 points 9 months ago (21 children)

It would require that a significant portion of the population admit their parents mutilated them as infants.

For some reason, they refuse to admit they were mutilated without their consent.

Some of them have subsequently mutilated their own sons, and admitting that was mutilation is beyond their capacity.

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[–] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 72 points 9 months ago

Here's another question along the same lines - my friend when I was a kid developed gynecomastia, commonly known as "breast knots" when he was 14. They're completely harmless, but they made it look like he had boobs. Cute little A cups on this otherwise very boy-presenting person. For some reason, no one thought it was "against God's plan" or "mutilating his body" or "part of the gender agenda" when this 14 year old boy had a purely cosmetic double mastectomy. I wonder why no one batted an eye at a child receiving gender-affirming cosmetic surgery just because he wanted to in this particular case.

[–] then_three_more@lemmy.world 70 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I've never understood the American obsession with MGM (male genital mutilation). But it seems that a large percentage of your population has had it done. So from an outsider perspective it seems like it must be a cultural thing to your country. So for laws to exist that ban it (or at least make it harder to authorise) you'd first need a cultural shift, then. Enough political will for laws to be passed.

[–] dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 9 months ago (4 children)

It really isn't cultural. In the early 1900s, William Kellogg (of Kellogg's) was a puritanical Christian. He hated the idea of masturbation more than anything, so he created Corn Flakes to be a cereal so bland it would kill your libido and prevent you from masturbating. He also was a proponent of circumcision as a means of preventing masturbation because it would make the penis too tight that stroking it would be painful. Americans bought into his propaganda that circumcised penises are "cleaner" and then it just became "well, I'm circumcised, and my son's penis should look like mine!"

No one said that the average American was intelligent.

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[–] Pandoras_Can_Opener@mander.xyz 58 points 9 months ago (6 children)

Personally I find it a lot more disturbing that intersex babies are still assgined a binary gender by a doctor and then get surgery to shape their genitals. The parents are often scaremongered and pressured into consenting and the affected people don't know it was done to them until firmly into adulthood. It's often a sterilising surgery too.

If you are against doctors doing gender changing surgery, please start with the babies? But oh no! Then the argument that there are only two genders falls apart.

[–] meekah@lemmy.world 21 points 9 months ago

What the fuck, I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for sharing

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[–] neomachino@lemmy.world 56 points 9 months ago (8 children)

Cutting a piece of your baby's junk off for no other reason then everyone does it is a really weird thing that I've never been able to wrap my head around.

I'm not religious but I at least can understand if it's for religious reason, there's a point to it, even if I don't agree with/understand the point. But people seem to just do it for no reason aside from it's what people do. It's forced genital mutilation anyway you look at it.

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[–] BlueHarvest@lemmy.world 52 points 9 months ago (3 children)

circumcision is in the Bible, gender reassignment surgery is not. That's where they're going to hang their hats... on the invisible sky ghost.

[–] Silentiea@lemm.ee 18 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Um, ackshually, eunuchs are in the Bible, including Jesus saying that some people "become eunuchs" to get closer to God. So...

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[–] snooggums@midwest.social 48 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (4 children)

As someone whose circumcision worked out perfectly fine and can't imagine myself without one, I still think it should be banned for babies and children under 18 for any reason other than medical necessity. Even a slight risk of problems outweighs the 'my dad did it and he turned out fine' or religious tradition arguments.

It should not be banned for adults who voluntarily choose it for themselves though.

[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 23 points 9 months ago (3 children)

In which case it is cosmetic surgery.

One does not Botox an infant.

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[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 40 points 9 months ago (3 children)

On one hand I oppose circumcision, on the other hand I think we’re getting far too comfortable letting politicians ban medical procedures.

My alternative perspective is no surgery on someone too young to request it unless it cannot wait until they’re old enough to do so.

[–] derpgon@programming.dev 25 points 9 months ago (8 children)

Kids can't get plastic surgery even if they wanted to, but can get circumcised even if nobody asked them? It's just dumb.

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[–] mightyfoolish@lemmy.world 40 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Because transgender (anti)rights have nothing to do with religion; it's simply the transgender people's turn to be thrown under the bus so the conservatives can continue virtue signalling.

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[–] Pat12@lemmy.world 35 points 9 months ago

we *should *ban circumcision, it's genital mutilation and children cannot consent

[–] richieadler@lemmy.myserv.one 35 points 9 months ago (6 children)

Because one is ordered by their favorite imaginary character in their favorite fairy tale book.

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[–] Ultraviolet@lemmy.world 34 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Because the laws are being pushed on a religious basis, not a rational one.

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[–] FrankTheHealer@lemmy.world 30 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Circumcision is so weird. Like why are non religious people opting for that so much in the US?

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[–] Flax_vert 29 points 9 months ago

I think we should ban circumcision

[–] Ziggurat@sh.itjust.works 22 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This is one of the case where we can talk about the Jewish/Muslim lobby without being a far-right biggot. People want to defend their religious practice, even if they involve chopping off a piece of kids genitalia

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[–] _number8_@lemmy.world 22 points 9 months ago

because we are a stupid, prudish, and vain country. we don't want people to enjoy jerking off too much, nor do we want to reverse the trend of mutilation, which would make the old guard feel like they're the broken ones

[–] drmoose@lemmy.world 20 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (12 children)

Genital mutilation is incredibly sad and people are somehow tricking themselves into being ok with it because they can't get they dick tips back lol

Remember that cult where dudes were required to cut their balls off? It's the same cult.

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[–] Crack0n7uesday@lemmy.world 19 points 9 months ago (1 children)

They'll make the Church of Scientology pay taxes before they ban circumcisions.

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[–] Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee 19 points 9 months ago (1 children)

If we ban circumcision does that then mean it's okay to keep trans medical procedures banned aswell or that we shouldn't ban neither? I'm not sure the reasoning is sound here. Circumcision without the subject's concent is an obviously barbaric tradition that we will look back with horror one day.

[–] nutsack@lemmy.world 22 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

no. trans medical procedures are consentual.

[–] tiredofsametab@kbin.run 18 points 9 months ago (6 children)

You probably want to carve out medically necessary circumcision (required treatment for some issues). The main answer in the US would be a combination of religion and tradition with some bonus vanity and outdated knowledge (see arguments about cleanliness).

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