Dude I have a foreskin and it’s fucking rad. I can pinch it closed when I pee and it’ll fill up like a balloon. How could you deny your son that?

You can’t be bullied if everyone is uncut. And as you say it’s cultural, it makes absolutely no sense for me and I don’t understand parents who voluntarily butcher the genitals of their children. I can’t believe it still exists.

Parents who perform unnecessary surgery on their children because society says they should are bad parents.

That might seem harsh, but it’s true. You have a responsibility to make the right choices for your kids, and “society” doesn’t get a vote.

I faced the same question, but found it to be a no-brainer. You don’t perform unnecessary surgery on a baby.

The reason it is performed in the US is to stop boys from masturbating.

Ignore any excuses for doing it that people have come up with since. That’s the only reason the US started doing it, and every other reason is just people trying to rationalize why they keep doing it.

The “reasons” people come up with to explain it now are based on extremely unlikely events. All the serious issues that come up are avoided with proper hygiene. Unless they still have a stupid masturbation hangup, it all comes down to this:

Parents feel icky about having to explain to their child how to wash their penis.

If you can’t handle that, I’ll tell you right now that you’re going to have a hell of a lot tougher conversations.

What I told them was to imagine they were wearing a hoodie in the shower. You’d need to pull the hood back before shampooing your hair. Same thing goes for the little head, but don’t use shampoo, that might burn.

Not circumcising my kids only caused me one problem:

My mom reacted like it was a direct personal attack on her, because I was circumcised. She saw it as me saying she was wrong. I found it difficult to convince her that I was not judging her. She didn’t have the same information available to her as I did. When I was born, she didn’t really have a choice.

A few counterpoints to the circumcision pros that you mentioned:

• Circumcision rates are dropping across America. In some areas they ared dropping faster than others, but from what I recall the get are basically dropping everywhere to some degree. So I expect bullying about it is on the decline as it becomes less common.

• Also, the simple fact is that bullies will find any reason to be shitheads. So if it’s not circumcision it’ll be something else.

• Any straight women who are grossed out by a natural penis are idiots, and your kid will be dodging an asshole bullet if they do reject him over that.

• Better to let him decide if he wants to get it cut later or leave it uncut than to take away his free agency.

The idea of wanting a circumcision has never once occurred to me. The notion of having my most sensitive area permanently exposed… eugh.

Genital mutilation is inexcusable disgusting tradition - don’t do it.

Definitely not but I’m not American.

Please do not mutilate your child because of tradition.

The idea that you would cut off a part of your kids genitalia just so they could ‘fit in’ culturally is kinda blown away by the fact that it is now less common to be circumcised than being natural, even in the USA. By the time your kid is old enough to care, it will be a complete non-issue, and they can always get one as an adult if they want. Don’t take that agency away.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/pediatrics/generalpediatrics/117464

The idea that it has a population-level health benefit is completely debunked. It is medically advisable in only a tiny fraction of kids (sub 1%). The fact that %60 of the US population is circumcised is all thanks to religious hooey from puritans who don’t want children to masturbate, and think chopping a sensitive part of their genitals off to make it harder to enjoy is the best way to go - thanks to education and a wider exposure to the rest of the world via the Internet, US parents are finally realising this which is why it’s in decline.

I’m a chick, responding because you mentioned some women are grossed out by intact dicks.

Every penis is different in its own weird way so whether there’s foreskin or not is just an extra thing. Size/shape/foreskin/existence doesn’t affect how I think about the person.

Any person who thinks men ought to be mutilated to be attractive is lacking in empathy and judgment, and my entire friend group thinks the same thing.

“Hey internet I was thinking of cutting some of my babies dick off”

“Bro wtf what”

“Just a lil bit, just the tip!”

“Aw okay that’s fine mate!”

Did you think this would be how it goes?

Don’t… cut parts of your baby’s dick off dude, it’s a weird thing to do.

Tbh I love my foreakin, it’s fun to play with and overall just enhances the penis having experience. 10/10 would recommend

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This is your opportunity to discontinue a barbaric practice that was done to you for stupid reasons.

The only thing that is making this a difficult ethical choice for you is the culture you were brought up in. If you were born in most other places, this issue wouldn’t even provoke serious thought in your brain, just astonishment, laughter, and ridicule for anyone who practiced it.

This isn’t a hard choice. Do the right thing.

I’m uncircumcised and I’m thankful every fucking day. Don’t do it to them. If you’re being bullied for your penis, there’s other problems at hand there. And women who won’t sleep with you over this aren’t worth sleeping with anyway.

Fuck. No.

I am grateful every single goddamn day that my mum took a stand against my dad’s very Catholic parents when it came to circumcising me. She wasn’t able to with my older brother, in part because of how wrecked she was from a 48hr+ labour. With him it was also “oh he’ll feel weird if he doesn’t match his father though” which, just, ooft 🙄