Studies are conflicted on whether it reduces risk of diseases, but what’s definitely true is that removing the foreskin removes most of the nerves associated with pleasure for the penis.
Of course it doesn’t take away all sexual pleasure, but people who get circumcisions later in life report that their sexual pleasure from sex and masturbation is greatly reduced from before the circumcision. This likely also applies to babies, although there’s no conclusive evidence to support that since people who were circumcised at birth report “normal” amounts of sexual pleasure, though it’s unknown if they and uncircumcised people have the same “normal”.
The reason circumcision became popular in the Western world outside of Jewish and Muslim culture is because of John Harvey Kellogg, the inventor of Corn Flakes, founder of the Kellogg cereal company, and activity against “immoral” sexual activity like masturbation. He invented Corn Flakes as a food to deter masturbation, as he believed that a cause of “unnatural” sexual appetites was flavorful food, so he made a blander source of nutrition to combat the urge to masturbate. He also heavily advocated for circumcision for both children and adults because he believed that it would decrease sexual pleasure for the penis, which would also discourage masturbation.
Take it from a Jew who’s been jerking the gherkin since he was 12: It doesn’t work. Don’t circumcise your baby unless it’s for a religious reason, or if the baby is born with a condition that requires it.
Oh, and among people who both enjoy sex with people with penises and care about whether or not it’s circumcised, it’s pretty evenly split about which variety they actually prefer, with the biggest factor in the preference being that individual’s culture.
Edit: There are a lot of non-Jews criticizing the practice in Judaism. I completely understand, and your criticisms are valid. All I can speak for is my own experience and what I’ve been able to look into. In my case and the case of many Jewish men that I’ve talked to, both religious and non-religious, the rates of resentment for circumcision are much lower among them than among non-Jews who have been circumcised. I understand if you still believe it to be wrong, but do not put out hate speech in the comments. This includes name-calling and generalizations about any particular cultures. If you still believe that it’s wrong for Jews and Muslims to do it, and that religion doesn’t justify it, you are entitled to your opinion. Just please be respectful about it.
Another edit: To build on the first point, consent of the child is a big issue that many parents face when deciding whether or not to circumcise. All I can say about that is that it’s a lot less risky to health to do it in infancy rather than as an adult. Again, I can only speak for myself, but if I hadn’t been circumcised as an infant, I’d be saying a struggle today about whether or not to do it, and it would be painful, mentally traumatizing, and risky, even if done with anesthesia. Yes, it is medically unnecessary in the vast majority of cases, which is why I reiterate that NON-JEWS SHOULD NOT DO IT. Please talk to Jews and get their perspectives before you judge because I can guarantee that they had the same considerations that you’ve had.
Third edit: If you’re not Jewish, there will just be aspects of the Jewish experience that you won’t understand on an intrinsic and fundamental level, just like there are things that I’ll never understand about your culture because I don’t belong to it. It seems that so far, I’m the only Jew who’s given a perspective on this, so these debates on the morality of circumcision are missing a crucial element.
Religion is no reason for non-consentual mutilation either.
I hate dancing around this topic, thank you for just saying it. Your newborn is not religious
I can only speak for my own experience, but I can tell you that my life as a Jew would be a lot worse and more complicated if I wasn’t circumcised, and while a small part of it would be due to societal pressures, the vast majority of it would be due to not feeling “right” spiritually. I can’t accurately describe it to someone who isn’t Jewish, but it makes me feel “complete” and connected to my culture. Even a non-religious Jew like me is still a Jew, ethnically and culturally.
Unfortunately, this feeling of necessity for us is often a source of disdain for outside cultures, especially when done by people without the Jewish background to “justify” it, who resent the fact that it was done to them and see us as the source of that practice. I’m sorry for all the people who were mutilated by this practice that emulates one that is necessary for us but abhorrent for them. It’s a complicated state of mind to be in on both ends.
Are you aware of how insane that sounds to someone not fully brainwashed ? That is not a “complicated state of mind” or complicated in any way, this is a physical mutilation, often done barbarously without anesthesia or proper medical attention, on an unwilling newborn or child, with the potential for serious injuries, medical complications, and irreversible impairments to social and sexual life and wellness.
CLARIFICATION REPLY TO EVERYONE I AM DISCUSSING THIS TOPIC WITH: I need to clarify that I am not trying to defend the practice of circumcision, only that I understand from my perspective as a secular circumcised Jew why so many do it. I think the vast majority of people shouldn’t do it and even that many Jews shouldn’t. That’s why I made this post in the first place. I can’t in any good conscience recommend it to anyone, but I also don’t have any kind of authority to advise Jews against it. I can advise non-Jews against it because they ARE NOT JEWISH and therefore DO NOT HAVE A CONNECTION TO THE PRACTICE. I agree with your points on a general moral level.
That’s an understandable position, and I won’t debate it because I agree with a lot of your points. It’s often done barbarously without anesthesia, and much of the practice of it needs to be reformed, especially in insular religious communities. Metzitzah b’peh, for example, is absolutely unacceptable and needs to be abolished.
I can only speak to my own experiences and those of the Jews I’ve talked to. I will say that I was never told how to feel about my circumcision, only that it happened and that it was done because we’re Jewish. I was raised extremely secular and still largely live my life as a secular Jew. I didn’t understand why it was done at first, and I feel the way I feel about it because of Jewish learning that I’ve done on my own that was not guided by anyone other than myself and my wife. I understand why it seems that I’m brainwashed, but it was truly wholly my decision formed by my experience as a Jewish humanist who finds value in embracing my Jewish heritage and culture, even if I don’t believe that the foundations of it were divinely ordained or that anyone truly spoke to a divine being or that an intelligent designer created the universe.
I can only give you my word that I am not indoctrinated into any system of belief, and that my personal, unique system of belief was shaped by my own learning from a variety of sources, both secular and religious. Jews have a saying: Two Jews, three opinions. Any sane and rational Jew welcomes debate and discourse in good faith.
Im ethnically jewish and this is one of the most bizarre and fucked up mental hoop jumps ive ever read. Im so sorry that your parents mutilated you and that you have been forced to develop this cope.
I don’t understand your need to project a need to cope onto me.
Okay buddy.
How many circumcised Jewish AMABs have you actually asked about their perspectives on their own circumcision? Do you just assume they’re traumatized with no prior interaction with them? What do you think having a circumcised penis feels like when it was done during infancy? Why do you presume to speak for people who, not only are you not a part of in that respect, but who can speak for themselves? There was already one person I talked to in this thread of Jewish descent who was traumatized by their circumcision experience and I value that perspective because it’s not one I’ve heard in my real-life interactions.
Well, if we’re going to just ignore the data and only discuss anecdotes, actually almost every person ive talked to about their circumcision wished it never happened… the others were apathetic to theirs and said they would never do it to their child. Only one was medically necessary and they still wished it wasnt.
As a trans jew, it comes up more than youd think. At least 4 of the 12 or so conversations ive had about this were between me and another jew. You are a minority here in my personal experience.
At what age did you begin feeling the spiritual connection?
I became aware of it in my teens, and it’s only grown over time in my adulthood.
I’m Jewish and understand the importance of it in our culture even if I’m not religious. Even the vast majority of non-religious Jews do it to connect with our roots, but I understand why that’s one of the reasons people dislike us. If it’s not your culture, it can be hard to get into our mindset, which is why people outside of the cultures that do it shouldn’t adopt it. It’s not for them.
I think you may be taking the criticism at your religion and not the people.
Judaism is in a fun boat where it’s ethnicity and culture, so I say this next statement while knowing the above l:
People don’t dislike the Jewish faith for circumcision. They dislike Jewish people who adhere to nonsensical and harmful traditions. Someone’s religion holds no bearing to me as far as the denomination itself, it’s what they choose to carry forward. I had Muslim friends in college who I’d get into disagreements with, because some of them genuinely believed some backwards shit about women. Some didn’t, and I was closer with those that didn’t. I don’t dislike those people who thought differently than me, but I did like them less, if only because they were letting their culture/tradition get in the way of facts and modern sensibilities.
You can continue to practice whatever fundamentalist beliefs you choose, know that people are often judging the act and not the religion as a whole, at least, that’s been the case when I’ve dived deeper with people who express it.
Genital mutilation is genital mutilation. You can say you do it for cultural reasons, but the response from those that disagree with it’s existence have nothing to do with your culture and everything to do with the barbarity of the medically unnecessary cosmetic genital surgery.
CLARIFICATION REPLY TO EVERYONE I AM DISCUSSING THIS TOPIC WITH: I need to clarify that I am not trying to defend the practice of circumcision, only that I understand from my perspective as a secular circumcised Jew why so many do it. I think the vast majority of people shouldn’t do it and even that many Jews shouldn’t. That’s why I made this post in the first place. I can’t in any good conscience recommend it to anyone, but I also don’t have any kind of authority to advise Jews against it. I can advise non-Jews against it because they ARE NOT JEWISH and therefore DO NOT HAVE A CONNECTION TO THE PRACTICE. I agree with your points on a general moral level.
I understand that perspective. From a non-Abrahamic view, the practice seems inherently wrong, and would be if a non-Jew or non-Muslim did it. People who aren’t part of those cultures often resent the fact that it was done to them, but the rate of resentment is drastically lower among people who have the context of being part of those cultures. This is true not just for religious Jews, but secular ones like me as well, at least from the pool of people I’ve had access to ask about it. That’s why it’s a lot more complicated for Jews, because that adds a significant weight to the pro-circumcision side of the scale. I’m not saying it’s right for every Jew, but every Jewish family decides whether or not it’s right for them. I had some resentment as a kid, but then I did my own research and learning about Judaism and got the necessary context and now I’m personally glad it was done, and if it wasn’t done to me, I’d struggle with the decision of whether or not do to it while in adulthood, because of the added risks of complications as opposed to having it done as a baby. This is why he’s perspectives need to be listened to on this matter: Because we experienced it. Not listening to us about our own lives is both a product of and predecessor to antisemitism.
There’s no real reason to circumcise your baby.
FTFY. Much cleaner title.
CLARIFICATION REPLY TO EVERYONE I AM DISCUSSING THIS TOPIC WITH: I need to clarify that I am not trying to defend the practice of circumcision, only that I understand from my perspective as a secular circumcised Jew why so many do it. I think the vast majority of people shouldn’t do it and even that many Jews shouldn’t. That’s why I made this post in the first place. I can’t in any good conscience recommend it to anyone, but I also don’t have any kind of authority to advise Jews against it. I can advise non-Jews against it because they ARE NOT JEWISH and therefore DO NOT HAVE A CONNECTION TO THE PRACTICE. I agree with your points on a general moral level.
If you’re not Jewish or Muslim, don’t do it. If you are, there’s a much more complicated discussion to be had. I won’t bore you by repeating the points I’ve made in this thread already, but suffice to say, people love to make assumptions about Jews and what we’re about without taking the time to listen to our perspectives.
If your super sacred book club tells you to mutilate an infant’s sexual organ at any point at all — you need to seriously ask yourself “WTF AM I DOING?!” 🖕🏼🤬
The corrected title is correct.
If you seriously think it’s just because the book says so, you need to get outside more. I’m not religious and neither were my parents, neither I nor they believe the stories of Jewish scriptures to be factual or the laws to be divinely ordained or binding. Yet the one aspect of Jewish life that the vast majority of secular Jews have kept us circumcision.
I take it you’ve never asked yourself why? You’ve never taken the time to ask a Jew what their circumcision did for them?
No. Go back to the other place, kiddo. Your adamant belief that any infant is fair game for genital mutilation and fully excusing it via propaganda is indefensibly vile. Kindly fuck right off, thanks.
So you don’t want a Jewish perspective. Got it.
Edit: What propaganda?
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CLARIFICATION REPLY TO EVERYONE I AM DISCUSSING THIS TOPIC WITH: I need to clarify that I am not trying to defend the practice of circumcision, only that I understand from my perspective as a secular circumcised Jew why so many do it. I think the vast majority of people shouldn’t do it and even that many Jews shouldn’t. That’s why I made this post in the first place. I can’t in any good conscience recommend it to anyone, but I also don’t have any kind of authority to advise Jews against it. I can advise non-Jews against it because they ARE NOT JEWISH and therefore DO NOT HAVE A CONNECTION TO THE PRACTICE. I agree with your points on a general moral level.
Is there any physical reason? Otherwise it’s same as elsewhere. Non-consenual mutilation.
You’re welcome to believe that, but speaking as a circumcised secular Jewish male, it’s a lot more complicated than some might think. I’m glad it was done when I was an infant so I wouldn’t have to make that choice as an adult, since it would be much more painful, more risky in terms of health complications, and all-around more traumatizing. I understand that many Jews don’t share my perspective, but in my case and in many cases, it did more good than harm. If you don’t want to believe the people it was done to and want to write them off as coping or brainwashed, then there’s nothing I can tell you to convince you that other people have perspectives that are different from yours.
Im a secular jew and incredibly thankful that my mom isnt a psychotic asshole and didnt circumsize me for some bullshit “cultural cohesion”
thats like the american dads that get their kids circumsized simply because they are. It’s barbaric and fucked up.
CLARIFICATION REPLY TO EVERYONE I AM DISCUSSING THIS TOPIC WITH: I need to clarify that I am not trying to defend the practice of circumcision, only that I understand from my perspective as a secular circumcised Jew why so many do it. I think the vast majority of people shouldn’t do it and even that many Jews shouldn’t. That’s why I made this post in the first place. I can’t in any good conscience recommend it to anyone, but I also don’t have any kind of authority to advise Jews against it. I can advise non-Jews against it because they ARE NOT JEWISH and therefore DO NOT HAVE A CONNECTION TO THE PRACTICE. I agree with your points on a general moral level.
Yeah i get that. I think we agree on a fundemental level. I just got hung up on the wording
I agree that non-Jews shouldn’t do it, there’s literally no reason. And I hope you don’t need it done later in life, because that’s actually traumatizing in many cases. If you want to keep believing that the vast majority of Jews are evil for doing something that makes us keep wanting to be Jews, that’s fine. I’m not going to tell any Jew how to be a Jew, and you don’t have to circumcise your kids just because you’re Jewish. But if you could have some empathy for circumcised AMABs who have actually experienced this themselves instead of thinking you can speak for them, you’d realize that the world is bigger and more complicated than you might believe.
…thats not what i said at all xD
Just that your mom would’ve been a psychotic asshole if she had circumcised you and that my perspective on my own circumcision is “cope” because I found value in it and am glad it happened for me.
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hope you notice your blind spot some day OP
CLARIFICATION REPLY TO EVERYONE I AM DISCUSSING THIS TOPIC WITH: I need to clarify that I am not trying to defend the practice of circumcision, only that I understand from my perspective as a secular circumcised Jew why so many do it. I think the vast majority of people shouldn’t do it and even that many Jews shouldn’t. That’s why I made this post in the first place. I can’t in any good conscience recommend it to anyone, but I also don’t have any kind of authority to advise Jews against it. I can advise non-Jews against it because they ARE NOT JEWISH and therefore DO NOT HAVE A CONNECTION TO THE PRACTICE. I agree with your points on a general moral level.
How did your circumcision traumatize you as a Jew?
well i’m not one anymore for starters
Finally, a Jewish perspective, albeit someone who doesn’t identify with the culture anymore. Is there any more you would want to speak on? Were you raised religious or secular?
Is there any more you would want to speak on?
no, reading your perspective is quite painful and i intended to leave my comment and get out. i’m glad you made peace with your mutilation. maybe give some more thought to the victims who never do.
I don’t mean to minimize the experiences of the people who were traumatized by their circumcision. Obviously my experience is limited only to people I’ve met and talked to online so getting more perspectives is valuable to me.
the trauma isn’t in the surgery or the scar but in the faith that it’s not only ok but important to impose this mutilation on a child who cannot understand or consent because you believe he will have to one day.
for some it is simply a ceremony of culture while for others it is the cornerstone of a lifelong relationship of imposition and abuse. excusing one excuses all. if some day you choose to circumcise your own children, i hope they see it your way too. if they don’t, it will be far too late to fix.
CLARIFICATION REPLY TO EVERYONE I AM DISCUSSING THIS TOPIC WITH: I need to clarify that I am not trying to defend the practice of circumcision, only that I understand from my perspective as a secular circumcised Jew why so many do it. I think the vast majority of people shouldn’t do it and even that many Jews shouldn’t. That’s why I made this post in the first place. I can’t in any good conscience recommend it to anyone, but I also don’t have any kind of authority to advise Jews against it. I can advise non-Jews against it because they ARE NOT JEWISH and therefore DO NOT HAVE A CONNECTION TO THE PRACTICE. I agree with your points on a general moral level.
Here’s another one just leaving it here, this post made me spiral and traumatised again
CLARIFICATION REPLY TO EVERYONE I AM DISCUSSING THIS TOPIC WITH: I need to clarify that I am not trying to defend the practice of circumcision, only that I understand from my perspective as a secular circumcised Jew why so many do it. I think the vast majority of people shouldn’t do it and even that many Jews shouldn’t. That’s why I made this post in the first place. I can’t in any good conscience recommend it to anyone, but I also don’t have any kind of authority to advise Jews against it. I can advise non-Jews against it because they ARE NOT JEWISH and therefore DO NOT HAVE A CONNECTION TO THE PRACTICE. I agree with your points on a general moral level.
Leave those men G spots alone!
Exactly.
At the risk of TMI, I was diagnosed with phimosis as a child and had to get my foreskin removed. Never jerked until high school, so I won’t ever know if I would’ve benefitted sexually from having those extra nerves. The recovery period did suck, as I also had my tonsils taken out the same day.
Thank god it wasn’t a religious reason, tho!
Foreskin and tonsils removed at the same time! This sounds more like you had an accident giving yourself fellatio
Oh I WISH I was that flexible at that age.
Seems like streamlining for that process, for sure. 😅
Was their a discount on surgeries that day?
What is this “discount” on medical procedures you speak of? In this country?!
Oh god, you had your tonsils out at the same time? That’s rough my friend
It was. I remember waking up from the anestheisa crying.
I Have No Foreskin And I’m Outta Ice Cream, the new sci-cry classic by Lilsnip A. Dick 😶
Fuck you for thinking that you can impose your religion to scar and mutilate a baby who doesn’t consent, for life, also making bottom surgery more complicated for her down the line
CLARIFICATION REPLY TO EVERYONE I AM DISCUSSING THIS TOPIC WITH: I need to clarify that I am not trying to defend the practice of circumcision, only that I understand from my perspective as a secular circumcised Jew why so many do it. I think the vast majority of people shouldn’t do it and even that many Jews shouldn’t. That’s why I made this post in the first place. I can’t in any good conscience recommend it to anyone, but I also don’t have any kind of authority to advise Jews against it. I can advise non-Jews against it because they ARE NOT JEWISH and therefore DO NOT HAVE A CONNECTION TO THE PRACTICE. I agree with your points on a general moral level.
This too. Unfortunately, Judaism hasn’t caught up in addressing trans issues nearly as well as it should. I haven’t heard of it making bottom surgery harder though, I’ll have to look into that. Is that true even if the circumcision was some with no complications?
Stepping out of the comfort of my lurking zone to respond to this. I am probably one of the extreme few people who were circumcised twice, once as a baby as a non religious choice by my parents and then once again due to medical reasons in adulthood.
I didn’t know any better as a child or young adult (before my medical issue) and felt normal function and feeling, so I cannot answer the question of reduced feeling or pleasure from the get-go, but I can confirm that after my second circumcision my sexual pleasure and experience having sex was tanked. It is not just uncomfortable having sex due to the lack of skin, but I have drastically less feeling there too. While my situation may be extreme, it’s important to understand that the research is true and does show a decline in pleasure for those who do get circumcised later in life and I believe that is enough evidence to not have your child circumcised.
There is one very key piece of this puzzle though, as a parent it is your responsibility to properly teach your child how to wash and care for your parts to prevent illnesses and medical issues. There seems to be some taboo (at least in my childhood and even adulthood with parents I know today) about addressing proper hygiene and care for genitals. These skills and the importance of maintaining this hygiene is what will lead your child to a healthy and happy sexual life. I can argue this all by first hand experience. My medical issue was directly related to improper knowledge of hygiene from my parents who were too afraid to teach me about it.
It’s really important for parents to teach their male children how to take care of an uncircumcised penis and unfortunately there’s a lot of miseducation out there on this topic.
Parents should never pull the foreskin back to clean when their child is a baby/toddler. The foreskin will retract naturally as they age and once the kid can retract it themselves is when you encourage cleaning when retracted. Until then, clean the penis like you would a finger.
This is the biggest one. I’ve had a few GP doctors tell me to forcibly retract the skin when they were a baby “or they’d have problems later”. That and shaming us for not circumcising, we’ll regret it blah blah. Also the nurse at the hospital kept insisting we chop it off, came back every few hours to ask if we changed our minds. Got to be very bizarre and annoying.
This was in conflict to the doctor who visited us in the hospital room, a seasoned pediatrician. Who said don’t force it back and the true mechanics behind it, their is a membrane that will rip if forced. If we did force it, we could scar our child’s penis. Also this aligns with John Hopkins and other serious medical advice.
It is scary out there when male general practitioners have no idea the proper way to care for a natural penis. Just know that even though someone has a degree, they can still be arrogant and uninformed.
I’ve read so many stories of medical practitioners forcing the foreskin back on babies!! I’m grateful to have never come across a doctor like that when my kid was little.
This is what I’m talking about. Absolutely baseless and abhorrent.
This is why I think it should be illegal for doctors to perform circumcisions without a proper medical reason, and that religious, non-medical circumcisions should only be performed by specifically licensed religious authorities like mohels or whatever the Muslim equivalent is called. It should be a highly specialized profession to reduce complications like this. I’m so sorry that all this happened to you.
Such a great write up!
Last I checked about 10 years ago, circumcision rates had dropped to about 50% of newborn boys in the US. Not low enough, but it’s awesome that it’s starting to swing the other way.
Yeah, I’d go so far as to argue that if it’s not for a religious or specific medical reason, it’s an unnecessary mutilation, and immoral.
It’s unnecessary and immoral when it’s for religious reasons, too. Religion isn’t a free pass for human rights violations, no matter how much the abrahamic pigs try to convince us it is.
I left this comment unremoved as an example of what not to do when talking about this topic.
So people shouldn’t be angry and disgusted that people are mutilating children’s genitals because a fictional story told them to?
You should be angry and disgusted that people are doing it without the necessary context and background of having the culture that necessitates it. Only Jews can speak for the Jewish experience of having been circumcised as a Jew, and unfortunately, the experience of non-Abrahamic people having been circumcised is often negative. However, the Jewish perspective on their own experience of it tends to be more positive for reasons that you just can’t explain to someone who doesn’t have that context. That’s why even if we’re not religious and don’t believe that Abraham spoke to God and formed a covenant with him, we still do it; it connects us in a way that’s simply not gonna be the case for non-Jews. I can’t speak for Muslims though.
I can’t say this enough: If you’re not Jewish or Muslim, please don’t do it. You don’t have the cultural context that we have.
Edit: I left the comment up but banned the commenter because their comment was a hateful attack directed at Jews and Muslims, calling us “Abrahamic pigs” as a form of hate speech, which will not be tolerated here. Resorting to name-calling is not the kind of discourse that is welcome here. I understand people’s moral objections to circumcisions, and have struggled with them myself, but please don’t attack us because of our culture, religious beliefs, or ethnic background.
Another edit: I didn’t mean to say that our culture necessitates circumcision even if a lot of Jews and Muslims feel that way, but the fact that we are Jewish inevitably adds that into the conversation on the pro-circumcision side.
A “culture that necessitates” mutilation of babies SHOULD BE CRITICIZED and no amount of “but I’m from a religious family and I’m a mod so it’s okay” will change that.
CLARIFICATION REPLY TO EVERYONE I AM DISCUSSING THIS TOPIC WITH: I need to clarify that I am not trying to defend the practice of circumcision, only that I understand from my perspective as a secular circumcised Jew why so many do it. I think the vast majority of people shouldn’t do it and even that many Jews shouldn’t. That’s why I made this post in the first place. I can’t in any good conscience recommend it to anyone, but I also don’t have any kind of authority to advise Jews against it. I can advise non-Jews against it because they ARE NOT JEWISH and therefore DO NOT HAVE A CONNECTION TO THE PRACTICE. I agree with your points on a general moral level.
We can talk about it being morally reprehensible without calling people of a certain religious sect pigs.
I was wrong to imply that our culture necessitates circumcision itself. What I should have said was that the culture necessitates further discussion for an individual family to know if it’s right for them. That was my fault for using misleading language.
Circumcision should only be done in medical necessity, when a phimosis is present and does not go away at puberty. When possible, foreskin should be kept as much as possible, because contact with clothes can lead to keratinisation and partial loss of feeling
I can only speak for myself, but I’ve never experienced keratinization and the feeling in my penis is perfectly good, with the frenulum still being a major source of pleasure for me. That being said, I don’t know how it would be different for me if I still had my foreskin, but I’d say the cultural benefits still outweigh the potential physical disadvantage, for me at least.
Yup, you have no way to know if the feeling you have now is intact or impaired in any way relative to biological normality.
We said it again in our other comment, but advocating in favor of non consensual mutilation (most often on children too) because of (perceived) cultural benefits is absolutely crazy.
I don’t advocate in favor of it in any capacity. Perhaps I wasn’t clear but I should clarify: I, as a Jew, am not going to tell other Jews how to be Jews. Circumcision is the individual family’s decision to wrestle with. However, non-Jews don’t have the context that we do, so I believe that they shouldn’t do it. I’m not versed enough in Islam to be able to tell them anything, but I know that non-Abrahamic peoples, plus Christians since their scripture doesn’t tell them to circumcise, shouldn’t do it because for them, the drawbacks definitely outweigh the benefits. I know for sure that in specifically my case, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, and this has been the case for many Jews that I know the personal stories of, both religious and secular. But for any individual Jew that is home to have children, they will have context that non-Jews won’t have, and because of that, they may have a tougher decision to make than most.
Had a circumcision when I was already an adult and I can confirm it sucks.
Was it for a medical or religious purpose?
Man… It’s annoying to talk about but it was an ‘accident’
Ah, I’m really sorry that happened to you.
All gud, its been a while
some made up cult is a reason, right.
there is no reason to mutilate a child.
these people belong in jail.Edit:
And this is right happening now in 2026 where I live, disgusting: https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2026/02/17/na-heisa-bill-white-waarover-gaat-het/“Religious purposes” is absolutely not a reason to remove the most sensitive part of the penis without consent
ESPECIALLY IN some communities in JUDAISM
Metzitzah b’peh (using the mouth to suck up blood from the circumcision) is barbaric and absolutely unacceptable. It’s done by backwards, batshit insane insular communities. That picture has done so much damage to public opinion on Jews because they start to believe that that’s what circumcision is. Please educate yourself on actual, rational Jewish perspectives on the matter.
Ok, edited
CLARIFICATION REPLY TO EVERYONE I AM DISCUSSING THIS TOPIC WITH: I need to clarify that I am not trying to defend the practice of circumcision, only that I understand from my perspective as a secular circumcised Jew why so many do it. I think the vast majority of people shouldn’t do it and even that many Jews shouldn’t. That’s why I made this post in the first place. I can’t in any good conscience recommend it to anyone, but I also don’t have any kind of authority to advise Jews against it. I can advise non-Jews against it because they ARE NOT JEWISH and therefore DO NOT HAVE A CONNECTION TO THE PRACTICE. I agree with your points on a general moral level.
‘YOUR genital mutilation is barbaric but MY genital mutilation is somehow better’ is definitely a take. And apparently you’re prepared to die on that hill, instead of having some introspection to realize the entire practice is barbaric, regardless of whatever spiritual motivations you want to attribute to it.
You will never know what it’s like to be a Jew, so I can’t convince you of the Jewish experience. And metzitzah b’peh causes actual permanent harm. It was common practice before the advent of modern medicine and has thankfully died down significantly since then. Like everyone else, most Jewish communities learn and grow with the times.
