POLL DANCING: Do you prefer a circumcised or uncircumcised penis?

www.senslip.com

An Israeli, a Spaniard and a Texican walked into a bar…

Well, not exactly. An Israeli, a Spaniard and myself were drinking at home after Christmas Eve dinner when the subject of circumcised vs. uncircumcised penises came up (as always when a group of gals from different parts of the world get together).

The subject is never exhausted and a consensus is never reached.

I’ve been pro-circumcision ever since seeing a picture of an uncircumcised penis in my Social Psychology and Human Sexuality book in college, circa 2002. It just did not look appealing nor like any of the penises I had encountered in pictures, films, in person, as dildos etc. before. Until then I had never been exposed to an uncircumcised penis (and after seeing that, I didn’t want to be). This may have something to do with the fact that most North American men are circumcised (much to the surprise of many non-North American citizens). After being in Europe for a while… I’m not so picky, but I do have a preference.

A poll taken between 1993 and 1996 revealed that the US was “the last medically-advanced nation to persist in circumcising most of its boys for no therapeutic or religious reason.” Other facts from the report published in 1999 included:

• About 60% of males living in the US were circumcised
• In 1970, the average for circumcised men was approximately 80%
• An estimated 650 million males worldwide have been genitally altered
• An estimated 100 million females worldwide have been genitally altered
• Over 1.25 million infants are circumcised annually in the US, which is one child every 26 seconds.
• 1/3 of circumcised men were unaware they were circumcised

I tried finding the latest US statistics, but I’ve found various estimates ranging from 30% to 65%. Circumcision rates are said to have droped because of immigrants from Asian and Latin American countries where cicumcision is not the norm, according to the Associated Press. Globally, an estimated 30% of men are circumcised, according to the World Health Organization’s 2007 report.

In class I also learned that uncircumcised men are more susceptible to carrying and passing sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) as they can more easily carry viruses underneath their foreskin. Uncircumcised men also often develop smegma, or what my Finnish friend refers to as “dick cheese,” if men do not properly clean underneath their foreskin. Circumcision, therefore, facilitates hygiene. A recent study also revealed that “being circumcised significantly reduced the risk of HIV infection in heterosexual African American men known to have been exposed to the virus.”

The MayoClinic.com also lists other benefits to circumcision:

• Decreases risk of urinary tract infections for infants
• Prevention of penile problems
• Decreased risk of penile cancer

Some argue that circumcising a baby is cruel and unnecessary. However, Circinfo.net, a website dedicated to educating people about circumcision, states that anesthesia can be used in order to prevent pain. It further notes that “no difference in developmental and behavioral indices between circumcised and uncircumcised males.”

A main argument against circumcision is the loss of sensation men may experience once the foreskin is removed. A study by Masters & Johnson (William Masters and Virginia E. Johnson), pioneers in human sexuality and founders of the Masters & Johnson Institute in 1978, concluded that there is “no difference in penile sensitivity between circumcised and uncircumcised men. [And] sexual pleasures also appears to be about the same.” Circinfo.net also notes that some men complain that their penises are too sensitive and therefore seek circumcision to relieve the pain. Furthermore, “A diminishing sensitivity is in fact desired by many men and women in order to prolong the sex act by preventing premature ejaculation.”

Circumcision is a good thing.

Ok, so if you simply cannot live without your foreskin or you’re wondering what it feels like to have foreskin because you were too young to remember the last time you did, I recently read in Scarlet magazine that Viafin-Atlas makes SenSlip, an artificial retractable foreskin for circumcised men. 

  

 

 

 

The SenSlip on a penis. www.senslip.com

Regardless of what I think, we’d like to know what you think! So for this week’s Poll of the week, we ask:

  - JD