Female smegma and cleaning

[klg47]

If you have ever been in a conversation with a woman who was planning to circ because it's so gross and hard to clean, have you ever asked her bluntly about her own smegma cleaning practices? Have you asked her how difficult it is to clean smegma from under her clitoral hood? Was she even aware that smegma collects there? Did you ask her if she knew that women produce more smegma than men? If so, I'd LOVE to hear the reaction I can't wait until I am brave enough to have this conversation with a woman!

[LavenderMae]

I have more than once mentioned that women have more folds and such to clean than intact men do but we all seem to do okay cleaning ourselves. I seriously hate the "it's cleaner" myth, I guess I have a lot more respect for and confidence in men than a lot of other Americans do because I completely think men are capable of cleaning themselves.

[Kathryn]

I actually have said such in conversations. They do stop and think, but most still won't change their minds because the idea of female circumcision for cleanliness is so far reaching for them.

[KA29]

I have kind of brought that up. A friend of mine who had circ'd her boys prior was telling me she did it because it was easier to clean. I just told her there was a time that I might have thought the same but having had a girl as my oldest, I knew it was much harder to keep her clean but I would never ever have cut any of her genitals off to make it easier. And that ime with ds I hadn't run across any problems cleaning him anyway. I think it did make her think but I have no idea what she would do if she had another boy.

[klg47]

I looked up some information on female smegma, and shockingly, these Q&A answers from the Ask Alice column recommend dealing with the problem, not amputating the clitoral hood (imagine that logic!!). These might be useful to pass on to a "circ is cleaner" mom. And they're not from anti-circ sites, so they won't turn anyone off because of that.

pain from hardened smegma - http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/2242.html

normal smegma - http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/2546.html

[Daisyuk]

Those are incredibly useful links to throw at the "Smegma is gross" women, I'd love to see their faces when they realise that they have it too.

[Meg_s]

Oh yeah... the worst being the one who used her sister as a disgusting example of poor parenting for not circumcising. How she was giving her 11 year old boy erections by cleaning under his foreskin with a q-tip and how disgusting and smelly her own 10 year old boy already was, she can't imagine how much worse it would be with foreskin. I suppose she imagines I'm cleaning under my baby boy's foreskin with a q-tip and will be "giving him erections" for the next 10 years. She had no interest in hearing about how boys can actually clean themselves just fine when they're not babies and that I'll have nothing to do with my son's penis after a certain age.

[Daisyuk]

That sounds rather like a fetishist. They LOVE to talk about things like that.

[klg47]

Originally Posted by Daisyuk

I'd love to see their faces when they realise that they have it too.

And I'm sure that many women don't realize this! I have always cleaned my vulva-area in the shower every day, but I never really looked at all the crevices until I was dealing with a yeast infection a year or two ago. I was paying more careful attention and started noticing white stuff. I eventually realized that this was smegma, not yeast, but I was kind of embarrassed that I didn't know about it for so long

[Ivan's Mom]

I got this reaction from a woman who was walking along with her partner this weekend at the Washington DC GIAW demo. I told her that women had more issues with keeping clean in the genital area than men and that if she could trust herself to keep clean, she should trust her partner to do the same. She sarcastically said, "believe what you want." : Her partner gave me a slight nod.