Quote:
Originally Posted by Periwinkle  Well, I suppose speaking statistically, this is true. But I know an awful lot of people and the people whose circles we run in do not seem to even be aware of the circ issue much less choosing to keep their son intact. Even the moms I know moms who seem totally crunchy, very well educated, they EBF, cosleep, babywear... and their sons are still all cut. Then take the fact that those of us who are crunchier are a minority compared to those who are more mainstream, and I can't help but think there is NO way I am just the victim of some bad selection bias and that, in fact, the circ rate for the boys we are in contact with has got to be far and above even 90%. And if as "many" as 1 in 10 boys were actually intact I would almost be excited.   I disagree, clearly. Is it enough to make me want to circ my son? Hayl no. But do I care that no one around us seems to get it and that he very well might be teased in school? I mean, he's a CHILD. Of course it matters.
"No one"? I can tell by the fact that you totally blow off this concern that you have never seen a boy teased mercilessly for having an intact penis. I have. It was brutal. Awful. All through middle school and high school, he was completely ridiculed for it, all the girls thought he was "gross" and made fun of his "cheese dick", called him "CD" (he is STILL called this at reunions etc) and anytime anyone started to get close to him to date him or go to a dance or the prom with him, that girl was teased also. He went to the senior prom alone because his date backed out at the last minute. Teenagers can be crueler than professional torturers and I am not exaggerating when I say it ruined his childhood (the teasing/bullying, not the lack of circ, obviously). I am hardly excited about the prospect of this happening to my son and want to know NOW what the deal is with circ rates because I thought it was this whole movement sweeping the nation and I'm just really questioning whether, outside of MDC, any educated, affluentish people out there are even aware of the problem.  For example, the fact that Medicaid no longer covers it is AWESOME but totally irrelevant in terms of having an impact on who my kids are going to school with. Reason #953 to move to Portland.   |
You are right. I have never seen teasing like that because it's very unusual, at least these days, due to somebody's intact/cut stance. Teasing occurs when the subject in question can be easily turned into a victim. I am guessing that this boy had a lot more problems than the mere fact that he was intact. I rather doubt that he did not go to the senior prom because of his foreskin. He had probably a lot of different problems that were the source of the teasing, and him having a foreskin was just one superficial excuse. If you are confident, have a good body image, and hang out with a decent and aspiring group of people from a good environment your chances of falling into "the wrong crowd" and being the victim of some malicious teasing decrease substantially. Perhaps, this boy in question should have found a group of friends who were not total idiots, who today are not digging ditches somewhere. The same thing goes for the example of the girl which you gave. If my friends would tease me non-stop (i am not talking here about an occasional joke) because the girl I was going out with had small breasts, man I would quickly get the clue that these guys were not my true friends and that I should go out and meet new people. I am sorry, but your example was extremely weak and superficial. No self-respecting girl would hang out with "friends" that could not except the fact that her boyfriend was intact. In addition, if a girl has just a drop of intelligence, she won't care whether the boyfriend is intact or not. It's a non-issue, both from my experiences and from what I had read. And it's pretty clear to me that girls who have had both cut/intact prefer the intact guy. Most girls don't really know anything on circ. and sometimes can't even tell the difference. The fact that intact guys can have more pleasure and add a whole dimension to sex is not a huge secret either. It only takes a simple google search to find that out.
Does teasing occur. Sure. Most of it is in good nature. Will the popular jock who is intact be teased because of his foreskin. No, of course not. At the worst, what may happen is an occasional joke. For most people, it's a non-issue.
I graduated in 2006 from a HS in a very white, small town in PA (working class, uneducated, low income level), and I hanged out in plenty of locker rooms, including those at the swimming pool and at Tae Known Doe. I don't even know the status of most of my friends. From what I have seen in locker rooms in general, there were both uncut and cut guys. But, nobody ever talked about it. We all did our thing and left, and I never paid attention enough to care who had a circumcision or not. The only time I ever heard a comment about my intactness was when I was 11 and when I was taking a shower with my friend. He was cut and curious about my skin. The conversation lasted 10 seconds, and then we moved on to other things. Since then, not a single comment or problem in the gf department. Believe me, most of the conversations that I was having with my friends in HS centered more on our AP scores, SATs, colleges, and our psychotic girlfriends, lol. Foreskin never made it on that list.
Most people on here have very similar experiences and are completely surprised when people make such a huge deal of the "locker room issue." The locker room issue is not an issue, it's a total myth. Seriously, nobody cares. And when it comes to teasing in general, more and more schools are introducing "not tolerance" policies. So, again, I don't know why people worry about it. If you are constantly worried that something bad will happen to you, then yes, eventually something bad will happen to you. Frankly, your child is much more likely to be teased if he has braces or if his nose looks a little funny or if he is clumsy than because he has a foreskin. Would you sign him up for surgery because of any of that, no of course not. Not to mention that I can much more easily make of the guy who had half his dick cut off to put it bluntly.
I have a friend, he is from the suburbs of Philly by the way, who is pissed that he was cut and told me that from his locker room experiences about 40% of the kids were uncut. That's almost half of the people, and we are talking about kids who were born 20 years ago. By the way, my friend's story got me researching circ., and I very quickly found out that there are a lot of people both in the US and around the world who are very pissed about what was done to them. Circumcision is no big secret anymore thanks to the internet, and anybody with a pulse knows that it's pretty normal to be either cut or not. In the US, it's not unusual anymore to belong in either category.
Another indicator of the decreased rates is the porn industry. Lots of uncut guys there.
Lastly, I don't know where you live or who you spend your time with or how many people you know. But as I said, the more diverse, educated, and urban the people are, the lower the circ. rate. The people who you know may know nothing about circ. Well, then you can educate them. And it's silly to say that everyone in your community is cut. There both cut and uncut people and yes to use your words, "the movement has swept the nation." Time, newsweek, new york times, LA times, washington post, etc all have done stories within the past year on how much circ. has decreased. So, given where the rates were 30+ years ago, the movement has made lots of headway.
it's as strong as ever?? groan Would that our neighborhood was made up of people on MDC. 
