Embarrassed by your circumcision?

My foreskin was removed when I was 7 as a preventive precaution against possible complications for phimosis. This was something that I never quite stomached!

Apart from Jews and Moslems, the vast majority of Frenchmen are not circumcised. I somehow felt "abnormal! I was a bit embarrassed when I disrobed the first time with girlfriends; I told them about the issue. (I also had to tell them to go easy on the scar when rubbing)

It's only now that I've found Zity that I can talk about such issues without feeling too much like a weirdo!

How about you? Especially if circumcised in a culture where it's uncommon?

My foreskin was removed when I was 7 as a preventive precaution against possible complications for phimosis.

Since I’ve come to understand what was done to me an so many others like me, I get very angry when I hear about child genital cutting. I certainly don’t know your specific situation, @Jacana, but I know that no one should be diagnosed with phimosis and cut before about age 17. The foreskin is adhered to the glans and separates when the time is right. So many children have been harmed by doctors and parents who didn’t understand this and force retracted boys’ foreskin leading to the problems that might actually require genital cutting later. Even if the phimosis was clinical, there are steroid creams and stretching exercises that can solve this. If surgery is really necessary, the doctor can make a dorsal slit that relieves the phimosis without removing any foreskin tissue. I grieve for every man and future man who had this done to them and for myself because I honestly believe my best life was stolen from me on day 2 of life by an adult in a lab coat with a knife.

Here in the U.S. there is a growing “intactivist” movement working to end this crisis. Protest groups like Bloodstained Men and Cockfight USA are protesting on street corners and at sporting events to raise awareness. Every time I am confronted by a man who says he’s cut and he’s just fine, I can only hear what sounds like a blind man trying to describe the color red and being proud of his answer.

Yes, I am embarrassed to have a scar where the most sensitive part of my body should be, but I’m also furious that it happened and continues to happen. I won’t be happy until men have the justice and the rights they deserve.

On Zity the debates concerning circumcision are balanced. If we take into account the American members, there must be as many circumcised men as uncircumcised. This is not the case on other forums dedicated solely to circumcision which are mainly pro- or anti-circumcision.

I also have a lot of questions, but, unlike @Jacana, I have never been embarrassed by this state and I have never apologized for being so. I even think I was proud of not being like everyone else.

I also don't remember making the connection with religious circumcisions in my childhood. It was only much later that I realized that a circumcised boy in my class could have been circumcised because he could have been Muslim. I put it in the conditional because he never spoke about it, neither about his religion, nor about his circumcision.

Not embarrassed, but envious sometimes of men I see who are intact. My dad, who was uncircumcised, was overseas during WWII when I was born. I believe my catholic mother made the decision that I be circumcised. I like the clean look, but feel deprived of the look at sensations associated with an intact penis.

My only experience with having the opposite status of the local culture was showering at gyms in the U.K. and E.U. In many of these cases, I had the only circumcised penis. I had absolutely no embarrassment and enjoyed the fact that I did not have to be bothered with retraction of the foreskin to clean the glans and enjoyed having my glans visible to the others who were present.

I also don't remember making the connection with religious circumcisions in my childhood.

Making a religious connection was almost drilled into me by my Belgian mother and others. It was an article of dogma that only Jews and (later in time) Muslims were circumcised and that it could have had very dangerous consequences not more than a few years before my birth. This was always in my mind.

My (first) girlfriend and later wife, was the first to fool around with my penis (on our first encounter) and she later told me she was relieved I had not been circumcised, since she knew I had grown up in the US and knew about the prevalent custom there. Since she knew nothing about me when we had our first bit of sexual fun, she told me that later her friends were often curious and she was relieved to tell them that I was normal as Nature intended and not circumcised.

I can say that at present, with inter-religious marriages occurring more often, people, friends, family often wonder and try to dispel thoughts of unease with Belgian/European women marrying a Muslim spouse.

Just as many American ladies don't feel at ease with an intact penis, over here it is often the opposite. And it is the religious dimension that is at the bottom of this.

Making a religious connection was almost drilled into me by my Belgian mother and others. It was an article of dogma that only Jews and (later in time) Muslims were circumcised and that it could have had very dangerous consequences not more than a few years before my birth. This was always in my mind.

Interesting, this may be because Belgium experienced occupation by the Nazis while Switzerland was not invaded, which does not mean that there was no anti-Semitism in my country.

The only doctor who said it was good that I was circumcised had a name that might indicate he was Jewish. It was only very recently that I realized this. He was not my pediatrician, so he did not know the reasons of this operation and he gave his opinion spontaneously, even though he had come to treat a flu. He also saw that my brother was not, which indicated that it was not for religious reasons.

@exam_doc There is a huge difference between seeing naked people in a locker room and having them play with your private parts!!!

No. I don’t even think about it.

As an American, my only experience being in an environment where I was in the small minority with a circumcised penis happened on a trip to Berlin, Germany. I visited a spa called Kristall Therme (Google it for more info). There are many of these in Germany. They are basically large spa facilities with hot pools and saunas. There are often several hundred people there at once. You are required to be nude. It is men, women and families all there together. Even the locker room is mixed sexes. When I walked around this place, I noticed that just about all of the men were uncircumcised. I was definitely in the minority with a circumcised penis. I was not embarrassed by it. I’m not sure if anyone really noticed or looked at my circumcised penis since it was different. Germans seem to have a very casual attitude toward nudity which is good. Visiting this place was a very interesting experience that I would highly recommend.

I have never found myself to be embarrassed to be circumcised, quite the opposite, I would say that I feel confident in having what I consider to be an improved penis, in most situations I am in the minority as circumcised, I don't think that makes any difference, however it would for sure be nice to have the experience of bieng in a locker room where most all guys are circumcised such as the US,

What seems to be happening in recent years though is people are becoming embarrassed of nudity, to the point of regressing society back to cubicles instead of changing rooms, depressing.

My foreskin was removed when I was 7 as a preventive precaution against possible complications for phimosis. This was something that I never quite stomached!

Prophylactic and hygienic circumcisions are very common in the U.S., and there is really no reason for a male to be embarrassed, shy, uncomfortable, or upset about the fact that his penis been previously circumcised. Permanent exposure of the entire penile head is the natural consequence of a proper circumcision.

I was circumcised right after birth while I was still in the hospital. I thought that was normal since all of my male friends and relatives were also circumcised. I never even saw an uncircumcised penis until I was in Junior High School at age 12 and saw 2 older boys in my Gym Class that were uncircumcised and made a habit of showing off in the changeroom. Circumcision seemed to be the norm for almost all Canadian boys when I was growing up.

@madebare Because it is uncommon in France outside of Muslim and Jewish populations, it embarrassed me at an age when I was inexperienced sexually. I thought girls would find it weird! A vast majority of French woman back then had never seen a circumcised penis; I suppose this is different today with porn! And definitely for some it was not what they were used to, seeing how they handled it! Is this so difficult to understand?

Because it is uncommon in France outside of Muslim and Jewish populations,

The same applies to the rest of European countries as well. Circumcision is simply not routine and/or common.

The opposite actually. I always found it embarrassing for people to know I was uncut. I reckon it's about 50/50 for my age and location, but on the rare occasions I was in a position to be seen naked I tended to skin back and hope it stayed in place. My confidence in locker rooms has skyrocketed since having it done.

Frankly, quite glad for my circumcision. I find it to be cleaner than the smegma that those cheese collecting Philistines carry around. lol There's no doubt about the science that women married to the uncircumsized have more cervical dysplasia, cancers and the like.*

* https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6365441/

Not embarrassed but also not happy it was done to me. I’m just another guy in the US that was circed as an infant for no reason.

From SE US, circumcised at birth. Nearly every one of my friends was also circumcised. Similar to some other posts, the most out of place I've felt was a group shower situation in Europe at a pool/hot tub type deal. I wasn't embarrassed, but actually kinda proud. I was 33, gang shower type deal with about 6 heads on opposite walls in a small shower room. A lot of dads with their sons there. I was the only one circumcised, and I definitely noticed some staring. But I like what I have and wasn't ashamed or embarrassed

Nope

No, not at all. I believe that for the majority of Americans at least, we were circumcised at birth. Unless you came from a strict Catholic family who kept the penis intact. I have met and been with uncut men and do not have an issue.

Never been circumcised but came close to it..

I caught my foreskin in my trouser zip when rushing to leave the bathroom on a night out with the guys...

I nicked a vein and thought id been stabbed lol...was relieved to find it was only a small cut.

I was circumcised when I was nine. About half the males in my family are uncircumcised and even though most of the boys I grew up with were circumcised, I was also proud to have a foreskin. After my circumcision, felt a little embassed when I undressed I front of my friends who were still intact. When we started showing after sports and at PE and I got better sense of the percentage of boys who were intact I regretted not having a foreskin. Still do.

If it was not common in your family they must have had a reason.

Being a very rare operation here in Spain and being the only one without a foreskin in my family and circle of friends. Yes, I felt strange or that I didn't fit in.

Here in Spain in the 80s it was not unusual for children to walk naked on the beach. On a beach vacation It happened to me that I was playing with other children, his mother went to look for them and when they were about to leave, She tells them say goodbye to your little Jewish friend, at the time I didn't understand and it wasn't the only time that happened to me, usually the parents ended up talking about it with my parents.

With my first girlfriend I don't say ages, I had to tell her about my condition and I remember that they were very curious but they helped me a lot because they knew how to make me feel

Being a very rare operation here in Spain and being the only one without a foreskin in my family and circle of friends. Yes, I felt strange or that I didn't fit in.

Here in Spain in the 80s it was not unusual for children to walk naked on the beach. On a beach vacation It happened to me that he was playing with other children, his mother went to look for them and when they were about to leave, He tells them goodbye to his little Jewish friend, a

Americans seem to have little appreciation or notion of the religious connotations that circumcision has in many European countries. And the residual fears still present that circumcision identifies one as belonging to a religious (or for some people, a racial) minority that has recently enough been the victim of some horrid historical atrocities.

Not exactly embarrassment, though I do sometimes feel a sense of additional nakedness and exposure when undressed in the presence of an intact man/men. As I am in the U.S., I mostly blend in with my surroundings in a locker room or same-sex sexual encounter. But I always wonder what must run through an intact man’s mind when he sees my penis.

Never

Ohh absolutely... I got 'the snip' at 8 and for the like two weeks afterwards I was practically pantless while healing..

I elected to have the surgery when I was an adult so I felt proud and looked forward to showing it off, however I was a bit humbled when I discovered that no woman I was with really cared one way or the other. The only comment I ever received was from the nurse when I went in for a vasectomy. She noticed based on my ethnicity that circumcision was very unusual and said the doctor did a fine job and it was much cleaner this way. Then she told me a story about her son getting his foreskin caught in his zipper.