When you were a kid, how did you learn the difference between circumcised and non-circumcised boys?

Meaning learning about uncircumcised penises if all you've seen are circumcised ones and vice versa. How did you find out and how did you react?

Unlike most other American girls (especially those in my town, which by being a upper-class southern east-coast neighborhood that was almost entirely white, had a circumcision rate close to 100%), my brother's penis was uncircumcised. My mom was very liberal and hippie-esque (obviously, she clashed with our neighborhood) so she opted out of having my little brother (1.5 years younger than me) circumcised.

Because we were so close in age, we took bathed together until I was in 1st grade and he was in Kindergarten. We also "played doctor" constantly around the same time we stopped bathing together. Because of this, I had become very familiar with his penis and I assumed that was what a boy was supposed to look like and that all the boys in my class resembled him below the belt. When he was in 3rd grade (I was in 4th), our pediatrician was concerned he couldn't retract his foreskin yet and she told my mom to take him to a urologist, who gave my mom a cream to put on his foreskin every night to loosen it.

One night, my mom caught me trying to sneak a peek when she was putting the cream on my brother (at this point, all I knew was that there was something wrong with his privates). Instead of being mad, she told me to come into the bathroom and watch (she didn't believe in kids, especially boys, having modesty) and explained to me that the skin was tighter than it was supposed to be and it had to be loosened with the cream or he would have to go to the doctor and get it cut off. For the next three years, I thought of the foreskin as something like an appendix, where every boy had one, but on the off chance something bad happens, it gets removed.

One night in 7th grade, I was sleeping over at my best friend's house, helping her babysit her baby brother, and this included giving him a bath. When I noticed he didn't have any skin on his penis, I asked my friend why and when her brother got his foreskin cut off. She was obviously very confused, and told me that he's always looked like this.

When her mom came home the next morning, we asked her about it and she explained circumcision, along with it's benefits and it's prevalence in America. The next day in school, me and my friend asked all of the girls in our friend group who had brothers whether her brother's penis looked more like a " mushroom" or a "crayola crayon". Every girl said mushroom.

Does anybody have a similar experience going either way (seeing cut as normal and learning about uncut or vice versa)?

Well.. my mom did not pay attention to this body part of mine until her sister, on doctor's orders, had to retract my cousin's foreskin every evening - like your mother did to your brother. In his case, perhaps because the cream you describe (steroids I assume) was not in use at the time, this failed and, on doctor's advice, she had my cousin circumcised. He told me later his surprise at the results of the surgery - he had been told there was something to fix but not what the fix would be! So my own mother freaked out had examined me in front of my aunt (I was a bit tight but not as my cousin), took me to the doctor and I was instructed to fully retract the foreskin every evening and to wash with soap. The cousin later showed me the result.

My wife is American and I was the first uncircumcised penis she saw, though of course she knew "intellectually" of circumcision. My mother in law was very surprised when she changed our son's diapers - like "in America we have it cut" (in the spirit that "in America we do what's best").

Did your brother have to be circumcised? Did he cry during the "dilatation" with the cream (I was told my cousin did, because it was painful)?

What benefits of circumcision did this other mother mention?

He teared up just about every time, but as far as I know, he only cried once (and it was kinda my fault). The reason he cried was that my mom was busy with something and asked me to help him put the cream on (knowing that I had seen her do it, and also knowing that we played doctor so he would be okay with me doing it), I accidentally pulled it too far back (but he was so tight that "too far back" was only 1/4th the way down the glans) and he started bawling.

No, he never got circumcised. But, he never ended up becoming able to comfortably retract his foreskin more than half way down the head.

She basically said it was cleaner (she grossed us out pretty bad by describing smegma), healthier (she cited my brother as an example), better for a boy socially (meaning boys are rejected and made fun of for having foreskin).

"he never ended up becoming able to comfortably retract his foreskin more than half way down the head"

Is he grown up now? I would think that if phimosis did not subside after puberty physicians would suggest some kind of surgery, perhaps not circumcision but still..

Or maybe your mom was against any form of surgery.

Swimming pool changing rooms

Locker room for physical education in the seventh grade. Ever since I first saw an uncircumcised penis, I have always liked the appearance of the circumcised penis better.

I honestly don't know when I first saw a male that was uncircumcised. I'm cut and I vividly remember changing and showering in high school P.E. class (my first real exposure to other nude males). Yet I don't consciously remember seeing any of them that looked all that different from me. I certainly don't remember any that had that extra flap of skin. I believe I was consciously aware that there was this thing called circumcision, and that I was circumcised, but never saw someone who wasn't in the flesh.

The first time I did actually see someone who was uncircumcised was probably as a young adult, in the locker room of the club where I used to workout.

Please stick to the topic at hand in this thread--learning others look different from you. There are other threads about whether or not the procedure is necessary/appropriate.

I am circumcised as we're all of my age mates growing up as I recall. It was such a prevalent a practice in the '60s in the American Midwest. It never came up as a topic of conversation when I was a kid.

My father is uncut though. I always thought that was just what an "old man's" penis looked like and that mine would look like that some day. I held that belief until I was about 10 years old and was introduced to the concept of circumcision somehow or other. I scrambled to dictionaries and encyclopedias hoping to see some graphic examples. I paid a lot more attention to photos in National Geographic in my quest to find out what penises looked like in a natural state after that revaluation.

I remember that my mother told me my penis circumcised. I think this came about since the Church celebrated the Feast of the Circumcision on January 1 every year and it was by way of explanation. I didn't really visualize what that meant until my cousin from out of town visited one summer and I saw his foreskin when we changed into pajamas one night.

I remember that my mother told me my penis circumcised. I think this came about since the Church celebrated the Feast of the Circumcision on January 1 every year

Oh my, can't help laughing because of this. I remember that the cathedral in our city used to house the Relic of the Holy Prepuce. Really and truly, so it was claimed. It was apparently a gift from the King of Jerusalem in 1100. It disappeared in 1566 when (unpaid) Spanish troops went on a rampage and burned and sacked the city for several days. Maybe it's lying in some old chest in an old Spanish house somewhere. Just imagine ... 😃 When guides take tourists on tours of the Medieval city, the foreskin relic is sometimes mentioned, to give the tour a more light-hearted and comical feel. It's always good for some chuckling and shaking of heads at the credulousness of former eras ...

There were other similar claims in other cities and places during the Middle Ages. 'In addition to the Holy Foreskin of Rome (later Calcata), other claimants included the Cathedral of Le Puy-en-Velay, Santiago de Compostela, the city of Antwerp, Coulombs in the diocese of Chartres, as well as Chartres itself, and churches in Besançon, Metz, Hildesheim, Charroux, Conques, Langres, Fécamp, Stoke-on-Trent[citation needed], Calcata, and two in Auvergne.' - from wikipedia.

Not as a kid I didn't. Never really understood what a circumcision meant until I was older because every boy I knew, especially my brothers, was circumcised like me. Everyone looked the same in that department in PE and everywhere else that we changed clothes or showered. First saw a young guy in a communal changing room at a department store who was trying on jeans. He was not wearing underwear so it was obvious that he wasn't circumcised. This was years ago and every guy I knew wore underwear so it was a surprise when this guy is trying on jeans near me and he is totally without. This was in the young guys' jeans department so that store must have decided that a changing room for guys was no different than a locker room. My reaction was less on the no underwear, although that was unexpected, and more on how different he looked down there.

For me it was just from being at school and noticing other boys whose penis looked different from mine. The school I went to had, surprisingly for the US, a fairly high number of uncircumcised boys (myself included). From my best memory, maybe 1/4 of the boys I saw were uncircumcised.

I was in college before I ever saw an uncircumcised penis. I had a friend who was from a foreign country and saw him in the showers. At first I didn't know why his penis was different than every other one I had seen. I don't remember how or when I learned that he was uncircumcised.

This thread intrigues me .. I’d always wondered if uncircumcised guys in the US could have felt as alien as I did as a circumcised guy in the UK, because the statistics for percentages of circumcised cocks are the exact opposite of the US (fully on or off, just as the foreskin in question!). Coming from the UK, I reckon circumcised cocks are as rare as about 1 in 30 in my experience. Being cut, I'd grown up being teased mercilessly in school communal showers (the only cut cock in my class for several years).

It had seemed to me that UK society was of the view that the head of a penis (at least the rim of it) should only be seen during sex (whether with a partner or your own hand) so its viewing should be super-private. In fact, not having a foreskin felt more naked than naked, like yet another layer more private than clothes had been taken away (which it had).

I have moved to Australia, where it seems circumcision is more like 1 in 4. This has helped me to now get more comfortable with group nudity, and I now get a sense of liberation from sharing nudity with others, all the more enhanced by having initially been so awkward of being seen by other men.

I took little notice of it at the time, but at a YMCA weekend sleepover, I was awoken at night by a supervisor and taken to the WC. He stood behind me and held my penis telling me to urinate, urging me on as I was barely awake. I remember hearing something about the supervisors wanting to be sure kids did not wet their sleeping-bags, but as I got older and somewhat wiser, I began to wonder if he did it for the fondling opportunities it offered instead.

I must have asked or said something about it the next day to a few other kids at the sleep-over, but no one else had to do it.

So that is my guess: a opportunity to check out the uncircumcised kid a bit closer.

I learned fairly early on after a swim lesson, I think. Boys changed and showered in the nude back then. While changing, I noticed a fellow swimmer had a different looking penis. He was cut; I am not. On the car ride home, I asked my mom about the difference and she explained it, and how I was actually to be snipped if not for being born prematurely.

Lucky me...?

Although I was born in a community with a circumcision rate of 99%, my two brothers and myself were not circumcised at birth. As a preschooler I was not the least bit modest about running around the house without pants and exposing my genitals. I did not see a circumcised penis until I entered Kindergarten. I did not understand why my penis was different from my classmates. I was 5 y/o.

For my Second Grade class Christmas presentation of "Little Drummer Boy" we dressed in our pajamas. A friend of my mother, a nurse, changed me from my street clothes to my pajamas. When she removed my pants she realized that I was not circumcised. She pushed my foreskin back exposing my glans and commented "that's looks better, I need to talk to your mother about getting you circumcised". She proceeded to dress me in my flannel pajamas. I was somewhat fidgety with my exposed glans rubbing against my flannel pajamas.

Side note: During the presentation my penis slipped out through the opening in the front of my pajamas. The girl next to me commented "your penis is showing". OPPS!!!! Fortunately, I was in the back row. I was 3 weeks short of my birthday of age 8. The comment "getting you circumcised" did not register with me that my foreskin needed to be cut off.

The summer after my third grade, My mother enrolled me in a swimming class. In the showers at the pool I soon realized that I was the only male that sported a foreskin. ALL the other students had their glans exposed. Many of my classmates flaunted their circumcision status. I still did not understand why my penis was different. I was 9 y/o.

The first day of my fourth grade class, a friend wanted to show me his "circumcision". I had no idea what he was talking about so we proceeded to the boys rest room. He lowered his pants and showed me his penis. His glans was exposed like all the rest of my classmates that I had seen. He explained to me how the doctor had cut off his foreskin. He was now a "Man". He had been circumcised at the beginning of the summer break. I was appalled by the whole experience.

Why would a doctor cut off his foreskin???? My relationship with my friend soon ended for fear that I too would be required to have my foreskin cut off. Thus, my initial understanding that boys had to have their foreskins cut off (circumcised). OMG.

The summer after my fourth grade class, my mother and I were at the beach. Another lady with her 5 y/o son tossed a blanket next to ours. She proceeded to remove the boys clothing. After she remove the boys pants, he came running over to me and stuck his penis about a foot from my face. His glans was completely exposed and was a deep purple. He had just recently been circumcised. The ragged suture line behind his glans still retained the stitches. I stared at his circumcised penis with intrigue and intent.

His mother commented that he like to run around without his pants since having had him circumcised. A discussion between the lady and my mother regarding circumcision followed. I was 10 y/o. I had a deepening concern regarding circumcision. Would the lady's comments influence my mother to have my foreskin circumcised???? Was this the reason that I ended up on the doctor's exam table two years later?

The following two years, grades 5 and 6, I had the opportunity to witness many classmates using the urinals. I was curious and would always glance over to see if they were circumcised. ALL of the penises that I witnessed had their glans exposed with a prominent scar behind their glans. ALL peed a straight stream of urine while mine dribbled through my foreskin. I was age 10 through 12 during this period. It was the summer after my 6th grade that I fearfully ended up on the doctor's exam table. I have posted that experience elsewhere in this forum. If you have not seen it I can repeat it here.

I was born in 1950 in the state where Dr. John Harvey Kellogg practiced medicine in the early 1900's. Dr. Kellogg was of the firm belief that ALL little boys should be circumcised to prevent them from masturbating. Hence, the reason for the 99% circumcision rate.

A neighbor and friend, 3 years younger than me was circumcised at the age of 11 or 12 (I was 14 or 15). He commented to me that he had recently been circumcised. He displayed his penis and commented "Look what they did to my boy". I intently stared at his penis. The scar behind his glans was very ragged. It appeared as if the doctor used a pair of coarse "pinking scissors" to cut off his foreskin. There were places where the groove behind his glans was visible yet he still had loose flaps of skin. I was reluctant to comment as my friend was very upset.

To uncutforeskin, your story about your little penis sticking out of your PJ bottoms during your Christmas play was super cute and priceless. Thank you for sharing that with us. I just giggled and giggled. Seriously super adorable.

I don't remember when I knew that there were basically two versions. It's weird because I knew it eventually but I don't have a clue as to when I found out or how I found out. I grew up in Amishville USA so it's not like we had access to that sort of information either.

When I was in college I slept with my friend Rick who was not cut. I didn't get a real good look at him because we were a little ummm drunk and we didn't turn on any lights, lol. That was one of those times when we were really good friends, and shit happens. We were actually both bartenders at the time that worked at competing bars next door to each other, lol. Well we both had the night off and we wound up in his apartment. The sex was good but we woke up in the morning and we just laughed. We both agreed it was good but it was a one time thing and we wouldn't talk about it again because we didn't want it to ruin our friendship. I was able to get a better look at him that morning. We stood there discussing terms and conditions naked, lol. I tried not to stare, lol.

Our relationship actually did change after that, and for the better. We were really good friends before and even better friends after. We never slept together again but we had a great relationship, always had each others back. We are still good friends to this day.

Mashie

I don't remember seeing any of them that looked all that different from me at school. When I was about 15 I remember hearing my mom asking her friend why she did not get her baby cut. I did not know what she speaks talking about. Later in life I learned more and because I am cut, I am intrigued by uncut.

I was 9 when I saw (or noticed) an uncircumcised penis. My mom and I were visiting an former neighbor with two younger boys (about 6 and 3). It was summer and hot and unknown to us, they had a backyard pool. We had arrived in time for lunch, after lunch (and the obligatory hour wait to prevent cramps) we boys could get into the pool. I hadn't brought swim trunks. The boys mom said "No problem, my boys always skinny dip". I didn't know the phrase, but my mom explained it meant swimming naked. I was fairly modest at that age, but my mom insisted and proceed to strip me. I tried to pull away, but my mom said not to be silly, punctuating it with a threat of a spanking.

We boys spend the rest of the afternoon naked (and I really liked it, especially swimming naked.) I noticed the brothers' penises looked different but thought it might be a deformity, so didn't mention it. It the was older brother that asked me, in front of my mother, why I never pulled my foreskin down. I didn't understand so my mom explained that my foreskin had been removed when I was a baby.

I had no idea. All the other penises I had ever seen were like mine. It took quite a while to wrap my head around this concept.

Interesting thread. I am circumcised and growing up in America in a middle class soico-economic scale during the 50's and 60's all the boys had been circumcised. I really had only seen my older brother and some of his friends penises- all were circumcised.

Fast forward to me getting my first "porn" magazine in my early teens and seeing a guy who was not circumcised. I thought it was just a particular trait of this guy's penis. I was wondering how the entire head of this guy's penis (he was pictured without an erection) was covered by skin. I pull the skin of my penis up over the head of my glans and it would not even come close to staying covered. I was confused.

At this point I asked some of my guy friends and they told me the difference between cut and uncut. That got me wondering what it must have felt like to have the skin cut off right after birth. I of course could not remember it but it sounded painful and I was glad I couldn't remember it.

I was 11 or 12 years old. The hormones of puberty were beginning to kick in and I was masturbating (without orgasm) every night. I had never even seen a naked woman before (long before the Internet). I bought one of those "everything you wanted to know about sex" type books out of desperation to know what the heck I was lusting for...

I had never even heard of circumcision before, and was shocked when I read the chapter. I am circumcised, but I didn't know it when I was that young. I remember being puzzled about what a "foreskin" was because I didn't have anything like that. I couldn't believe that my parents would have had a part of my body removed without telling me, and it didn't occur to me for a long time that I had been circumcised but didn't know it (yes, I know this sounds stupid, but I totally trusted my parents.

I finally (a year or two later) confirmed with my mother that I had been circumcised, and was horrified at what had been done to me (it still makes me ill to think about it). That is the LAST place in the world that I would want something cut off of. I don't care what kind of arguments anyone makes for circumcision (hygiene, etc). I think it's barbaric...

I never saw an uncut penis until I had to shower with other boys in high school. Nearly all of the other kids were also cut. But I still wish my parents hadn't done that to me without my permission. I know in some countries they wait until the boy is old enough to have a say in whether the procedure is done or not. I would never have allowed it...

But I still wish my parents hadn't done that to me without my permission. I know in some countries they wait until the boy is old enough to have a say in whether the procedure is done or not. I would never have allowed it...

It's not in 'some countries'. In most (non-Muslim/non-Jewish) countries circumcision is not done on the under-aged, unless there is a serious medical indication.

The first time I ever even knew there was a visual difference was when I was in the late stage of my first pregnancy and was given literature to go over and chose if I was to have a boy . I have to say I was a little shocked at the difference . To this day , in person I have only seen helmets . ?

Well before I joined zity I did not know a lot of Americans do not know what a foreskin looks like and how it makes a difference. I was a bit shocked about that. @bridgette I do not think you are just by yourself.

To HumblePatient: visit "Brother K" on facebook - https://www.facebook.com/richard.carver.779

In our extended family, all males were uncircumcised. It was not until I went to kindergarten that I first saw a circumcised penis and I was recall being very confused, but it was not a subject I wished to discuss with my mom or dad at age 5. Around age 9, I was staying overnight at a friend's house and his mom gave us a bath and commented that I was "uncut".

I finally got the courage up to ask my older sister, who was then 16, and being the great sister she is, she took me to the library and selected a couple of books for me to get my first "sex education."

I was pleased that my parents and extended family believed that circumcision was a decision that should be left to the child. When my wife and I had our two boys, even though her brother and dad had been circumcised, she agreed with me to leave our boys uncircumcised.

I grew up uncircumcised in a time and place where seemingly 99% of boys in my peer group were circumcised at birth (white, middle class, USA, 80s) but I didn't know there was a difference, or what circumcision was, until I was about 7 or 8, because I never saw anyone else's penis and no one ever explained it to me.

Then one day I was at my babysitter's, who happened to be a friend of my mom's. She had a daughter 2 years older than me, a son my age, and there was another boy she babysat who was also my age. Somehow us kids ended up playing doctor, with the daughter acting as the doctor. Eventually it came to groin inspections, and I guess she didn't know about the existence of circumcision either, because as soon as she saw mine she said "What's wrong with your penis?". Seeing the other two I knew I was different but didn't know why, and I guess it made me really upset because I started bawling.

That's right around when her mother came in and caught us, and of course the daughter had to point it out again - "Mommy his penis is weird!" She scolded the daughter, told us to get dressed, and explained to me that most boys get "fixed" when they are born, because it is cleaner and healthier, but that my mother had chosen not to do it. I was crying asking why it wasn't done for me, and she said not to worry, it could be done at any time.

Later that evening when my mom came to pick me up, I distinctly remember overhearing a conversation between her and my babysitter, asking why I hadn't had it done, saying that it was going to cause me all kinds of problems later on, etc. Got another explanation about it & why it hadn't been done on the way home.