Circumcisions for other reasons

Most circumcised males have been operated upon either at birth, by custom (US), for religious reasons, or for phimosis. I was wondering if there were other reasons.

(One Zity member mentioned that, as a young child, he was reprimanded several times for playing with himself and was later circumcised, so it may be possible that people thought that he was touching himself due to irritation and the best way to get rid of irritation is to circumcise.)

I would suppose that some men have themselves circumcised as a sort of fashion choice, because they think it makes them look more attractive.

I've also read that in some European gay communities it seems that circumcision is something of a badge of acceptance of being openly gay or a statement of sort, namely that they are not ashamed of being gay. Perhaps there is also an element of wishing to emulate the look one sees in gay porn or photo imagery, where probably due to various factors having to d with US predominance in the porn industry, many actors in gay porn are cut. So, that means it comes down to a fashion choice as well I suppose.

A neighbor boy was caught "playing with himself" when he was 12 or 13. His mother took him to the doctor and had him circumcised as punishment. At the same time my younger brother, age 8 or 9, would walk around with his hand in his pants. My mother told him that she would have to take him to the doctor and have his foreskin cut off if she found him with his hands in his pants again.

The 19th century was still alive and well in certain households in the 20th ... I'm certain this was done far more often than reported or discussed, primarily because the parents doing the deciding would not have been so willing to simply come out with their reason, choosing instead to hem and haw around the matter and think up convenient sounding confabulations ...

Uncutforest

What you describe is cruelly but I think about the fact what may have happened with these two mothers in the childhood and in the youth that as adults they announce to punish or punish really the first sexual emotions of her sons in such a severe manner.

Oh no here we go again. You guys just can't keep it zipped up can you?

Was the mother's name Lorena Bobbitt?

Uncutforeskin: Do you know more how this happened?

To Pecan nutjob: This is all that I know about the neighbor boy. I consider this and the lecture my mother gave my brother and myself about my brother with his "hands in his pants" some serious consideration. When I needed to be by myself I would go in my bedroom and tie my belt around the doorknob and then to the bed post. One day the doorknob was turning while I was ..... "experimenting". It was my mother. She ask if everything was okay. Fortunately, my belt stop her entry.

When I needed to be by myself I would go in my bedroom and tie my belt around the doorknob and then to the bed post. One day the doorknob was turning while I was ..... "experimenting". It was my mother. She ask if everything was okay. Fortunately, my belt stop her entry.

Wasn't securing your door with a belt like that reason enough in and of itself to make her suspicious? If I had ever been caught locking or securing my door for any reason, that would not have gone over good.

As children, my brother and I always had locks on our bedroom doors and so do our daughters.

My parents and my husband and I have the sense to either knock or to go away if the door isn't opened right away and to leave the kids alone.

To Agracier: You are correct - it probably would make her suspicious, but it was better than getting caught in the act.

Uncutforeskin: What was this lecture she gave you?

Susie: That's very kind of you. My mother never ever thought about knocking on her children's door and caught me in the act at least twice.

As children, my brother and I always had locks on our bedroom doors and so do our daughters.

Oh, us kids had locks on our doors too. But woe betide anyone caught actually using them. That probably wasn't from parents being suspicious of naughty sexual goings-on, but more from being scared of physical accidents happening and not being able to enter a room ...

Oh, us kids had locks on our doors too. But woe betide anyone caught actually using them. That probably wasn't from parents being suspicious of naughty sexual goings-on, but more from being scared of physical accidents happening and not being able to enter a room ...

So there were locks on the doors and nobody had any keys???

I'm curious about medical literature, or other serious literature, on circumcisions motivated by prevention or cure of masturbation. I know about Kellogg but would like to see how long this went on.

Note: I'm not interested in fetish stories or unverifiable remembrances.

Here's a link to the arcane notion that circumcision can treat habitual masturbation. Utter nonsense.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=2&ved=0ahUKEwiNtve8qtPNAhUO2WMKHdKRD2IQFggMMAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocakilah.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F06%2F15%2Fmale-circumcision-originally-created-to-prevent-masturbation%2F&usg=AFQjCNFxJLUMBUcynRXhJpdxvWBHCG0xsw&sig2=jetvKDqWF-GovRujc21cHQ

Liquidsky: I was aware of such 19th century attitudes but I'm curious how long they remained afterwards. That article mentions somebody from the WWI era, did such beliefs go on between WWI and WWII? Or even post-WWII?

So there were locks on the doors and nobody had any keys???

Talking about inside the house doors. Back in the US the houses we lived in had that odd kind of lock that fit into the doorknob and had to be pressed to activate. Crappy system, since all you needed was a screwdriver to open it anyway - or else some prolonged shaking.

In other houses, the inside doors may have had locks on them, but not necessarily keys. I know my parents went crazy if you dared to lock a bedroom or bathroom door. Imagine falling in a bathtub and then drowning while they tried to knock down the door. My mother's nightmare - one of a multitude.

And in my present house, none of my inside rooms have doors with locks on them, not a one. Mainly because being from 1549, the house was constructed and built long before people designed corridors that allowed for the placement of inside doors.

Outside access though, our house is protected by sturdy, modern locksmith ingenuity. I live in an area of the city people stupidly think is a sort of Medieval Disneyland theme park, so I am careful about denying even accidental access to tour groups, drunks and riff-raff, not to mention the stray pigeon or sewer rat ... 😃

that article mentions somebody from the WWI era, did such beliefs go on between WWI and WWII? Or even post-WWII?

Undoubtedly such beliefs continued for a long time. It is difficult to eradicate beliefs of any kind and can take several generations in some instances.

Here's a link to the arcane notion that circumcision can treat habitual masturbation. Utter nonsense.

I hope you don't mean that the link contains utter nonsense information. Because it is a sort of summation and condensation of what I've read from many other sources over many years.

Liquidsky, Agracier: Indeed. My question is not whether circumcision curbs masturbation is nonsense. My question is whether a significant proportion of the public, especially physicians, believed it, whether it was a reason for circumcision, and how long this lasted.

Whether or not that belief was nonsense is a rather separate question.

No doubt the policy of the United States Army in circumcising men being sent to the Pacific theatre during the war has been already discussed. For the dubious scientific reason that there would be less risk of infection in unsanitary tropical conditions. Even to the point of dismissing a man with a dishonourable discharge for wishing to retain his foreskin. Other armies seem not to have had the same problem. Indeed my brother was uncircumcised but that did not stop him being assessed fit for service in a later jungle war during his conscription medical. Many years after the war I heard a mother justifying the circumcision of a new born saying that it would have to be done anyway if he went to the army.

No doubt the policy of the United States Army in circumcising men being sent to the Pacific theatre during the war has been already discussed.

I suppose many of you have seen the series 'the Pacific', based on the memoirs of 3 marines.

One of the marines, Robert Leckie, wrote an autobiography of his time at war ('a Helmet for My Pillow') and there was a small aside on circumcision, that was - naturally - left out of the TV series. It seems that when Leckie volunteered for the Marines, circumcision was mandatory prior to joining. So he went to his doctor and requested to get cut, whereupon the doc, out of patriotism ad all that, waived his normal $100.00 fee - which I thought it being 1941 and all, was pretty steep.

My own circumcision was because it was tradition for boys to be circumcised at the boarding school I was planned to attend,

here in GB whilst circ is not common amongst the entire English population in the upper classes it was and is a much higher %

the twist is that family circumstances changed and i ended up at a state school

My own circumcision was my own choice as an adult, for cosmetic and sexual reasons. I have always found the circumcised penis more erotic - that's the way my brain is wired - and I determined to have one for myself. Unsurprisingly, I do prefer it now I have one!

It is still not very common in the UK, but I have a feeling that it is slightly on the rise for medical reasons, as men are less unwilling to discuss problems such as a tight foreskin, balanitis, etc. I have a feeling that elective/cosmetic ones may also be increasing, as it's much easier to get it done these days, with several dedicated private clinics. A number of other boards I belong to suggest this is the case. I don't know if it's a specifically gay thing, but several gay men I know have also had elective circumcisions.

I can totally relate the Aquablue's story, I also grew up uncut in the UK but buy high school age I really wished I had a circumcised cock, I could see both the cosmetic / sexual and health advantages of being circumcised.

It was till many years later and half a world away and living in Australia that I eventually found the time and place and money to finally have myself circumcised and join the ranks of the circumcised men of which most Aussie guys in my age group are.

Only regret is that I didn't make a bigger effort to get it done years earlier, love being circumcised and recommend it to everyone.

I think some people tend to make up stories. I was in the united states army in 1956 and served for six years. There were no rules requiring an individual to be circumcised in order to serve in the military. I was never circumcised and served without problems. Lots of my soldiers friends were never cicumsised as well.

I left the service with the rank of sergeant 1 st class and i am positive that no such rules existed on circumcision.