Circumcision Myths, Part II

• Uncircumcised boys will be teased later in life, because they look different from other boys.
  I will admit that this was the one misperception about circumcision about which I was most concerned. I remember from my school days that kids can be cruel to other kids, especially those who are different. So, I asked my husband if this was a valid concern. If our son was not circumcised, would he be teased because he looked different? My husbands answer was simple: most boys wouldn't notice, or, even if they did, they wouldn't acknowledge that they were looking at another boy's body in the locker room.
  
  Only about 60% of boys born today are circumcised. When my son is at the age to be undressing in a locker room with other boys, not quite half of them will be uncircumcised, meaning that it will not be as uncommon or unusual as I'd feared.

• "I want my son to look like me."

  
  This is an argument often used by fathers. The fact is, the infant's small penis will NOT look like Daddy's even if he is circumcised. The fact is, each individual is different, and nobody looks alike!

  
  There is a curious obsession among some men that their sons' penises should look like their own, yet they're not concerned if the child has other features, such as a receding hairline, or a beer belly, or even a scar or birthmark, which, we all must admit, are seen by many more people than are their penises. I won't pretend to understand this obsession; I will only ask of those fathers: "If you want your son's penis to look like your own, even though 99% of the rest of the world won't know that they're the same, do you also want to shave your son's head, to resemble your hairline? If you have a scar on your face, or hand, or body, do you want to cut your son to recreate those scars on him? If your answer is, 'Of course not!' then you must consider why you'd want to cut the most sensitive part of his body, in order to resemble your own."

• Routine circumcision was begun because of health problems which arose in uncircumcised men.
  I was most surprised to find out that this is a myth. The fact is that circumcision was proposed as a "cure" for masturbation during Victorian times, since it removes tissues rich with erogenous receptors. It was expected that, if the very sensitive foreskin was removed, the pleasure of masturbation would be greatly reduced, and boys and men would no longer masturbate. For this reason, routine circumcision became commonplace between 1870 and 1920, and spread to all English-speaking countries.