The Genital Mutilation Thread

[DapperButch]

Ok, so yesterday I was talking to someone about this thread who has a son. I asked her about circumcision (her son is circumcised) and why did she do it? So, she gave me various reasons, including working with men who were HIV+ and the stats around that, cleanliness, etc. I brought up the desensitizing of the penis and why not just teach children how to pull back the skin and clean the area (I said the same things to her the other day that I have now read others saying).

And she said to me, "Does anyone on that board have a son who was not circumcised? Can anyone speak to the difficulty in getting your 8 year old son to pull back the skin of a flacid penis and clean between the folds? Because it is not like you can do that for them at 8 years old."

She then went on to talk about hearing from more than one parent their difficulty with getting their sons to keep the area clean and spoke about one mother's experience with her son always getting infections under the foreskin and the pain that he would be in when she would have to take a q-tip to clean under the skin after it was infected.

So, now I am curious about this....does anyone here have a child who was not circumcised?

If so, what has the experience been like for you/your son?


(for the sake of self disclosure: I have no children and have not raised any children).