this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2024
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[–] kandoh@reddthat.com 35 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

People are too weird about genitals. Our culture finds it so uncomfortable to talk to their sons about cleaning their penis that we started cutting the foreskin off to spare them the embarrassment.

[–] Pazuzu@midwest.social 22 points 5 months ago

Depends where in the world you are. In the US it was popularized by Dr Kellogg to curb masturbation. He also recommended a few drops of carbolic acid applied to young girls clits to damage the nerves and avoid what he called "abnormal excitement".

Dude was opposed to pretty much anything even vaguely resembling pleasure, he invented corn flakes as a food to be as bland and tasteless as possible. The only reason they ever became a popular breakfast cereal is because of his brother adding sugar to them despite Kelloggs objections

'cleanliness' and 'looking like their father' were later justifications after the practice had already gained traction.

[–] Allero@lemmy.today 12 points 5 months ago

This is so screwed, too.

Like, I was once tasked to explain to my nephew how to properly clean a penis at, like, age of 7. C'mon, parents, what are you there for?!

Just literally teach it alongside cleaning every other body part, what's the issue? Why should another man show this in particular to your kid?

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

This doesn't make it justifiable, but circumcision goes back a lot longer than our culture has existed. If Judaism had won out instead of Christianity, it could have been even more widespread than it is now. Some Muslim sects also mandate circumcision, and they could be the ones ruling the world.

Unfortunately, circumcision is a particular form of mutilation that transcends cultures.

[–] KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Unfortunately, circumcision is a particular form of mutilation that transcends cultures.

a lot of mutilation goes back centuries for human history. You can pick up any variety of mutiliation and it's been done, scarrification, penile subincisions, foot binding, skull stretching, i can keep going.

Just because it's historically common and pervasive doesn't mean we should consider it to be normal. The aztecs commited human sacrifice, and we think capital punishment is bad enough that we need to hide it away from the general public and make it "sterile" which in reality means using a completely botched medical injection process.

also what culture "should be" does not determine what it is now, i'm not sure the legality of naked baby photos to begin with tbh, i'm pretty sure they're still considered to be CP, unless legally stated otherwise somewhere. They wouldn't count as CSAM i think, since there's not abuse going on, but arguably it might count as CP still.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I literally started my comment by saying that doesn't justify it.

yeah, i just wanted to provide a few more examples i suppose.