Please hop on over to Barrels of Oranges and read this great guest post by life-intact. He describes growing up in the U.S. with a foreskin, demolishing all the old chestnuts like “He’ll get an infection,” “He’ll have to be circumcised later,” “He’ll wish he had been circumcised at birth,” “A foreskin doesn’t matter for sex,” and “He’ll be mocked in the locker room.” Here’s some selected quotes:
On being teased in the locker room
“[T]he guy who is now my best friend once said to me in a cajoling manner, “Elephants belong in the circus” in regards to my foreskin and penis resembling an elephant trunk. I simply looked down at my own penis, as if in wonder, and replied with “Wow, thanks! I didn’t think it was that big,” in a feigned, misunderstood reference to penis size.”
Contentment with being circumcised is only possible through ignorance of the foreskin
“At first they teased me about it (lightheartedly) as was par for the course up until this point. After a while, one of them said that he was kind of jealous that I had foreskin, and that he wished his parents wouldn’t have had him cut at birth. At this point, the focus was on my foreskin and things I could do with it. I gave them all a demo of how it works and how fantastically simple it is to take care of (retract, rinse, replace in the shower, taking 5 seconds, pull back to pee, etc.). They all ended up saying at the end of this that they wished they had their foreskins back.“
On the sensations of orgasm
“When pressed for details, my [circumcised] friends described ejaculation as something that felt good for the penis, and pleasure that lasted for about 5 seconds after a while masturbating with lotion.
For me, this experience was (and still is) vastly different. My friends described the sensations of orgasm as something limited to the penis. For me, orgasm was something that not only felt good for my penis, but also felt good for my entire body. Orgasm for me is not some sudden surprise coming, either, but rather something I can feel coming on from the very moment I begin masturbating (or these days, making love). And even when the moment comes, orgasm for me is peak to a gradual and fulfilling crescendo of sexual pleasure, where it reaches an apex after I ride waves of pleasure up and down, and slowly wind down enjoy the aftermath of that feeling.
It is like all of the pleasure that comes from my penis when I ejaculate being multiplied by a factor of 5, and having this intense pleasure everywhere in my entire body at once for about a whole minute, leaving me writhing, and convulsing in ecstasy as I climax. It feels like my entire body is tingling—from my toes, up and down my spine, all over my back, chest, abs, and groin, and all the way to the top of my scalp, leaving my body gently convulsing (sometimes shaking) in pulsing ecstasy. (During this time, I also happen to ejaculate.) And afterward, when my penis begins to become flaccid, even the slightest touch on my penis feels really good, and takes my breath away in a really good way.
This was vastly different from what my friends described, which to me sounded like about 10 minutes of work for 5 seconds of sudden pleasure, followed by boredly staring down at the penis, quickly taking the hands away, and waiting for it to go down (because touching the glans right afterward hurts them for some reason).”
Having a foreskin does not ruin a man’s life
On the contrary, despite his parents’ continued obsession with having him circumcised, and being one of only a few intact boys in his school, this man has never wanted to be circumcised and thoroughly enjoys having a foreskin. The idea that not circumcising one’s son will doom him to a miserable life is ridiculous and exists only to salve the ego of the circumcised father and feelings of the acquiescent mother.