There are memes like “when you have to prove that you’re jewish” or crass jokes about people standing out due to their lack of foreskin, but i remember hearing that a huge swathes of American men are circumcised - it’s like 49%. Jesus.

If literally half of every men are circumcised, why is it even a remarkable topic to Americans? How did it become such a meme?

  • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    edit-2
    2 days ago

    The sensitivity loss thing is mostly an internet myth, most studies on it show no difference with some studies reporting increased sensitivity instead. The foreskin does have nerve endings, but those are mostly “touch” nerves and aren’t really the nerves that contribute to pleasure/arousal.

    As anecdotal evidence, I have a family member who got circumcised as an adult due to medical issues, and he’s very positive about it. I haven’t questioned him on if he had a change in sensation, but I know he’s happy with the outcome.

    While I’m talking about benefits, I’ll mention it lowers penile cancer risk, reduces the chance of UTIs, reduces the chance of some STDs, and prevents phimosis/paraphimosis. Only real negative I’m aware of is the procedure itself.

    • TheFogan@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      2 days ago

      The sensitivity loss thing is mostly an internet myth, most studies on it show no difference with some studies reporting increased sensitivity instead

      It’s worth pointing out as a myth, it vastly predates the internet. The reason it’s common in the USA, is because the puritans believed it would make it easier to stop kids from masturbating.

        • MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          2 days ago

          Teenagers will jerk off to anything. I’m sure some neolithic cave teenagers were jerkin it to boob shaped rocks or baboon asses. Hormones gonna hormone.

          • UnequalExchange@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 day ago

            the usa has the biggest or well ome of the biggest porn industries on the planet today despite the fact rhat mostt americam men have been circumcised since the 1900s …so…

            Is this not proof that theyve failed? the american masturbators continued and continue to walk on despite their mutilations! …or well continue to jack on 🤭

    • velma@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      2 days ago

      I’d be interested to see those studies. Anecdotally, the nerves on the foreskin can absolutely contribute to pleasure/arousal just as almost any nerves on the body can do so. I wonder what criteria they’re basing that on and what differences they found.

      Usually when people get circumcised as an adult, it’s because of health issues like phimosis where the foreskin is unable to retract over the penis glans. So yeah, I’m sure your family member was quite happy to have his penis work better when it gets hard.

      • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        2 days ago

        Here’s a study on it. Basically the foreskin nerves are “touch” nerves, and all touch nerves get reduced sensation with arousal. The number of those touch nerves drops significantly with age as well, with a 90% reduction by the time your 45+. It’s other nerves (mainly in the corona and near the frenulum) that are focused on vibration and temperature, which mainly contribute to pleasure.

        Ultimately the “ejaculatory latency time” doesn’t show a difference, even across various reasons for a difference in the quantity of touch nerves.

        • UnequalExchange@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          edit-2
          20 hours ago

          …bro that study that you linked is from brian j morris.

          The RACP, the most notable medical authority in Australia, has denounced morris who is the author of this meta analyses . morris is an aussie and also a founder of a circumcision organization in Australia https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7691872/ this meta analyses is a sham by the quack brian.j morris. he was denounced by the australasian college of physicians. https://jme.bmj.com/content/circumcision-bioethical-challenge

          Also you can research deeper and you will fimd the brian j morris was friends with a currently convicted pedophile , a pedophile who created a ‘sexual gratification group who’s members get off to thr thought of circumcising boys and to the thought of being circumcised’ Edit: I found it https://circumstitionsnews.blogspot.com/2013/11/london-gilgal-societys-quaintance-faces.html?m=1 Theyre both members of the gilgal society and they both get off to the thought of circumcising young boys, only one of them has been convicted of anything though

          • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            18 hours ago

            Didn’t know that, was literally just the first source I found.

            Wikipedia’s article has a section on it, with about 4 difference sources that all seem to conclude the same though. Maybe they’re all bug circumcision propaganda, I haven’t really looked into that part of it.