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Check local guides for details Thousands of baby boys are circumcised annually in the UK mainly for religious reasons. With some countries debating a ban on it, the programme asks: should we ban it here? More
15 Comments
I hope the documentary is balanced. I can understand why some people are opposed to routine infant circumcision, but growing up while coming to terms with being circumcised is not always easy. Strident voices telling you that you have been mutilated and your penis is inferior don't help.
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Dwayne
15/7/2019 10:43:48 am
How guys feel about being circumcised growing up is an aspect I’m interested in also. However the summary of this programme suggests it will likely focus on the human rights angle and draw comparisons with Denmark and Germany legislation vis-a-vis non-medical circumcision. I wonder if we’ll actually learn anything new, we shall see.
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Les
16/7/2019 05:54:46 am
Dwayne raises an interesting questions. I sense that many guys are quite unconcerned that they have been circumcised while some feel that they may have been violated in some way. In my case, the decision wasn't even vested in my parents, but rather the doctor who told my mother that he was going to "circ" me. She did not know what that meant and did not ask either. It was in the days when the doctor's views were never questioned. And so it came to pass that my brothers were also circumcised because I had been. I've never felt angry about it; sometimes curious about what a foreskin might feel like. However, I am aware that some have gone as far as attempting restoration. I'm ambivalent about whether a full restoration would ever yield the result that being intact from the start might. In my context, many of my friends were also circumcised and so it never was an issue that I was singled out. None has ever raised the issue of feeling mutilated despite I suspect most of them being routine circumcisions and not for medical reasons.
Norms
16/7/2019 08:43:08 am
Being in Australia I don't know if I will be able to view this programme after it has been aired. Coming from a country that practiced RIC when I was born as the norm, if you weren't done it all looked weird and wrong. If anything not being circumcised was then considered to be un-Australian. I was approached by the programme makers via a group I belong to on facebook to contribute but declined as I was not in the UK so my experiences are different. I expressed my concern, at the time I was approached, that it would be another anti-circ programme and was told they were not intending it to be that sort of programme. I would be interested to hear others comments after the screening as I still have my doubts that it will be anything more than a hatchet job by the anti-circ lobby and full if misinformation. It always amazes me that when it comes to doctors opinions they never interview Urologists who specialise in this field or doctors who work in the sexually transmitted field and from my experience are mostly pro-circ. Instead focusing on pediatricians.
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Dwayne
16/7/2019 08:26:10 pm
@Les
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James
17/7/2019 11:08:55 am
Hey Mate would be interesting to know your age group i am only 30 and from aus too. Am uncut and have found I was always in a small minority i think it's interesting here they report a very low circ rate now so have to assume it tapered off really quickly over 30yrs. Hopefully we get the chance to see the doco over here.
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Another Aussie
28/7/2019 08:31:38 pm
Aussie here. You can watch on Youtube https://youtu.be/NF8WSmLOTP8
Mark
23/8/2019 11:25:45 pm
Same story in South Africa. Everyone at school was cut. Being uncirced was "un -outh African"
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Mark
17/7/2019 04:54:24 pm
Knowing what the BBC is like these days, I strongly suspect it will be a programme towing the "my body, my choice/foreskin is a birthright not a birth defect/NOCIRC line. They are so right on these days, it's sad how cheap and bad they have got over the past few years.
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Mando8
18/7/2019 10:07:27 pm
I don't disagree with that approach to be honest. RIC can just cause so many problems, even if you don't mind being done that way, lots of men might feel very funny about it. You've taken their choice and some people will always have that "what if?" view. If someone comes along and says Circ is bad and diminishes sexual pleasure etc the RIC guy isn't going to know if that's true and this could cause long term mental health problems. In my view it's almost a given that men should consent to it themselves. Most love it, look at the comments in the Locker rooms etc. They have had the benefit of knowing both states. I've given my kids the choice by leaving them intact, so when they're older hopefully they come to our "side". That's what happened for me, so it just made sense.
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Mark
19/7/2019 03:36:14 am
It is much more painful to have to make the decision after babyhood, and in America, even today, RIC is considered the norm. The opposite is true in the UK. I think a lot of the "intactivists" and "foreskin restorers" have been put in the same position as those social media obsessives who feel they ought to feel outraged/mutilated, because everyone seems to regard it as a right to feel insulted/outraged now.
David
19/7/2019 03:49:44 pm
How can members of the medical profession for example say that circumcision is Male Genital Mutilation (MGM on par with Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
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Rob
19/7/2019 05:34:16 pm
Not really clear what you mean. If MGM is decided to be comparable to FGM then it will be treated as such. None of the stuff you've said happens for FGM as far as I'm aware? I'm in the camp with those above who say leave the kids alone. My foreskin was messed up and needed to go 10 years ago. Nothing sorted it. I'm glad and love it now. But if it had worked properly then I'd have been angry and annoyed if someone chose to cut it off when I was a baby. I get why people resent having it done as kids. Just have a girl at the moment, but if I had a boy he'd be left intact. If he inherits my dodgy foreskin then I'll take him when he's old enough (and decides to) get it sorted.
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Mark
19/7/2019 04:34:08 pm
The documentary seemed to concentrate on the idea that in the UK it is mainly Jewish, Muslim or black lads who are circumcised. I found it interesting that the black family ascribed circumcision to being "strict Christians". There seemed to be no recognition that "ordinary" lads and men some times have kit done, often for medical neccesity. There was one lad on the programme who though Jewish was uncircumcised. It would have been interesting to have heard from him how he is received by orthodox Jewish contemporaries, but the film seemed determined to be anodyne. It seemed an opportunity wasted.
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Will
24/7/2019 01:35:35 pm
Hmm ... rather glad I decided not to watch it, and shan't bother on catch-up. Seems I didn't miss a great deal - just the usual trot round the houses!
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