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23 Comments
Mark
13/12/2023 10:48:36 am
You get the feeling that circumcision is very much a military thing. My dad was circumcised during army service, and I knew a guy I was at school with who was cut before joining the Royal Navy.
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Graham M
14/12/2023 07:01:31 am
It"s a class thing. Many army officers come from upper middle class, and some from upper class families who favour circumcision. I was an officer from the mid 70s and maybe 30 to 50% had been circumcised, the higher figure being in the poshest regiments of the army such as the cavalry and the 'smarter' infantry regiments . Also, if you needed circumcising for medical reasons, there was no waiting list then as we had military hospitals. (Sadly they are all long gone). My 3 year old son was circ'd at the military hospital in Catterick in 1985.
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Jamie
14/12/2023 07:58:53 am
I wonder if his son Tom, the comedian who was born in 1984, was circumcised at a military hospital? It would be nice if father & son were alike.
Mark
14/12/2023 08:34:36 am
I didn´t realise they didn´t have military hospitals any more Graham. Seems false economy now the NHS is so frankly bad.
Danny
14/12/2023 10:12:30 am
Has anyone got a link to the podcast where his son Tom talks about his father's circumcision?
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David
16/12/2023 10:04:08 am
Does Tom divulge if his status is the same as his dad's?
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James
16/12/2023 10:37:19 am
Tom mentions his dad’s status on the Have A Word podcast, episode 204, at about 1hr 32. Unfortunately he doesn’t mention his own status but I’d love to know it!
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British Edward
17/12/2023 10:39:53 pm
The most magnificent of family traditions. If there was ever a fine example of the nobility and upper classes providing an example for the rest of us this is it! And to think of the ways General Houghton has severed his country, and therefore all of us, with an exposed phallus makes me so proud to be British! Long love the Empire (or what is left of it!)
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TradWarrior
18/12/2023 03:59:45 pm
I completely agree with you. At my school we 'helmets' were around 60-65% so were able to keep the 'hoodies' at bay.
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Richard
25/12/2023 08:54:34 pm
I would have thought the son would have been circumcised at birth. Circumcision is indeed a class issue in Britain - but, then, what isn't? However, there are two factors at play when it comes to the military. First, although military hospitals have now been needlessly abolished, there is a far higher standard of medical care and so the threshold for recommending surgery is far lower. Doctors tend to be male, in contrast with the NHS nationally, which now has a majority of female doctors. A circumcised male doctor is far more likely to circumcise. Secondly, there is the regimental tradition. Regiments operate very much on "family lines" and some have - or most certainly had - traditions of circumcision which crossed the class divide. I know one family where a non-commissioned officer had both his sons circumcised - as he was - out of regimental tradition. A grandson was not circumcised at birth because British law now requires the consent of both parents and the mother was opposed to it. The regimental surgeon obliged when the boy turned 18 as a favour as he was desperate to be like the rest of the family - poor kid. Even if the sons and grandsons of military families do not enter the service, family tradition has been established and future generations will, if possible, be circumcised.
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Richard
25/12/2023 09:49:38 pm
I should add that coming from a Royal Navy family, circumcision would tend to follow class lines in Britain rather than any particular naval tradition as is the case with army regiments. That said, the better standards of health care, the predominance of male doctors, and thereby a lower threshold for indicating surgery obtain. I know one family where the son entered the Royal Navy and was told he needed a circumcision - his half-brother, who served on the Royal Yacht Britannia, was also circumcised. being historically the "Senior Service", there was no particular tradition of circumcision, which was institutionalised in the army as a result of service in the Raj. One story - which I have never been able to verify - was once told to me by an RAF officer. On board a Navy frigate, he was invited into the ward room - the equivalent of the "officers' mess" - as was the captain of the ship - who himself requires an invitation. After sufficient quantities of alcohol had been consumed and at a loss to entertain themselves, an officer suggested a game of "penny in the fore". This was greeted with great enthusiasm and tables were set up at two ends of the ward room and officers started emptying their pockets of small change. The ship's company divided themselves into two teams and then proceeded to drop their trousers and underwear. The idea was to get as many pennies and ha'pennies and sixpenses into the foreskin and run to the other table, deposit, and then retire for the next man, passing the baton so to speak as in a relay race. The rules seemed to be the team which deposited the largest sum in the quickest time won, every one dressed and then spent the winnings on alcohol. No wonder my father never mentioned this - he was circumcised as I am.
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Markus
25/12/2023 11:46:17 pm
Richard from where do you get your evidence that " a circumcised male doctor is far more likely to circumcise"? I am a nurse and neither see not hear evidence of this. In fact, the procedure is becoming far less frequently performed.
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Richard
26/12/2023 04:34:02 am
I thought you might reply.
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an.other
27/12/2023 08:35:39 pm
I must say some people's silly posts amuse me.
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British Edward
28/12/2023 10:54:37 am
One method of increasing the circumcision rate among the lower classes could be to check foreskin conditions upon entering prison. It is a fact that the majority of the prison population is of a lower class. A quick check under the hood during the intake would identify problems that would not otherwise be afforded to these men compared with the higher ranking gentlemen who access private heath services. A second, although more controversial, method would be to mandate a foreskin inspection as a condition to claim certain benefits which these groups depend for survival. One is sure Garry et al would gladly drop their tracksuits should their cigs and booze fund be at compromise!
Abel
2/1/2024 10:16:15 am
They should offer free circumcisions for every army recruits. They have to learn how to clean and ose weapons anyway so maybe their own natural one need an upgrade too.
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Markus
2/1/2024 10:34:25 pm
These comments are bordering on ridiculous unless people are just attempting to be funny. Either that or we are so ill at ease with our own minority status that we are are bordering on desperation in our comments. Most men, circumcised or not, are more than capable of maintaining clean genitalia. I've seen hundreds of them in the flesh and very few dirty ones. Does it make some of us feel better to imagine that most intact me are somehow filthy? I much prefer being cut. It was the right thing for me but I'm more than happy to acknowledge that I'm in a minority and always will be, without ridiculous dreams of mass circumcisions. Unbelievable. We should be celebrating our status whilst not denigrating our intact bretheren.
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Danny
3/1/2024 06:46:19 am
Well said Markus. I agree entirely.
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Trad Warrior
7/1/2024 06:56:34 pm
@Markus: You're forgetting to mention that the 'uncircumcised community' tend to denigrate us! Why is that ok yet not ok the other way round?
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Markus
7/1/2024 11:23:40 pm
Absolute rubbish! I don't come across people who denigrate circumcised men and any who do are out of order in doing so. Almost all of my friends (but not all) are intact and never once has anyone made a derogatory comment about my status. All the women I have had sex with including my present wife say my penis a lovely and many prefer it. The only denigration I come across is from certain badly informed people on here who seem to deplore uncut genitals and even suggest they are dirty which is utterly ridiculous. I don't "rejoice" in my cut status but I prefer it, having experienced both ways. It was a decision I made myself and not one which was forced upon me as a number of contributors on this site seem to advocate with suggestions that lower classes, criminals and prisoners, entrants to the forces and children of circumcised fathers should undergo the procedure. I've never heard such a load of baloney. I certainly agree that more people ought to get circumcised - I see it most days - but it should be their CHOICE and made for the right reasons. And just to put the record straight, yes I do think it enlightened that parents (and doctors) would not automatically make such a drastic and irreversible decision on behalf of a minor with no choice in the matter and on that point I would guess most of the population would agree. Should we send children back up the chimneys? Ridiculous idea. We have moved forward. Get real.
Trad Warrior
15/1/2024 12:57:33 pm
Oh dear oh dear!
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Markus
15/1/2024 11:43:25 pm
I get the impression you are very aware of your middle or upper class status and not entirely happy with how you are perceived by the people you consider to be socially beneath you... which happens to be the vast majority of the population. Why you are getting so frustrated by my comments I cannot understand. I simply point out that certain contributors here live in Cloud Cuckoo Land with their ideals of mass UK circumcisions. I have never said circumcision is dying out, simply that it is decliing. That is a medical fact with fewer than 5% (and declining further) of the UK youth now circumcised. This is why some of the ludicrous comments made on this site are so far removed from reality and will never happen and they are the comments I addressed because they are totally idiotic.. Why there are people around who would wish unnecessary procedures to be carried out en masse to people, especially children, without their consent beggars belief. Just go back and read some of the preposterous comments made by some people on here. I suggest you change the company you keep. I consider myself working class and have not experienced the prejudice you talk of and I'm very open about my status. Admittedly, not all of my acquaintances would want to be cut but I have certainly never been ridiculed, only complimented. All I advocate is choice. Others should do the same.
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TradWarrior
19/1/2024 02:47:00 pm
@Markus Leave a Reply. |
What British men are packing downstairsMore than one in five British men are circumcised (helmets/roundheads), but a lot of our cut brothers have grown up feeling isolated. Categories
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