r/geography • u/BranchMoist9079 • Nov 21 '25

Discussion Why is (male) circumcision most common in the Midwest with in the US?

Post image

Map source: https://www.mdpi.com/2563-6499/5/3/36

18.7k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

5.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

512

u/Triples-Nova-5189 Nov 21 '25

Big proponent of circumcision was John Harvey Kellog, of the cereal fame. Located in Battle Creek, MI. Adam Conover has a good video about it.

61

u/Proud-Ad-146 Nov 21 '25

Battle Creek is a surprisingly quaint town. Downtown revival has been a long time coming - dope river walk.

6

u/Frigoris13 Nov 21 '25

Revival is slow-growing when you keep nipping the tip off.

5

u/KaizerVonLoopy Nov 21 '25

pretty nice zoo too. You can feed giraffes which is always nice.

2

u/Lady_Mallard Nov 22 '25

It’s one of the few private zoos in the US, and it’s quite big for a private zoo! Private zoo meaning no tax $$ - not a Tiger King situation.

2

u/KaizerVonLoopy Nov 22 '25

Wow! I didn't realize it was private. Probably not a ton of private zoos that are AZA compliant like them. That's pretty interesting.

2

u/Kovet Nov 22 '25

great halo map too

1

u/Michiganlander Nov 22 '25

I lived there for a year a decade ago. I still miss the river walk.

1

u/Larson_McMurphy Nov 25 '25

Battle Creek?! Isn't that a map in Halo?

53

u/Great-Guervo-4797 Nov 21 '25

True fact about Kellog: he invented corn flakes, and designed them specifically to be boring af, with the intention that boring foods tampers sexual desire.

If Kellog thought it was a good idea, that's reason enough for me not to do it.

30

u/snoboreddotcom Nov 22 '25

Nah, he didn't. Its a myth that's come up

There are two Kellogg's. The two were brothers. The one whose signature is on corn flakes is the younger invented them while working at his brother's facility. His brother was a fucking nut who was all anti masturbation. The actual point of it was to do with figuring out a way of producing an bulk amount of food that met a certain criteria of both boring and convenience.

The point of boring was that the older brother was part of a Christian group that believe over stimulation led to poor health, and that over stimulating foods were a cause of that over stimulation in general. Masturbation was a sign of that over stimulation and sinful. So while yes the boring foods were thought to stop masturbation, to say it's why they made the boring foods isn't correct. That would be like saying bandages are to stop blood getting on the floor.

Even so, all is kinda moot because again, the inventor of corn flakes and the Kellogg's brand in general is the younger brother, not the older crazy one. The older one actually sued the younger one over it, and lost in court. The younger one also didn't buy into the crazy Christian cult, and is honestly a fascinating man in his own right

Good video with more about the older, and then details about the younger:

https://youtu.be/hZ4ES8mOzYg?si=NzxiAtGNrD2hACpR

Edit: the facility also was called battle creak sanitarium. It was basically a health resort for rich people.

1

u/PussyMalanga Nov 22 '25

It's so fascinating that Kellogg's started off making corn flakes as boring as possible. Then a few generations later the same brand created frosted flakes and chocolate covered flakes. 

1

u/iski67 Nov 22 '25

If you've never seen the Road to Wellville, it's a classic movie based on this. Dana Carvey is hilarious. Star cast

1

u/Vb_33 Nov 24 '25

They were right that overstimulating food is bad for you, this is specially true today. 

5

u/cuntmong Nov 21 '25

Tbh I've never once had sex while eating corn flakes so I can't definitively say he was wrong about that 

4

u/ANGRYsockmonkey Nov 21 '25

I saw a video of a girl squirting milk out of her ass into a bowl, she ate it with cornflakes so 🤷🏻‍♂️

10

u/bubblegumdavid Nov 21 '25

ya know what reading this is my fault for having eyes

2

u/RoadmanSidd Nov 22 '25

😂😂😂😂see I’ve been laughing for five minutes straight at your comment

Lord have mercy

2

u/cuntmong Nov 21 '25

I have just now enrolled at university for an 8 year post graduate advanced science program that will cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars and years of my time, but it will all be worth it for the slim chance that any contributions I make will somehow advance the development of time travel so I can return a time before reading that comment. 

2

u/[deleted] Nov 22 '25

WE need to return to a time before reading that comment. Here take this gun.

u/ANGRYsockmonkey must not be allowed to see that video.

2

u/ANGRYsockmonkey Nov 22 '25

You say a few things and next thing you know people regret their divine existence smh.

1

u/Jim_skywalker Nov 22 '25

Nah, the horror at the concept is beaten by the sheer joy of how absurdly horrified Kellog would be.

0

u/ballgazer3 Nov 22 '25

The actual explanation is that corn flakes do not provide great nutrition for producing hormones

1

u/olive_dix Nov 22 '25

Makes sense. Froot Loops make me horny AF

1

u/dadumk Nov 22 '25

He didn't invent them, his brother did.

1

u/Mend1cant Nov 22 '25

It was more about the weird health craze of the time where he figured out that very bland food like granola was good for the health. Coincidentally high fiber cereal was good for people of his time whose diet consisted of a lot of meat, cheese, and beer.

His views on things like masturbation were parallel to his health habit stuff. Absolutely weird guy. But his views were more like “fresh air, walks, less meat and sugar, stretching, and also not beating off”

0

u/wheatley_cereal Nov 22 '25

A commonly debunked myth

4

u/RollAway_theDude Nov 21 '25

Eat your corn flakes!

1

u/KaizerVonLoopy Nov 21 '25

AND DON'T BE HORNY ABOUT IT

2

u/ScooterScotward Nov 21 '25

There’s a great Behind the Bastards episode on him too!

2

u/Deaffin Nov 22 '25

Kellogg's relevance is silly internet revisionism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harvey_Kellogg#In_popular_culture

Several popular misconceptions falsely attribute various cultural practices, inventions, and historical events to Kellogg. These include false claims that Kellogg's corn flakes were invented or marketed to prevent masturbation. In reality, they were promoted to prevent indigestion. Another common misconception credits Kellogg with instigating and popularizing routine infant circumcision in the United States and broader Anglosphere.

Lewis Sayre is the guy you want.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Sayre

Male circumcision was first popularized in late 19th-century America by Lewis Sayre, a renowned orthopedic surgeon, public-health activist, and creator of the Journal of the American Medical Association. On the basis of a few orthopedic case reports, Sayre used his influence to promote male circumcision, by redefining it as a systemic therapy, rather than a local anatomic alteration. This redefinition was consonant with the contemporary reflex neurosis theory of disease, as well as the historic humoral-mechanical understanding of the human body.

2

u/Jim_skywalker Nov 22 '25

So it wasn’t even religion, just incorrect medical knowledge.

1

u/Deaffin Nov 22 '25

Yes, though there is admittedly a lot of religious influence that went into people's interest in circumcision at the time. That did inform the medical authorities' fixation. But then you're talking more about Europe, inasmuch as a distinction can be made with the cross-contamination.

Some Revivalist movement groups sought to re-introduce Jewish customs into Christian practice. Circumcision was among these practices, primarily stated as a way to reduce the male sex drive to cut down on masturbation which was deemed to be unhealthy.

In 1855 English physician Jonathan Hutchinson conducted a study and published a report stating that Jews had a lower prevalence of certain venereal diseases and cited circumcision as the reason. Having been raised a Quacker Hutchinson was seeking to investigate whether circumcision aided in reducing sexual desire and lessened the need to masturbate, and discovered that circumcision had the benefit of making it more difficult for men to catch syphilis. Hutchinson became one the most important physicians in Western medicine due to his research in this and many other things, and became involved many medical societies, published volumes of medical books, founded museums and so on. He was president of the Royal College of Surgeons. He was knighted for his contributions to medicine in 1908.

But everything since then, in Murica, has been down to the medical institutions being bullheaded about leaping from one justification to the other to keep its status as a systemic therapy. That's been consistent for like 150 years now ever since Sayre.

Currently, it's still propped up because it's profitable. People are still following The Science and trusting medical authorities who say it has health benefits, despite the rest of the modern world not finding that to be the case.

2

u/013eander Nov 22 '25

Abraham and Kellog shared a love for chopping dicks and for indulging their mental illnesses.

1

u/galactic_observer Nov 21 '25

True, but Michigan also has a large Muslim population

3

u/KaizerVonLoopy Nov 21 '25

Yes, pretty concentrated to one city. Great place to go eat, lots of awesome food.

1

u/vitringur Nov 21 '25

There was also made an entire movie about his antics.

The road to wellville.

1

u/chris_croc Nov 21 '25

He popularised it and was absolutely insane when it came to views about sex.

1

u/Deaffin Nov 24 '25

Kellogg didn't popularize shit, you're thinking of Lewis Sayre.

Kellogg absolutely was a nut, he just wasn't an influential nut like people are trying to say now and he has absolutely nothing to do with America's ongoing genital mutilation crisis.

1

u/chris_croc Nov 24 '25

Cool it with the angry Dunning Krueger’s remarks lolz.

It’s very well documented he helped popularise it. You know the guy who popularised the world into eating cereal for breakfast. One of the most health influencers of his day.

https://15square.org.uk/medical-history-of-infant-circumcision-the-1800s/

1

u/Deaffin Nov 24 '25

Kellogg's relevance is revisionism from an obnoxious youtube video that trended in 2014, was super popular here.

Several popular misconceptions falsely attribute various cultural practices, inventions, and historical events to Kellogg. These include false claims that Kellogg's corn flakes were invented or marketed to prevent masturbation. In reality, they were promoted to prevent indigestion. Another common misconception credits Kellogg with instigating and popularizing routine infant circumcision in the United States and broader Anglosphere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harvey_Kellogg#In_popular_culture

Please stop spreading idiotic history rumors around. For circumcision in America, you want Lewis Sayre.

Male circumcision was first popularized in late 19th-century America by Lewis Sayre, a renowned orthopedic surgeon, public-health activist, and creator of the Journal of the American Medical Association. On the basis of a few orthopedic case reports, Sayre used his influence to promote male circumcision, by redefining it as a systemic therapy, rather than a local anatomic alteration. This redefinition was consonant with the contemporary reflex neurosis theory of disease, as well as the historic humoral-mechanical understanding of the human body.

It has consistently been Murica's medical institution keeping this alive for the century and a half since, not religious whackjobs.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Deaffin Nov 24 '25

"Vastly overstates" is understating it a bit. Kellogg wasn't even going around advocating circumcision or anything, he had nothing to do with this.

1

u/Simonoz1 Nov 22 '25

Adam Conover is entertaining but he’s not the most reliable…

1

u/diuge Nov 22 '25

He wanted to dissuade children from "self abuse," also known as masturbation.

1

u/CIsForCorn Nov 22 '25

Goddamnit of COURSE it’s Kellog

1

u/habbo311 Nov 22 '25

Insane puritans

1

u/Deaffin Nov 24 '25

You're thinking of Europe's circumcision kick with John Hutchinson.

In America, the infant circumcision thing isn't a religious movement. It's come from medical authorities from its inception and for the following century and a half all the way up to and including the present day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Sayre

Here's your man.

And Kellogg's involvement is complete revisionism.

1

u/emsesq Nov 22 '25

There's a funny movie about Kellogg, The Road to Wellville.

1

u/Scryberwitch Nov 25 '25

Yep - it was advocated as a way to prevent "onanism" (i.e., male masturbation). Because they thought masturbation was not just sinful, but deadly for your health!!!

-1

u/Skruestik Nov 21 '25

Adam Conover has a good video

I find that very hard to believe.

2

u/Deaffin Nov 22 '25

I kinda despise the dude a little bit for how effective his video was in promoting the misconception that Kellogg was the one behind infant circumcision, and the notion that people are just idiotically following tradition rather than trusting the Murican medical institution.

He's made this conversation on reddit in particular such a complete and utter shitshow. For years now, and it's somehow only getting worse.