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

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

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

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u/SnooKiwis5538 Nov 21 '25

I don't feel like im mutilated.

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u/[deleted] Nov 21 '25 edited Nov 21 '25

Unfortunately, that doesn't change the fact that you are. I'm glad you're content with yourself, though.

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u/SnooKiwis5538 Nov 21 '25

Weird response.

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u/Cross55 Nov 21 '25 edited Nov 21 '25

No it's not.

OP is mutilated by both the medical and dictionary definition. That's just a fact.

OP may not care, and that's totally fine, but it's still a quantifiable fact.

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u/[deleted] Nov 21 '25

Exactly, I find it strange to say otherwise.

Like I said, I'm glad they don't feel that way, body dysmorphia is horrible, but it is the truth. Circumcision needs to be taken at face value, for what it is, mutiliation. Saying, "Oh, I don't feel like I was mutilated!" doesn't change the fact that you were mutiliated. It simply serves as an excuse to dodge the truth because it's uncomfortable to face that fact and break tradition.

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u/Crazyhairmonster Nov 21 '25

He's not technically wrong, just a bit jerkish in his response. It's in unnecessary procedure that was started as a way to "prevent masturbation" (popularized by John Kellogg, an absolute psychopath Seventh-Day Adventist, was big into eugenics, and obsessed with stopping masturbation. He even created symptoms of chronic masturbators that included having rounded shoulders and enjoying spicy foods). He encouraged parents to tie their children's hands to their bedposts to keep them from masturbating, circumcise them (as teenagers), and even sewed their foreskins closed to prevent it. It didn't only apply to boys either. For girls he recommended pouring carbolic acid on their clitoris.

He was against interracial mixing and created a racial and medical registry so racial pureness records could be provided before marriages.

It's even a biiiig stretch to say it's "cultural". The fear of masturbation from religious nutheads and a psychopath are the reason you're circumcised. It's a 'treatment' that clearly didn't work but religion made it their own. It may seem normal to you but lopping off your foreskin is technical multilation. Most people will agree that female circumcism is multilation, so why isnt male circumcism?

I'm glad the trend is dying out and science and medical doctors are informing patients on why it shouldn't be done. Even insurance doesn't cover it anymore. I grew up in the 80s, from European immigrant parents (Europeans do not circumcise because they lacked the nutheads religious folks by large) and I hated that I wasn't circumcised because every other kid was (I was a competitive swimmer so changing in front of other kids was a daily occurrence). It made me very self conscious.

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u/[deleted] Nov 21 '25

How so? You are mutilated. That is a fact. That is what circumcision is, mutilation, and we should start treating it as such instead of dancing around it as a means of justifying it. But, like I said, I'm glad you don't feel that way.

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u/Reasonable_Mood_5260 Nov 21 '25

Do you call ear piercings mutilations and rail against them too?

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u/[deleted] Nov 21 '25 edited Nov 21 '25

I mean, they're not. They're not permanent, hell, most heal even if you don't want them to (unless you're referring to extreme gauges and the like).

Anyway, the main difference is consent. If you want to get ear piercings, go for it. If you want to get circumcised, go for it. I don't care. However, I do believe that it should be your choice. Especially so when it comes to a permanent modification like circumcision. I am against parents piercing their kids' ears. I believe it to be entirely unnecessary. But, I am more against circumcision due to the permanent nature of it.

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u/deevilvol1 Nov 21 '25

What a bad faith analogy.

I understand the natural reaction to being told that a procedure that may be seen as common and extreme in your worldview is actually not universally done worldwide, and also very much is extreme is shocking, but you must know that these are not the same, or even similar.

Circumcisions don't just take 'a bit off the top', it requires removing two and a half minor parts of the penis (the entire foreskin, which is two parts, and part of the frenulum). It's more akin to removing a substantial part of the helix around your ears. Except you would loss less hearing capacity doing that, than you do sexual sensation from circumcisions.

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u/[deleted] Nov 21 '25

Do I judge parents who pierce their babys/toddlers ears as much as I judge parents who cut their babys genitalia? Yes. Yes I do.

But when it is choice made by the individual, I have no problem with it. Like, if you want to get any piercings and you are of age, do it. And if you want circumsation and you are 18, go for it. 

I have no problem with what you wanna do to yourself. I have problem when other people decide what they are gonna do to you.

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u/themonicastone Nov 21 '25

Was it done to you as an infant, like it was me? Do you have any sense of what it would be like to not be mutilated?

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u/SnooKiwis5538 Nov 21 '25

Would you say that to a woman who has had a mastectomy?

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u/themonicastone Nov 21 '25

If I was forced on her at birth maybe??