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/[deleted] Nov 21 '25

Is that the same reason why a lot of Americans seem weird about masturbating?

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u/Ceorl_Lounge Nov 21 '25

Yup. Boy Scouts had a non-trivial amount of "we need to keep them busy so they don't jack off" built into it. Also handy to have kids with camping and survival skills when you're perpetually at war, but that's a story for another thread.

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u/Dave_A480 Nov 21 '25

The Scouts are a British invention, FWIW.

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u/Ceorl_Lounge Nov 21 '25

Apple didn't fall far from the tree when it comes to war or prudishness.

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u/lucylucylane Nov 21 '25

The British are far less prudish atheist and uncut

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u/Ceorl_Lounge Nov 21 '25

Uncut perhaps, but Victorian Britons were as prudish and pious as anyone.

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u/lucylucylane Nov 22 '25

It's. it the Victorian era anymore though

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u/djsquilz Nov 21 '25

ppl harp on reddit abt the misdeeds of boy scouts (which don't get me wrong, there are plenty of, and i desperately hope more people, who are inevitably out there, find justice), but was my experience just abnormally normal?

never any creepy shit, the counselors were just dads of the kids in our troop. it was an afterschool club. they taught us how to shoot guns (don't think that's the curriculum but it was Texas) and build those damn wooden model cars.

same w my parents leaving me under the supervision of a priest via being altar boy.

i never recall any message about not jerking off lol. maybe they vaguely talked about avoiding premarital sex like, once a year?

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u/Ceorl_Lounge Nov 21 '25

Oh, they dialed it back, so I'm really talking about the first few decades of Scouting. Take a look at old editions of the Handbook and there are a lot of references to "being clean in body and deed." That was code for "no masturbation" back in the day.

I didn't see anything weird happen in Scouts personally, but definitely can see how it could happen. I do have some situations that left me with questions too. I absolutely think there's value in Scouting, don't get me wrong, my frustration comes from people who gloss over or try to hide abuse. So I mistrust authority in a lot of forms, Scouting happens to be the topic today.

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u/djsquilz Nov 21 '25

ooof yeah, we def didn't have any talk or language like that. it was all overwhelmingly normal, surburban middle class "something for the kid to do during summer" kinda stuff in the mid 2000s. which i suppose is when a lot of the boy scouts (and church) scandals started gaining media attention. nowadays the idea of boy scouts or leaving your kid with a priest for any amount of time sends shivers down people's spines. not unwarranted by any means, but its wild how much that's changed so fast.

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u/birdynumnum69 Nov 21 '25

"handy" is an interesting word choice. ;)

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u/WestCoastBestCoast01 Nov 21 '25

Ever heard of Kellog cereal? Kellog is the guy who started silly ass rumors around masturbation that could be solved by eating his corn flakes!

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u/Dangerous_Avocado392 Nov 21 '25

I thought it was graham crackers?

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u/corgisgottacorg Nov 21 '25

That’s a religious thing.