It’s not a topic of polite conversation. It is wildly unpopular to criticize circumcision, and even more unpopular to call it what it is – genital mutilation. Whether the procedure is called genital mutilation or circumcision depends upon one’s country of origin and cultural influences.

Despite the innocuous and innocent sounding word for it, circumcision is a violation of our human rights regardless of whether the victim is a boy or a girl. The argument that circumcision is a matter of personal choice is semantically erroneous and illogical, infants do not consent to medical procedures, the parents do. Almost no one would consent to having so much of their genitals removed unless it were absolutely necessary. So of course, that is the lie told by medical professionals, that it is a necessary and beneficial medical procedure.

When discussing circumcision, many celebrities use profanity, because they have strong feelings about the subject. This is understandable; circumcision is a torturous, irreversible procedure. Doctors and nurses routinely lie to parents, telling them their baby slept through the procedure. In routine infant circumcision, anesthesia is rarely used (for fear of complications arising from the anesthesia), and more often than not, the infant goes into shock from the pain. Pro circumcision advocates want to push circumcision on infants, because babies cannot say no.

Alicia Silverstone

I was raised Jewish, so the second my parents found out they had a male grandchild, they wanted to know when we’d be having a bris (the circumcision ceremony traditionally performed 8 days after a baby boy is born). When I said we weren’t having one, my dad got a bit worked up. He couldn’t understand why not – I mean, it’s what our people have been doing for a really long time. Then he started listing reasons for doing it, like uncircumcised penises were hard to keep clean and can get infected, and that it doesn’t hurt the baby – although I’m pretty sure most babies scream and cry at their bris. But my thinking was: If little boys were supposed to have their penises ‘fixed,’ did that mean we were saying that God made the body imperfect? He made all this incredible stuff, and then he just happened to make the penis wrong?

… All those old ideas about why not to do it are totally outdated. A recent review by the American Academy of Pediatrics looked at the data from the past decades to see if there were really, truly any medical benefits to circumcision. Their conclusion? Nope! (2) And according to baby doctor genius and father of eight, Dr. William Sears, not only are there no medical benefits to circumcision, there are actually some pretty weighty drawbacks. The foreskin is packed with nerves (more than any other organ, actually), and removing it can diminish sexual pleasure. It helps protect the head of the penis, which, while also super-sensitive, was meant to be an internal organ. When it is exposed and is constantly rubbing up against clothing, it can become desensitized, which is also bad news when your son starts getting frisky.

Then there are the risks associated with what it is, in truth, a minor surgery: hemorrhage, infection, septicemia, gangrene, disfigurement, or, if too much foreskin is removed, the need for skin grafting later in life.

In case you’re still not convinced that you wouldn’t be committing your child to a life of bad Hebraic karma, consider that in Israel more and more parents are opting to celebrate the first week in their baby’s life with a brit shalom (the “covenant of peace”), a ritual alternative to circumcision.

Mario Lopez

Mario Lopez and his wife Courtney Mazza didn’t see eye to eye on circumcision.

In their reality television show, Saved by the Baby, they aired their dirty laundry while putting away clean laundry.

Mazza: ‘Cause I feel like some of the decisions you’re making, regarding the baby are your choice.

Mario Lopez: What are you talking about?

Mazza: Well ‘sighs’ the main thing that has been bothering me is the circumcision.

Mario: What’s bothering you about it?

Mazza: I don’t know how I feel about that, and every time we talk about it you shoot me down.

Mario: Well hold on, that’s not, I’m sorry babe but that’s not up for discussion. That-

Mazza: How is that not up for discussion?

Mario: Because-

Mazza: Did you make the baby yourself? Aren’t you worried about what people are going to think?

Mario: What do you mean what people are going to think?! What do you think of me? It didn’t hurt me.

Mazza: Well to be completely honest it was awkward for me.

Mario: What do you mean it was awkward?!

Mazza: Yeah it looks like a turtleneck.

Mario: I didn’t hear you complain! Oh really? Now it’s awkward?

Mazza: Well what am I going to say! I was thinking to myself, “What the hell is that?!”

Mario: Hey news flash by the way, this the way all men are born. I can’t believe you are even debating me on this. This is not debatable.

In an interview with Wendy Williams, Mario Lopez explained why it was so important to him to leave his son intact.

… So I said if we were having a boy that I didn’t want him to be circumcised. Because I don’t think that God makes mistakes and it’s not an optional part. And I know some of the women are probably like “Oh!” but believe it or not that’s the way a man is naturally born.

Craig Ferguson

While interviewing a physician on his show, Craig brought a succinct argument in favor of leaving boys intact.

Craig: Did you read in the news last week that the city of San Francisco is considering, banning circumcision?

Dr. Masterson: Yeah and again but you know that’s a personal choice. And I talk to my patients, as an obstetrician I talk to my patients a lot about this. And really there’s a lot of health benefits, and some risk benefits but it’s really a social procedure. So you really have to decide do you want your son to look like you? Do you, you know is it a cultural thing? Is it a social thing?

(Obviously, she has a skewed perception of personal choice. When an infant is circumcised, parental choice has taken away personal choice).

And later in the conversation…

Craig Ferguson: But couldn’t you achieve the same effect (the health benefits of circumcision) by washing your pee pee on a regular basis?

Dr. Masterson: You absolutely could.

Craig: So we’re talking, you could have this chopped off or you can wash it. Your call.

Dr. Masterson: Exactly.

Craig: [sarcastically] That’s a tough choice there doctor I don’t know!

Howard Stern

I am so against circumcision. You know that’s a man-made fucking thing. It’s got to cut down on your sensitivity, on your penis. I’m circumcised because you know I grew up in America, that’s what they do. They cut you, but it’s got to be wrong.

…I am circumcised, and I tell you something, I despise it. I despise it. I despise it.

… I rue the day my parents mutilated me.

…You know, my mother is so into ‘natural’ everything. “The body is beautiful.” You should hear the rap. The body is beautiful; we should leave things natural. So, she wouldn’t get me braces. My teeth were as crooked as a four-way intersection in Washington DC, and green, and bu-bu-bu- wouldn’t get me braces. My teeth were so wrecked because “naturally the body will heal itself.” She’s like a Christian Scientist. But the penis? Right out the window! I am completely pissed off that I’m circumcised.

…I know my penis was mutilated and I called my mother … I said to my mother the other night, I’m really freaked out by this circumcision thing. I think that I was mutilated. I think my penis would have a lot more sensitivity. … I’m talkin’ to my mother and I said, Why did you have me circumcised, exactly?

She goes, “You know, at the time I didn’t even know why. They took my baby from me and they said you know,” ‘This is something you gotta do.’… caught up in the whole tradition, cause my, you know, my father was was like, ‘Hey, he’s gotta be circumcised, he’s gotta look like me.’

And my mother goes, “I just remember being so out of it that, I knew it was the wrong thing, I knew it shouldn’t be done, somewhere in the back of my mind, but how dare I buck the system?”

I go, “Well Gee! You’re such a loudmouth on everything else, why weren’t you a loudmouth on this?”

Gerard Butler

In an interview with Howard Stern he was asked if he was circumcised. His response was:

No! We don’t do that!

…Never having been circumcised I can’t say but all I know is for me it’s very sensitive, and when I’m having sex that’s the amazing thing.

Cameron Diaz

Apparently it’s very uncomfortable for people to hear how it works when you have to clamp on the foreskin, pull it over, and then slice it off. Yeah, that apparently is really uncomfortable for people to hear. Yeah, but I think it’s important to know. It’s sort of like, it’s the same way, America is the same way about their beef. They just want it delivered in a Styrofoam package with saran wrap over it. They don’t want to know how it got to you. [It’s] the same thing with circumcision.

Joe Rogan

It’s a weird fucking tradition that we need to end. People get really bad infections. It’s not, it’s not completely innocuous. Kids have lost their penises because, because of circumcision. It’s not common. Yeah man for what? To dress up his dick with a knife? It’s a dick; it’s not a Jack O’ Lantern. You don’t have to chop parts off of it to make it look better. That’s stupid.

…It’s a gross thing isn’t it man? It’s a weird thing that people still cut babies dicks. There’s no logic to it at all. No science. All that nonsense about stopping AIDS. Go Fuck yourself. You’re not stopping AIDS by cutting dicks. By the way you’re not getting AIDS from not washing your dick. That’s nonsense. You’ve got no statistics to back that up. It’s one of those things where it was done to us, and women say, “It looks gross, so cut it”. It’s a really fucked up situation that we still have to deal with this.

…We’re weird about visuals man. People mutilate their kids’ dicks because of visuals. That’s what circumcision is about. A lot of people… Look, I’m circumcised. I didn’t ask to be. I’m sure a lot of you are circumcised, and I’m sure a lot of you circumcise your kids. But when you really stop and think about it, its kind of fucking crazy. I only have daughters but me and my wife got in an argument about this shit and she goes if we have a kid and it was a boy, I would want him to be circumcised. I go, “Why?!” she goes cause uncut dicks are disgusting. I’m like how many have you seen?! It was so confident. It wasn’t like she’d seen two that weren’t that pretty and she was holding out, hoping for a cute one. It was like, ‘No, I’ve fucking seen them, Noooo. No, no.’ I’m just picturing a river of sleepy uncut dicks in her past, just. I’m like what are you saying? That’s ridiculous, what it looks. No, no, no, no, no, it looks gross. It’s all this extra skin. I’m like do you even know what a vagina looks like? Are you serious here? Have you ever been sober and squatted down in front of a mirror and taken a good assessment of what the fuck you’re packing? Because let me tell you something, the extra skin might be the best-looking part of that contraption. Because if you pull that apart, you’ve got the predator’s mouth! All right, and you’re really giving me a hard time about some extra dick skin?

John Leguizamo

[My wife and I] talked about it, and I said there’s no way they’re going to be circumcised, and she was totally cool with it. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s not medically necessary at all. Actually, from what I’ve read, guys lose feeling by doing that. I want my son to have all the feeling he can have. Growing up in New York City, a lot of my friends weren’t circumcised, and my dad’s not circumcised and none of my family members are circumcised, so to me that was normal. When I saw some white kids circumcised, it looked like a mutilated monster. It was weird to me…it was really bizarre.

Colin Farrell

[Women] They are kind of fucking fascinated with a foreskin, aren’t they? In Ireland, at birth we don’t get the tip of our fucking knobs chopped off. I fucking completely disagree with that. People say, “It’s much cleaner to have no foreskin.” What, have you never heard of a fucking shower? Of Q-Tips? Whatever you want to do, just clean the fucking thing. I was at the party with 20 people, one of them an agent from CAA, when somehow the subject of foreskins came up. She said, “I just don’t understand a foreskin. I’ve never seen one.” So I whipped out my dick and said, “Here, that’s all it is. A bit of skin.” I did a little Puppetry of the Penis thing and showed her what it was about. You would have thought she was at a circus the way she was looking at me.

Dustin Hoffman

Sometimes they say someone shouldn’t be circumcised because it’s more natural and they should be circumcised because of hygiene. But the argument against that is if you wanna clean under your nails, you don’t cut your nails off.

Ben Affleck

“I hate circumcisions! Get enough in me, and I’ll tell you how much I hate them!”

Roseanne Barr

Jews must cease circumcising their male infants! It is a barbaric and backward cult mind control technique that produces ill effects in adults.

Sara Gilbert

Only 32.5 percent of babies are being cut these days, so [an intact baby] will be in the majority if you don’t do it.

Russell Brand

We don’t do it in England. It’s just more like, people don’t worry about it. They just, they just let it go, that sort of thing. … It’s a bit unfair, isn’t it, to do that to babies? I mean, you’re alive a little while, start chopping bits of his dick off. I don’t think God cares about that. He’s got a lot [going] on.

Daniel Tosh

Just for the record…I always wish I wasn’t circumcised.

Billy Joel

I got the, ah, ‘snip’, and I had nothing to say about that. And I’m still a little pissed off about that, actually. They should have asked first.

In the lyrics his song, So Long, Reverend Ike, he sang, “My circumcision grieves me.”

Russell Crowe

Russell Crowe is from New Zealand, though he’s lived most of his life in Australia. Circumcision is uncommon in both countries. Russell Crowe is a father of two intact boys. On Twitter he let his views on circumcision be known.

Proud to have my foreskin. It’s cold in Ireland. It’s like a turtleneck – but for my penis.

[I have] Many Jewish friends. I love my Jewish friends. I love the apples and the honey and the funny little hats, but stop cutting your babies.

Circumcision is barbaric and stupid. Who are you to correct nature? Is it real that GOD requires a donation of foreskin? Babies are perfect.

I will always stand for the perfection of babies. I will always believe in God, not man’s interpretation of what God requires.

Same as tattoos, plastic surgery. He is an adult and he “wants” it then off you go. Mothers were right to keep their babies intact.

Last of it, if you feel it is your right to cut things off your babies please unfollow and f**k off. I’ll take attentive parenting over barbarism.

When one of his fans tweeted him asking him if she should get her son circumcised he had a firm reply as to why she shouldn’t mutilate her son.

Twitter follower ‘Picknic11’ asked him: Do you think I should get him circumstanced?’

He replied, Here’s a life rule, if you can’t spell it, don’t do it.

Conclusion

Circumcision cannot be undone. Most of us have heard the casual dismissal, “Almost everyone is circumcised so it doesn’t matter.” Our contention is that it does matter. It is blatantly sexist to refer to female circumcision as genital mutilation and then to pretend that male circumcision is not mutilation as well. There are more erotogenic nerve endings in the foreskin than in any other part of the body, the clitoris included. The latest statistics we have seen places American circumcised newborns at 55%. But that means that 55% of America’s youngest generation will never know what sex with their entire penis would feel like. What’s worse is that the removal of foreskin robs both partners of sensation, though much more so for the man.

Far too often we also hear the argument that circumcision prevents disease.

Sadly, there aren’t any parts of the body that come with a lifetime guarantee against disease. Breasts can become cancerous, fingers can become arthritic, toenails can become ingrown, earlobes can develop malignant melanomas. Males are far more likely to have serious problems with their appendix than with an intact penis. If disease prevention is insufficient justification for the amputation of fingers, breasts, or the removal of toenails or the appendix, then we should take a moment to ask why routine infant circumcision is really done. If it doesn’t make sense to amputate or remove other body parts upon birth, then there is also insufficient justification for the amputation of foreskins. Male foreskin serves many purposes beyond heightened sensation. It also protect the glans, and this helps to maintain sensation later in life.

If we are to continue the practice of circumcision, then we must continue on our own terms as consenting adults. Parents cannot remove other body parts or tattoo their children upon birth. Why is this human rights violation still tolerated?

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