Entertainment A-L

1900

Novecento

Italy, 1976 Epic (300 mins) about the lives of two friends, a landowner's son, Alfredo Berlinghieri (Paolo Pavesi, later Robert de Niro) and a peasant's, Olmo Dalcò (Roberto Maccanti, later Gerard Depardieu), both born on January 1, 1900 in Emilio, Italy In an early scene in a silkworm farm, Olmo (Maccanti) has taken his wet clothes off and retracts his foreeskin. Alfredo (Pavesi): That must hurt a lot. Olmo: Why should it hurt? Alfredo: The skin's all back. Olmo: Let's see if yours is any different. (Alfredo pulls out his.) Looks just like a cocoon. Pull the skin back and look just like mine. Alfredo: It won't go. Olmo: Well pull harder. Alfredo: Oh, it burns! Olmo: Ah, it burns because you're not courageous, and you're not a socialist! Years later Alfredo (de Niro) hires a woman for them both. As they undress, Olmo (Depardieu) pulls on his foreskin, and again as they both become uncomfortable at the prospect of sexual activity together. In bed hey are both naked with the woman between them, and both men have exposed glandes. De Niro is visibly cut. In his voice-over, Bertolucci says an overarching theme was the two men as two sides of the same coin. He wanted a Russian and an America to play the leads, but the USSR would not cooperate, so he made do with the French Depardieu. He saw the first scene as adolescent exploration, and the second as being about the unbridgable gap between the two men. The second scene may have no connection with the first, and the men's circumcision status may have been unimportant to him.

3 Needles

Canada, 2006 Grim dramas about the intersection between HIV/AIDS, greed, poverty, money and blood. In a prologue and three unconnected parts set in China, Canada and Africa; the prologue is a flashforward to the middle of the third part. (There is a version in which the three parts are intercut together.) In the prologue, Bongile (Siv Mbelu) is one of a group of Xhosa initiates in coastal South Africa (near a spectacular waterfall) who are ritually circumcised as part of their rite of passage to manhood. The actual circumcisions are heard but not shown. We see the youths coat each other's bodies in mud, and lined up, the circumcisor (Mbutuma Gubo) raises the knife, chops, and says "Now you are a man" to which they respond "Now I am a man" as a blanket is put over them. There are quick shots of the bloody knife and the pile of foreskins. The voice-over (Olympia Dukakis) says how washing the mud off afterward makes them feel as if they have grown a new skin. In the third part, a novice nun (Choloe Sevigny) says of a man who has raped a small child in the belief that having sex with a virgin will cure him of AIDS, "I think he should be circumcised below the belly button." There is a suggestion that poverty caused one of the intitiates, Bongile's brother Huku (Anele Solwandle), to delay his initiation until after he was old enough to have had sex, and so his blood infected the others. Circumcision is shown as the cause, not a prevention of HIV infection.

28 Days

US, 2000 A comedy with a theme about the jargon and uplifting twaddle of rehabilitation. A young woman (Sandra Bullock) is spending 28 days in a rehabilitation centre. While eating, a woman finds an eyelash she lost and says everyone must make a wish. Roshanda (Marianne Jean-Baptiste): Custody of my children.

Gerhardt (Alan Tudyk): Sobriety.

Roshanda: Oh come on, baby, we all want that.

Gerhardt: My foreskin back. No one asked before they took it; they just took it. They had no right to take it. The others snicker. Oliver (Mike O'Malley): Way to share, Gerhardt, way to share. The others laugh. Gerhardt is a figure of fun. He is gay, self-absorbed and confused. Earlier, at a therapy session he launched into a monologue about a fork in the road and trailed off into talking about ladles. Later, told he can look for a partner when he can keep a plant alive, he talks to the plant, sketches it - everything except water it - then blames the seller when it dies. The underlying message is that only such a hopeless person could mind being circumcised. Coming right after "We all want that" the line's message is that Gerhard has picked something nobody (in his right mind) could possibly want.

Above the Rim

US, 1994 Crime/drama about a promising high scchool basketball star and his relationship with two brothers.

Kyle (Duane Martin) and Bugaloo (Marlon Wayans) are walking when Kyle stops in an alley to urinate. Bugaloo sneaks a peak at Kyle's penis. Bugaloo: Damn, gee, I didn't know you was uncircumcised. Yo' dick like a anteater! (Laughs. Kyle turns away) But it's so big. What, you been liftin' weights wit yo' dang dang? That big ol' dick. Kyle: No, I been liftin' yo' moms with my dick. Shut the fuck up, man. Kyle has probably heard the old "anteater" gibe many times.

Alex and Eve

Australia, 2015 Comedy about a multi-cultural romance between a young Greek teacher (Richard Brancatisano) and a Lebanese Muslim woman lawyer (Andrea Demetriades). The Greek parents, George (Tony Nikolakopoulos) and Chloe (Zoe Carides) are discussing the possibility of their son's marraige and how the religious question would play out: Chloe: She's the Muslim, he's the Orthodox. George: It doesn't work that way, love. And the grandchildren? Would they be Muslim? Chloe: Not if it's a boy! George: What about his little willy? They circumcise! (The mother looks pained) There is no further discussion and the topic isn't raised again. The romantic couple seem secular so it may be a non-issue.

American History X

US, 1998 Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton) and his kid brother, Danny (Edward Furlong), racist skinheads of Venice Beach, vandalise a grocery story that has been taken over by Latinos and Koreans. They terrorize the Latino employees, calling one "You fucking doggy dick!"

American Pie 5/Presents: The Naked Mile

US, 2006 Just before the characters run the mile of the title (a college tradition after exams), Dwight Stifler (Steve Talley) gives a speech to three other characters to encourage them. In the background, this exchange: Jackson (uncredited): Stifler! You uncircumcised twat!

Stifler: Jackson, you little-dicked motherfucker. Clearly "uncircumcised" is meant as an insult. Since the literal meaning of "twat" is vulva, the expression is doubly insulting, but literally meaningless.

An American Werewolf in London

UK, 1981 Horror-comedy Two American students backpacking across Europe, David Kessler (David Naughton) and Jack Goodman (Griffin Dunne), are attacked by a werewolf on the Welsh moors. Jack is killed (but since this is about werewolves, that's not the end of him) while David is wounded and taken to a hospital in London. Nurse Alex Price (Jenny Agutter) is looking in on David when fellow nurse Susan Gallagher (Anne-Marie Davies) enters. Susan: Is he all right? Alex: Yes, I should think. He called out just now. Susan: He's American, you know. Doctor Hirsch is gonna fetch one of them embassy fellas to see him. Alex: His chart says he's from New York. Susan: Oh, I think he's a Jew. Alex: What makes you say that? Susan: I've had a look. Alex (chuckling): Really, Susan, that wasn't very proper. Besides, it's common practice now. Dr. Hirsch (John Woodvine) (entering): Nurse Gallagher, Nurse Price is quite right. Nurse Price is not quite right. Her "now" and Hirsch's agreement implicitly endorse circumcision by implying it is "modern" - when in fact it became common more than 75 years earlier, and had been largely abandoned in the UK, as any real doctor in London would know.

Antwone Fisher

US, 2002 (based on Fisher's autobiography, "Finding Fish") As a boy, Antwone lived with foster parents (called Tate in the film) and was abused physically, emotionally and sexually. As an adult, Antwone (Derek Luke) and his girlfriend Cheryl (Joy Bryant) look at his birth and adoption records in an unsuccessful attempt to find his real parents. The scene lasts just a few seconds but by freeze-framing, it is possible to read: ...

1984

Mrs. Tate [states?] that child and brother

like to urinate in wash baskets, [?] and

bottles during the day. She added that

bedwetting was no longer a problem.



I had Antwone take a physical and it

was recommended circumcision on

elective admission basis. He was admitted

to University Hospital on [8/6/84?]

and operated on [8/8/84?] and discharged

on [8/9/84?].



He was well-prepared for this surgery,

...

This appears to be an instance of punitive circumcision. Antwone reads this poem in the film: Who will cry for the little boy,

lost and all alone?

Who will cry for the little boy,

abandoned without his own?

Who will cry for the little boy?

He cried himself to sleep.

Who will cry for the little boy?

He never had for keeps.

Who will cry for the little boy?

He walked the burning sand.

Who will cry for the little boy?

The boy inside the man.

Who will cry for the little boy?

Who knows well hurt and pain.

Who will cry for the little boy?

He died and died again.

Who will cry for the little boy?

A good boy he tried to be.

Who will cry for the little boy,

who cries inside of me?

In the film, Antwone was born in 1976, making him about eight years old in 1984. (In real life, he was born in 1959.)

Attack of the Devil

US, 2014 YouTube video (14'30")

Synopsis: A Catholic priest (Ray Mcanally [pseud.?]) is led to a giant intact penis in a cave in Iraq. Removing it awakens the gigantic Devil (Arden Banks), but it is also the last part needed to (re?)assemble a giant Robot Jesus under the Vatican. The last step, ordered (4:40) by the Pope (Roger Conley), is His circumcision (by a remote controlled giant Lego/drill-rig laser "circumtron"/Gomco clamp). The cut edge activates Robot Jesus (Mike Stegall) with electrical discharges, and he speaks in a heavy menacing voice. The Pope launches him like a missile from Vatican Square and he flies to New York.

At a heavy metal concert, the crowd run from the Devil. Robot Jesus and the Devil fight, and the crowd, including the priest, applaud Jesus, but electricity from Jesus' penis (10:30) makes him kill some of the crowd and start to destroy New York. The Devil sees the lightning coming from Robot Jesus' penis (11:40) and restores his foreskin with a touch. The priest says "It is He who performs miracles," and the two giants part as friends, Robot Jesus flying into a disturbance in space, the Devil wading into the sea. The priest, now heavily pierced, waves goodbye to Satan.

See it on YouTube Revolutionarily, circumcision makes Robot Jesus evil, and the Devil cures him.

Bad Faith

(Mauvaise foi)

Belgium/France, 2006 Comedy about the problematic relationship between a Muslim and his pregnant Jewish girlfriend There are several references to circumcision, all meant to be funny. A male-bonding episode between Ismaël (Roschdy Zem, who co-authored and directed), his Jewish partner Milou (Pascal Elbé, another co-author), and their non-denominational French friend has some banter about doing it when he was 3½ ("It was fun; I had a party") compared to eight days ("How cruel, you can't even remember it"). The inconsequential milquetoast pipes in "We don't do it!" but he is ignored. The idea that any boy finds his circumcision "fun" is grotesque.

Bad Moms

USA, 2016 Women's comedy, released July 29, 2016

Going by this clip, it is heavy on "the foreskin is disgusting."

Kiki (Kristen Bell) says she is "just happy [the man she is with] is circumcised". This prompts Amy (Mila Kunis) to ask with a gasp "What if I get someone who is not circumcised?" She is told: Kiki: Run out of the room screaming. It's like finding a gun in the street. Just scream and get out of there! But Carla (Kathryn Hahn) damns intact men with faint praise: Carla: No way, you guys. Uncut guys are great!!

Kiki: Really?

Carla: Oh they're just so nice to you because they know their dicks are gross.

Amy: How do I handle it?

Carla: Just imagine that this [pulling Kiki's hoodie over her head] is the hood of the uncut cock and this [Kiki's face] is the penis-face. So what you would to is just very gently [demonstrating with the hood] peeel it back, like that, to expose the head of the cock ... and then you [pulling the jacket off Kiki's shoulders] work it off, and then you just go to town, you jerk if off until you want to sit on it. [This is all bad advice.]

Amy: What do I do with this (the hood of the hoodie)? do I put it in a hairclip or do I -"

Carla: Nonononono, nonono this, this, you can flick it, fuck it, rub your face on it.

Amy: I don't wanna put my face on it.

Carla: OK, well take care of this, though, This is like a big, giant man-clit. If you work this, it's gonna be like - [rising and spreading her arms in the air] Whoosh!" But Kiki says Kiki: I'm not gonna wear this sweatshirt ever again" - the foreskin is THAT disgusting. No intact men were consulted in the making of this film.

It also has a line directed at a woman wearing a chest-flattening bra: "It looks like you've got a 'Boys Don't Cry' thing happening right now."

a reference to the film about Brandon Teena, a FTM transperson (possibly intersexed) who was raped and murdered.



More information about the film itself will be welcome.

https://www.facebook.com/BadMoms/?fref=ts

Because I Said So

USA, 2007 Comedy about Daphne (Diane Keaton) trying to find a boyfriend for the youngest of her three daughters, Milly (Mandy Moore). Milly is at her new boyfriend's house. While he is in bed in the next room, she surruptitiously telephones her mother and sisters Mae (Piper Perabo) and Maggie (Lauren Graham). Daphne puts her on speaker phone. Daphne: So, how's it going? Milly: It's good, it's good... the only thing is, I think he may have a hotdog with a bun. Daphne: Are you having a picnic? Mae: No! Uncircumcised is back IN. Maggie: You know, that guy I dated before Derrick, he had a - hmm - and I preferred it, because it was so much more dramatic when it finally made its appearance. You were like, WOW! (runs her hands down the sides of her head, like a foreskin sliding back to reveal the glans) Daphne: Honey, just remember, he's accomplished, he's considerate, and don't forget, you have one breast smaller than the other. The family is portrayed as not mincing words and speaking frankly about sexuality (Milly, in one scene, describing an orgasm to her mother) yet Milly is not certain about his status. Maggie doesn't know, or won't use, the word "foreskin".

Daphne (ignoring Maggie's preference) implies she thinks a foreskin needs to be compensated for, and is a disfigurement

The film has had sharply mixed reviews.

Beyond Honor

USA, 2003 Mohammed Abdel-Karim (Wadie Andrawis) is an Islamic patriarch in Southern California, Sahira (Ruth Osuna) his medical student daugher. "Variety" (Jan 18, 2004) describes the climax, involving female genital mutilation, as "blood-curdling".

Black KKKlansman

(USA) 2018 Historical drama: In Colorado Springs in 1972 (actually 1979), a black police officer, Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) infiltrates the Ku Klux Klan, using a Jewish surrogate, Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver) for face-to-face meetings.



Klansman Felix Kendrikson ( Jasper Pääkkönen ) suspects Zimmerman of being Jewish and takes him to his basement for a "Jew lie detector test". They disagree about the reality of the Holocaust, Kendrikson saying it was faked, Zimmerman that it was "beautiful".

Kendrikson (pointing down with his pistol): Let me see yer dick.

[Cut to an unmarked police car outside where Stallworth is listening to Zimmerman's wire.)

Voice of Zimmerman: Are ya gonna shoot me? Put that gun away. [Stallworth rips of his headphones and races out of the car.]

Kendrikson: I hear you Jews do something funny wit' yer dicks, some weird Jew shit. Is yer dick circumstanced?

Zimmerman: Oh, is that what this is is about? Yer tryin' to see my big Jew dick, yer fuckin' faggot.

Kendrikson: Who're yer callin' a fuckin' faggot? Jew faggot!

Zimmerman: (points his index finger at Kendrikson as if pushing a button, and clicks with his tongue.)

The ultimate faith in the fallacy that "Only Jews cut." In reality, Kendikson would very likely have been "circumstanced" himself.

Blades of Glory

USA, 2007 Comedy-drama Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder) is an orphan adopted by a famous figure-skating coach who is raising him to be a champion, while Katie Von Waldenburg (Jenna Fischer) is the untalented younger sister of a brother-sister figure skating team. They set her up to spy on Jimmy and his skating partner but Jimmy and Katie become romantically involved, so Katie admits she's been spying, and they are soon telling each other the horrors of growing up in such a competitive sport. Jimmy says his foster-father insisted he be circumcised "to reduce wind resistence." This might, and should, elicit horror, but also might be taken as light relief, circumcision being "trivial" and the reason given so ludicrous.

Blind Fury

USA, 1989 Nick Parker (Rutger Hauer), a blinded Vietnam vet, uses his samurai fighting skills and concealed sword to rescue his old Army buddy, Frank Devereaux. Nick: Where is Frank Devereaux? Cobb (Charles Cooper): F.O. Errol Flynn! You know what that means? Fuck off! (Nick swings his sword and shaves off Cobb's bushy eyebrows. Cobb looks shocked.) Nick: I also do circumcision. Makes circumcision trivial (with an underlying castration threat: "Next time it won't just be your eyebrows"), but also implies it is a delicate task.

Brokeback Mountain

USA, 2005 Story of love between two sheep-herders in Wyoming, starring Heath Ledger as Ennis Del Mar and Jake Gyllenhaal as Jack Twist (with Peter McRobbie as John Twist), Directed by Ang Lee ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"). The short story by Annie Proulx includes a scene where Ennis remembers Jack telling him how his father punished him for uninating on the toilet seat by urinating on him, and how Jack learnt at that moment that he was circumcised, because his father was not, shattering any possibility of a relationship. The scene is not in the film.

But I'm a Cheerleader

USA, 1999 Comedy about a schoolgirl (Natasha Lyonne) sent to a "cure" camp after she is suspected of being a lesbian. In one class, Mary J. Brown (Cathy Moriarty) requires the inmates to say what is the "root" of their homosexuality: Dolph (Dante Basco): Too many locker-room showers with the ? team. Hilary (Melanie Lynskey): All-girl boarding school. Sinead (Katharine Towne): I was born in France. Clayton (Kip Pardue): My mom let me play in her pumps. Jan (Katrina Phillips): I like balls. Joel Goldberg (Joel Michaely): Traumatic Bris. Since the other reasons are absurd and trivial, the implication is that circumcision is trivial too.

The Cable Guy

USA, 1996 Comedy directed by Ben Stiller. The Cable Guy (Jim Carey), Stephen Kovaks (Matthew Broderick), Stephen's ex-wife (Leslie Mann) and his parents (George Segal and Diane Baker) are playing a party game called "Password Porn". Each writes a (sexual) word on a scrap of paper to be placed into a container. A scrap of paper with the word "foreskin" on it is among those placed. A word is drawn and whispered to one person who then gives one-word clues to the word. The first three words are "nipple", "vagina" and "foreskin". When Stephen is told his word is "foreskin", he says something like "I cannot play this any more" and starts to leave the room. The foreskin is apparently too disgusting to be even mentioned in a risqué game.

The Changeling See The Exchange

Charlie's Angels II: Full Throttle

US, 2003 Jimmy Bosely (Bernie Mac) must get past an Irish guard. He asserts that he too is Irish, despite being black. To prove it, he argues that his family is Irish because they too have gone through "terrible shit" - potato famine, unemployment...and ... circumcision. The guard, puzzled, and with guarded sympathy asks: "Circumcision?" Bernie later tells of twin boys in his family being born and how they were to be circumcised. (More detail needed. Circumcision is very rare in Ireland.)

Choke

US, 2008 Black comedy. The mentally-ill mother (Angelica Huston) of Victor (Sam Rockwell), a sex-addicted historical village employee, stole him as a baby, but her seeming nurse Paige (Kelly Macdonald) convinces him that his mother fled Italy because she had stolen the foreskin of Christ and used cells from it to impregnate herself, so that he is the Second Coming. Foreskin cells have no power to impregnate after 2000 years, but with holy relics, all bets are off.

Circumcise Me!

US, 2009 [Not the 2006 BBC documentary, Circumcise Me?]

Screened at the second annual Orange County Jewish-Israeli Film Festival. "The story of a Hasidic comedian who has converted three times." What's striking is that the words of the title are almost never uttered, compared to "Circumcise him".

Circumcision / La Circoncision / Tiyabu Biru

Senegal, 1978 Directed by Moussa Bathily, in the Sarakhole language As an agrarian village prepares for their traditional circumcision ceremony, the village elders realize that they can no longer afford the sacrificial cattle, an integral part of the festivities. Eavesdropping, a group of young boys find out about the dire situation and decide to steal the cattle so the ritual can continue. "Visually poetic, with an inspired documentary ambience, Moussa Bathily’s lone feature film is nostalgic and penetrating." - preview

Circumcision

USA, 2013 Angel Station Pictures Tyrone Wilson as Walter Little

"I want a cision..." (based on actual events): Refreshingly different: man is not circumcised , and resisting it is a token for thinking for oneself.

Circumcision! A Slice of Life

USA, 2012 Comedy in 10 minute episodes.

Gleb Kaminer migrates from Azerbijan to Israel, where the army requires him to be circumcised. Pain is emphasised and the usual jokes trotted out. The details of the operation are not shown, but his (large) foreskin is seen flying through the air and landing in a basket with others: The point of this movie seems to be to show off Gleb Kaminer's technical skill (he plays every role). He clearly has no experience of a foreskin and the movie says nothing useful about circumcision.

Coffee, Desserts, Light Fare

15 mins

US, 2002 Two white South Beach, Florida, gay men find they are involved with the same man. One complains of "too many uncuts", describing them as "disgusting". The other agrees. In a film made almost entirely by people with Spanish names, this may be to illustrate the men's shallowness.

The Commissar

USSR, 1967

(US release 1987) In a scene filmed through the wheels of a moving cannon carriage, three naked Jewish boys take an outdoor bath in a Ukranian shtetl sometime in the early 1920s. The two older boys appear to be circumcised, while the youngest one, born after the Revolution, is not. There is no suggestion that the third boy is any less Jewish for being intact.

The Core

US, 2003 No direct reference, but two reviewers independently comment: A vessel in the shape of an uncircumcised phallus penetrates Mother Earth and inseminates her core with nuclear-tipped casings which explode in coordinated waves, thus returning equilibrium to the planet. - Mark Ramsey, Movie Juice

March 23, 2003 The team jumps into their cigar-shaped ship, appropriately titled the U.S.S. Massive Uncircumcised Cock, and so begin their journey to the center of Mother Earth, where they will penetrate her egg-like core to deposit a payload of nuclear-warhead sperm, which will rock her body with coordinated waves of post-coital delight and get her molten juices flowing again, thus saving the planet from a particularly bad case of sexual frustration. - Michael Batz, Pulp

April 3,2003 (Both reviewers pan the movie, Ramsey calling it "astonishingly disastrous" and Batz "so bad it hurts".)

Cours Toujours

Dad on the Run

France, 2000 Jonas's father-in-law tells him that in their North African tradition, Jonas (Clément Sibony) must bury his son's foreskin after the bris. Jonas loses the handkerchief containing the foreskin, and in the rest of the movie he and his best friend search for it around Paris. In the last scene, after the foreskin has been found and buried, Jonas asks his friend where his father buried his foreskin.

The friend replies, "C'mon, not all Jewish families circumcise. My family, for example, doesn't bother."

Crash

Canada/UK, 1996 Dir: David Cronenberg from the novel by J G Ballard (not the 2004 film of the same title, dir: Paul Haggis) About people who are sexually turned on by car crashes and the dangers involving them. In an early scene, James Ballard (James Spader) and his wife Catherine (Deborah Kara Unger) are having normal sex and talking about Vaughan (Elias Koteas) who has been disfigured in a car accident. Both are attracted to him and talking about him while having sex arouses them. Catherine casually asks "Is he circumcised?" along with other sexual questions about Vaughan. Ballard is English, Cronenberg Canadian, and he set the film in Canada, so the question need not imply a preference on her part, and the answer is not open-and-shut. One implication is that James has seen Vaughan naked, suggesting a degree of intimacy between them.

Deconstructing Harry

US, 1997 Writer Harry Block (Woody Allen) confuses his life with his writing. On one of his rare visits to his son Hilly (Eric Lloyd), at a parents-at-school day, Hilly asks him, "Dad, why doesn't my penis look like yours?" (It is not clear when he might have seen it to notice.) Harry explains, "because your mother and I never had you circumcised," but then embarasses an overhearing mother (Mariel Hemingway) by expanding the topic to the naming of penises. Hilly says he's going to name his penis "Dillinger", which Harry says is "perfect". In one of his stories, a psychotherapist (Demi Moore) who has had a son by Epstein, a former patient (Stanley Tucci), Harry (voice over): "as if she had experienced a divine revelation, suddenly became what Epstein referred to, angrily, as 'Jewish with a vengeance'."

Helen: I just rue the day that I listened to you and didn't have him circumcised.

Epstein: What are you, nuts?

Helen: We could still do it.

Epstein: No, no! He's too old.

Helen: Now he's too old.

Epstein: My God, you're like a born-again Christian, except you're a Jew.

She becomes so devout, she says a blessing before giving him oral sex. Soon after, she has an affair with an Orthodox patient. On the basis of his stories, Harry's sister and brother-in-law accuse him (with some truth) of being self-hating and anti-Semitic. Circumcision is only a springboard off which characters' attitude to Judaism is bounced - implicitly reinforcing the myth that only Jews circumcise.

Desert Flower

US, 1997 Docu-drama about the life of anti-FGC advocate Waris Diri, played by Ethiopian model Liya Kebede. In the Hollywood Reporter of October 20, 2010, Sura Wood says "... German writer-director Sherry Hormann includes a horrifying, graphic re-enactment of Dirie's genital mutilation as a child, seen in a flashback.

... A love interest (Anthony Mackie) appears briefly, but potential complications, given Dirie's traumatic history, are alluded to but not explored

... rather than examine what might have become of her if she hadn't been so beautiful, the film opts for uplift ..." In Culturemap Houston, April 1, 2011, Regina Scrugs writes: It's not a smooth ride to the top of the modeling world, however. One of the most poignant moments occurs when Dirie, not yet comfortable with English, goes to the hospital for an infection arising from her long-ago operation. A British doctor asks a Somali male nurse to translate his instructions to her, but by subtitles we see that the nurse berates her instead "for bringing shame on our people." Desert Flower is an entertaining film which manages to be more than just a tale of empowerment. It's the story of one woman's triumph over adversity, yes; but it's also a learning experience. One incredible fact: Although the barbaric practice of female genital mutilation has been condemned by the World Health Organzation and the United Nations, it's still commonly performed on as many as 6,000 girls per day.

The Devil's Advocate

US, 1997 A lawyer, Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves), defends a man who has slaughtenered a goat in his apartment. He says other blood sacrifices are acceptable, such as circumcision. Cross-examining a woman who claims to have had a relationship with a man: Lomax: Is he circumcised?

Witness: (pause) Uhh..

Lomax: Is he cut or not?

Witness: (silence)

Lomax (forcefully): Do you understand the question?

Witness: (silence)

Lomax: So which is it?

Witness: (silence. Cries) Her hesitation convinces Lomax that she is lying about having slept with the man. The questioning assumes she is familiar enough with both kinds to be able to tell the difference - by no means likely in the US.

Deuce Bigelow: European Gigolo

USA, 2005 (Raunchy comedy, widely panned)

Deuce (Rob Schneider) and his love interest, Eva, (Hanna Verboom) are at an aquarium, Deuce leaves her alone and a man who was taunting Deuce earlier makes lewd remarks to Eva to gross her out, telling her kinky things he wants to do to her. After some sharp retorts and glares from Eva, he says "My penis is uncircumcised." This makes no sense in England and Europe where the film is set and where almost every man is intact: it would be like saying "I have ten toes." To US audiences, however, it is intended as another gross remark. Message: "Intact penises are inherently disgusting."

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

US, 1988 A comedy set in Southern France. In a museum, Freddy Benson (Steve Martin) takes a quick peek at a nude male statue. He goes "Eeew!" presumably because the statue's penis is intact. He would go "Eeew!" a great deal in Italy, Greece or Scandinavia.

Drift

Germany/

Canada, 2000 Written and directed by Quentin Lee, not to be confused with Drift (Netherlands, 2001) directed by Michiel van Jaarsveld. Ryan (Reggie T. Lee) is on the phone with his recent ex, Joel (Greyson Dayne). when he is paged by Leo (Jonathon Roessler), a 20-year-old they'd recently met at a party. He ends the call with Joel and phones Leo. Leo: Hey. What's up?

Ryan: What are you doing?

Leo: Oh, I was just masturbating.

Ryan: Do you want me to call you back?

Leo: No, I just came.

Ryan: Cool.

Leo: I don't know. I was just incredibly horny today.

Ryan: So, how do you masturbate?

Leo: Nothing kinky. You know- Just my hand.

Ryan: Do you use lubricant?

Leo: No, I'm not circumcised. How 'bout you?

Ryan: Yeah....

Leo (laughing): Umm ... This is an incredibly weird conversation.

Ryan: You started it.

Leo: I was just telling you what I was doing.

Ryan (laughing): I was just curious. "Not having to use lubricant to masturbate (or, often, for intercourse)" is another good reason not to circumcise.

Drowning by Numbers

UK, 1988 A boy called "Smut" carries out little rituals with road kills, indicating his troubled state of mind. He is told by a neighbourhood girl that circumcision is desirable. He asks his father Madgett what it looks like. Madgett, in bed, pulls back the bedclothes and says "see, nothing special" (or words to that effect). (In a generation, circumcision has gone from commonplace to rare.) Smut circumcises himself, further indicating his morbid state of mind. (Director Peter Greenaway has a particular interest in morbid states of mind.)

East is East

UK, 1999 George Khan, a strict Muslim Pakistani (Om Puri) is married to an Englishwoman, Ella (Linda Bassett), in Salford, Manchester. It is 1971. Their six sons and daughter, taking part in a Catholic procession, take a detour to prevent him from seeing them. His eldest son - who proves to be gay - flees from an arranged wedding. His youngest son, Sajid (Jordan Routledge), who always wears a parka with a concealing hood (like Kenny in South Park), easily wins a pissing contest behind the mosque, but his competitors see his intact penis and call a Mullah, who inspects him and complains to his father. George takes him home in shame: Ella: What the bloody 'ell's 'e done now?

George: Done? I tell you what he bloody done, missus. 'E makes a bloody show of me. All the bloody family always makes a bloody show of me. I go to that mosque long time. Now how I looking Mullah in the bloody face? 'Cause your son got bloody tickle-tackle.

Ella: What y' goin' on about, y' big daft git, what bleedin' tickle-tackle?

George: Mullah sees. All the bloody children in the mosque seeing.

Ella: Well they must be seein' things, George, because they were all done, all six of them.

Auntie Annie (Leslie Nicol): She's right, George.

George: You're not believe me? You're bloody looking!

Ella: Sajid, come 'ere.

Sajid (backing away): Get stoofed!

Ella: Ay ay, language! I'll stuff you in a minute, you cheeky little bleeder, now get 'ere an get 'em off!

(Sajid whimpers.)

Annie: Come on Saj, let me 'ave a look. I've wiped your shitty arse before now. (She looks). Oo, 'e's right, y'know Ella, it's still there!

[An English mother mistaken about her nine-year-old son strains credulity.]

George: You sees, is all you bloody fault!

Annie: 's nowt to worry about, George, you can still get 'im done.

Ella: I know who I should've got done. (Annie snickers)

George: No bloody funny, you sees. It's got be fixed! This thing has to be cutting! (Sajid runs away) Ey! Come 'ere you bastard!

...

Saleem: (secretly an art student, drawing an intact penis to show his brothers and sister) We draw 'em all the time at college. ... protects the end of the penis.

...

Maneer (the religious one): Foreskins are dirty.

Saleem: They wouldn't be there if they were dirty.

Meenah: Why do they cut it off?

Tariq: It lessens the feeling in y' knob.

Maneer: No it doesn't.

Tariq: 'Ow would you know? You've 'aven't used yours yet.

Maneer: Yes I 'ave.

....

George (calling through a hole in the outside toilet door to Sajid): You can't 'ave this thing, my son. It no belong to you. Not our religion, see. No worry about it. (Cajoling) I buy you nice watch.

Ella: Oh why bother with all this now at 'is age, George?

George: Your son goin' bloody 'ell with this thing. But we fixes.

Ella: 'E's not goin' to 'ell.

George: I tell you, missus, it's my 'ouse, an I bloody control it. (They argue.)

...

Ella (through the hole): Oh, come on Saj. 'S only a little operation. It won't hurt ...

(The word "hurt" echos as the black hole expands to fill the screen. It contracts as we pull back from Sajid's hood to reveal Sajid in his jacket on a hospital trolley, being wheeled away screaming. Cut to a closeup of Sajid's fly being zipped up. Sajid, now on a hospital bed, groans.)

...

George: Is everything all right? Tickle-tackle all gone?

Doctor: The circumcision was absolutely fine. [No question about the medical ethics of performing unnecessary surgery on a non-consenting patient.]

George: You Indian?

Doctor: I'm sorry?

Ella (whispers): George!

George: Bastard Indian! ... Sajid (producing a watch) This is very special watch. It tells the time in ... Arabic. (Sajid turns away.)

...

(Sajid has been brought home.)

Annie: How's little one doing?

Ella: 'S all right. Just a bit sore.

Annie: Where's old Bothered-Balls? 'E 'appy now?

Ella: Yeah. 'E bought him a new dressing gown, and a watch.

Annie: Hmph. Not much of a swap, but it's better than nowt, I suppose.

Ella: Annie, do you think I'm a good mother?

Annie: No, I think you're a friggin' awful mother.

Ella: Would you've put one of your lads through all this at 'is age?

Annie: Well you 'ad no choice, love.

Ella: I did. I could've put me foot down and said "No."

Annie: And given yourself a load of bleedin' grief. It's 'is religion, Ella. And its theirs, you know that. You knew that when you got married. In the climactic fight between George and his family, Sajid's hood gets torn off. That symbolic circumcision is more of a coming of age than his literal one. The overall impression is that circumcision is an evil, but only one among many examples of George's self-centredness and cruelty.

Eating Out 4: Drama Camp

USA, 2011 Romantic gay comedy: lovers Casey (Daniel Skelton) and Zack (Chris Salvadore) go to a drama camp where sex is forbidden and their failing relationship is threatened by another man, Benji (Aaron Milo). Zack sniffs Benji's underpants, which makes him want to masturbate and rub himself with them. They have been contaminated with poison oak, making him itch all over (50:04). When his friends, though puzzled about how it happened, commiserate, he says: Zack: It's like my whole body is a circumcision wound. Subtext: "Circumcision is very painful" but the scene is played for comedy, and the reference is more gratuitous.

Europa, Europa

[Hitlerjunge Salomon]

France/

Germany, 1990 "The true story of Solomon Perel."

The film opens with the Bris of a German baby, shown in some detail. The baby, Solomon, cries weakly when he is cut. In voiceover, he (Marco Hoffschneider - intact in real life, he wore a circumcised prosthesis for the nude scene) says he can remember his own circumcision. On the eve of his Bar Mitzvah, his family flee the Nazis and emigrate to Poland. Separated from them, he becomes an unwilling Russian and Polish interpreter for the German army, as Josef "Jupp" Peters. He has to conceal his circumcision from the soldiers of his unit. When he sees hanged Jews, he asks himself, "How could they be so kind to me and treat the Jews so horribly? What set us apart? A simple foreskin?" A friend makes a pass at him while he is off-guard in a bath and discovers his secret, but tells him not all Germans are the same and is killed soon after. He is sent to a Hitler Youth boarding school deep within the Reich. On the train, a woman has sex with him, but before she exposes him an officer orders her to put the lights out. At the school he checks the locks on the toilet doors and is relieved to learn they wear trunks when showering. He falls in love with a German girl and, inspired by her poloneck sweater, attempts to restore his foreskin with string, but develops a painful infection. Sex with her would expose him, and she turns to a rival. He has a nightmare in which his family rejects him and he is told Hitler is Jewish too: "That's why he covers it with his hands." After many close shaves he is saved from the Russians when he is recognised by a Jewish friend in a concentration camp they are liberating. They urinate together in the rain as he embraces his Jewish identity. He emigrates to Palestine and in voiceover says when he had sons, he "barely hesitated" to circumcise them. (The real Solomon Perel appears in the last scene.) The film strongly reinforces the theme that all and only Jewish males are cicumcised.

Everything Relative

US, 1996 Seven women, six of them lesbian, gather for a reunion following the bris of the son of two of them, Victoria (Monica Bell) and Katie (Stacy Nelkin). The mohel (Harvey Fierstein) jokes "Shall we take a bit off the top?" All the women gather round to watch and the scene fades. ( Baby is circumcised. He seems unaffected afterwards. He also seems well over eight days old.) Though conventional family structures are challenged, circumcision is not.

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex

*But Were Afraid to Ask

US, 1972 Comedy distantly connected to the popular (and ludicrously erroneous) book by David Reuben In the section, "What happens during ejaculation?" the male body is imagined as a kind of craft with a large male crew, e.g. erection is produced by burly men cranking the winches of a crane-like device. As a timorous sperm, Woody Allen wonders what will happen to him, and as he leaps off the gangway-like urethra he calls, "Well, at least he's Jewish!" Why this should be a relief is a mystery and it reinforces the fallacy that "Only Jews cut off foreskins." Its function in the film seems only to reference the otherwise unmentioned penis.

The Ex See Fast Track

The Exchange

(a k a [The] Changeling)

US, 2008 Drama set in 1928 Los Angeles Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) leaves her 9-year-old son, Walter, at home. When she returns he is gone. Months later, the LA Police Department - riddled with corruption, cronyism and violence - try to foist off another boy on her as Walter. They make a big thing of it, with newspaper headlines, pictures of the returning boy, etc. She spots the switch immediately, but they insist she take him home on a trial basis. (Christine comes into the hall and stops in front of the bathroom door. Knocks.) CHRISTINE: I found you a pair of pajamas. I bought them for Walter but he didn't like the fabric, so - "WALTER" (off-scene): Ow! (She hears him fall and pushes the door open. Inside the bathroom, she helps "Walter" stand, discreetly turned away from us. ) CHRISTINE: Are you all right? "WALTER": I fell. Stupid tub. CHRISTINE: Did you hurt yourself? Let me see - (She looks down, stops suddenly, reacting to something we don't see. Looks slowly looks up to his face.) CHRISTINE: You're circumcised.... Get out. (She takes his hand and marches him out of the bathroom.) ... CHRISTINE (to police officer): He's four inches shorter than Walter. Boys his age don't shrink. If anything, he should be taller. JONES: Maybe your measurements are off. Look, I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for - CHRISTINE: He's circumcised. Walter wasn't. (Jones glances back, uncomfortable about discussing circumcision with a woman in public view. He lowers his voice.) JONES: Mrs. Collins...your son was missing for four months. For at least part of that in the company of an as-yet unidentified drifter. Who knows what such a disturbed individual might have done? He could have had him ... circumcised ... might have - CHRISTINE: Made him smaller? Captain, please - They send a doctor over to examine the boy. CHRISTINE: What about the circumcision? DR. TARR: Very likely his abductor thought it appropriate. After all, circumcision is hygienically sound. Must have been quite traumatic at the time. No wonder he's submerged the memory. These two scenes, with their two contradictory reasons for circumcising, are apparently there to indicate how desparate the authorities are to explain away the anomaly; but they are rather like the contradictory reasons given for circumcising babies today. (As the doctor indicates, non-religious circumcision was on its way into fashion in Los Angeles in 1928.)

Fargo

US, 1996 Two hookers in Minnesota are asked to describe the two wanted men they had sex with. Detective (Frances McDormand): I want you tell me what these fellas looked like.

Hooker (Larissa Kokernot): Well, the little guy [Steve Buscemi as "Carl Showalter"], he was kinda funny-lookin'.

Detective: In what way?

[Showalter has buck teeth, slicked-back hair and a pencil moustache.]

Hooker: I dunno. Just funny-lookin'.

Detective: Can you be any more specific?

Hooker: I can't really say. (inspiration:) He wasn't circumcised.

Detective: Was he funny-lookin' apart from that?

Hooker: Ya. [Much is made of the Minnesotan "Ya".]

Detective: So. You were havin' sex with the little fella then?

Hooker: Anh-huh.

Detective: Is there anything else you can tell me about 'im?

Hooker: Nah. Like I say, he was funny-looking. More than most people even. This sets up a later scene: Officer Olsen (Cliff Rakerd): Well, what'd this guy look like, anyways?

Mr Mohra (Bain Boehlke): Ohh, he's a little guy, kinda funny-lookin'.

Olsen: Aha. In what way?

Mohra: Ohh, just a general kinda way. ...where the joke is on us for expecting Mohra to know or say anything about Showalter's circumcision status. On the positive side, we are invited to consider the hookers ignorant for thinking intactness is "funny-lookin'". The underlying message is that circumcision is too trivial for intelligent people to consider.

Fast Track / The Ex

US, 2006 Comedy about office rivalry Chip (Jason Bateman) is paraplegic - or in some versions, pretending to be. Tom (Zach Braff) married Chip's former girlfriend, but thinks Chip is trying to steal her back. When Chip wheels into a locker room naked, Tom stares and looks shocked. Chip says it's okay to stare - "He likes it." Later, a woman who works with both tells Tom that Chip is great in bed. Chip and Tom argue and Tom accuses Chip of wanting to "bang my wife with that giant uncircumcised anteater!" Clearly for Tom, "uncircumcised" is a term of abuse (and a grudge he has been holding against Chip). This undefined "wrongness" of intactness is part of the way the circumcision meme is transmitted.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

US, 1998 Dramatisation of part of the life of writer Hunter Thompson. "Raoul Duke" (Thompson, played by Johnny Depp) and his Samoan lawyer Dr Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro) go to Las Vegas. Dr Gonzo picks up a young girl, but Duke convinces him to get rid of her before they get in trouble and end up in court with Gonzo accused of violating the virgin girl with his "uncircumcised member". Almost all Samoans are in fact circumcised. The implication is that illegal sex is worse if the penis is not circumcised, and perhaps that to be intact is to be morally suspect. The reference is somewhat tongue in cheek, because Thompson/Duke is not bothered by the "uncircumcised" member, but having a jibe at the American way of viewing it.

Flirting with Disaster

US, 1996 Comedy about Mel Coplin (Ben Stiller), his wife Nancy (Patricia Arquette) and their incompetent caseworker (Téa Leoni) searching for Mel's birth-parents so they can name their four-month-old son. Along the way they meet Paul (Josh Brolin) who is trying to convince his partner to adopt a child. Paul (to Nancy): So, where did you folks come down on the big circumcision controversy? 'Cause there's a movement afoot these days to keep the foreskin. Personally, I think a boy's penis should look just like his father's. You know?" Nancy (nods): "Yeah, uh-huh". Since Paul is gay, the question could arise, "Which father?" The film touches on many issues, apparently to seem trendy, but doesn't engage with any of them.

The Golden Compass

US/UK, 2007 Fantasy drama based on "Northern Lights", the first of Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy. In a parallel universe, everyone has a daemon (soul, in the form of an animal). To separate a human from their daemon causes acute pain. Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) is taken to Bolvangar in the Arctic, where the evil and powerful Magisterium performs "intercision" on children, cutting them apart from their daemons and devastating their personalities. In the ultimate operating theatre, cold and sterile, the child and their daemon are put in a cage, a mesh wall is lowered between them, then a sheet of white light slowly comes down the wall. The Magisterium is still perfecting the process of intercision, but the evil Marisa Coulter (Nicole Kidman) says "It's just a little cut". Lyra is saved at the last second from being intercised. From the screenwriter/director's commentary: As in the book, there's something quite off about the way that people act at Bolvangar. They're not quite aware of the fact that they're doing something terrible. In fact they're quite proud of themselves and proud of their station, and they're also condescending towards chldren. ... And here comes a hateful lie from the male nurse: "But this is the way that you grow up" and the idea here is that this intercision process that they're inflicting on children is something that they see as good for them, and if only they could perfect the process they would be saving the children from something terrible, which is the infection of Dust [Original Sin]. - Chris Weitz In the second book of the trilogy, there is a direct reference to genital cutting.

Goldmember

(Austin Powers III)

USA, 2002 Austin Powers (Mike Myers) laments that his father (Michael Caine) has never been present at key moments of his life, such as his ordination as Man of Mystery in front of his school. Song: When I was first baptized,

When I was criticized,

When I was ostracized,

When I was Jazzercised -

Steak 'n' kidney pies -

When I was modernized,

When I was circumcised,

Daddy wasn't there.

This makes little more sense sense in context, but the impression is of a list of unpleasant experiences.

Halfaouine: Boy of the Terraces

[Asfour Stah]

Tunisia/France/

Italy, 1990 A coming-of-age film set in Tunisia. Noura (Selim Boughedir), 12 years old, is lying on his bed while his little brother, aged about three, is being circumcised. The sequence jumps from one boy to the other. The little boy is crying as he is put on a table and circumcised. His older brother lies clutching his crotch in agony as he hears his brother's screams.

Hannibal Rising

US, 2007 A prequel to "Silence of the Lambs". On the Internet Movie DataBase In Lithuania, in 1944, a Nazi soldier, Vladis Grutas (Rhys Ifans) and his men have captured a peasant. Vladis: Are you a gypsy? Peasant : No, sir. Vladis (Sniffing him as a dog would): Are you a Jew? Peasant: No, sir. Vladis: Why don't you show us your dick? (Vladis and his men laugh loudly, but they are distracted by a loud explosion) In Lithuania in 1944, none but a Jew would be circumcised, but the point of the scene is to show Vladis' contempt.

Harry and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo

US, 2008 Comedy The girlfriend of one of the boys is off in Amsterdam and the other taunts him that she is "probably having it off with some European guys" and that "she probably has a couple of uncircumcised dicks in front of her face right now". Though of Korean and Indian origin, their thought-patterns are thoroughly U.S. They do not, however, suggest that the girlfriend finds foreskins disgusting.

Harry and Max

US, 2004 OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS: Harry (BRYCE JOHNSON of WB’s "Popular" & MTV’s "Undressed"), aged 23, is a former boy band idol who is watching his younger brother Max (COLE WILLIAMS of ABC’s "8 Simple Rules…For Dating My Teenage Daughter"), aged 16, follow in his footsteps. Harry escorts Max on a long-promised camping adventure to the San Gabriel mountains above Los Angeles but things quickly turn serious as the boys discuss Harry’s contradictory relationship with their family. Max’s longing to connect with Harry both physically and emotionally grows even more, wanting to bring stability to Harry’s life. In an effort to create a type of alternative family for his brother, Max goads Harry to rekindle his affections for his former girlfriend, Nikki (RAIN PHOENIX of "O" and "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues"). Back from the weekend, Max realizes that he must redefine his relationship with his brother, and that only by setting boundaries can the boys grow into adulthood together. On the camping trip, Harry complains bitterly of having been circumcised at birth. Max sympathizes completely, but the way the issue is brought up ("I don't know why Mom and Dad had this done to me") suggests that at some time in the seven years between the sons' births, the parents saw the light, and Max is intact. Max also seems to conduct his life with more ease and honesty, and this is written into the film as consistent with his being more comfortable with his whole body. A remarkable departure from the usual US pattern.

Hello Goodbye

France/Italy/Israel, 2008 Comedy Gisèle (Fanny Ardant) converted to Judaism when she married Alain (Gerard Depardieu), a secular Jew. "She decides that only a trip to Israel will inject meaning and renewal into their bourgeois lives. After a holiday there, ... they pack up their apartment and move. ... Gisele takes to their new home ... and falls for a young rabbi ... But by the time Alain submits himself, at his wife's behest, to the mohel's knife -- yes, that would be for a circumcision -- all one can say is "oy." - Midlife-crisis rom-com "Hello" a nonstarter by Sheri Linden, Reuters, April 21, 2009 ...As he was never circumcised, the first step is to be circumcised. He is horrified but eventually acquiesces. The doctor pronounces that in 35 years he is the first adult on whom he has removed the foreskin. [In Israel, with many immigrants from communist regines, that is very unlikely.] MmegiOnlineNovember 5, 2010 This is mildly anti-circumcision, if his willingness to undergo it is an indication of his weakness.

Horrible Bosses

US, 2011 Comedy about three friends who conspire to murder their awful bosses Dale Arbus, a dental assistant (Charlie Day) is sexuallly harassed by his boss Dr. Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston). While they're working on an unconscious patient, she purposely sprays the crotch of Dale's scrubs with a dental water squirter. Dale jumps up from his stool in shock and dismay. Dr. Harris: Oooh, I think we can make out the outline of our little friend there. Shabbat shalom, somebody's circumcised. This implies "Circumcision is Jewish", and "Shabbat shalom" is a Sabbath greeting, not for working hours - but such a person may be careless with facts.

Hostel

US, 2005 Comedy/Horror Two American students, Paxton (Jay Hernandez) and Josh (Derek Richardson), and an Icelandic friend, Oli (Eythor Gudjonsson), are backpacking across Europe in search of women. Soon after they arrive at a hostel, the three go to a sauna, where there are two topless women. They whisper hellos, then there is a lull. Oli breaks the silence: Oli (jumps up): I'm so happy I shaved my balls. (laughter) What? I have the smoothest balls in Iceland. (takes off his towel, stands up and shakes his genitals in Josh's face) Do you want to see? Josh: No, no,... You're not... no... I'm good, I'm good. Put your anteater away. It's totally creepy. Natalya (Barbara Nedeljakova, to Josh): You're not from Iceland, no? Josh: No, f no, American. Yeah, unlike him I had my foreskin removed at birth. Hygiene and - am I talking? Ummhuh, I'm Josh.... (Natalya looks at him in disbelief throughout.)

Hostel Steam Room ToplessClip-High Quality by UZI4you Apparently just another gratuitous swipe at intactness, though Natalya's line makes it clear she is familiar with Icelandic foreskins, and has no problem with Oli's.

Calling a foreskin an "anteater/elephant's trunk/Shar-pei" is just a way of trying to make one's own discomfort seem objective. And that discomfort ultimately derives from fear of facing one's own loss. If a body part looks (a little) like some other natural object, what of it?

House Calls

US, 1978 Comedy about a romance between a doctor in a run-down hospital and his patient. Ann Atkinson (Glenda Jackson) lists the operations from which Dr. Charley Nichols (Walter Mattahu) makes money. One is circumcison. Charley says, "Only for boys." In 1978, it could be considered funny to refer to female genital cutting because it was so obscure as to be unthinkable.

The Infidel

UK, 2010 Comedy: Mahmud Nasir (Omid Djalili), a relaxed Muslim, plans to marry the daughter of a "hate cleric" when he learns that he is actually Jewish. As he becomes reconciled to his identity, he says something like, "We're not so different. We eat similar foods, we're both...." He gestures at his and his friend's crotches, and shrugs his shoulders in a stereotypically Jewish way. The scene implies that to be circumcised is a negative thing.

Jennifer's Body

US, 2009 High school horror comedy: an ambitious band sell their soul to the devil by sacrificing a virgin, but their plans go awry because Jennifer (Megan Fox) is not a virgin and she comes back as a demon-possessed killer. Best friends Jennifer and Needy (Amanda Seyfried), a nerdy virgin, go to a local bar. There Ahmet (Aman Johal), is sitting alone. Needy: Hey, there's Ahmet, the exchange student from India. Jennifer: I wonder if he's circumcised. I've always wanted to try a sea cucumber. Needy: Eww. (giggles)

A sea-cucumber

Perhaps the left end looks something like an intact penis (covered with warts),

but equally the right end looks like a circumcised penis. Ambivalent. Even though she's "always wanted to try" one, "sea cucumber" suggests the rarity of, and the disdain usually reserved for, the intact penis in the USA. Since Jennifer is the sophisticated character, it may be her point of view we are expected to support. From his turban, Ahmet is a Sikh, so he is almost certainly intact, but Jennifer may not know this.

Jojo Rabbit

Czech Republic/NZ/US, 2019 Comedy-drama: Near the end of WW2 in Germany, a 10-year-old would-be Nazi (Roman Griffin Davis) finds a Jewish girl (Thomasin McKenzie) hiding within his solo mother's house.

He has fantastic ideas about Jews, which she does little to discourage. He asks her if they "still steal the ends of penises. ... Rabbis use them as earplugs."

Jungle2Jungle

US, 1997 There is mention of circumcision of the native people of the Amazon. (They do not practise it.)

Just Married

US, 2000 [deleted scene] Tom Leezak (Ashton Kutcher) is in the bath when Father Robert (George Gaynes) walks in. The priest sits on the edge of the bath, looks at Tom and asks "You're not Catholic, are you?" Tom explains later that he's half Jewish, the reason he is circumcised. This reinforces the myth that "Only Jews circumcise." In fact many boys have been circumcised "because he's Catholic".

Keeping The Faith

US, 2000 In the opening sequence, narrated by priest Brian Finn (Edward Norton), he and his friend Rabbi Jacob Schram (Ben Stiller) have parallel problems "coming to grips with the practical aspects of our jobs". His robe catches fire and he strikes a parishioner in the head with his incense burner, and has to put himself out by sitting in the font, while Jake faints during a Bris. The two scenes are intercut, but after the establishing longshot we see Jake's reaction, the baby's trusting face and the mohel's hands reaching for glittering instruments. We see Jake start to fall and hear a single "snip" sound and the baby crying. The following long shots show all but the mohel run to attend Jake. The focus is entirely on the man - though his reaction speaks volumes about the reality of the unseen circumcision. That the scene is played for laughs is somewhat sick. Imagine if the baby were a girl....

The Killer Who Never Kills

Taiwan, 2011 Comedy/thriller about a compassionate trainee assassin who fakes his victims' deaths for them. "Wan & Lee only rarely gets their audience to laugh. For example, one of Ouyang's targets is a creepy surgeon who specializes in circumcision. Not only does Ouyang discover that the guy keeps all the removed foreskins in a gallery of test tubes, but our hero actually concedes to part company with his own in the name of undercover surveillance. This sequence has the potential for comedy gold, especially considering how events play out, but in Wan & Lee's hands it barely raises more than a smile." - Review on Twitch, November 11, 2011 It's progress that the surgeon is "creepy", but as usual, the loss is trivialised.

Kinsey

US 2004 Biopic about the famous mid-20th century sex researcher, played by Liam Neeson. Early in his career, Kinsey gives a talk about sex to married and senior students at the University of Indiana, illustrated with pictures of an erect penis that is clearly circumcised, even though Kinsey himself was, and most of his students would have been, intact at the time, before 1940. Late in the film, his wife Mac (née Clara Macmillan, played by Laura Linney) finds him sitting on the edge of the bath reading letters from people with unhappy sexual histories. Drops of blood are on the floor between his feet. Mac: What's that blood?

Kinsey: I punctured my foreskin.

Mac: Why?

Kinsey: People do all sorts of things to themselves and I wanted to see what they were experiencing. I did not find it particularly pleasurable. This apparently follows "Sex, the Measure of All Things: A Life of Alfred C. Kinsey" (1998) by Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy. But in "Alfred C. Kinsey: A Public/Private Life" (1997), James H. Jones puts it differently: "On one occasion when his inner demons plunged him to new depths of despair, Kinsey climbed into a bathtub, unfolded the blade of his pocketknife, and circumcised himself without the benefit of anesthesia."

Knocked Up

US 2007 Romantic comedy about chalk-and-cheese Ben Stone (Seth Rogan) and Allison Scott (Katherine Heigl) falling in love during Alison's pregnancy after a one-night stand. While awaiting the birth, Allison's sister Debbie (Leslie Mann) asks her husband about Ben's long-bearded friend, Martin (Martin Starr). Debbie: "Is he Ben's rabbi? Is he the one that cuts the penis?" Implying she mistakenly believes If Ben is Jewish, the baby is Jewish; the rabbi does it soon after birth; and (implicitly) only Jews circumcise - all common enough mistakes.

Krippendorf's Tribe

US 1998 Anthropologist James Krippendorf (Richard Dreyfuss) has misused grant money, so he needs to fake some anthropology. He uses his three kids, Shelley, Mickey, and Edmund, to help him mock up a documentary on the "Shelmickedmu" tribe. They slap together several tapes, by splicing actual footage of a tribe with images of the four of them mucking about their backyard with makeup and tribal-type clothing. In one scene the eldest son "circumcises" the younger son with an axe. (One reviewer on the Internet Movie Data Base calls this "the only thing worth seeing in the movie." Another loved "all the social commentary allusions to our own tribal way of living.") Critic Daniel Barnes slammed the scene in detail in The Barnesyard blog on November 14, 2005 (reprinted in The E Street review). KRIPPENDORF ON…CIRCUMCISION Krippendorf’s first order of business involves faking a circumcision ritual by using his 4 year-old son as bait, pretending to remove the foreskin with a stone machete. This “comedic” sequence is extremely prolonged, atonal and disturbing, to the point that I lamented my lack of a time machine, or any other technology that would have allowed me to travel back and assassinate D.W. Griffith for allowing this madness to happen. When Krippendorf shows his grisly circumcision footage to the public, it causes a huge sensation that has television network execs clamoring at his door for more . It makes sense, because we all know how popular genital mutilation is with the general public these days. The moral seems to be that circumcision is primitive and funny when other people do it.

The Lamb

Kuzu

Turkey, 2014 "The Lamb" takes place in an eastern Anatolian village. According to tradition, 27-year-old Medine (Nesrin Cavadzade) has to serve oven-roast lamb at the circumcision feast of her little son Mert (Mert Taştan). Medine does her best to earn enough money to buy a sheep. Ismail, Medine's unemployed husband (Cahit Gök), is under a lot of stress. Meanwhile Mert's elder sister Vicdan (Sıra Lara Cantürk) tells him that he will be slaughtered if they cannot find a sheep before the ceremony. "My mom always calls you 'my little lamb,' does she not?" she tells him. Director Kutluğ Ataman has apprently not thought much about consent as an issue in genital cutting: "I think the idea of circumcision must be more scary than it actually is. I was circumcised as soon as I was born so I don't remember it. Personally, I like being a circumcised man. I would not want to be uncircumcised. Some people may have problems with rituals, but I am completely taken by rituals. I think rituals are part of our culture, they are part of what makes us and make us belong to one another. I am always curious about new rituals of my own culture and I like to follow them. There is a certain comfort to be had in following rituals. One feels more secure and the sense of belonging is comforting. But having said this, I guess everyone should be allowed to make their own choices in the end. These are individual choices."

Turkish American News

Laughter on the 23rd Floor

US (TV), 2000 A group of TV comedy writers is joking about Catholicism, the Pope, communion. A Catholic Writer: Take communion. It beats circumcision.

A Jewish Writer: What would you know about circumcision? [To the others:] Have you ever seen this guy in the bathroom? He pees straight up. Since he has the last laugh, he - and circumcision - wins the exchange, but cutting a boy's genitals in case he "pees straight up" comes close to being the silliest circumstition yet.

Let It Be

Io Sono Con Te

Italy, 2010 Story of Jesus from a woman's perspective, filmed in Tunisia. Includes close-up of a (probably simulated) circumcision (omitting the tearing of the foreskin from the glans), at 2:47 in this clip. (NSFW)

The Life of David Gale

US, 2003 David Gale (Kevin Spacey) is a philosophy professor at the University of Texas, Austin, who knows a lot of trivia. Berlin (Rhona Mitra) a failing graduate student, propositions him, saying she'll "do anything for the grade." He leads her on a little, then says, "The one thing you can do for the grade is - study." Later, at a party, Berlin, who has been expelled, accosts David: Berlin: "Has anyone ever told you that after you were circumcised they threw away the wrong part?

David: Shmuck.

Berlin: Excuse me?

David: Schmuck. That's what they call what is left over from circumcision, schmuck. David shows off his knowledge of minutiae - wrongly: schmuck is Yiddish for penis (from the German for ornament). If Berlin were British like the actress who plays her, she would not assume that Gale was circumcised. [This dialogue is slightly different in Wikiquote]