It's common in North America to have your child circumcised at birth. Apparently a little less common here in Canada over the last 5 yrs as they stopped providing it as a freebie, but certainly in the USA people who don't circumcise seem to be in the minority.
The whole process seems abhorrent to me, I can't believe people routinely cut off something that is there for a purpose. I've also discovered it's absolutely not worth discussing with Americans who think you're crazy if you're not doing it... that your child will be dirty, have problems with it, and be a penis outcast amongst all his snipped friends.
Although I've not done an intensive study on this (!) I think it's true to say that it's unusual in the UK to find a circumcised male unless he is Jewish, or had it done for medical reasons. Which is why the whole concept is so completely foreign to me.
We were talking about this 'procedure' the other night and those of us of British descent were fairly against the idea, whereas one of my Canuck friends was insistent that as and when she has a son, he'll be snipped. Didn't think much more of the topic until yesterday when a friend asked me to watch his two boys (2 and 4) for 5 minutes while he ran home. The two yr old instantly said he needed to use the loo so I brought him in and being small, he required some help to get his shorts undone, etc. Well, he stood there and I couldn't help but notice he'd been circumcised and man did it look WEIRD on a small child! It looked completely wrong!
Needless to say, neither of the little Jones boys will lose that particular part of their anatomy unless necessary!
Posted by katie at June 4, 2004 12:31 PMBe sure your friend also has her sons eyelids cut off - wouldnt want those to get dirty would we!
Posted by: ^Andy^ at June 5, 2004 06:04 PM