How did circumcision become so big in the U.S.?

[Lyle Croft]

ii know the kellog thing but how did THIS "medical procedure" become practiced by MILLIONS because of one man?

[z726]

There's a site where somebody collected a ton of information on this at http://historyofcircumcision.net/

Kellogg was just one of several doctors in both the USA and England who promoted circumcision of boys to prevent masturbating or punish for it. From what I understand of it, the idea eventually spread to doctors in hospitals, and they started claiming it cured or prevented all sorts of diseases (which we know to be completely unrelated, of course). Somewhere along the way they started doing it to infants, and I would assume this was due to the influence of Jewish doctors. For a while into the 20th century, doctors were doing it without parental consent, but I guess by the time they started doing it, circumcision was so common that parents didn't give it much thought.

[vidious]

It is very interesting to delve into the past on this issue. At some point in time in the US, everyone was intact. Then the butchers, I mean Doctors, started circing infants with or without discussing with the parents first. But if this was at a time when everyone was intact and all adult men knew how great their foreskins were and how they felt, wouldn't you think they would put up a fight about it? It's it amazing how GULLIBLE people were, because essentially the whole country bought their bullshit rationale for all the shit it was supposed to cure. How can SO many people be so fucking stupid, gullible, and downright pussies for not standing up for the rights of their children? Maybe we in this day and age can't even get into the minds of these people from, what 100 years ago, they had a fraction of the education that we have today and put all of their faith, blindly, into their Doctors and let them do whatever they wanted.

You know it was probably just that everyone in that time was so prude and anti-sex that they welcomed the procedure and i'm sure the Docs were very convincing 'this will keep your boy from locking himself in the basement and wanking it from dusk till dawn' and especially with the bullshit religious fears that ohh nooes your going to be a sinner and go to hell if you touch yourself too much..

..the sad part is that even though we are so much smarter and more well connected as a society, the religious nuts are still here and the human rights violations still continue, so we still have a long ass way to go before we see major change.....

[madbr3991]

during WWI and WWII there was a large push for circumcision by the military. there excuse was that the men were getting sand and thus infections in there foreskins. but there is an issue here. the military keeps very good health records of its solderers. if there was a increase of foreskin infections. then it would be all over the records but its not.

[Adoptodad]

Circumcision as a tradition is so entrenched now that it will be an uphill battle to change things. Many people either think it's not a big deal or they think it is actually a necessary procedure. Then of course there are those people who are against circumcision but say parents should have the choice...forgetting about who's choice it should really be; the child's. I managed to talk sense into ONE person and that is my girlfriend but other than that I run into ignorance, opposition and sometimes anger.

[sexyshades]

Preventing infections is just a convenient made up excuse. In my view militant cultures have been circumcising males since the time of Babylon because:

1. Military is the original source of fraternity hazing. The whole concept of a military is a sadomasochistic fetish of breaking down people and sculpting them into loyal playthings to die for the state. So its only natural that armies feel absolutely entitled to the bodies of their soldiers.
2. Circumcision results in frustrating sex which sadly leads to aggressive and suicidal tendencies. Which is very desirable for military recruitment because it creates sexually frustrated psychopaths who would rather fight in the military then settle down a peaceful life with a a family.
3. There is a ridiculous notion that intact men are like wild intact bulls and require more "personal space" because they give off male pheromones that will irradiate other males into aggressive conflicts. Hence the belief that men need to be circumcised so they can be packed together in a herd exactly like castrated cattle.

So in short circumcision is all about playing rancher and “castrating the herd” for the sake of absolute control.

[DPX1]

Well, Kellogg and victorian-era science got the ball rolling, but by and large it is probably perpetuated in modern medicine by our (US) healthcare system.

I don't think it's super sinister/planned (unlike those consciously created circ "studies"), it's just a manifestation of market forces.

Doctors will make money off of unnecessary procedures when they can charge patients (/their insurance companies) for them. If they are under a nationalized plan, where the state pays for everyone, they start to look hard at cost-effectiveness. They lose money doing unnecessary procedures for free.

The British stopped circumcising when NHS came into play, and their experts realized it wasn't worth the money. Here, the medical community doesn't need to worry about cost/benefit ratios because they can externalize those costs to the patients and actually make profit off unnecessary work.

Not to mention, it's basically a North American cultural tradition having been ubiquitous for generations now. Fortunately, with the circ rate dropping so low in many parts of the country, we will see a generational shift. Parents will say no to unnecessary circs because... why would they say yes? How could you convince a happily intact father that his son's foreskin needs to go?

Imagine if the government ran all the service stations, and you took your car in to get some gas. Do you think they would still be offering everyone, regardless of whether they needed it, a speedy car wash if they couldn't make any money off it? Of course not. But, if you're a private gas station owner and you can tack $19 onto the bill, and offer what you believe is a valued service (I think many circ doctors lower down in the food-chain believe they're doing good medicine), by selling a car wash (even if it's unnecessary), of course you're gonna be recommending car washes to everyone. It's not even all that greedy; it's just feasible because the customer picks up the tab and turns it into profit.