Quote:
Originally Posted by crukster
Well that doesn't work. Jerked myself all day before I was cut and jerk myself all day still afterwards.
If anything it reduces sensitivity so you can jerk for longer.
|
Your anecdotal jerking evidence does not necessarily make up a very good argument.
First, one has to realize that even though outdated ideas on the prevention of masturbation may be the main reason a country like the US widely has embraced genital cutting of males today, society would try to justify its continued practice in a variety of ways. The old reason has fallen out of favour. Nevertheless, if you look at the modern history of circumcision, it becomes appearant .. At least it seems that way from what I've been reading.
Masturbation was thought to be sinful and shrouded in medical myths that doing so could cause all sorts of problems, like insanity and hysteria. It is perfectly possible for most doctors to cut the penis in such a way that masturbation becomes less pleasant or perhaps even painful.
Here's the abstract (summary) of a review paper I found :
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by The Masturbation Taboo and the Rise of Routine Male Circumcision: A Review of the Historiography
There is increasing scholarly interest in the history of routine male circumcision in Anglophone countries, but much disagreement as to whether prevention of masturbation was an important part of this development. A review of the historiography of both the masturbation phobia and the rise of routine circumcision shows that it has been widely accepted since the 1950s that discouraging masturbation was a major reason why doctors, educationists and childcare experts sought to introduce circumcision of both boys and girls in the later nineteenth century, a campaign which was successful in the former case, unsuccessful in the latter—an outcome which still colours popular concepts about what constitutes genital mutilation. Mainstream pediatric and child care manuals continued to assert the value of circumcision as a disincentive to masturbation right up until the 1950s. The importance of the original link between masturbation and circumcision was rediscovered at the same time, when belief in the harmful effects of the former was declining, and as medical historians began to investigate the origin, course and effects of the onanism scare during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
|
>> Source :
The Masturbation Taboo and the Rise of Routine Male Circumcision: A Review of the Historiography
Many other papers and books will tell you the same story.
From "A Surgical Temptation - The demonization of the foreskin & the rise of circumcision in Britain" (2005), by Robert J. L. Darby.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by A Surgical Temptation - The demonization of the foreskin & the rise of circumcision in Britain
More convincing on this point is Ornella Moscucci, who shows that circumcision was increasingly recommended as a cure for male masturbation from the 1850s onward. She points out that part of this process was the demonization of the foreskin as a source of nervous and physical disease and agrees with Hyam that circumcision was central to the late Victorian redefinition of manliness in terms of self-restraint and cleanliness. "Widely blieved to dampen sexual desire, circumcision was seen positively as a means of both promoting chastity and physical health."
|
>> Source :
A Surgical Temptation
Regardless of how they justified it, your parents may have circumcised you because doing so is part of a tradition they did not question.
I haven't read any proof - and I guess it would be hard to find anyways - but I believe masturbation and chastity is the reason the practice started in the first place - as a way to reduce masturbation and promiscuity, something religions typically don't seem very fond of. It's since been wrapped up in various religious and other justifications.