Jezebel: members only

The "Perfect" Peen: Cut? Or Uncut?

Jessica — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:00:00 EDT

Over on the Jewish blog Jewcy, two Heebroads are debating the relative merits and drawbacks of foreskins. Sex writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel is vehemently anti-foreskin. Aesthetically, she finds the uncut peen distinctively unsexual: "they make me want to pat them like a dog and tuck them back where they came from," Bussel writes. But more irksome is the fact that Bussel feels that she doesn't know what she's doing with a foreskin because so few of the men she's been with were uncircumcised. Of her first time dealing with an uncut cock, Bussel says, "I felt like a timid teenager. I felt like I needed Dr. Ruth leaning over my shoulder, showing me just where to stroke and pull. This kind of killed the mood."

Over on the pro-foreskin side, "Esther Goldberg" (does she use a pseudonym because she fears the Jews will drum her out for loving foreskins?) argues on behalf of uncut penises, because, well, she's lazy. Goldberg finds that an uncircumcised penis is easier to help get off (especially when you're giving a hand job). Where she agrees with Bussel is on beauty: "A flaccid uncut dick can seem uncomfortably reminiscent of a sea cucumber or a shar-pei," she say., "But you know what? It's a penis, not a painting in an art museum. It's not there to be stared at for hours and admired, it's there to bone you."

Speaking of the penises that have boned us, well, true story: I've only ever been with one uncut dude, and it was the guy I lost my virginity to. I was so inexperienced at the time that I didn't notice he was uncut in the first place — we were always using condoms anyway so it didn't really matter in terms of sensation. Tracie's been with lots of both kinds of peens, and her only issue with uncut is that they sometimes "smell like Parmesan cheese." [Thanks. I was eating lunch. -Ed.] Anna prefers the uncut because she has good associations with them and thinks they're cute, Jen's never seen one, guest-blogger Megan says they weird her out a little, and Dodai has a good attitude: "If i like you enough to get that close I'll work with what you've got."

Circumcised Guys Do it Better [Jewcy]
Foreskins: Bring 'em! [Jewcy]

Oldies But Goodies

Dodai — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 14:40:00 EST

This tampon ad is either refreshingly honest or vaguely crass. The copy reads, "If men were shaped like most tampons, the human race would have died out by now." And by "men" they mean "penises." Click the picture to see the complete two-page advertisement, including an illustration of a grumpy, square tampon. [Vintage Ads]

Circumcision: Some Things You Can't (Or Maybe Shouldn't) Put Back

mcarpentier — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 18:30:00 EST

In a follow up to the great snip-or-don't-snip debate last week, I stupidly read an article from Time magazine about the inactivist movement and proceeded to do some follow-up research. My conclusion? The way that men will mutilate themselves for sex is rivaled only by the way women will. Basically, there's a whole political (and otherwise) movement out there to keep wee little babies from having their foreskins removed and to help men rediscover the joys of a foreskin-full life. They claim that involuntary circumcision is a civil rights violation (which, honestly, is one of those hyperboles in political activism that I think does one's cause more harm than good in the public eye, but, whatevs).

Point being, there are a variety of horrible-looking products on the market or that the handyman type can make himself to stretch the skin on his penis out [the link is safe for work, but the involuntary leg crossing may draw attention to you]. None of them look comfortable, and all of them would make me run screaming in horror from a man I found utilizing them. All of them require months to years of use to grow skin back over the head of a man's penis.

On the other hand, women are having collagen injected into the fronts of their vaginal walls, their vaginas remade and their labia surgically sculpted, all of which is probably more dangerous and definitely just another way of trying to live up to some ideal of what sex is supposed to be. So, yay equality? I guess?

[A side note from last week's discussion: medical research conducted in Africa shows that circumcision can reduce the risk of HIV infection in males by 50-60 percent. In one study in South Africa in particular, scientists stopped the trial after 18 months because the findings were so starkly in favor of circumcision that they felt it was unethical not to offer the uncircumcised participants circumcision. Yes, AIDS is not as big a problem here as in Africa, and, yes, condoms are more effective, but I think it's important to note that the scientific consensus, even at the UN, is slowly moving toward recommending circumcision for health reasons. I write this because someone is going to bring it up anyway in the comments and we should all read that information anyway. Knowledge is power or something.]

The Great Uncircumcision Debate [Time]
Restoration Devices [NORM]
Moving Forwards: UN Policy And Action On Male Circumcision (Part 3) [Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS]
Circumcision 'Reduces HIV Risk' [BBC News]

Would You Like Your Penis Wrapped Or Unwrapped? Circumcision In Crisis!

Jennifer — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 15:30:00 EDT

In his new humorous memoir The Foreskin's Lament, writer/NPR darling Shalom Auslander writes about his torment deciding whether or not to have his son circumcised. Auslander's concerns are both that of a parent and a Jew unsure of the meaning of ritual, especially one that involves bringing a razor blade to a baby's penis. Auslander isn't the only one worried about on penile stylings: Recently, an activist movement has sprung up to help save foreskins everywhere. Folks calling themselves "intactivists" believe that a proper penis is one left untouched by a mohel (or friendly doctor)'s knife. (There are also increasing numbers of adults choosing to undergo the process, but that's a whole other story.) Think of the fiercest pro-choice protester you can imagine — my body, my self, my choice! — only pumped up with a shot of testosterone.

In addition to campaigning to end on-going circumcision practices, the movement has taken to endorsing a number of services and products that promise foreskin "restoration." Although, if you resent having your flap chopped, why would you be cool with attaching weights to your dick to get remaining flesh to move south — or put your penis in something called "The Tugger"? But that's just us. We're ladies. But ladies have some very strong feelings about dicks, too.

I, for one, have never seen an uncircumcised penis. (And I've only dated one Jew!) But family (and mine is a big, loud, immigrant Jewish one) is always at play, and if I ever had a son, I would want to have him circumcised, despite my otherwise latent religious practices. I have a friend, however, whose current boyfriend is not circumcised and claims that her relationship with him has helped her see the light. For her, this is dick as it should be: Whole and unrefined. Further more, she's convinced that circumcision is a form of mutilation and has sworn to never do it to any child of hers. Another friend refuses to sleep with anyone she discovers to be uncircumcised. So what's a girl to think about, as Auslander puts it, the foreskin's lament? Does an uncut member impact your sexual preferences and, subsequently, sex life? And does the debate also stir your motherly instincts, nascent or in action? And are the two impulses — what you'd want as a woman who has sex and what you'd want as a (potential or actual) mom — at odds with each other?

To Snip Or Not To Snip—That's Shalom's Question [New York Observer]