When I was growing up, it was almost impossible to find an honest image of the male genitalia. And what images there were, depicted circumcised. The only place that depicted intact was classic art, and this fact was never commented on, even in the lewdest college bull sessions. The sexual advantages of being intact were never mentioned until the 1990s. Is it any surprise that people raised in this fashion grew up to be parents who had difficulty not circumcising their boys?

“Someone explain to me why the foreskin is rumored to be such an object of ridicule.”

Fair question. I am too old to have anything to say about what it’s like in a school locker room today. Or to be playing the youthful dating game.

But in a midwestern city 50 years ago, every boy was circumcised.
In my place and time, men and boys did not conceal their penises when they urinated in a public rest room. Middle class non-ethnic Dads were cut, and we all saw our Dads in locker rooms at the Y or at swimming pools.

We boys never talked about this among ourselves. I assure you I never heard a dirty joke refer to it. We all thought that what we had was what Mother Nature intended. I have concluded that the vast majority of parents did not speak to their boys about this tender subject, probably because they simply did not know what to say. In many cases maternity wards cut boys without asking, so the parents were not involved in the decision.

In the world I am describing, if anyone were to chance on a natural pointed penis, it was seen as deeply Weird. Sex ed didn’t talk about the long sleeve on the short arm and we had no idea how that look came about. An uncut boy looked like he had a giant earthworm hanging between his legs, LOL! I never heard a boy remark that the penises in fine art nudes looked different from what we all had. I suspect that 25 years of intactivist agitation has done a lot to end this weird state of ignorance about what nature intends.

It was very easy to convince ourselves that it trapped pee in a disgusting way. That it was dysfunctional for sex and masturbation (we did not know how the foreskin nicely peels back during erection). That it was effeminate. We jumped to the conclusion that girls were repulsed by it as well.

Every statement in the preceding paragraph is evidence that American popular culture had gone off the rails insofar as the tip of the penis was concerned. Americans are still digging themselves out from the shambles. But women have done a better job so far…

I am a Baby Boomer who grew up intact in the midwest, the only intact male in my family of origin. Almost every time I used a locker room or had to undress for a group medical exam (especially the hernia check business!), I was the only intact boy in the room. It took me more than 40 years to see myself as normal and sexually fortunate. When it comes to being ashamed of having foreskin, I’ve been there in spades.

That said, let me remind you ladies out there that once men are out of high school, they never comment about each others penises, except gay men in the bedroom. So this foreskin ridicule business is a possibility only in middle and high school.

The vast majority of boys have no occasions to be naked around other boys except in locker rooms. Naturism is a hobby for older men. In my opinion, men are more bashful and circumspect in locker rooms and public showers than they used to be. The drivers here may be size insecurities and an awareness than about 1 male in 40 is gay.

The urinals in the grade school I attended made no concessions whatsoever to male modesty. Hence I was a bit ridiculed in first and second grade for having a Weird Dick. (I never heard “circumcised” until I was in college. I never heard “foreskin” spoken until I met my wife.) By the time I started using locker rooms without my father being present, I knew how to hide my foreskin. It is easy for an intact boy to appear cut; the converse is impossible. In any event, while I was very afraid I would be “outed” for being an AntEater, I never was. Only my mother, wife, and a half dozen close friends know that I am intact.

My regret is not that I was intact, but that in my youth there was ZERO support in print for leaving a child intact. Hence my mother could not explain her decision, and hence said nothing to me about being uncut until I was 19. And she did not really open up about this issue until after my father was dead, and after I told her I was an intactivist.

We should not presume to know what boys will think and know 10-15 years from now. It is quite possible that in a few years, American popular sexual culture will come to accept the pointed penis is fully normal. As someone posted above, in the locker rooms of tomorrow, the intact boys may be envied and admired instead of bullied.

Whether or not that happens, parents of intact boys can still tell them that they are healthy and normal, and that when they are grown, the moving sheath of skin covering the tip of the penis will have important uses. I have read many anecdotes from amused parents sharing that their 6-8-10 year old son fully appreciates that that sheath is the most sensitive part of his body. If we simply tell our boys that that sensitivity is a fine thing, and that’s why we did not let a doctor cut the sheath off, that might suffice to help them to laugh off any ridicule they may face because their penises are pointed.

I think you make some good points, but I also think you should be a little more careful with your approach. Think about it, what is the opposite of “intact” and “uncut”? It would be altered and mutilated.

Let’s all be civil, please! Tit for tat squabbles don’t make anything better.