Awee look at our little baby!
He’s so cute!
He is, and we should tell the doctor to circumcise
him soon!
Umm excuse me?
Why would we do that?
Cut off a part of his body?!
Hallo, Servus and welcome back to my Youtube
channel!
My name is Felicia, I’m originally from
Munich, Germany but have been living here
in Cincinnati, Ohio off and on since 2016.
So this is the 5th episode of my mini-series
on “Random Differences” between Germany
and the US, make sure to check out the other
episodes as well, links are in the info box
below.
I’ve talked about peeing, ice cream, oil
changes, and cats so far so it’s been a
pretty wild mix of topics and of course we’ll
keep that up because today we’ll talk about
male circumcision, männliche Beschneidung.
Now as I’ve mentioned in the past episodes,
this series is all about things that are pretty
different in Germany and the US but for which
there doesn’t seem to exist a logical explanation
as to why the two countries would handle that
differently – or at least I couldn’t find
one.
So let’s get right into the facts: In Germany,
about 10% of men are circumcised, worldwide
it’s about 33%, and in the US it’s 75%.
So 3/4 of men are circumcised in the US.
That’s not only wayyy more than in Germany
but also way above the worldwide average.
Before I came to the US, I had no clue circumcision
was common here.
I mean I never actively thought about this
topic but since the US is a Western country
with Christianity being the predominant religion,
I just assumed that except for people from
other religions, like Judaism or Islam, and
maybe some other people who do it for medical
and other reasons, the majority of American
men wouldn't have this topic on their minds
at all and would be uncircumcised.
You know, just how it is in Germany usually.
So when I found out that circumcision is pretty
much the default here and that the vast majority
of American men are circumcised I wasn’t
only really surprised about this but also
had a lot of questions about it and honestly
they still haven’t really been answered.
Only about 3% of the American population are
Jewish or Muslim, so that definitely doesn’t
explain the 75% of circumcised men, so why
is there such a big difference regarding cutting
of a piece of someone’s body between Europe
(and quite frankly the rest of the world)
and the USA if it’s not for religious reasons?
Now I’ve heard a lot of people argue that
it’s for hygiene reasons because it’s
cleaner but since we live in the 21st century
and the US is a developed country, this really
can’t be the actual reason.
Plus, I’m sure that all European men can
confirm that it’s possible to clean yourself
even with a foreskin.
Historically, circumcision of course has a
lot of tradition in different cultures and
religions but it wasn’t very common in the
Western world until it had a revival in the
English speaking countries in the late 19th
century, and that was for two main reasons:
The first is that a lot of doctors at the
time believed that the foreskin was connected
to a lot of diseases and that circumcision
would prevent and cure a lot of them, including
syphilis, erectile dysfunctions, and bedwetting
(those all kind of make sense) but also other
diseases like skin cancer or epilepsy.
The second reason was that there was an increasingly
negative attitude towards sex at the time,
especially towards masturbation, they called
it self-abuse, and people believed that circumcising
infants and boys would prevent them from masturbating.
For the same two reasons, some doctors at
the time also practiced female circumcision
by the way, which unlike male circumcision
did not catch on, unlike male circumcision.
Fun fact: One of the many advocates for circumcision
at the time was John Harvey Kellogg, the inventor
of cornflakes who was actually a medical doctor
and not only did he advocate for circumcision
to prevent masturbation but he also said that
the consumption of Kellogg’s corn flakes
would prevent it as well!
I mean, I gotta say that’s some genius marketing
strategy right there.
Now, obviously today we know that circumcision
does not prevent all of those diseases, unfortunately,
and it doesn’t keep men from masturbating
either.
So naturally, the number of circumcisions
has gone down drastically in the 20th century,
at least in most of the English speaking world.
In the UK the procedure has to be paid for
out of pocket since 1949 which lead to a drastic
drop and it also went down in Canada, Australia,
and New Zealand.
In the US however, the number was at 72% in
1950 and it’s still at over 70% now.
So why is that America?
Admittedly, the rate of newborns that are
being circumcised IS going down in the US.
It’s at about 55% percent of newborn boys
right now, but I mean that’s still more
than half so still quite a big number and
a lot of surgeries.
Plus, most circumcisions in the US are done
to infants.
So I’m asking myself why do parents decide
to just chop of a part of their baby’s body
without their consent?
I feel like they should at least wait until
their kid is older and can decide about it
himself.
Especially since the medical advantages of
circumcision have mostly been disproved, except
for studies that suggest that it reduces the
risk of HIV transmission.
And yes of course there's also the aesthetic
aspect.
But again, a man can always CHOOSE to get
circumcised once he’s older.There has been
a growing anti-circumcision movement recently
in the US with one of the leading organizations
being Intact America.
I’ll put a link about that in the info box
below and there’s also a lot more to read
and learn about this topic.
I recommend this episode of “Adam Ruins
Everything” it’s really entertaining and
I’ll link a few more websites down below
but for now I really just wanna know from
you guys what you think about this topic.
If you’re American, have you ever doubted
this practice?
Have you done it to your children or are you
planning on doing so?
Have you ever thought about valid reasons
for this?
And if you’re German or from another country:
What are your experiences with this topic?
Has it ever even come up?
Did you know it was so common in the US?
What do you guys, men and women, think of
this?
Let me know in the comments below!
Thank you guys so much for watching, I hope
you found this informative.
If you liked it, make sure to give this video
a thumbs up and of course, you can subscribe
to my channel for free and activate the bell
to get notified about new uploads on this
channel!
The next episode of the “Random Differences”
mini-series will be published in two days
on Tuesday but in the mean time check out
the other episodes, they’re all linked in
the info box below and check out my other
videos about German-American culture differences
or about language stuff here on my channel!
For more behind the scenes content you can
also follow me on social media and I’ll
see you in two days with the next video.
Tschüss!
