A story about the background of my desire to be circumcised, the way to realize this desire and what will happen afterwards.

Comments are welcome, of course, presumed that they are expressed in a serious and civilized manner, and relevant, i.e. concerns self-chosen male circumcision. 

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Wednesday 6 January 2010

Circumcision in Sweden

When having a positive attitude to circumcision it's not very easy to find like-minded to discuss it with, at least not in a society like the Swedish, where it's more or less a non-topic. If the thing is brought up it's almost always in negative terms.

Perhaps the large ignorance shouldn't be surprising. Circumcision in Sweden has in principle only been performed when medically motivated, regarding the Christian native population.

There have been Jews in Sweden since the 16th century. At first they were very few, but despite the relative increase of their number the last centuries, they only represent 0,2% of the population. There are no figures on how many of the Swedish Jewish men are circumcised, but I guess the great majority are. The Muslim population in Sweden was until few decades ago almost non-existent, but labour and refugee immigration has brought about a number of 2-3% Muslims among the Swedes. Also among these, I expect a great majority of circumcised men.

Thus we can conclude that only a few percent of the male Swedish population are circumcised. Furthermore, most of these few belong to ethnic and/or religious minorities, which are often by the majority population considered "strangers" and not had very much contact with. The majority population simply very seldom sees a circumcised penis, or talk to the owner of one!

Therefor one shouldn't be surprised by the ignorance in circumcision. Though, it's both frustrating and upsetting that the negative or directly hostile attitude to circumcision is so widespread - even among those who usually call themselves enlightened.

Ignorance and prejudice are running rampant. Male circumcision is mixed up with female genital mutilation, which is grotesque. Many think that one can't masturbate without a foreskin. Some seem to think that it's more or less a matter of some kind of castration!

It's also a question of a great deal of self-righteousness and ethnocentrism in the Swedish majority population. "Our" customs are obviously the right ones, those of "the others" are strange, and in addition they are often Muslims, against whom there's a widespread suspiciousness.

Left: The Stockholm synagogue. Right: The Stockholm mosque.
"Can these people really be called Swedes? Doubtful... at least as long as they don't stop this circumcision thing, and start to eat pork and drink themselves pissed every weekend, like civilized people do!"

It should be possible to lift the eye a bit and look around the world! About 30% of the world male population is circumcised. Most of them were in childhood and thus they didn't chose for themselves, and that should be said. It's neither a serious argument that a practice automatically is right just because it's common. But considering the patriarchal order that rules almost all societies in the world, it's not probable that a custom would be so widely spread and continue fomillennia if it would mean so many disadvantages for males as the opponents claim!

Ask the circumcised men too! The great majority are proud of and/or satisfied with being circumcised, or at least indifferent to it. There are a few though, who are dissatisfied, and of those almost all have been circumcised without being able to make their own choice. This should be respected and taken seriously. On the other hand, a lot of men in the world are unhappy with their penises regardless of being circumcised or not.

Don't either forget us who have made our own and active choice to become circumcised! Practically all of us have carefully considered our choice during a long time and after thorough research. We know more than most others about the function of a penis in general and a foreskin in particular. We do obviously not want to mutilate our penises or deteriorate our sexual experiences - we want to improve them!

3 comments:

  1. Your comments about how the swedes view the circumcision concept is extremely interesting. I knew that in Sweden there was a lot of preudice and ingorance about his issue... You were BRAVE to make a decisionm in favour of it, in spite of this adverse environment. Congratulations!

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  2. Thank you Charlie!
    I guess there is no society without a certain degree of ethnocentrism and and prejudice towards other societies or minority cultures. Sweden is no exception, even though it´s generally very liberal. I try to always choose the liberal view!

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  3. what ignorance is there about circumcision? you are born with a foreskin. there is no choice about that. the choice comes in removing it. the problem is that there is no choice for the vast majority of men who are circumcised - it's done for them when they are babies. that is the main objection. if you're an adult and want to do it, nobody cares. you should be more concerned about taking that choice away from others.

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