Date: Thu, 8 Dec 1994 15:00:38 -0500 From: CircInfoNe@aol.com Subject: Positive Alert, San Jose Mercury News POSITIVE ALERT SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 8 DECEMBER 1994 COLUMNIST MURRY FRYMER "AT LARGE", complete reproduction: CIRCUMCISION, THE CUT THAT HURT MY FEELING(S) They were talking about circumcision on the radio. I wasn't paying much mind. Circ is a decision that has come and gone in my life. For me and my sons, the foreskin follies were a foregone conclusion. It was ritual. But now, I understand, lots of "experts" disdain the practice, be it for religion or health. There was one woman on the PBS program who was really upset. She said that circ was an attack on human rights, that it was an act of brutal disfigurement, that it had a psychological aftermath that led men to become violent. She said that for many circumcised men, way down deep in their psyche is a resentment toward what had been done to them, and then as adults they try to get even. That could explain Steven Seagal. I thought she was going overboard. But then, as one red light turned green, someone said something that really shocked me. "Men who have been circ'd," said one panelist, "enjoy only a small percentage of the sexual pleasure of men who have not been circumcised." I almost drove off the road. Now I was listening closely. One male caller said that he had been circ'd as a baby, but then had the foreskin replaced as an adult. "And it was fantastic," he said, speaking of his sexual awakening. "All those years," he said, "I had never known what I was missing." There were more calls similar to that. Testimonials to foreskin. "Don't you see?" said another caller. "That's where the nerve endings are." The woman who had spoken of human rights--to nobody's particular interest--now was animated. She chortled that men everywhere were seeking to have their foreskins replaced. "Parents should realize just how serious a deprivation circ is," she was saying, glad to have everyone's ear. Well, she had mine. "Men who have been circ'd have no idea what they are missing!" I let that waft through my cerebrum. Could this be true? This is the sort of idea that can drive a man mad. How would you like to be told, for example, that your taste buds are defective? That you just don't know what pizza tastes like because you lack a facility for spices? Well, unfortunately, there is no way of knowing. Sex certainly has "seemed" pleasurable in my life. But, if these experts know their stuff, imagine what it must be like for non-circumcised men. Well, as I drove along, I decided to change the stations. Listen to Rush Limbaugh, maybe. But my mind wandered. Most men, I mused, even if they have concerns about circumcision, are unlikely to hunt around for their old foreskins. And who wants somebody else's? Still, I hateed to think that life is full of champagne and caviar and I've spent it all sipping Kool-Aid. It's like when I tell a friend I had a wonderful time a Tahoe. And he smiles and says, "Nice, but have you ever seen the Alps?" It's like when I show an old friend my best column and he just nods, then adds, "By the way, have you read my 12-volume series on the rise and fall the the Roman Empire?" That's show-off stuff. Maybe all those guys with foreskins are just showing off. Maybe it's not nearly as great for them as they want us deprivees to feel. That's what I believe. And I wish they'd shut up. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Marry Frymer tries to keep his mind on his column Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in the Mercury News, 750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, 95190; phone (408) 920-5247; or fax (408) 920-5244. [This added by Rich Angell]: The E-mail address of the Mercury News is BobIngle@aol.com.