I just Google-searched “European penis” and then shook my head into my hands. Everyone knows not to search sexual terms, and No, Google, I don’t want to know the average size of European penises.
What I wanted to know was the averages on circumcision versus un-circumcision. I re-specified my search, and I made some interesting discoveries. But we’ll get to those. Because this is all about cultural clash.
I’m American (if you didn’t already know), and circumcision is just the norm in my culture. If you were born male in the USA, chances are you’re circumcised. But when I saw this documentary about Pigs Without Blankets, it made me stop to think.
Is circumcision normal?
So like the curiosity that I am, I started asking my friends (and my poor multi-cultural colleagues). I didn’t want medical reasonings or sexual preferences or religious smack-downs. Originally, I just wanted to hear about opinions, and why they would choose something or not. And I guess this speaks to their values as well if you go deeper into the subject.
Half the world has a penis.
(sidenote: If you want the medical, sexual, or religious information, a simple search will do it. Just be careful what you type.)
Anyway, my curiosity knows no social bounds so I asked my Western European friend his opinion on circumcision. The answer was a bit discombobulated and veiled. Perhaps me not having a penis caused this clam up although he promised to answer more questions (his inner plea not to interrogate him more was obvious). My next unofficial victim interviewee calls Eastern Europe home, and she found it odd that circumcision is normal in the USA.
What? Wow. Once again, my perception of normal is different from another’s normal.
Perhaps there are many reasons that circumcision isn’t practiced in Eastern Europe, but my friend notes that the Holocaust and World War II systematically removed the Jewish population and therefore their influence from these countries. It was a war on penises. Or for penises? Penii? I guess it depends on who you ask.
Naturally, I asked as many people from different cultures as I could, and their opinions lined up with the below information.
According to the highly reliable source of Wikipedia, the prevalence of circumcision varies around the world. North America has an 80% prevalence while Latin and South America is less than 20%. The majority of Europe and Asia come in at less than 20%, but the majority of the Middle East and Africa tracks with North America at an 80% prevalence. If you only look at those numbers, I guess that circumcision can’t be considered something that the medically current and first world countries do. Is it religious influences? Or just the this-is-what-we’ve-always-done that’s happening here?
So if circumcision is not as widely accepted as I thought. Why is it that penises always seem to show up circumcised in artwork, sculpture, plastic?
While you’re figuring that one out, I’ll be sitting here trying to decide if I should have a say in the fate of my hypothetical son’s penis.
