Circumcision doesn't get talked about too often on this sub, but it should be one of our primary concerns (WARNING: (sort of) GRAPHIC)

Based on this German article of a father who wrote a letter to his infant son on why they circumcised them. Source: https://taz.de/Brief-eines-Vaters-an-seinen-beschnittenen-Sohn/!5191892/

This is pure rage fuel.

Dear Elijah,

So now you have it behind you, and maybe it is only your business. But your mother said that maybe I should write it down, how it was with your circumcision, so that one day, that is, now, when you can read, you can read how it was back then. And now in the newspaper too, because it affects some - and many don't know anything about circumcision.

First of all: It was already clear before you were born that you would be circumcised. Your mother is Jewish - and before we got married, she and I made a deal that you might find a bit banal, but which had consequences for you: Our children, if we should have any, would have my surname and their religion. And that meant for you: circumcision!

Now you have done it very cleverly, because you were born five weeks early - and thus, as a premature baby, withdrew from circumcision. Because according to religious laws, this should actually take place on the eighth day after the birth. But you don't circumcise a premature baby. That would be too dangerous. And in the hospital where the circumcision was supposed to take place, we were told to wait until you were one year old. Then your little body, more precisely: your liver in particular, can cope with the general anesthesia that is necessary for a circumcision by an experienced surgeon, which we naturally wanted out of concern for you.

So we took it easy. But as soon as you were one year old, we always set circumcision appointments, which you then, slightly perfidious, let burst again and again: Sometimes you had a laceration on your forehead, which is why the anesthetist refused an operation. Sometimes you were in such a bad mood because of getting used to the daycare that we didn't want to give you an operation. But you got a cold several times shortly before the crucial week - and even then the surgeons did not want to accept the risk of the operation.

Your parents made a new attempt in the late summer of 2007 - you were just two and a half years old. A holiday week near the Baltic Sea should cure your constant cold, that's what we thought. Then another ten days in Berlin so that the wound on your penis can heal. In fact, we got an appointment for the circumcision at the Jewish Hospital in Berlin. You can't believe how slowly the four days passed between the appointment of the appointment and the actual operation: We treated you like a raw egg, packed you in several sweaters and socks so that you wouldn't catch a cold. Then the time had come, on a Tuesday you came under the knife.

You can imagine that we had a pretty bad conscience to expect you to have such an operation - and then with general anesthesia, because at this age there is no other way to do it. It is impossible to imagine if something had happened to you during the circumcision itself or through the anesthesia. Is it allowed to expose a child to such dangers without a medical reason forcing it? Can religion justify this? I slept very poorly the night before the operation. That I let the operation happen may seem brutal to you today. I could understand

On the morning of the operation, I took your sister to daycare. She found it all very exciting and told Hinz and Kunz about it. Your mother drove you to the hospital - the operation went smoothly. Thank God! Religion was also served, the surgeon gave the required blessing. Your mother said that due to the very gentle anesthesia you woke up immediately after the operation and immediately started screaming like a stick. You shouldn't scream as this led to new bleeding on your now circumcised penis.

When I visited your mother with your sister the afternoon after the operation, your mother was completely exhausted. She had cried too, the surgeon had tried to comfort her. Desperately she clung to the encouragement of a nurse who said that one day you would thank your mother for the circumcision. Well, I hope so!

The first days after the circumcision were a horror - especially for you, but also for us. At first you didn't want to put on diapers and instead peed on everything: sheets and carpets in particular. After all, the pee worked perfectly. Every now and then there was blood in the diaper, we called the hospital several times about it, but they said it was okay.

Most of the time you walked around the apartment half-naked. When we were at dinner on the first day, we put a serviette on your penis so that the wound would not be soiled: You proudly lifted the serviette when your neighbor friends came over to check on you. What you said to them, something with "Bänis", was hard to understand - just as we rarely understand exactly what you are actually saying. Your language skills have not yet developed very much (maybe this was an advantage here).

But the biggest annoyance was with the entire bandage around your penis - it didn't want to and didn't want to come off! We bathed you, as prescribed by the doctor, at least three times a day so that the bandage would slowly come off. But it held up bombproof, and we shouldn't pull it off under any circumstances. You complained about the association that it was so tight, so we translated your complaint.

On Sunday, five days after the operation, I finally went back to the surgeon with you, who reassured me: The wound looks good, no inflammation. If the bandage isn't off in two days, we should come back to the hospital. But he'll leave, don't worry. With the hundreds of circumcisions he made, it was only necessary to cut the bandage with scissors twice, said the doctor. Then he shook my hand, very warmly and for a long time. Cut it off with scissors!

But thank God you haven't understood all of this at all. You were pretty brave in the clinic for that. And as an exception, you were always allowed to sleep with mom at night while I had to spend the night in the nursery. So the whole thing also had advantages, admittedly: small ones. The huge fire wagon that you got from your mother also made up for you a little. She promised it to you immediately after the procedure, so that you would stop crying.

You kept that well and purposefully selected the most expensive one. Your mother paid the enormous bill without complaint - also a form of calming your guilty conscience. Of course, we were always very worried. I kept asking myself: What's all this shit about! And all because something like that is in a 2,500 year old book by a desert people! I respect and yet like a lot about Judaism. But wouldn't a beautiful Jewish life also be possible without circumcision?

A week after the operation, the bandage, apart from a small corner, was still not off. So I went back to the hospital with you - you cried as soon as I opened the diaper. I could have howled along, but didn't allow myself to do so. Two doctors discussed the situation, then a decision was made: the bandage must be removed. A sweet nurse took a small cup, filled it with tap water, pushed your tiny penis into it, spoke to you well, then we waited. I tried to comfort you. Because you kept crying, I read you a children's book to distract you. It did little. The nurse said we should have pulled the bandage much earlier. Then at last he broke away a little. The nurse bravely grabbed one end of the bandage and plucked it off quickly and skillfully. Finally! My son's penis was free!

After that, you went uphill. The swelling around your penis receded, the threads around the wound gradually loosened, we were able to reduce the constant bathing in the morning, afternoon and evening a little. Another mishap happened during a bath: We actually didn't want to tell our parents anything about the circumcision and the complications that resulted from it, in order not to have to share their objections and worries. Instead, they should be presented with a fait accompli, which would be better for everyone, we thought. But of course it happened, as it had to, your sister babbled on the phone in a conversation with your mother's parents: Your grandparents almost had a heart attack! But we still had to laugh.

So now you're circumcised, and, admittedly, that doesn't look bad, aesthetically speaking. Now we hear from this and that that it has also been circumcised - mostly for hygienic and medical reasons. Your mom got into a lengthy email discussion on the subject with a friend who thought what we did to you was pretty stupid.

Two women told me that it was better in bed with circumcised men. A friend of mine who is circumcised told me what his doctor had said to him before the circumcision: "Before the operation: pistol - after the operation: cannon!" I don't know if that's true, but I wish it for you. So that not only is religion satisfied, but you also benefit from it. So no offense!

All the best!

Your father.

I really hope his son will marry as soon as possible and take the name of his wife, so that he understands he is a complete moron.

There is NO EXCUSE for what they have done, and you can clearly see how they attempt to cope over all the harm they have done to him by buying him a fire wagon and telling him all this pro-circ bullshit, fuck those parents, they don't deserve to have a child.