Circumisising Your Characters

[ScrappyPaperDoodler]

This is one of those things that could go either way, but I'm curious about the cultural aspect.

Circumcision is far more common in the US, compared to other countries. In the States it's around 70% whereas the global average is 38%. In English-speaking countries Australia and the UK, it's about 25% or lower. (Source)

Personally, I'm uncut and would like to specifically write characters that experience sex the same way I do. However, I know that to an American audience, at least, there is perhaps a view that uncircumcised = unclean. Well, it's a view I've seen in 'publications' like Cosmopolitan, which is perhaps not the best source...

On the hand, maybe its an element that shouldn't even be mentioned in a story — in the same way its better to leave size, shape and whatever else open to interpretation. On the other, I feel there's a distinct difference between the two states (one of which I cannot relate to personally).

Obviously, I'll end up doing what I 'want to do' at the end of the day, but I'm curious about community views on the topic. Is there a chance it alienates American readers in a way that's simply not worth the 'benefits' of having a slightly more authentic story?

 

[SimonDoom]

This is one of those things that could go either way, but I'm curious about the cultural aspect.

Circumcision is far more common in the US, compared to other countries. In the States it's around 70% whereas the global average is 38%. In English-speaking countries Australia and the UK, it's about 25% or lower. (Source)

Personally, I'm uncut and would like to specifically write characters that experience sex the same way I do. However, I know that to an American audience, at least, there is perhaps a view that uncircumcised = unclean. Well, it's a view I've seen in 'publications' like Cosmopolitan, which is perhaps not the best source...

On the hand, maybe its an element that shouldn't even be mentioned in a story — in the same way its better to leave size, shape and whatever else open to interpretation. On the other, I feel there's a distinct difference between the two states (one of which I cannot relate to personally).

Obviously, I'll end up doing what I 'want to do' at the end of the day, but I'm curious about community views on the topic. Is there a chance it alienates American readers in a way that's simply not worth the 'benefits' of having a slightly more authentic story?

Interesting question. I've never thought about it.

I'm an American and am circumcised like most men my age. It might bother some of your Yank readers. But I say, go for it. It sounds interesting. You'd be adding something different to the body of stories here. I cannot recall it ever having been brought up in a story. I don't see how it would make a difference, but that's because I only know one way of being. If you think it would make a difference in your story then by all means explore that.

 

[NotWise]

Obviously, I'll end up doing what I 'want to do' at the end of the day, but I'm curious about community views on the topic. Is there a chance it alienates American readers in a way that's simply not worth the 'benefits' of having a slightly more authentic story?

I probably wouldn't describe the detail, but I also doubt many US readers would be offended if you did describe it. There's even something of a fetish for uncut cocks.

 

[PennameWombat]

I almost never mention it one way or the other. It’s one of those things I leave up to the reader’s imagination. Some of my descriptions might imply circumcision or not, but it’s not necessary for the scene to have played out as it did, there’s just a moment not described. Nor do the sexual partners in my stories comment on it.

I can see specific mention being part of a story, one way or the other, just not something I’ve seen a need about which to be explicit. I know there are specific fetish interests in both ways. I think where you’d have more reader trouble would be if you went into the ‘political’ aspects of it, or the fact that I know there are people who ‘crusade’ against it. If you decide to take one of those stands, expect reaction. Good? Bad? You’ll find out.

 

[lovecraft68]

I fall under the not worth mentioning, but that's me.

I've never written someone uncut, and the reason being is in my mind to describe how the head is covered at first, and the skin has to be pushed back to reveal the head is simply unsexy.

In visual porn you're watching and if it does something for the woman-or guy-watching-that's one thing, but writing it can just not put it in a erotic light.

The reputation about hygiene isn't necessarily false, but not in the sense uncut is always dirty, but you do have to take more care to stay clean than someone who is cut, its a simple fact not an insult or something that should be seen as a generalization

Just my take, as you said, ultimately write whatever you want

 

[Comshaw]

This is one of those things that could go either way, but I'm curious about the cultural aspect.

Circumcision is far more common in the US, compared to other countries. In the States it's around 70% whereas the global average is 38%. In English-speaking countries Australia and the UK, it's about 25% or lower. (Source)

Personally, I'm uncut and would like to specifically write characters that experience sex the same way I do. However, I know that to an American audience, at least, there is perhaps a view that uncircumcised = unclean. Well, it's a view I've seen in 'publications' like Cosmopolitan, which is perhaps not the best source...

On the hand, maybe its an element that shouldn't even be mentioned in a story — in the same way its better to leave size, shape and whatever else open to interpretation. On the other, I feel there's a distinct difference between the two states (one of which I cannot relate to personally).

Obviously, I'll end up doing what I 'want to do' at the end of the day, but I'm curious about community views on the topic. Is there a chance it alienates American readers in a way that's simply not worth the 'benefits' of having a slightly more authentic story?

Being one of the few Americans of my generation who isn't circumcised, I find it interesting how people respond to it. When I went into the military they tried to talk me into getting it done with all the usual BS: "It's not hygienic" You can get an infection" "it makes it easier to keep it clean" blah, blah, blah. I didn't want to; who in their right mind wants someone cutting on their dick? Thankfully I had one army doctor who wasn't circumcised and he supported my decision. I won't go into a tirade about the perceived benefits of circumcision other than to say that research has shown most of those claims to be wrong.

Over the years I've had a lot of different reactions to not being circumcised. Most were from women. Some thought it positively nasty. Others were curious and still others found it delightful. When my wife and I met sex she called it a sleeping bag and delighted in playing with it.

As far as going out of my way to write it into a story, I don't. If it happens to be part of the natural progression of the story I will and have included it in a couple of tales. In one I even used the sleeping bag analogy my wife used because it enhanced that moment in the story.

Comshaw

 

[ScrappyPaperDoodler]

I suppose the big thing for me is that I can't imagine the male perspective for a circumcised character. Maybe the gap in sensations is ultimately insignificant, however, I wouldn't — for example — know what it feels like to get a handjob or blowjob without foreskin. Then again, I don't have a vagina, yet I write at least some level of perspective from that angle into my stories.

On the thing about pushing the foreskin back being unsexy... I'm not sure people do push it back unless it's to apply a condom? Once erect, an uncut penis looks a lot like a circumcised penis, with the foreskin pulling back on its own. But, I agree that describing the physical layout is hard without it becoming too anatomical to be erotic.

Again, I'd say its the sensation of the foreskin providing friction during whichever sex act that I feel I need to convey. Mainly because I don't 'know' what the alternative feels like, aside from reading stories here (and they typically don't mention the topic at all). But, with quite a lot published already, I've never had to touch on it... It's a bit of a conundrum for me, at the moment.

Probably, it'll end up being three words of a 15k word story.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I’ve had a couple of female characters encounter an uncircumcised penis for the first time, previous lovers having all been circumcised. Their exploration was, I think, fun for the readers. There’s no cultural bias against mentioning it, IMHO.

 

[Privates1stClass]

Being uncut myself, a number of my primary male characters are also uncut. First off, I want to point out the advantages of having a foreskin. The foreskin is quite sensitive, having many nerves in it. It also protects the glans from chafing. It makes entering the vagina much easier when the friction of the labia cause the foreskin to "unroll" as it penetrates the vaginal ring.

Regarding hygiene, everyone needs to keep their rusty parts clean--men or women. I don't see that an uncut cock is "dirtier" than a cut one unless the owner doesn't shower regularly.

Humans have had foreskins for millions of years. If foreskins were a hindrance to the human race, wouldn't evolution have eliminated them by now?

Lastly, ask any man with a foreskin whether he'd prefer being cut or not. I'd say most uncut men would say they'd prefer to stay that way. When a baby boy is circumcised at two days old, he can't defend himself, so the doctor wins. Wait until he's 18 and then let him make his choice whether to be circumcised or not.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I have never bothered to say whether a penis in my story was circumsized or not. With a few characters, it would probably be obvious to a knowledgeable reader. But, given that some readers will have a strong preference one way or the other, why not leave it be and let them picture the penis they want to picture?

 

[AlexBailey]

True story:

None of my three boys are circumcised, and they grew up with a group of kids who were mostly the same. One time when my wife was hanging out with another mother while babysitting several other kids in the early elementary school ages, the other mom said that when her son was born she hadn't realized it was an option to leave her son's penis intact.

She was nearly in tears asking my wife for advice on how she should handle the conversation with her son someday when it eventually came up.

"Oh, don't worry. You probably won't have to deal with that for a few more years."

Shortly after that the other mom left for work, some of the kids went to the bathroom to pee - three of them into the same toilet. My wife heard them talking.

My loquacious middle son saw his friend's exposed head and said, "Oh, poor Tony! Your mom had the doctor cut off your tip!"

"What?!!!"

My wife was put on the spot by this horrified little kid who couldn't understand why his mother would have him mamed. At first she tried to tell him he needed to talk with his mom about it but the poor kid was terrified, so my wife had to have the conversation with half a dozen kids.

When the other mom got back from work my wife said, "Hey, you know that conversation you've been dreading...?"

The kid had calmed down once he received a thorough explanation - and other mom was actually grateful.

 

[Omenainen]

I’ve had a couple of female characters encounter an uncircumcised penis for the first time, previous lovers having all been circumcised. Their exploration was, I think, fun for the readers. There’s no cultural bias against mentioning it, IMHO.

I had the opposite situation in one of mine, coming from the uncut parts of the world myself. In others I don’t think I’ve mentioned it one way or another. And even in that one I didn’t go into details, it was just discussed.

I’m a little depressed by this talk of “I couldn’t possibly imagine how it is with/without foreskin because of the way I personally am.” Where’s your imagination? Are all your characters that correspond to your gender basically you? Where’s the variation? How can you possibly imagine the other participant(s) in non gay sex when they’re even more different than you are?

 

[yowser]

Like any detail, it's worth a mention if it moves the story further, illuminates the characters' experience and mindset, sets up a scene, etc.

In one recent story it was an amusing discovery - my characters came from different countries - the female wondering if all of a sudden she'd encountered a male of the Jewish persuasion.

xxx

"Circumcised," she mused. "Are you Jewish, by any chance?"

"No. It was the case amongst all the boys in my region growing up." He was aware of how awkwardly and artificially he had said 'amongst.'

"I take that is not the case here?" Rupert had no idea of what she would say.

"I should say not," she paused. "Although my sample size is not so large."

She laughed.

"That didn't come out right. But yes, this is my first. It looks so ... vulnerable." She was staring at his cock-head.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Like any detail, it's worth a mention if it moves the story further, illuminates the characters' experience and mindset, sets up a scene, etc.

In one recent story it was an amusing discovery - my characters came from different countries - the female wondering if all of a sudden she'd encountered a male of the Jewish persuasion.

xxx

"Circumcised," she mused. "Are you Jewish, by any chance?"

"No. It was the case amongst all the boys in my region growing up." He was aware of how awkwardly and artificially he had said 'amongst.'

"I take that is not the case here?" Rupert had no idea of what she would say.

"I should say not," she paused. "Although my sample size is not so large."

She laughed.

"That didn't come out right. But yes, this is my first. It looks so ... vulnerable." She was staring at his cock-head.

yowser, it is a very vulnerable area of men or women. Sensitive to touch, for pleasure, and of course, for pain.

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

In a recent series of mine, the main female character is ethnically Jewish, from an unobservant family. Her first encounter with an uncut cock is, for her, an enjoyable addition to variety, not itself a turnon (she enjoys his lovemaking for other reasons, but has special fun fellating the guy). The series is in Group Sex, and variety in one's partners is an important aspect of what the main characters enjoy. That's the first time I ever wrote specifically about the presence of foreskin (I'm an American male, and was cut at birth), and it was part of that search for variety.

 

[ScrappyPaperDoodler]

I’m a little depressed by this talk of “I couldn’t possibly imagine how it is with/without foreskin because of the way I personally am.” Where’s your imagination? Are all your characters that correspond to your gender basically you? Where’s the variation? How can you possibly imagine the other participant(s) in non gay sex when they’re even more different than you are?

Fair enough. However, I'd stress that this is something I've not really experienced when it comes to other scenarios/dynamics. I think it comes down to bias and when I say that I have trouble imagining the feeling, I should maybe clarify to say I have trouble contemplating the mechanics. In another sense, I think not having direct experience of what it feels like to have a vagina means scenes requiring descriptions of that can be 'as authentic as possible' and I'd be fine with it, but I'm biased when it comes to something I have direct experience of.

It's more a problem of geometry than it is of story-telling but I worry that getting more specific veers into the debate.

Obviously, there isn't really anything to suggest one 'type' of penis is superior to another. Really, I think you can make an argument for both and the difference will always be slim. However, as an uncircumcised man, I imagine a circumcised penis is quite 'rigid' — that the head becomes less sensitive and that during certain sex acts you won't feel the (pleasurable) sensation of additional friction generated by the movement of the foreskin. For me, direct contact with the tip of my penis is great in moderation but ultimately it can become unpleasant. In my imagination (and I may be very wrong), a partner giving a handjob to a circumcised man would have to focus mainly on the shaft below the tip since it would be hard to travel over the tip, or even uncomfortable for the man in question because there'd be direct pressure on an area that is (for me) 'protected'. However, it doesn't seem to be the case in pornography, which is really my only frame of reference for this.

Naturally, all I've just written could be total bullshit because I don't have direct experience of it and it's also not really something that's explored in depth in stories here or elsewhere. Online sources tend to get 'political' and don't really delve into the comparative aspect in good faith.

I'm glad lots of authors came here to mention they've included aspects of this in their stories. I'll definitely be reading those to get a perspective!

For some reason, I just got really hung up on it while writing a scene this afternoon.

 

[KeithD]

I think it mostly comes up in my stories where the act of docking is depicted and I don't write too many of those. It occasionally crops up in arousal scenes. If it can be included in arousal images, I'd use it. I don't think it's worth an incidental mention though.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Most of my characters are uncircumcised because they're Europeans under 60. Foreskins get mentioned occasionally, in particularly one guy with a tight foreskin who needs to manually pull his cock out and stuff it back in after, like putting a sleeping bag into its bag. There's a reference to guys in Turkey being circumcised.

No-one's commented.

Foreskins are fun. But I guess it's like pubic hair - if you've got as far as finding out the configuration down there, only a real arse would complain about what they find.

I've only ever met one circumsised cock (I'm English). My impression is that it's become way less common in American men under 40, mainly because insurers stopped paying for it so it stopped being a default. (Not wanting to get into any political argument here...)

 

[Comshaw]

So far I've written mostly from a woman's point of view. Quite a few of my stories take place in the eighties or earlier, and they feature middle-aged men at that time. If an American man was born in the 1930s or 1940s, it's my understanding that circumcision was uncommon at that point. I don't go into a huge amount of detail, but if I'm writing from a virgin's perspective, she's going to be curious and make mental observations about her lover's penis, so I do describe the appearance of it.

Actually, it was very common in those years. It got a boost in WWI with the belief it was easier to keep clean when you're in a situation where you can't bath regularly. It hit its stride in WWII. Most going into the military who weren't circumcised got it done when they entered, voluntarily or no. My wife's uncle went into the Navy uncut and had it done under orders before they would elt him graduate submarine school. Again it was the mistaken belief that it was more hygienic. That belief came from the Jewish practice to eliminate the cheesy substance (smegma) that builds up under the foreskin if it's not cleaned. Come to find out after some studies were done that substance is actually produced by the body (male and female) to protect the genitals and not something that would harm it.

After the war most babies were cut because their fathers were. And in some locals it was an automatic process. I was one of the exceptions because my mother insisted it not be done.

In recent years, since the 60s and the hippy back to the land movement, the country has gravitated towards not doing it.

Comshaw

 

[NotWise]

Again it was the mistaken belief that it was more hygienic. That belief came from the Jewish practice to eliminate the cheesy substance (smegma) that builds up under the foreskin if it's not cleaned. Come to find out after some studies were done that substance is actually produced by the body (male and female) to protect the genitals and not something that would harm it.

Junior High health class taught the health/cleanliness angle. Another justification I've heard for it is purely Christian--to be more like Christ. In a lot of places, it's historically been more important to not look Jewish than to be more like Christ. That hasn't been as much of a problem in the U.S.

 

[ElectricBlue]

For some reason, I just got really hung up on it while writing a scene this afternoon.

Now you've brought size into it...

Do what I do, write the cocks you know. I've never once had someone comment, "Oh my God, I can't read your story, you're not circumcised." How would they know? I don't mention it, except when I do. I don't think many women writers fuss which breast is slightly bigger and give it special emphasis on a story. It's only men that do that. Just write the damn cock, let it stand on its own .

 

[LAHomedog]

I write about uncut/cut all the time. In my Summer Love story, "Clambake" I have a group sex scene where one of the guys is circumcised and one is not and there are a few paragraphs about that.

My Nude Day story has a scene like that. I think it can enhance the story telling aspects of your narrative. The same way as I would describe breast size, or body piercings, or if someone has ink, or long hair vs. short hair.

I think for the female partner it is part of the sexual experience and how she plays with the two types of cocks is going to be different depending. What the girl does with her tongue around the head, what she does with her hand as she strokes him. I think those are important details in the story.

 

[Comshaw]

While my initial comment was based on anecdotal evidence, your comment got me curious. Not sure if I'm permitted to post links to outside sites here, so I'll just say that I found a source for U.S. Circumcision Incidence, and for American males born in 1932, the rate was 31%. It was a high of 85% in 1965. Of course, I'm sure this number varies somewhat by region, and is also influenced by the prevalence of at-home births in earlier years. But based on those numbers, you're much more likely to find that a man born in the 30s is uncircumcised, rather than a man born in the 60s.

Yes you can post links and I would be very interested to see them. If what you say is true I was in error about it being common in the 20s/30s but it stil holds that it started with WWI and grew greatly during WWII. That's why the 60s saw such a high incidence of it. The fathers were circumcised and thought their sons should be too.


Comshaw

 

[AloneTooLong]

"My impression is that it's become way less common in American men under 40, mainly because insurers stopped paying for it so it stopped being a default"

Not certain that is the case; I have four great-grandsons between the ages of 11 and 1 and all of them are 'cut'. we are in Texas.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Circumcision was thought to be cleaner or easier for you to keep it clean. If your clean it's no problem either way. If your not, well your nasty.