The terms genital modification and genital mutilation can refer to permanent or temporary changes to human sex organs. Some forms of genital alteration are performed on adults with their informed consent at their own behest, usually for aesthetic reasons or to enhance stimulation. However, other forms are performed on people who do not give informed consent, including infants or children. Any of these procedures may be considered modifications or mutilations in different cultural contexts and by different groups of people.
This page presents information that most parents are not aware of at the time they make the circumcision decision. Doctors usually do not provide this information. If you are under 18, we recommend that you share and discuss this information with your parents. For a further look at this anatomy, including photographs, visit Circumstitions Hugh Young. Hugh's site also includes an excellent animation to illustrate retraction. Dr John R. Taylor, co-author of two medical anatomical papers about the foreskin, explains the latest research at the Ridged Band website.
An unbridgeable gap in understanding. But we asked a bunch of straight men to be as descriptive as possible when telling us what it actually feels like to put their penis in a vagina, so we can all get a little closer to understanding. All names have been changed, because few men want to publicly declare what sex feels like on the internet.
This week it came to light that when Lena Dunham was 7 years old, she looked at her little sister's vagina, and an alarming number of people have dubbed her a "child molester. I'm shaking my head in disbelief as I write because I can't believe that such innocuous things have become the subject of so much vitriol. If I had a penny for all of the sexual organs I looked at as a child, I'd be rich. OK, maybe I'd only have an extra ten or so dollars, but you know what I mean. Children are naturally inquisitive.