- Oh hi, babiest babes in Internet land!
So, I uploaded a video once up on a time,
and everyone started fighting in the comments.
That actually happens every time.
People were fighting because a bunch of people
in the comments section hate foreskins.
They're like, "Yeah, foreskins suck."
It made me really sad inside because
I really love foreskins a lot.
Like, it's almost unhealthy.
(upbeat pop music)
The foreskin is a highly elastic piece of skin
that covers the head of the penis, and it's amazing
because it does lots of really cool, awesome stuff.
The two basic functions of the foreskin are protection
and sexual-ness.
So, when a little baby's born, they've got a penis.
The foreskin is actually fused to the glands.
It's fused to the head, and that is good.
Nature is a smart motherfucker, okay?
She knows what she's doing.
The fusing of the foreskin to the head keeps bacteria
and other stuff out that can cause infections
when little babies get all big.
When they become like 10 or 11-ish, the foreskin
will start to detach from the head.
And then the foreskin still serves as like a little sheath
that keeps all the bad stuff out, and it also
keeps all the good stuff in.
The foreskin has mucus membranes which release
and distribute and help to store natural lubrication.
So, you can think of it kind of like an eyelid.
It creates a cozy little cave for the head
of the penis to stay in.
Yeah, you thought only vagina people get a cave?
Wrong, penis people get a cave, too. What?
It's also protecting those erotic nerve endings
so they aren't overexposed and becoming desensitized
by being all over the place all the time.
So, that kind of bleeds into the sexual-ness
part of the foreskin.
It's protecting the gland so that it
doesn't become desensitized.
The foreskin itself has roughly, get ready for this.
Is your body ready?
Around 240 feet
of nerve fibers, as well as 20,000
nerve endings!
Fuck yeah, foreskin!
So, the foreskin has all these cool functions,
but oh wait, hold up.
Eight in ten Americans who have penises
have their foreskin removed.
Here in American, circumcision is one of the most
common surgical procedures that happens,
and it almost always happens directly from the womb.
As in, before they can talk or understand what's going on.
As in, before they can give consent to have
half the skin of their penis removed.
Got to be honest, y'all, circumcision give me the creeps.
It legitimately freaks me out.
Like, why do people do that, why?
"I'm just going to cut off part of your penis
"before you can ever say anything."
Ugh! When you think about it,
circumcision is actually pretty dark.
Legit question: why do we remove people's foreskin
without their consent?
Circumcision is actually a really, really old practice.
It was first documented in Egyptian art that dates back
to 2400 B.C., holy shit!
Tribal cultures throughout history and even today
continue circumcising as sort of like a rite of passage.
Think of it as like fraternity hazing, but instead of
making you drink a shot of beer every minute,
they're cutting off part of your penis.
Another part of circumcision's survival into 2013
is religious tradition.
But religion is actually not the driving force
behind America's crazy circumcision numbers.
Yeah, it counts for something.
Here are the four arguments I hear over and over
and over again in defense of circumcision.
"It's just cleaner that way."
Hey, stop the foreskin hate!
The foreskin is not naturally dirty!
People have this habit of thinking their genitals
are a lot dirtier than they actually are.
Cleaning underneath the foreskin isn't this
great challenge, either.
Just pull it back, and rinse it with water.
That's it, that's all!
People say they want to cut off the foreskin
because it's easier to clean.
It sounds to me like, "Oh yeah, ears get lot so of wax
"in them, and they get dirty, so we're just going to
"chop them off."
Number two: It protects against STDs.
Research on this claim is sort of divided.
There is some research that says it may have a
protective effect to cut of the foreskin.
There's other research that says no, it really
doesn't do much.
But you know what the research is not divided on?
Condoms! Condoms are, like, 99 percent affective
at preventing STDs, so...
Number three: It just looks nicer.
A lot of our aesthetic preferences in people
are shaped by what we frequently see.
We've grown accustomed to seeing penises
in a cosmetically altered light.
I just don't believe that there's anything inherently
ugly about the natural penis.
Foreskins are actually really fun
and beautiful and nice and yeah...
Have I mentioned that I like foreskin?
Four: His dad's cut, so we're cutting him, too.
This one really gets me, because it really hearkens back
to that tribal mindset, like all men of the clan
have their penises cut.
Isn't it true that there are some traditions that are
just kind of silly and not really worth continuing?
What ends up happening a lot of times, people are like,
"Okay, yeah, I guess it is kinda weird
"to cut off part of someone's penis
"before they can consent.
"And yet I was circumcised."
Even if you were circumcised, it does not mean
that you're not whole.
You don't need a foreskin to be a whole person.
Because it was nonconsensual, just like touching
without permission, having sex without permission,
cutting off parts of your body without permission,
it is a form of violation,
and it's normal to feel any range of emotions about that.
For anyone who's in that, please handle it in
a positive, healthy way.
If you need to find other people to talk about it,
I'm going to put some links down below.
All right, so, commence crazy comment fights
about circumcision down below.
And I will be back with another video,
hopefully, next week.
I'll see you then, guys. (smooches)
♫ Please be
♫ With everyone
♫ Except your mom oh
♫ What? ♫