I’m going to be the one contrarian here. I was born in 1950, so I’m not intact, as you put it. Yet I never felt like I was missing anything. I have never felt, nor been made to feel, like I was somehow incomplete or broken. It is only very recently that anyone has even suggested to me that I should feel that way. Well, I don’t.

But more to the point, I was present at my son’s circumcision. My (now ex-) wife is culturally Jewish. She was and is completely non-observant, yet she wanted this, much as she laid it on her mother, who really did want it, or so my ex assumed. Anyway I gave it little thought. Like I said, I have never felt like I was incomplete or broken.

“You were probably strapped into a frame, had your arms and legs tied down, and had a (then) tiny but very important part of your body ripped away…”

Sorry, friend, it was nothing like that. We took our son to the examination room or whatever it was where it took place. He was wide awake and looking all over the place. He lay on his back on the little table, the medical staffer unfastened his diaper, then used a specially designed device to remove that tiny foreskin. The device consisted of a little bell shaped piece that went over the tip of the penis, inside the foreskin. Then two pieces were fitted together around the bell shaped part of the device. The result was that the foreskin was separated. There were no restraints of any kind, nor did my son give any indication that he even noticed. He spent the whole time looking around at all the new and unusual things in the room.

I have been married twice and both times to Jews. As I result I have attended more than one bris. I have never seen any frames or restraints used nor witnessed any evidence of discomfort on the part of the baby.

I have never felt the slightest desire to be reunited with that “important” part of my body.