Circumcision Debates in Sexology Magazine (1934–1975)

Abstract

This article explores articles about circumcision that appeared in Sexology: Sex Science Magazine, with particular attention to how the debates shifted and changed over a forty-year period. The articles on circumcision in Sexology begin in November 1934 and end in the May 1973 issue, with every decade of publication includes articles on circumcision, corresponding with growing debates about the medicalization of routine neonatal circumcision. The first article sought to understand “circumcision among savage peoples,” which was quickly followed by an article on “Circumcision among the Jews,” and then “Medical view of circumcision.” In its earliest issues, Sexology advanced arguments in favor of routine circumcision, but in its final article on the topic, Sexology asks, “what’s so good about circumcision?”