AHS18

Of all the bodily features for which we should give evolution credit for having shaped meticulously due to intense selection pressures, the reproductive organs top this list. Yet, American cultural views in the last century have cast a shadow and inflicted grievous harm on the male penis by falsely claiming that the highly specialized foreskin is, at best, vestigial and useless, and, at worst, disturbing, unhygienic, and dangerous. The origins of both male and female circumcision as a common practice in the United States are neither religious nor medical as many believe, but specifically instituted to reduce sexual pleasure, and while female genital mutilation was made a felony in 1996, male genital mutilation persists. This talk will provide an in-depth appreciation of the anatomy and functions of the evolutionary marvel which is male foreskin as an argument for why men deserve the same right to genital integrity as women.