LOVE & BEAUTY with Mainini Beatrice

Last week’s installment on circumcision torched a lot of debate and the reaction was overwhelming. [Click here to read last week’s article “Does Circumcision enhance or reduce drive” 27 July’s]

Well, this week I will dedicate this space to your views and experiences which to me sounded like a mixed bag.

Stella Sellars wrote:

Dear Mainini. Circumcised men and their partners have problems with their sex lives and I know the reason why. In fact, many men who went under the knife should be regretting the experience. I have not had the privilege to encounter a circumcised man, but I know what I am talking about because I am a nurse. The circumcised men tend to develop a thin layer of hard skin on their privates’ head, which obviously decreases the sensitivity.

It then follows that after the removal of the foreskin and the hardening of the instrument, circumcised men have to work extra hard to reach orgasm compared to their uncircumcised counterparts who already have the sensitivity.

The pounding and the increase in pace will obviously lead to a regrettable experience for the women —very painful indeed. Sex is meant to be enjoyable and smooth sailing, but if you have to do things that make your partner feel uncomfortable, then you would have taken away all the pleasure, and the desire too! This is the experience I have heard from circumcised men who seek counselling from me since I am also in that department at a clinic I am working from in Masvingo.

Linda had this story to tell:

I have had both experiences, so I think I am qualified to contribute to this debate.

When I was younger I met several boyfriends who were very vocal and ecstatic in their love-making, specifically in their orgasmic voice. As I grew older, I started meeting men of different kinds. Among them were the circumcised.

The young men in my early sexual life were not circumcised and I came to realise now that is why they were over the top and expressing themselves fully. The experience is very different and distinct. Men who are circumcised do not express sexual pleasure in the same way with those who are not circumcised.

George had this to say:

I am a circumcised man and proud for that matter. What I can confirm is that I now take longer to release, compared to what I used to do before I went under the knife. And, man! My girlfriend really likes it. She urges me on, not to release it as quick and encourages me to continue. And she looses her senses because of that.

In fact, I feel sharper now compared to the period before I was circumcised. I have also learnt that it does not matter if you are circumcised or not. What you need is to be able to use your sexual gifts which are abundant. But I think circumcised men have an edge over their counterparts.

 

Gazani wrote :

Thank you for your efforts in educating the nation through your articles in The Sunday Mail. I was going through one of them with the heading as above (Does circumcision enhance or reduce drive?) and was left shell shocked. In the interest of the public, I think it will be great if you could refer us to some of the cited sources. I also feel the said legislator should be educated that male circumcision in the Zimbabwean context is for prevention of HIV, not for sexual benefits.

Sibanda said:

I am no prophet but I do study the Bible, especially the history part of it. I do believe Adam and Eve never had sex until they ate the fruit. They were punished, yes, but they also benefited from sex. In my view the Creator was not pleased and later on made a covenant with the Jews that every male be circumcised. Remember these guys had an extraordinary sexual appetite that led to the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah.

They were having sex with animals, homosexuality, etc. Then through history, the Creator came to the rescue and made an agreement with his people and from that day all Jews were circumcised soon after birth before they had some. Going against nature is never a good thing.

Unless one is a Jew who has that extraordinary sexual appetite, circumcision will be good, but not for the rest of humankind, it will be a disadvantage to you.

Phineas Usuwana said:

Circumcision of both males and females just lowers the drive. It’s not natural. Why should someone take upon themselves to prevent someone from enjoying the God-given gift of sex?.

Chamunorwa Mhere wrote:

Thank you for your article in The Sunday Mail about circumcision. I have never liked it. I thought I was lost the way I was labelled by colleagues.

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Well, take your pick, as we close this debate. Till we meet again next week on yet another subject, let us continue to chat on: [email protected]

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Size DOES matter

The eternal question of whether penis size matters to women has been probed by a team of international scientists who reported recently that yes, ladies do find larger men more attractive.

What’s more, prehistoric women who could see the sex organs of their scantily clad male counterparts may have helped influence the evolution of larger genitals in men by choosing to mate with partners who were bigger.

Researchers said they decided to tackle the topic because past studies had offered conflicting answers, and may have been sullied by asking the women too directly.

“Since penis size is a sensitive subject, it’s hard to determine whether females lied or ‘self-deceived’ in their responses,” lead author Brian Mautz, a post-doctoral researcher in Evolution and Sexual Selection at the University of Ottawa, told AFP via email.

So they embarked on a new type of study, using computer-generated images of generic male figures with varying heights, body shapes and flaccid penis lengths.

A sample of 105 Australian women were asked to view 53 of these life-sized robot-like pictures, which rotated so they were visible at different angles.

The women — all heterosexual — were not told they were participating in a study about penis size.

They were simply asked to rate the figures according to sexual attractiveness.

Their answers were collected anonymously.

Researchers found that women rated tall men with long penises as the most attractive.

The women also tended to gaze longer at the larger men.

But not too long — each rating was made in about three seconds.

But how big is best? On that question, researchers were, er, stumped.

“We didn’t find an ideal (ie ‘most attractive’) penis size or height,” Mautz explained.

“The attractiveness scores were still increasing at the largest values for these traits.”

The findings were published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal in the United States, called the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The results “directly contradict claims that penis size is unimportant to most females,” and also hint at why human males tend to have relatively larger genitalia when compared to other primates, the study said.

“Our results show that female mate choice could have played a role in the evolution of the relatively large human male penis,” the authors wrote.

“Before clothing, the non-retractable human penis would have been conspicuous to potential mates.”

The study did not get into the racial background of men and whether that may affect penis size, but it did document the ethnicity and age of the women it was studying for hints about whether penis size mattered.

More than 70 percent of the women were of European origin, 20 percent were Asian and 7 percent were from elsewhere.

Their average age was 26. — Times Live.