[WHY] To snip, or not to snip? Korean society and circumcision

Social Affairs

Published: 20 Apr. 2024, 07:00 Updated: 23 Apr. 2024, 15:48

[WHY] To snip, or not to snip? Korean society and circumcision

Michaelangelo's David, currently exhibited at the Accademia Gallery in Florence [ACCADEMIA GALLERY]

Jeong In-hwan, 35, can’t exactly remember what made him agree when his mother suggested cutting off a part of his genitals when he was eight years old. Jeong, however, assumes it was the chance to get “one of those transforming robots” that convinced him to say yes.

“My mom hardly ever bought me new toys, especially such expensive robots; but she did, and I remember being so happy to play with it despite being in pain and in bed,” he recalled. “I think that made me agree to go under the knife.

“I didn’t know what circumcision was or why I was doing it,” said Jeong. “I asked my mom and she also said our next-door neighbor had a son who was a couple of years older than me, and he was getting it done. So, she wanted me to tag along and get it done and over with. She said she also hadn’t put much thought into it.”

Though Jeong said he was somewhat “lured” into getting it done as a young boy, he added that he would’ve likely done it anyway after coming of age.

Meanwhile, a 27-year-old, who only wanted to be identified using his surname, Lee, decided to get circumcised when he was 21.

Lee is not religious — and while the majority of today's circumcised men undertook the operation as infants, he went under the knife as an adult. This experience makes him quite an anomaly.

But in Korea, he fits right in.

Circumcision rate in Korea and its global prevalence in 2016 [LEE JEONG-MIN]

Seven out of 10 Koreans are circumcised. However, Korea's case does not seem to reflect global trends, as just a third of men worldwide remain circumcised. The procedure is noted for being widely undertaken by Muslims and Jews for religious reasons, who, combined, make up 69.6 percent of the world's circumcised men.

The most recent worldwide study on circumcision found that 77 percent of Korean men were circumcised as of 2016. That result came in far above the global average of 37 to 39 percent, making Korea the second highest among Asian countries without a Muslim-majority population. Neighbors China and Japan came in at 14 percent and 9 percent, respectively.

Despite the downward trend of circumcision in Korea, the numbers remain high — an oddity in a country that lacks nationwide campaigns advocating the procedure, such as those currently seen in certain parts of Africa, and where the procedure is not considered a traditional rite of passage, as it is in the Philippines.

Why, then, do so many Korean men choose to get circumcised? Is it just one of Korea's many penchants for uniformity? Or, is the reason more than just skin-deep?

The Korea JoongAng Daily gets the uncut version.

Circumcision is the surgical removal of the foreskin. [GETTY IMAGES]

What is circumcision?

Circumcision is the surgical removal of the foreskin, or the skin covering the tip of the penis. Doctors prescribe it as a medical treatment in a fairly rare set of cases, impacting 1 to 2 percent of the male population.

Advocates for the operation claim that it promotes hygiene and protects against sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

They point to studies by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS showing that it's effective in reducing HIV transmission rates and to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s provisional guidelines, which suggest "the benefits of the surgery outweigh the risks.”

Critics, however, argue that circumcision is the same as female genital mutilation. They claim that the procedure is painful to newborns, that it carries risks, like infection, and that it could reduce sexual pleasure later in life.

Emeritus professor of physics at Seoul National University, Kim Dae-sik, has been at the forefront of research on the history and social perception of circumcision in Korea. He is one of such critics.

Professor Kim has been a staunch advocate for abolishing the surgery as a widespread practice. He’s written multiple theses on the subject and co-written a book called “Korean Circumcision Reconsidered,” released in 2014.

“Neither Sejong the Great nor Admiral Yi Sun-shin did it,” Kim said. “I thought it was odd at the time that the activity was becoming so widespread in the 1970s, and later during my studies abroad, I realized that Korea had a strikingly high circumcision rate — and all because of misconceptions.”

U.S. soldiers perform a non-circumcision related surgery on a Korean patient in 1950. [NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION]

How was the practice introduced to Korea?

Records of circumcision being practiced as a medical treatment are found in Korean newspapers as early as 1932, during the Japanese occupation of Korea. However, the procedure was not cemented as a widespread practice until the 1950-53 Korean War. Less than 0.1 percent of Koreans had undergone the surgery before 1945, according to a study made by a team of researchers led by Kim in 2000.

As U.S. troops stationed in Korea popularized the practice among Korean soldiers, the then-developing nation began to associate the high rates of circumcision in Western countries with the state of industrialization, according to Kim.

In his survey of Korean doctors in 2000, more than half of them believed the circumcision rate in Scandinavian countries was over 50 percent, Kim said, when the actual rate was more like 1 to 2 percent.

“Koreans came to believe that practicing circumcision was ‘advanced and modern,’ just like the American soldiers,” U.S. sexologist Robert Francoeur wrote in “The International Encyclopedia of Sexuality” (1997). “If Americans did it, it must be good,” he said.

In the 1960s, newspapers started to publish articles about the medical and sexual benefits of circumcision. Positive media coverage of the procedure continued well into the late 1990s and early 2000s, with articles recommending that boys undergo it in their early teens for the purpose of cleanliness and to prevent STIs.

The practice eventually became fully integrated into Korean culture — as a rite of passage, of sorts. Kim's 2000 study estimated that 86.3 percent of male Koreans aged 14 to 29 were circumcised, with 95.2 percent of the country's male high school students circumcised.

As Professor Kim put it, “It was as if society as a whole was under a trance for dozens of years. The newspapers at the time weren’t writing about why people should get circumcised. They were writing about when.”

Map of circumcision prevalence at country level as of 2006 [WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION]

Why has the practice of circumcision remained so prevalent in Korea?

It wasn’t just Korea that embraced circumcision. The operation was popularized across many Anglophone countries up until the late 20th century. Rates in many of those countries, however, began to sharply decrease in the mid to late 20th century. For example, in the United Kingdom, rates started to fall rapidly after a 1949 study of children dying from circumcision influenced medical practice and public opinion. In the same year, the newly formed National Health Service removed infant circumcision from its list of covered services.

Rates fluctuated in the United States in line with the changing guidance in the country. The American Academy of Pediatrics, for instance, reported in the 1970s that there was no medical need for circumcision. They revised their guidance in 1989, saying there were potential medical benefits, and then finally said in 1999 that there was insufficient evidence to recommend the routine circumcision of newborns. The rates generally declined in the 1980s, rose back up in the 1990s and then declined again in the early 2000s.

The effects of this guidance can be seen in U.S. health data. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, circumcision on newborn rates decreased around 10 percent overall from 64.5 percent to 58.3 percent during the period between 1979 and 2010.

[LEE JEONG-MIN]

In Korea, however, the practice remains prominent and continues to this day. For some Korean men, the reason is simple: peer pressure.

The average age that Korean men undergo circumcision is 12 years old, mostly due to the guidance of their parents.

"It was considered a normal thing every guy went through," said a homemaker in her 50s who spoke on condition of anonymity when discussing her family's private matters.

She recalled watching her brothers "clumsily walk all over the place" after undergoing the procedure when they were middle students. Despite the pain involved, seeing their peers go under the knife had convinced them that they should as well. "They were taking the situation in a lighthearted way," the woman said.

She had her own son get the procedure in sixth grade after discussing it with him and her husband, who is also circumcised.

“I didn’t even think about the alternative because it was considered [at the time] completely necessary,” she said.

Though her son, now 28, said the procedure was "very painful," he still believes it was beneficial — mainly because he thinks his penis is now easier to clean.

A scene in tvN drama series ″Reply 1997″ shows one of the main characters, Yoon Yoon-je, returning home after getting circumcised. Circumcision is so widely undergone in Korea that it is openly discussed and referenced in broadcast media. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

He's not alone. Circumcision is so widely undergone in Korea that it is openly discussed and referenced across broadcast media, from variety shows to dramas. Numerous entertainers have joked about being “deceived” by their parents into getting the operation, or have shared how it felt “shameful” being the odd one out after comparing themselves with others in public bathhouses or during their mandatory military service.

Singer Joon Park of boy band g.o.d said he told his mom he wanted to get the surgery in fifth grade after comparing himself to his circumcised peers in the school showers.

Even Yu Jae-suk, one of Korea’s most prolific show hosts, openly shared his experience on a talk show in 2014. “I got the surgery when I was in my mid-20s, pretty late compared to others,” he said.

The social stigma surrounding the procedure has crossed generations, leading to the continuance of the practice.

A survey by the Korean Society of Pediatric Urology (KSPU) in 2000 conducted on 3,592 parents of male elementary school students found that 91.3 percent thought the surgery was necessary.

In a similar study conducted in 2003 of the same demographic, 91 percent of parents thought their sons should be circumcised, mainly for hygiene benefits. Notably, the sons of circumcised fathers were more likely to undergo the procedure, while those of uncircumcised fathers were less so.

The numbers are, nevertheless, dropping. According to Kim, his most recent survey showed that the percentage of boys below the age of 15 getting circumcised is around 30 percent.

Shin, 41, is an office worker and a mother to three young sons. None of the boys in the family, including her husband, are circumcised. The couple has no plans to subject their sons to it — or even to bring it up.

"I really don't have any thoughts about it," Shin said. “It’s their body, so it’s their choice.”

BY KIM JU-YEON [kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr]