Because of censorship laws in the mid-20th C. the only nudity which could be posted in the mail had to be educational. This led to a boom of nudist periodicals called "the golden age of nudist publications." Reviewing these magazines lately, it occurred to me that a lot of men were pulling back in those days. This realization helps fill in the grey area around the World Wars for me which explains how no American men were circumcised before WWI to nearly all boys being cut by the 1970s. Harvey Kellogg's obsession with the procedure aside, it seems a lot of WASPs adopted circumcision specifically to set them apart from the largely Catholic Germans and Irish arriving in the late 1800s. Immigrants being immigrants, the newcomers wanted to fit in, and I suspect a culture developed of going bare. By the looks of it from naturist publications a large percentage of intact men were pulling by back mid-century.
These are great - I love Vintage Nudist images!
Thanks for sharing John! :D
Number 2 looks circumcised to me, maybe 3 as well but the image quality doesn't really allow to see. I'm not sure if "modern" tight cuts were too common in the old days, so it might be that 3 is a loose cut.
I will agree with Kylar. 2 is certainly cut and I think a clearer picture would reveal that No.3 is also cut. Anyone with access to old H & E magazines should look at photos taken at the European resorts to find any evidence of pulled back foreskins.
Duly noted re: the photo choices. Perhaps they were circumcised free hand, perhaps some other way, perhaps my conjecture is correct. The resolution indeed leaves much to be desired. (FYI, http://classic-nudists.blogspot.com/?zx=91b48ae846b1a17 is a goldmine of period pics; alas, the site is "the last of the Mohicans" of an online naturist world which the Internet's corporate masters have otherwise cashiered.) However, regardless of my selections, I think my thesis is a missing link. Even with the institutional pressure of the U.S. military (vis. mass enlistment) and the rising trend of in-hospital births mid-century, this doesn't explain prevalence of circumcision. The transition from an intact culture to a circumcised one would have had to be overnight (n.b., "overnight" being c.20 years here). This seems incredible given the Christianity of the times. But if there was a generation or two who were largely pulling back 30-50 years before WWII (just to use the war as a marker), in order to play catch up to WASP pretensions, this makes the popularity of circumcision once the institutions, particularly once the John Rockafeller-trained mainline doctors, endorsed the ritual make more sense.
I'll give another stab at photo evidence; nevertheless, it's the larger idea I find helpful in explaining this bit of American cultural history.
Thanks for sharing the link John.
I have to say it's quite difficult to tell from these pics if the guys are loosely cut or PB.
What does WASP stand for btw?
White Anglo-Saxon Protestants
Quote from: Kylar on 2021-07-23 20:37:38
Number 2 looks circumcised to me, maybe 3 as well but the image quality doesn't really allow to see. I'm not sure if "modern" tight cuts were too common in the old days, so it might be that 3 is a loose cut.
I was thinking the same, i would have though a full skin back would show more head, but the picture 2 does look like he is cut. If the other are cut then they are very loose, not sure. Great nostalgic pictures though
Quote from: John on 2021-07-23 17:21:48
Because of censorship laws in the mid-20th C. the only nudity which could be posted in the mail had to be educational. This led to a boom of nudist periodicals called "the golden age of nudist publications." Reviewing these magazines lately, it occurred to me that a lot of men were pulling back in those days. This realization helps fill in the grey area around the World Wars for me which explains how no American men were circumcised before WWI to nearly all boys being cut by the 1970s. Harvey Kellogg's obsession with the procedure aside, it seems a lot of WASPs adopted circumcision specifically to set them apart from the largely Catholic Germans and Irish arriving in the late 1800s. Immigrants being immigrants, the newcomers wanted to fit in, and I suspect a culture developed of going bare. By the looks of it from naturist publications a large percentage of intact men were pulling by back mid-century.
Thats an interesting site, been trawling through it, so many US pictures where the men are circumcised, not all. Interesting some of the poses they where making.
I've seen a person in real life that I thought was pulling back, but they were just loosely circumcised, where part of their glans was covered by skin.
Quote from: Jords on 2021-07-29 07:38:50
I've seen a person in real life that I thought was pulling back, but they were just loosely circumcised, where part of their glans was covered by skin.
Yes and in some of those picture there are guys like that as lose and pulled back. I wondered if some of the guys in the picture pulled back to look the part
Quote from: Kylar on 2021-07-25 16:49:36
What does WASP stand for btw?
Women's Air Service Pilots
https://waspmuseum.org