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Historically, neonatal [[circumcision]] was promoted during late Victorian times in the English-speaking parts of [[Canada]], [[Australia]], [[New Zealand]], the [[United States]] and the [[United Kingdom]] and was widely practiced during the first part of the 20th century in these countries. <ref name="self2016">{{REFjournal |url=https://journals.troy.edu/index.php/test/article/view/386/302 |title=The Rise of Circumcision in Victorian America |first=Eleanor |last=Self |author-link=Eleanor Self |journal=The Alexandrian |volume=5 |issue=1 |date=2016 |accessdate=2022-09-02 |format=PDF}}</ref> However, the practice declined sharply in the [[United Kingdom ]] after the Second World War, and somewhat later in [[Canada]], [[Australia ]] and [[New Zealand]]. In South Korea, circumcision was largely unknown before the establishment of the United States trusteeship in 1945.
== Male circumcision to prevent masturbation ==
Non-religious circumcision in English-speaking countries arose in a climate of negative attitudes towards sex, especially concerning masturbation. In her 1978 article ''The Ritual of Circumcision'',<ref name=Paige78/> Karen Erickson Paige writes: "In the United States, the current medical rationale for [[circumcision ]] developed ''after'' the operation was in wide practice. The original reason for the surgical removal of the [[foreskin]], or prepuce, was to control 'masturbatory insanity' – — the range of mental disorders that people believed were caused by the 'polluting' practice of 'self-abuse.'"
"Self-abuse" was a term commonly used to describe [[masturbation]] in the 19th century. According to Paige, "treatments ranged from diet, moral exhortations, hydrotherapy, and marriage, to such drastic measures as surgery, physical restraints, frights, and punishment. Some doctors recommended covering the penis with plaster of Paris, leather, or rubber; cauterization; making boys wear chastity belts or spiked rings; and in extreme cases, castration." Paige details how circumcision became popular as a masturbation remedy:
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One of the leading advocates of circumcision was [[John Harvey Kellogg]]. He advocated the consumption of Kellogg's corn flakes to prevent masturbation, and he believed that circumcision would be an effective way to eliminate masturbation in males.<ref name="self2016" />
:"Covering the organs with a cage has been practiced with entire success. A remedy which is almost always successful in small boys is circumcision, especially when there is any degree of phimosis. The operation should be performed by a surgeon without administering an anesthetic, as the brief pain attending the operation will have a salutary effect upon the mind, especially if it be connected with the idea of punishment, as it may well be in some cases. The soreness which continues for several weeks interrupts the practice, and if it had not previously become too firmly fixed, it may be forgotten and not resumed. If any attempt is made to watch the child, he should be so carefully surrounded by vigilance that he cannot possibly transgress without detection. If he is only partially watched, he soon learns to elude observation, and thus the effect is only to make him cunning in his vice."