Hood or Helmet..... which is which?

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-01-2003
Hood or Helmet..... which is which?
15
Sun, 08-29-2004 - 9:51pm
I came across this term on the website for a band that i like (Out of Your Mouth). It was part of the questionnaire for each member of the band. Obviously its about whether the person is circumsized or not, but I don't know which is which. To be honest, since I've only seen one penis before, and it was uncircumsized, I don't really know what the difference is. I know some of the skin has been cut off, but how much? I thought it was just at the tip, and was a small bit, but well I don't think that's true. Anyway, if someone could clear up the Hood or Helmet thing, and can explain the physical difference, I'd appreciate it.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 10-18-2001
Sun, 08-29-2004 - 10:59pm
Yes, you're correct. It is the loose skin at the tip that covers the head of the penis. A circumsized penis has no loose skin on it. I guess that it's a tube of skin about an inch or so long. If you slide the foreskin on an erect penis right back out of the way it looks virtually identical to a circumsized penis.

Have a look here for examples of circumsized and uncircumcized: http://the-penis.com/anatomy-circumcision.html

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-30-2004
Sun, 08-29-2004 - 10:59pm
lol. I have never heard it referred to a hood, but I have heard that phrase before. I know it as "toque" versus helmet. I think it looks a lot more like a toque. The "toque" part is the foreskin which covers the head, at least when the penis is flacid. Because the penis gets bigger when it is erect there is usually extra skin there that is loose and extends past the tip of the penis. That is how it is in my case and every other "toque" I have seen. If a man has had his foreskin cut off (circumcision) than the glans (head) of the penis is always exposed. This looks kind of like a helmet. Actually it looks like Darth Vader's helmet. THat was made into a joke in the movie spaceballs (a mel brooks film) which is a star wars spoof. So, toque (or hood) = intact, and helmet = circumcized. To really figure out the anatomy you will need to look at a diagram, or better yet a real penis. It would have to be uncircumsized to really get it though, otherwise you would have to imagine a forsekin. You mentioned you had only ever seen one uncirced penis before. This can lead to confusion because if it was erect at the time the foreskin may have been retracted and in this state is really not noticable and looks very similar to a circumsized penis. My old roomate and I (when we were still sharing an apptmnt) got into an argument about which was better. We couldn't resolve it on our own, so we called our friends (guys). We had a mixture of toques and helmets and still could not resolve anything. So we called the girls. We had a bunch of virgins for friends and they could not help us. One had never been with a man with an intact penis, so she couldn't help us. Another claimed that she had only been with circumsized men too. Then we realized that her boyfriend was a proud toque bearer. Things got ugly after that, but eventually it was determined that since she only ever saw him erect (the other girls were annoyingly impressed with this), she never realized he hadn't been snipped. So we concluded it didn't matter. But toques are still better. lol.

-phat.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-01-2003
Mon, 08-30-2004 - 12:01am
hehe. thanks. Now i don't know if the guy i was with was circumsized or not. I only saw it erect, but i thought that since the skin moved, that that meant it was the foreskin.... But I really didn't know what it was supposed to look like, haha. i guess I'll have to wait till when I'm dating and sexually active with someone else, so that I can compare. But atleast I know now. Thanks.
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-01-2003
Mon, 08-30-2004 - 12:02am
Thanks. I had no real clue what it meant. Now I know much better, and have seen pictures. Thanks for the link and the information. :)
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-24-2004
Mon, 08-30-2004 - 1:20am
I have never seen an uncut one in person. I hope to one day. I clicked through on your link and it seems like there's a lot of propanda there. Of the five guys I've been with, all of whom are circumcized, all of their sexual response has been totally normal so I don't really imagine it is all that important whether or not it's done. Still, you have to wonder, why fix something that isn't broken? Why do they circumcise men? It's just wierd. I mean, it would be one think if it was voluntary plastic surgery. But doing it to infants? It's gotta hurt -- if that's right, why do we welcome babies into the world with a jolt of pain?
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-27-2004
Mon, 08-30-2004 - 1:36am
I've never heard the term "helmet" before, and "hood" is usually used in reference to the covering of a woman's clitoris, which is anatomically comparable to a penis and foreskin. And women can be circumcised also, it's done in Africa, but it's considered mutilation.

The only way you can tell if a man isn't circumsized is when you seen his penis flaccid, and in a dating situation,that's not often, lol Then the foreskin completely covers the head of the penis.

It's done mainly for hygienic reasons, or religious reasons. (Jewish males are circumsized within a few weeks of birth at a special ceremony called a Bris.) When there's a foreskin, it has to be pulled back & washed underneath, or it makes a white creamy (and sometimes bad smelling) substance called "smegma"...so it's a little extra work in the shower. Otherwise, it doesn't make much difference, particularly for a woman.

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-18-2001
Mon, 08-30-2004 - 1:53am
Part of the reason it became popular was that it a cure for masturbation in Victorian times.

Another reason was that it was believed to be more hygenic. If not washed for a while it can get a bit smelly down there even though Mother Nature pretty well designed it to look after itself - much in the same way a vagina can look after itself. If washed regularly it's absolutely no problem to keep it clean. No more complicated than remembering to wash your face or vulva.

In recent years, research has shown that uncircumsized men have a slightly higher incidence of penile cancer. That was another reason people used to justify circumcision. I'm not sure how great the risk of cancer is; especially when you weigh it up against the small but significant number of botched circumcisions that leave a few babies with damaged and occasionally chopped off penises.

In the end, it just became the fashionable thing to do because everyone-else had it done. Fathers didn't want their boys to look odd in the changing sheds at school or to look different than Dad.

Circumcision is becoming less and less common these days as people acknowledge the pain the baby has. It is generally agreed that there is little medical reason for doing it.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-19-2003
Mon, 08-30-2004 - 3:50am

You know, that site shows differently to what I remember.

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-30-2004
Mon, 08-30-2004 - 9:51am
Foreskins can be pretty variable I think. Mine doesn't always retract all the way (but it always does during intercourse). A note about pros and cons of circumcision: the foreskin is really sensitive. It feels really good when it is stimulated. I am glad that mine wasn't cut off. lol, it seems like I have been talking about my foreskin a lot.
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-03-2004
Mon, 08-30-2004 - 10:43am
I've had intercourse with but the hood and helmet. LOL. Maybe I need more samples, but it felt like the hooded ones would slide over their glans and give me less friction. You said your foreskin retracts during intercourse. Does it stay retracted as you move in and out?

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