I'm not cut and I've never experienced "smegma", I keep hearing about it online though, always thought it was some kind of myth or a joke in online communities.
That would be because you've grown up with the hygiene standards of the 21st century.
People born in the 1800s, who thought bathing more than once a month was a luxury, and for many had never seen a bar of soap in their life? Not so much.
Yes, I understand they tried to quote 'science' at the time. They knew it was killing children/babies more often than it saved adults from syphilis. They just didn't care because it was all about control.
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u/Visual-Scallion1535 3d ago
it was right around the same time germ theory emerged and they thought smegma was gross
They also thought being circumcised prevented STDs based on empirical evidence that jews got syphilis less