Timesuck with Dan Cummins - Short Suck #27 - The History of Castration

Episode Date: February 14, 2025

Happy Valentine's Day! Let's talk about love. Kind of. But not really. Not all actually. Let's instead, talk about how and why we humans have castrated each other and ourselves throughout human history. This one's not for the squeamish. But, I also can't remember laughing this often in any other recent episode! For Merch and everything else Bad Magic related, head to: https://www.badmagicproductions.com 

Welcome to this edition of Time Suck Short Sucks, the perfect topic for this Valentine's Day episode. I'm Dan Cummins and today I will be talking about snipping off your cock and balls or release the balls but sometimes a cock. Maybe not always having them snip though. Are we talking about castration? Why? Because I'm curious and certainly also demented and possibly also insane. Castration is defined by the Journal of Urology as any action, surgical or chemical, by which an individual loses the use of the gonads, particularly testicles. Today we're diving into the history of castration.

We'll be exploring the many unique and horrifying ways it has been performed in the past versus how it is achieved now, figuring out who historically gets castrated and for what reasons. And we'll look at some of the current arguments for and against the procedure. And then if you're the owner of a set of nuts, I'm going to find you and I'm going to snip them off or maybe I'm going to hammer them flat. And then we're going to talk about how you feel. Worse? Much worse? Or maybe a little lighter and more carefree. Calm down I'm not gonna do that. Or maybe I'm standing right behind you with some ether and a pair of pruning shears and I am gonna do that! Get ready. This is gonna be a weird one.

Words and ideas can change the world. I hated her but I wanted to love my mother. I have a dream! I plead not guilty right now. Your only chance is to leave with us. Though it seldom appears in today's world, unless you're talking about the spider from Game of Thrones, castration has long been one of the most enduring practices in human history. Almost every culture across every period

has implemented some form of castration in one way or another and all of them have done so for one or more of the following four reasons. One, to punish someone. Two, to honor their god or gods. Three, to treat the sick. Or four, to help your mama get some vengeance! Real four now. to produce a certain type of worker. Today we're gonna explore who in history has been castrated, why they were castrated, and how they were castrated, starting with the how. Like I mentioned earlier,

there are two general ways to castrate someone, surgically or chemically. In the grand scheme of things, surgical castration has by far been the dominant method, mostly because it's been around for a lot longer. Long before we devised chemical methods of castrating someone, we had big heavy rocks capable of smashing dim nuts and various sharp objects, plenty capable of severing a swinging dick or a swinging sack. The first recorded instance of surgical castration was over 4,000 years ago.

Chemical castration wasn't invented until 1944. As we'll get into more later, the two methods have vastly different impacts on the body, as I am sure you assume. Also, unsurprisingly, both methods have some of the same side effects. Someone is castrated either surgically or chemically. The goal, in theory, is to stop their sex organ from functioning. To take, so to speak, the lead out of their pencil, the steam out of their engine, the fire out of their hearth.

To take their balls and fuck them up so bad their dick can never get hard again and shoot come out of it. Bye bye, Boater Town! So to speak. But for real, castration is designed to stop the production of sperm and also the production of testosterone hormones. While the vasectomy does not affect the production of testosterone, it just stops sperm from making it into and out of the penis from the testicles, castration eliminates or destroys the testicles altogether, lowering testosterone levels by over 90% by eliminating the body's

primary source of testosterone production. In addition to sterility, impotency, bye-bye boner town, a reduced or eliminated sex drive is the goal of castration. Other side effects of castration also include reduced muscle mass and strength, loss of body hair, enlarged breasts, anemia, and if the entire organ wasn't removed, genital shrinkage. Other possible side effects of castration include obesity, hot flashes, depression, yeah I bet. Of course you could be a little more prone to depression if you get your cock and or

balls removed. Osteoporosis that can lead to skeletal disfigurement and an improved immune system. That last one is weird, right? Males get more infections across their lifespan and more cancer and the prognoses in many cases tend to be a bit worse. A 2012 study published in the academic periodical current biology found that the average lifespan of 81 eunuchs, dudes who have had their balls removed, born between 1556 and 1861, was 70 years,

which was between 14.4 and 19.1 years longer than the lifespans of non-castrated men of similar socioeconomic statuses. Researchers concluded that the study supports the idea that male sex hormones decrease the lifespan of men. Why is that? Well, no one is exactly sure yet, but the correlation does exist. Numerous studies in recent years have found that men with increased levels of testosterone have weaker immune systems than those with lower levels. More testosterone means more muscle, a more robust sex drive, but also more sniffles, and maybe an earlier trip to the grave, but worth it! Balls are weird.

Now let's talk about chopping off them nuts. The earliest evidence we have of human castration taking place dates back to the 21st century BCE in the Sumerian city of Lagash. During this period, castration was used to create court eunuchs. Men who rulers or nobles wanted around to help protect noble and or royal women and children, who would also never be tempted to fuck said noble and or royal women and children, thanks to their sex drive being virtually eliminated and also their dick no longer being able to penetrate anything now that it had been reduced to a floppy noodle.

Centuries later, the ancient Greeks and Romans will record a lot more info about nut-chopping. Like the Sumerians before them, the Greeks and Romans of antiquity used castration as a way to produce eunuch slaves, and also as a form of punishment, particularly against prisoners of war. According to the slave owners of antiquity, who were most often rulers, politicians, emperors, or other people of social importance, eunuchs were the ideal slaves because they were both physically and behaviorally non-threatening. This was important because the slaves had considerable access to their masters

during their most vulnerable moments. Let's take the Emperor, for example. The Emperor's slaves were often charged with doing things like bathing him or cutting his hair. In both scenarios, the emperor is in a physically vulnerable position. Because of their diminished strength and lack of muscle mass, eunuchs were considered less likely to take advantage of this kind of access to the emperor than, let's say, some Maximus Decimus Meridius Gladiator. Are you not entertained, motherfucker? Also, if a eunuch slave

performed his task well spent enough time with the Emperor the Emperor might grow fond of him and be interested in what he has to say about certain things thus granting the slave some small semblance of influence and because these slaves had no wives nor children and never would have them eunuchs were seen as less likely to use any influence they earned for any personal agendas because Unix had no one to carry on their family name and were therefore unable to establish any sort of ancestral dynasty. They had fewer reasons to try to manipulate the Emperor. Another reason Unix were preferred as servants and slaves was because of their impotency

and lack of sexual drive. The word eunuch actually comes from the Greek words for bed and guard, which is exactly what many eunuch slaves were, bed guards. Eunuch were trusted to serve and guard women's bedrooms because in theory, they would not sexually covet them. This is also the reason that in the Middle East, especially in the Ottoman Empire, eunuchs were the only men permitted to attend to harems.

The only men allowed to enter sections of the households reserved for women and girls. And even if the eunuch slave did engage in some sort of sexual activity with the women of the harem, like going down on her or working some magic with his fingers, well, he wouldn't be able to get anyone pregnant. As one source puts it, they were qualified for that social function by being disqualified from a biological one. Many centuries later, according to Paul of Agena, a Greek physician and surgeon who lived in the 7th century CE, there were two primary methods of castration used during this period.

Castration by way of compression or castration by way of excision. So, smash Snip. Sounds like the name of the most horrific game show ever created. Who's ready to play Smash or Snip? Tell them what's in store for them, Johnny. This next section, if you're squeamish, this is gonna be brutal.

In his infamous medical compendium in seven books Paul outlined the directions for how to perform both methods methods This first one's so ridiculous He wrote castration by compression is thus performed like this children still of a tender age are placed in a vessel of hot water and Then when the parts are softened in the bath the testicles are to be squeezed with the fingers until they disappear and being dissolved can no longer be felt. Fucking what? When I first read that just out of shock and horror I just started laughing like a maniac that was not what I was expecting to hear at all. It was way worse than what I expected. Squeeze with the fingers until they disappear?

I did some truly horrific web searches after reading that. Because I was like, no way. I literally searched the following phrases on the browser. I put, can baby's testicles disappear after birth? Can baby's testicles be reabsorbed after birth? If you smush a baby's testicles be reabsorbed after birth? If you smush a baby's testicles with your fingers, will they go away? If you almost boil a baby, can you get their testicles soft enough to smush? Those searches, especially the last one, felt like they were

sending me into some territory teetering on being illegal, so I stopped. I don't f**k- they didn't give me any answers I was looking for. I don't f't fucking know if this is true or not And I'm not gonna go ask a bunch of doctors. I I'm guessing there has to be some truth to this I mean sounds like Paul had done it or observed it Sounds like he nearly boiled a fucking baby then pinched their nuts Until they were destroyed and I don't know reabsorbed by the body. That's some serial killer shit. That is evil Paul next wrote about how they would cut nuts off back in the day. He wrote, the method of excision is as follows. Let the person to be castrated be placed upon a bench and the scrotum with the testicles grasped by the fingers of the left hand and

stretched. Two straight incisions are then to be made with the scalpel, one in each testicle, and when the testicles start up they are to be dissected around and cut out, having merely left the very thin bond of connection between the vessels in their natural state. This method is preferred to that by compression for those who have had them squeezed sometimes have venereal desires, a certain part as it would appear of the testicles having escaped the compression. For fuck's sake They would just stretch the sack of some poor bastard. They'd sat down on the old nut chopping bench Probably probably slave. You don't want to fucking be there

Holding him down and cut his balls out. Oh Geez And And I guess they would prefer this method because, you know, some of the guys who had their hot nuts pinched into oblivion when they were half boiled as a baby. Well, they would still get, I don't know, half chubs or something when they got older to be able to stuff that sausage far enough into a vagina to get some, to get some action.

Uh, castration played a big part in the role of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds and even played a prominent role in the role of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. It even played a prominent role in the mythology of the period, most significantly Uranus, the Greek god of heaven and the sky, was a eunuch. In Greek mythology, Uranus is a primordial deity, meaning he was one of the very first gods. He was also both the son and husband to Gaia, the goddess of the earth. As the myth goes, Gaia and her brother husband Uranus had 18 children together, but Uranus hated his sibling

children. I mean who doesn't hate their brother sons and sister daughters? So he locked him away in the depths of Tartarus. Eventually Gaia got sick of that shit and she fashioned a sickle to give to her youngest son, a Titan named Cronus, so he could teach his father bro a lesson. When the time was right, Cronus and the other sibling children attacked their father brother and in the heat of battle the young titan sliced off Uranus' dick and balls and tossed the dismembered member into the sea.

Take that dad bro. With Uranus sufficiently castrated, the titans were then able to rise up and take control from their eunuch brother. The ancient Greeks, so weird. The Greeks weren't the only ones whose gods dealt with castration. Though Jesus himself was not a eunuch, he did speak on multiple occasions about them. Did you know that? Did you know that Jesus spoke about them nuts? It's true. In the Gospel of Matthew 19 12 Jesus says in the New International Version of the Bible, For there are eunuchs who were born that way and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others. And there are those who chose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.

The one who can accept this should accept it. So if you, you know, if you can abstain from fucking, you should abstain from fucking. Though many have interpreted eunuch in this passage to be representative of priestly chastity, others have taken it quite literally. This next section is also going to be especially wild. The Scopse. You ever heard of the Scopse? S-K-O-P-T-S-Y. They were a Christian sect in Russia, Romania, and Bessarabia, whose male members in order to maintain their sanctity, and Bessarabia is no

longer around, it's like an area in Eastern Europe, whose male members in order to maintain their sanctity and purity were voluntarily castrated. The word SKOPTSY is now Russian for eunuch, used to mean castrate in Russian. And they believe that human genitals were the true mark of Cain and that the true message of Jesus Christ included the practice of castration. They also believe Jesus himself had been castrated and that his example had been followed by the Apostles and the early Christian saints. They just thought that everyone was chopping off their nuts. They believe that human genitals were a mark of original sin and that after the

explosion from the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had the halves of the forbidden fruit grafted onto their bodies forming testicles and breasts. Thus the removal of these sexual organs restored the scopsie to the pristine state before original sin. Uh-huh. There's truly no shortage of crazy shit. People have convinced themselves to be true. Fuck. How do these guys think they're going to keep the population alive if no one's having nuts? This sect was active from 1772 all the way to 1930 when self castration was finally outlawed in Russia How did they do it? Oh, this is intense early on this sect would use red hot iron rods or

Red hot iron pokers to castrate one another fucking yikes in honor of the baptism of fire Later they turned to glass shards razors and knives fuck Not sure which is worse. If you don't have horrible images in your head to have proper nightmares about all this, just go to Wikipedia. Just go to the Wikipedia page for the scopsy. There was an old photo from the early 20th century of a Russian man and Russian woman who both had their genitals mutilated.

Oh yeah, it wasn't just the dudes. A little more crazy info about these complete maniacs before we move on. The men sometimes would also have their dicks cut off. Yep, the guys who got their balls and their dicks cut off, they called doing that the greater seal. They were greater sealed. Other guys were just lesser sealed. The women would typically have their nipples cut off.

Sometimes their entire breasts, some particular diehards, they would have their nipples cut off, sometimes their entire breasts, some particular die hearts, they would have their breast cut off and their clits removed, still not done, and their labia is mutilated. Best part, they never use anesthetics for any of this. The quote-unquote operations were conducted not by doctors but by elders and while you were being operated on, really mutilated, to deal with the pain, you would scream over and over, Christ is risen! Christ is risen! Christ is risen!

What a fucking horror movie! What a world. At their height, this sect had about 100,000 members. But despite believing that castration was a precondition for entering paradise, only around 20% or less are thought to have actually gone through with some form of mutilation. A lot of people were like, let me make sure this is like, let me make sure this is what I want to dedicate the rest of my life to. I'm just still kind of feeling this out.

Still though, 20% is a lot. Imagine being somebody who did that right before Stalin shut it down in Russia and the sack died out. Guys, I did it! I cut off my dick and my balls! Oh they're gone! Some other guy's like, oh oh shit bro no we're no we're done with that bro. No that's all over. What what what am I gonna do now? What am I gonna do with all my yagaballs? I don't know bro. I don't know. Drink yourself to death maybe. Oh, throughout Christianity, there have been castration, pro-castration arguments. Christianity in general today, not pro-castration as a way of getting into heaven, not even the Catholic Church,

which actually did encourage some castration on the sly beginning in the 16th century. encouraged some castration on the sly beginning in the 16th century. It was actually tolerated as late as 1959 for certain Italian Catholic choir boys so their voices wouldn't break and they would have the high register of a child combined with the vocal power of a full-grown man. There are still some believers out there who seek the procedure in order to ensure their own ticket to heaven. Isn't that crazy about choir boys? By the way, before I move on, 1959. Officially the Vatican did condemn it, but in practice the Vatican did hire castrated choir boys for centuries.

Back in January of 2010, one dude Robert H posted the following message on askacatholic.com. Hi guys. In Matthew 1912, how's that passage I read earlier? Jesus tells us that self-made eunuchs are accepted into heaven because my sexual feelings have been my Achilles heel. I am planning to get castrated within a year and will be a male eunuch who seeks spiritual enlightenment.

In short, this is what he writes, in short, I have mental problems, mostly sexual ones. This orchiectomy will be a 15-minute operation. I learned that I can't receive communion after the operation according to an amendment from the Council of Nicaea in the 5th century. I need support from my church as I'm getting the operation regardless of the official Vatican

position. In my opinion, their position is relative anyway and could change in 400 years. Thank you, Robert." Robert doesn't seem well. A slew of posters responded to Robert telling him that in that passage from Matthew Jesus is speaking of a eunuch in the spiritual sense, i.e. priestly chastity, that the operation will not enhance his spiritual journey but inhibit it and that he should seek a psychiatrist. Yeah, yeah, he needs some

therapy. Old Robert responded with, hi guys, let me give you more details. I'm a 63 year old cradle Catholic heterosexual with mental problems. I've been in therapy since 1995 when I quit drinking and smoking after 30 years. I have since I broke up with my girlfriend of 11 years in 2002 had no sex. I suffer from obsessive thoughts of young girls, i.e. the Lolita syndrome as I call it. I also suffer from depression and I'm tired of the occasional rage or tantrums and I lose my temper. I have been considering being a eunuch for two years. In Matthew 1912, Jesus tells us that we who make ourselves

eunuchs can still get to the kingdom of heaven. I firmly believe Jesus was talking about eunuchs, not priests. He referred to born eunuchs, eunuchs made by men and didn't talk about priests. Why does the church think that he has or that he was referring to priests in the third part of that sense? Anybody can read something figuratively and make it fit their own beliefs. I mean fair. Jesus said that self-made eunuchs can go to heaven and this sense must be taken literally since that is what he said." Okay, sounds like Robert H probably had his nuts lopped off with that orchiectomy, which is the surgical removal of both balls. And you know what? I hope he's not thinking about lolitas anymore. Okay, now let's look to the east as we continue to examine the

fucking wild history of castration right after today's mid-show sponsor break. And I'm back, and now more cock and ball Valentine's Day massacre insanity. The Romans and Greeks were not the only ones in history to employ and or enslave castrated people. From long before Christ was born all the way until 1924, 1924? before Christ was born all the way until 1924. 1924? The Chinese Imperial families and only the Imperial families kept eunuch servants. During the Qing dynasty in the 1800s, the Emperor kept over 2,000 eunuch slaves in his service. A virtual army of noodle dicks! Not that long ago, the eight Imperial princes and

princesses each had about 30 eunuchs and lesser family members each had no more than 10. At the palace the servants worked under what was called the Imperial household department, which was managed by a non-eunuch functionary. Each servant was assigned to one of the other 48 departments where they would be tasked with doing something like maintaining the gardens, cooking in the kitchen, crying, cleaning the armory, sobbing in the basement, or arranging the furniture.

Each department had its own individual head who was himself a eunuch and all servants were provided with accommodation, food, and a regular stipend. What a deal. Because working as a palace eunuch could be such a good gig, many grown adult men voluntarily castrated themselves in order to try and get employed there. My god, landing a good job was fucking brutal back then. Other servants were castrated as children and sold to the palace by their own parents. The surgeons in China who performed castrations were known as knifers or specialists, but typically knifers.

And being a knifer was a family trade that was passed down from father to son. What's happening? Nut-snipping as a family business. Joking with dad about what a great year you both had, cutting off more balls than last year. Life is so weird and terrifying sometimes. This is how the Chinese did it. To begin the procedure, the patient was laid down on their back on a long bench with their leg spread. Each leg was held down by one of the knifers assistants while a third assistant held the arms. Yeah, I bet they needed three dudes to hold one of these guys down. The knifer then, you know, applied anesthetic or some kind of anesthesia, excuse me, to the genitalia, some sort of secret

formula that I doubt worked real well. And then he asks the patient or the patient's parents if they consent to the surgery. If the answer is yes, the surgeon then grasps the scrotum and penis with his left hand. I love that it writes specifically his left hand. And with a curved knife in his right hand. I hope this didn't apply to people who are left-handed. He slices both appendages off. Oh, yeah. No, they took the whole kit and caboodle. Noodle and the meatballs drumstick and boat chicken wings a Plug made of pewter a metal alloy would then be pressed against a urethra and the rest of the wound would be washed with a

Boiled pepper solution and bound with some soft paper For three days the patient was not allowed to drink any water or urinate I bet they were allowed to fucking cry uncontably. On the fourth day, the bandage would be removed and the patient would be allowed to pee. If he actually could pee, the surgery was considered a success. If he couldn't pee, well, then I guess he probably got a terrible infection and died. It's not like they could just slap his franken beans back on. According to the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology, there we go, and Metabolism. After the procedure was over, quote,

the amputated penis, testes, and scrotum, termed the precious or the treasures, were preserved in alcohol and either stored by the nifer or kept by the subject. Genitalia retained by the nifers were kept in jars labeled to indicate from whom they came and when the amputation was performed. God this just keeps getting better. They went applying for a job as a palace servant and for every subsequent promotion they might achieve, Unix were required to display their preserved genitalia to a special court of judges. They had fucking dick judges to prove their uniqueness.

This meeting was literally called the inspection of the precious. Oh my God, this makes me think of Gollum from Lord of the Rings. Makes me reimagine the Lord of the Rings trilogy. That's just revolving around a severed dick instead of a ring. Should a servant lose their precious, they would either borrow one from a fellow eunuch or rent one from a, I don't know, a dick dealer or something. When they died, all eunuchs were buried with their preserved genitalia, providing they didn't lose them,

in order to be as complete as possible when passing into the next realm. My god. How much would it suck if you went through that whole operation only for someone to steal your dick and balls? And you know that happened to somebody. Now you don't get to be buried with it. You're worried about being dickless and ball-less in the next life. Also what if you voluntarily had your dick and balls cut off to apply for one of these jobs and you're like, nah, sorry, we're full. All the eunuch jobs are taken. Oh, no! I guess you're like, oh no, oh no! Throughout most of history, castration has primarily been used as a form of punishment

or as a means of enslavement, but in the mid 16th century, the operation became a popular procedure amongst aspiring adolescent opera and choir singers in Italy. Yep, we're back to that now. A castrato is a male singer who was castrated between the ages of seven and nine in order to preserve their soprano voice. When boys hit puberty, their vocal cords increase in length by an average of 67%, causing a drastic voice drop in the early teen years. For comparison, a girl's vocal chords only increase by an average of 24%.

Castrato musical performances were greatly favored by the Italian public starting in the early part of the century, but they became essential when the Vatican banned women from church choirs in the 1550s. Good job, Pope! Get those dirty pusses out of the choir. Castrati voices became hallmarks of Baroque and classical music and their prominence was so great that for more than 200 years the choir of the Sistine Chapel always had multiple Castrati singers in it. Finally in 1903, Pope Pius X announced the official end of this practice, but then I think he like he like he winked or like crossed his fingers because it would continue for a little bit longer. The last surviving castrato of the Sistine Choir died in

1922 at the age of 63 officially, but this practice carried on in some church choirs. Some sources say it continued at the Sistine Choir in secret until at least 1959. Now, there's actually a of that final Sistine Castrato, the guy who died in 1922, singing Ava Maria on YouTube and you know, I mean he can, Alessandro Morsechi, he can hit the high notes. okay I mean, he does sound like a guy who has nuts cut off, right? I mean, I guess that's pretty cool if you're into that sort of music. I'm not. Me personally, I would rather, I would definitely rather keep my nuts. Let's start talking about chemical castration. In the 1940s a new and remarkable discovery was made by Dr. Charles Brenton Higgins.

He found that metastatic prostate cancer, which about one in eight men will be diagnosed with in their lifetime currently, can be effectively treated through chemical castration. The male body produces two types of sex hormones testosterone and dihydrotestosterone and One of the many functions of these male sex hormones also called androgens is to help the prostate gland grow However Higgins realized that cancerous prostate tumors feed on the androgens to make themselves grow as well So if the production of the androgens in the testicles is decreased and are prevented from functioning anywhere else in the body via chemical castration Well, then the cancer has nothing to feed on. Because of Higgins, chemical castration actually became the first effective systemic treatment for any type of cancer and to this day it is still

commonly used to treat prostate cancer patients. For this accomplishment and the incredible impact it had not only on individual lives but the entire medical. In 1966, Dr. Higgins was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Some people who have this done, by the way, can still get erections. It depends on their individual physiology and the level of testosterone suppression caused by the medication they're taking. Basically, if you were, you know, super Italian stallion horny prior to having this done, well, you might still be kind of horny while you're getting the medication. During the same period that Higgins was transforming cancer treatment, America was witnessing the rapid development of the eugenics movement. The term eugenics was first coined in 1883 by Sir Francis Galton, a Victorian physicist,

biologist, and mathematician who was also Charles Darwin's cousin. biologist and mathematician who was also Charles Darwin's cousin. Galton was an adamant believer in biological determinism, a theory that assumes a person's behavior and personality are entirely dictated by their genetic makeup, which is not true. Because he believed that undesirable traits like mental illness, criminality, and sexual deviancy were passed down from generation to generation through genetics, he proposed eugenics as a way to weed people with these traits out completely.

This meant preventing quote unquote defective people from breeding. And the way to do that, Galton proposed was through forced sterilization. At the beginning of the 20th century, Galton's theories on eugenics became a big hit with many Americans as a way to improve the population. Between 1907 and 1963,

more than 60,000 people were sterilized in the 32 states where it was legal to do so. One third of the total sterilization performed, surprisingly to me, took place in California. The overwhelming majority of those 60,000 people were either forced into getting sterilized or were operated on without their knowledge. Physicians would often tell them false info about what was being done to their bodies, which is so wildly fucked up. For women, sterilization was achieved either through a hysterectomy, the surgical removal of the uterus and cervix, or tubal ligation, or actually it's tubal ligation,

which is when the fallopian tubes are permanently blocked, clipped, or removed entirely, so that they cannot be impregnated. Men were sterilized either through a vasectomy, cutting and sealing off the tubes that supply sperm to the semen, or surgical castration. Eugenicists asserted that a good way to judge someone's genetic fitness is through their social standing, being a middle or upper class, was seen as indicative of one's superior genetic makeup, which is fucking absurd because I've met a lot of wealthy douchebags who are fucking morons, and being poor was seen as being indicative of genetic inferiority, which is also crazy because I've met a lot of poor people who are very fucking smart.

That was the eugenicist rationale though. Their reasoning for sterilizing and castrating tens of thousands of poor people, almost always of color. Other marginalized groups of people that were subjugated to reproductive surgery were immigrants, unmarried mothers, gay people, disabled people, and mentally handicapped people. Super fucked up. Also, why were they sterilizing homosexuals? As far as I know, you cannot get a mouth or a butt pregnant. What am I missing there? That part's just really confusing. 1920s, when the Supreme Court voted to uphold a state law ordering the sterilization of the

mentally infirm, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said, better for all the world if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime or to let them starve for their imbecility, imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. Three generations of imbeciles are enough. When I first read that, why was it so inappropriately funny to me that he specifically said three generations? Like, why three not two? Like, he thought, well, two generations of imbeciles isn't that bad, but three? Three imbeciles in a row? No! Heaven forbid!

As the years went on, in addition to treating cancer and controlling the population, castration started being used as a way to both punish and treat convicted sex offenders. Okay, here we go. I'm listening. Subjecting incarcerated men to some form of sterilization is actually nothing new. In fact, in the late 1800s, early 1900s, a doctor named Henry Sharp, Harry Sharp, excuse me, performed hundreds of vasectomies on male inmates convicted of a wide variety of crimes at a prison in Indiana. Then after chemical castration was invented in the 1940s, it became a common practice to use it against sex offenders specifically in the US. In 1966, John Money, Dr. Money, became the first researcher in the US to use an anti-androgen drug called, oh this is a huge word, Madroxyprogesterone.

Madroxyprogesterone, acetate, MPA, to treat a convicted sex offender. Money's hope was that the chemical castration would help prevent the inmate from repeating the same offenses once released from prison. The first sex offender he castrated, by the way, is described as a man, quote, in therapy for pedophilic behavior with his six-year-old son. Yeah, sounds like a dude who should be castrated. After the promising results of Money's study were published, chemical castration using MPA

started being used extensively in the U.S. for the purpose of diminishing sexual fantasies and decreasing sexual impulses. In 1990, another study on the effects of chemical castration with MPA on a convicted paraphiliac offender, which is an outdated term for somebody with abnormal sexual desires, was published in the American Journal of Criminal Law. The study claimed that, quote, the paraphiliac offender undergoing this treatment is no longer motivated to commit sex offenses and is more amenable to psychotherapy that can enable him to reintegrate into the community. MPA treatment will minimize the offender's commitment as a sexual psychopath and allow

him to continue his rehabilitation. Treatment with MPA could also be considered an acceptable condition for probation. Despite the lack of information on MPA's long-term effect, the convicted offender has the capacity to give his informed consent to receive the treatment. MPA treatment does not violate the offender's constitutional rights, which guarantee his mental and bodily autonomy and integrity, his right against cruel and unusual punishment, or his right to privacy. Finally, MPA treatment comports with the goals of the criminal justice system, which are both retributive and rehabilitative.

On September 18, 1996, California became the first state to officially authorize mandated chemical castration as a condition for parole for convicted sex offenders. The law also states that if the offender is convicted of a sex crime against a minor under the age of 13, they do not have the option to refuse castration. Currently nine states have similar chemical castration laws in place. California, Florida, Iowa, Georgia, Louisiana, Montana, Oregon, Texas, Wisconsin, and Alabama. I'm actually pretty shocked that Idaho wasn't one of those. On three of those nine states, California, Iowa, and Florida, offenders of any type of sex crime, not just against a minor,

can be sentenced to chemical castration. In all nine states, offenders can also opt to be surgically castrated instead of chemically, but it wasn't until very recently that a state enacted a law for mandated surgical castration. The hardcore kind. On June 3, 2024, Louisiana legislators approved a bill that gives judges the power to impose surgical castration as a penalty for aggravated sex crimes against children under the age of 13. Good. Aggravated sex crimes include rape, incest, molestation, and unlawful presence of a sex offender. Under Senate Bill 371, as a condition of their parole, if the judge so chooses, convicted pedophiles will receive the mandatory procedure no less than one week before re-entering society.

The bill's sponsor, state Senator Regina Ashford Barrow, stated that she hopes the bill will also serve as a deterrent against sex crimes. Go Regina, go! She was quoted in the Washington Post as saying, We have a responsibility and a duty as it relates to the most vulnerable among us. I don't feel that our kids are safe. The bill also states that if the offender fails to show up to the procedure or tries to get out of it, they quote shall be imprisoned with or without hard labor for not less than three years,

no more, nor more than five years, sorry, without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence. Surgical castration cannot be imposed against offenders under the age of 17, or offenders with conditions that make the procedure not medically appropriate. In Louisiana, there are currently 2,224 people incarcerated for sex crimes against children under the age of 13. However, the new bill will only apply to those that committed crimes on or after August 1st of 2024. Although some have rejoiced at this increase in punishment, there are many who view Louisiana's latest bill and the ones proceeding it as unconstitutional. During a hearing, Bruce Riley, an activist who advocates for formerly incarcerated people, told the Louisiana legislature, quote, Our concern is that we are going into the physical

realm of mutilating someone's body. And it's a slippery slope about what is cruel and unusual punishment. There's no conclusive proof that castration actually eliminates that problem in someone's mind. Well, I'll speak to some stats later, though. Similarly, the Restorative Action Alliance recently released a statement saying that Bill 371 is a form of quote, state sanction eugenics and represents an affront to bodily autonomy. This bill, if enacted into law, would violate the United Nations Convention against torture and other cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment or punishment as it would mandate forced mutilation resulting in a permanent loss of an important

bodily function as a form of criminal punishment. If these bills pass in Louisiana, what will be next? Will bills be introduced to cut off the hands of all thieves? Are we comfortable opening the door for states to administer such barbaric punishments for other offenses? As much as I hate to admit it. Those are some good counterpoints. I do worry about the slippery slope with this.

Another common argument against the castration of sex offenders is that castration of any kind infringes on one's First Amendment rights. I don't actually care about this argument, but I'll share it. As one article from the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law puts it, As one article from the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law puts it, opponents of such legislation argue that castration reduces or eliminates deviant sexual thoughts and fantasies, thereby infringing on the sex offender's First Amendment right to entertain said sexual fantasies. The First Amendment protects a person's freedom of speech, which the Supreme Court has generally held to include the right to generate ideas,

regardless of their social worth. However, a counter argument to this First Amendment challenge emphasizes that these offenders have committed a sex crime and as a result have demonstrated a lack of mastery over their fantasies. Because of their actions, not their thoughts, they have effectively forfeited their First Amendment rights and castration is justified to help control their behavior. Yes, I agree. They have forfeited those rights. And yet another argument as cited by opponents to Louisiana's newest bill is that castration violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on all forms of cruel and unusual punishment. Is that true? Let's break it down. When assessing alleged violations of the Eighth Amendment, the Supreme Court asked three questions to see if something actually

qualifies as cruel, unusual punishment. And these are, one, is the punishment inherently cruel or excessive? Two, is the punishment or condition proportional to the crime? And three, how funny is it? Is it fun to watch? No. Three, can the state achieve its goal through less intrusive means? No, three, can the state achieve its goal through less intrusive means? Although the Supreme Court has yet to hear a case regarding castration and the Eighth Amendment, the state of South Carolina has ruled in one case known as the State versus Brown that the surgical castration of the defendants, which was optional, did qualify as cruel and unusual punishment. Chemical castration on the other hand has never been deemed by a court of any kind to be cruel and unusual. This is partly because while surgical castration's the other hand has never been deemed by a court of any kind to be cruel and unusual. This is partly because while surgical castration effects are permanent, you know, chemical castration is impermanent.

If you stop taking the medicine, you can get your sex drive back and all that stuff. So it's not really a castration. As you went over earlier, chemical castration can be achieved through hormonal therapy and hormonal and hormonal therapy of sex offenders has been proven to reduce the likelihood of re-offenses once they're out of prison. Or as one article puts it, anti-androgens the chemical used to reduce testosterone are not considered inherently cruel and assist the offender in desisting from behavior that could result in further crimes and future punishments. Furthermore, the use of chemical agents is not excessive when considering previous harm

and the importance of preventing future sexual victimization. Another argument against the surgical castration of sex offenders is that because impotence is likely, and sometimes certain, side effects of the procedures, the offender's fundamental right to procreation has been hindered. But in my opinion, if you commit a sexual crime against a child, yeah, you've lost your fucking right to have children of your own. And so why should anyone pity you? Okay, now one more thing. The big question with surgical castration. Does it work when it comes to greatly reducing sexual predators risk of reoffending? It seems that it actually does. And this effect would be permanent unlike chemical castration. More studies need to be done, but surgical castrations have been carried out in various

European countries here and there for decades. In a 1997 review of sex offender treatment in Denmark, 43 sex offenders were looked at. 21 underwent castration, surgical castration. Actually 19 initially underwent castration. Then another two after getting out and immediately reoffending chose to have surgical castration. Of the 22 who did not get castrated, 8 reoffended in 15 years. So almost half of them. 8 of them reoffended in 15 years. Of the 21 who did get castrated, only 2 reoffended and those two only reoffended after they started undergoing

testosterone therapy which greatly increased their testosterone levels. In another study in Denmark, 900 sex offenders, much bigger sample, who were castrated between 1929 and 1959, out of that 900 only 10 of them, 1.1% of them, re-offended within 10 years of being released. You compare that with non-castrated sex offenders, they reoffend between 20 and 30 percent of the time within the first 10 years of you know being released on average based on a wealth of other studies conducted in the U.S. So it sounds like when it comes to sex offenders specifically, if we're not going to kill them or lock them up forever, maybe we cut their nuts off. Maybe we

turn them into court eunuchs because they will be far less dangerous. Or maybe we go the ancient Chinese route and we cut off their balls and their cocks. What's the data there? I'm guessing even less than 1% re-offense. All right, enough talk about those dirtbags. That was the least interesting part of this info to me, actually. The most interesting? Oh my god, that Russian sect. The Scopsy. The things some people choose to do to themselves will never cease to astound me. I hope you found all of this as morbidly fascinating as I did. I hope you don't google stuff about half boiling babies and pinching their nuts off. I hope you've got a working dick and some accompanying nuts. Maybe you appreciate them a little more after hearing about how many

people have lost their favorite toys throughout human history. And finally, once again, happy Valentine's Day. And that's it for this edition of Time Suck Short Sucks. If you enjoyed this, not really a story, I guess today, information, check out the rest of the bad horror, check out the rest of the bad magic catalog, beefier episodes of Time Suck every Monday at noon Pacific time, new episode of the now long running paranormal podcast, scared to death every Tuesday at midnight. time. New episode of the now long running paranormal podcast, Scared to Death every Tuesday at midnight. Thank you to Molly Jean Box for her initial research and picking out this disturbing topic

because she is also fucked up in her head, which I love. And thank you to Logan Keith, recording and uploading today's episode. Please go to badmagicproductions.com for all your bad magic needs and have yourself a great weekend. Add Magic Productions