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The March 2005 issue of OUT magazine includes
Erik Piepenburg’s article titled "Is Small
Beautiful?" His article focuses on gay men with
small penises. The journalist interviewed Robert
Woodworth, a 59-year-old gay man and Director of
Institutional Services at New York’s Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual and Transgender Community Center. Woodworth
began an ongoing series of discussions about gay men
and their penises, which led to a four-week support
group for gay men who feel theirs are small.
Bravo to these men! They are truly unhung heroes,
willing to disclose their genital size and come out
of their fly, as well as the closet. What pressure
they must feel as men—particularly in the gay
community—where penis size is talked about so
relentlessly and so judgmentally, as if it were a
measure of the whole man.
I’m sure there must be many, many jokes about it.
When I was researching this article, one colleague
asked me, “Is it a small support group?” Another
colleague inquired “How long will your article be?”
Snicker all you want, but the real joke is on all of
us men—gay and straight alike—since such remarks
make many of us feel self-conscious about our size.
When I hear any gay man make a small penis
comment—particularly in front of others in my gay
men’s groups or workshops—I cringe to think of those
insecure men who might feel badly or those who just
worry about their size in general.
Guys Turned to the Wall
Guys Gone Wild, a companion DVD to the
original Girls Gone Wild that’s been
available for a while, displays men’s buttocks more
than their frontal nudity. I know this from having
watched Guys very carefully, and more than
once (strictly for research purposes, of course).
Why—you might ask—do we view so many butts more than
penises? The reason, I suggest, is that men in
general worry about their penis size. It seems safer
to moon the camera or flash your behind— the worst
criticism you might receive is that it’s too hairy,
too flabby, or sports too many pimples. But one of
the most hurtful insults you can say is that a man’s
penis is too small.
What is Too Small—Really?
The standard for penis size was set by the
Kinsey Institute in the 1960's. Alfred Kinsey and
his merry men studied American college-age men and
found that 80 percent of fully erect penises
measured between 5 and 7 inches (long), with most
falling in the 6- to 6½-inch range. But size queens
beware! Despite what you might surmise from gay
personal ads, less than 1 percent of those erections
Kinsey witnessed in the flesh exceeded 8 inches. The
odds against finding a true 9-incher are a thousand
to one, but still considerably better than winning
at Lotto. The difference between AOL inches and
real-life inches is in the eye of the owner, not the
beholder.
But does the rarity of those knitting needles in the
haystack make any one of us men feel any better?
Nope. Men are hung in different sizes, widths,
directions, shapes and each of us is different,
whether hard or soft. Some men are show-ers and some
men are growers. Still, going to at a nude beach or
locker room, men with bigger and longer flaccid
endowment are more fortunate. They have less to
worry about in terms of being judged and found
wanting, or hearing snide remarks made about them.
Even if their four-inch softie doesn’t grow when
erect, straight guys in a locker room, bathhouse or
nude beach won’t know that. The guy who might boast
only 1 to 2 inches soft and grow to 8 inches hard,
still feels self-conscious, thinking that when at
ease, everyone sees him as too small, even though at
attention, he knows he’s not!
Measures for Manhood and Masculinity
What we’re really talking about here is how much
of a man someone is. And we tend to measure
masculinity by various standards—by how tall or
short he is, how successful or wealthy or athletic
or stoic . . . the list goes on. All these
measurements are on outward qualities, and how sad
this all is. We need to look more at the inside,
evaluating a man by his integrity, responsibility,
talents, eloquence, and accountability. Why not
measure a man by the size of his heart? That way,
you’ll wind up with more satisfactions than you’ve
ever dreamed of!
www.altPenis.com
- the website for up-to-date information and
discussions about penis size, enlargement, urologic
conditions and male sexuality
