Common Sense	Common Sense Archive

The book publisher Taschen has recently issued a new title, The Big Penis Book. Not too long ago, they had a huge hit with their book of large female breasts and, I presume, they figured they'd have a hit with a book on the cock -- what I once read was referred as "the male penis"! They may well have.

I remember when I first read Myra Breckinridge, and Myra, in a riff on ancient Greek history, made a reference to the cock-worshipping Dorians. It seems the Dorians were not the only ancient tribe to make a fetish of "the male penis." The content of The Big Penis Book is, surprise, a series of pictures, in black and white and color, of generously endowed males showing their stuff -- some flaccid, some erect. Dian Hanson edited the volume and wrote the informative introduction. Her intro is full of fun facts: "Everyone takes the big penis personally, as an object of fear, arousal, and endless fascination, that last derived from the Latin fascinum, meaning both phallus and 'magical spirit.'" Did you know that male gorillas have the smallest penis of the great apes? Chimps have cocks three times the size of the gorilla. Homo sapiens, it turns out, have the largest cocks among the primates. How did that happen? Natural selection or original design?

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The sainted Alfred Kinsey made measuring cocks part of his research -- is that slot still open? He measured 3,500 men as part of his research for his revolutionary book, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, which is still news today, 60 years later. He measured the men, or actually, had the men measure themselves, when erect. But each erection, as guys know, is different. Age is a factor, as is health, and, of course, passion. In Kinsey's stats, most men come in with an erection measuring about six inches. There's that great line in the movie version of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie where Maggie Smith, playing the lead character, asks one of her young female students to open a window. The Scottish lass opens the window all the way. Brodie, looking miffed, walks over and draws the window down to a more modest opening, noting "six inches is enough for any young lady." According to Kinsey, men with erect cocks over eight inches were only 1.8 percent of his sampling. He had no one in his sample with more than nine inches. If we did all this measurement in the metric system, it might sound more impressive. Other cock studies have led to downsizing Kinsey's findings.

Author Profile:  Mitzel
	Mitzel was a founding member of the Fag Rag collective, and has been a Guide columnist since 1986. He manages Calamus Books near Boston's South Station.
	Email:	mitzel@calamusbooks.com
	Website:	calamusbooks.com