A curious episode happened in the small city-state of Singapore in the fall of 1967. More than 400 panic-stricken men rushed to the hospitals there, fearing losing their penises.
According to Dr. Scott Mendelson, author of the book The Great Singapore Penis Panic:
“Each feared that if his penis shrank away completely, he would die. Some came with lucky red strings tightly wrapped around their penises to prevent the lethal disappearance. Others had clamps holding their wayward organs in place. Most often it was a firm grasp of a hand, their own or a frightened family member’s that prevented the shrinking penis from slipping away and taking their lives with it.”
Of course, none of these men would lose his penis. What happened was mass hysteria resulting from rumors that the pork they were eating could cause the penis to shrink. After public announcements by the government clearing the rumor, the panic that terrorized the city vanished into thin air.
Even though similar mass hysterical fear of losing one’s penis also occurred in China and Africa in the past, it is much more common in our society for a man to be excessively preoccupied with the size of his penis-- more specifically, that it is not long enough.
Most men will agree that his penis is one of the most important things to him in the whole world. Almost all men have anxiety about the size, mostly the length, of their penises at some point in their lives. This preoccupation will pass for most. But for others, the anxiety persists and can become very disabling.
Shame, Embarrassment, and Distorted Perceptions
The afflicted men feel not just embarrassment about the perceived small size of their manhood; they may be embarrassed by the anxiety itself as well.
The anxiety can cause low self-esteem. It triggers sexual dysfunction including performance anxiety and avoidance of sex. It wrecks relationships. It can also prevent a man from participating in sports for fear of other men making fun of the perceived shortcoming in locker rooms.
This problem only matters when one believes that he has a small penis. It does not matter that the issue is of no importance to others. It also really does not matter to the man that the size of his penis is actually within the normal range. His distorted self-perception has made it a psychological problem.
Unfortunately, there seem to be more and more men concerned with their penis size even though theirs are perfectly normal. The easy availability of pornography is blamed as one of the major causes for this trend. The sight of male porn stars may make a man mistakenly feel that he is held to a high standard that in fact is an extreme.
One can argue for whatever reason whether a larger size penis is more desirable. But if you look at Ancient Greek art, it seems that a small penis was considered more culturally desirable in men. If you do not believe me, just google “Greek art” and look at the sculptures and artworks glorifying male beauty listed under the image section.
No matter the size, for the purpose of heterosexual intercourse, an erect penis can fill the vagina completely. The vagina of a woman not having given birth is about 3 inches long when not excited. Even when aroused, it may extend to 4 inches. For an erect penis longer than 4 inches, as long as the penis is inserted very slowly, the vagina can stretch to accommodate it.
Along with making self-comparisons to porn stars, a man may think he has a small penis because of the widely reported work of Alfred Kinsey. In 1948 Dr. Kinsey published a report stating that the average erect penis size is 6.2 inches (15.75 cm). Dr. Kinsey got his number from questioning 3500 men.
But there was a major flaw in his research. He did not measure the actual size of these men. Instead, each man returned a postcard to Kinsey’s team with the self-measured number on it.
Since then, many studies have shown that when objective researchers take the measurements, average penis size tends to be smaller.
The Real Truth
Most experts would agree that the mean erect penis size is somewhere between 5.1 to 5.9 inches (12.9 to 15cm). A controversial paper by Dr. Richard Lynn published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences claims that in general, Black men tend to have a larger average size, while Asian men's tend to be smaller.
The size of the penis will always look shorter as a man looks down because of foreshortening. Meanwhile, others’ will look slightly longer sideways because of an optical illusion. This effect is similar to when the full moon looks bigger above the horizon behind buildings than when it is in mid-sky.
A penis may also look even shorter to its owner because of thick pubic hair, or when a big portion of it is buried under the fat pad in the pubic area.
I recall a patient commented on his obesity this way, “Doc, I am so fat I cannot even see my penis!” Not only did the thickness of the skin hide the base of his member, his protruding belly also obstructed the view completely.
The penis can temporarily retract due to exposure to cold, or from nervousness. During the great Singapore penis panic, either of these two reasons most likely caused the initial symptoms.
What is Normal?
In general, there are two kinds of penises. One is short, but expands a lot during erection. The other one is long even when flaccid. But it does not change much in size when erect.
Both kinds are normal.
The flaccid penis may range from 2 to 5 inches (5.1 to 12.7 cm) in length. This does not determine the length of erection. If you are a woman reading this, you may be wondering what the fuss is all about. Indeed, for most women, size does NOT matter. Some do prefer longer penises, but a few also prefer shorter appendages as well.
Women tend to be more amused by the anxiety, rather than the actual size. Though in general, it may not be a good idea for the man’s partner to comment negatively on the size of the penis, even in jest…
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Zen-Jay Chuang, MD, is a primary care physician and Chairman of the Whole Health Alerts advisory board. Click here to find out how Dr. Zen-Jay’s biodynamic, cutting edge approach to ancient and modern medicine can help you achieve the best health of your life.
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