Is Penis Size Important?

Note on Measurements:

At the time of writing, the USA and parts of the UK still use the Imperial System whilst Australia, New Zealand and many Asian countries use the Metric System. For ease of understanding, this article has been written using inches rather than centimetres. For a quick conversion, 2.54 centimetres or 25 millimetres is roughly equivalent to one inch.

THE PENIS:

An amazing organ, one that we have endlessly been fascinated with. If you happen to be the owner of one, then its size, shape, length, girth and appearance can be a cause for celebration or concern. Many people are quick to point out that 'it's not the meat, it's the motion,' despite this, all men worry at some stage of their life whether they are normal, small, medium or large, whether they should or shouldn't be circumcised, whether they should lay their cock to the left or to the right, and will they live up to societal inferences and expectations of manhood and masculinity?  

Size does matter. Society is obsessed with penis and breast size. Pick up any magazine. At first impression, a woman with very large breasts or a man with a very large penis can appear to be more 'womanly' or 'manly' than their average or smaller counterparts. But the people who write these stories wouldn't want to live with the oversized appendages or perfect bodies that they promote. Big breasts are hot, heavy and very uncomfortable. An oversized penis can be uncomfortable, awkward, cause problems with maintaining erection and penetration and be more off-putting for women than you may realize. "You're not putting THAT THING in me!" While a small penis can be temporarily enlarged, the only way to shrink a big one is by surgery or a date with Lorena Bobbit. 

What is normal? According to 'A Descriptive Dictionary and Atlas of Sexology,' the human flaccid penis is on average, between 3-4 inches in length and 1 inch in diameter. In an erect state, the penis, on average, is between 5 to 7 inches in length and 1.5 inches in diameter. The dictionary defines 'phallic identity' as "the tendency of males to seek their identity in their penis with an emphasis on the belief that ‘bigger is better.' Almost all men who are of average size [5-6 inches] and above average [7-8 inches] are more than happy. But, some people are not satisfied with what they have, and others have a very real grievance.

Despite the plethora of information about penis size, many men are insecure and only appear to gain more confidence about their size, shape, appearance and performance if they have a partner or lover who appreciates their qualities. Benny illustrates the point: "To woman, it is dependent on experience and her size as well. What do I mean? Michelle's first partner was 5 inches, her second was 6. When partner 3 comes along and is 7 inches, WOW, she thinks, he's huge. Laura's first sex partner is 9 inches. Her second is 8. When Mr. 7 inch comes along. 'Sigh', he's tiny." 

In an article regarding women's attitudes on penis size, Dolores Keller, PhD., wrote of her interviews with 57 sexually active women from 17 to 52 years of age, with an average of 4.2 partners over a period of two years. All but six of the women reported being "more stimulated either by the physical presence of, or fantasized pleasure of, the bigger penis". Maj-Britt T. Rosenbaum, M.D., writing in the same article, said that "penis size ranks fairly low on most women's lists of physical attributes important to sexual attraction" Some women attach more importance to penis size than others, often equating the size of the penis to the degree of a man's masculinity.

Scientific and not so scientific polls and surveys [from 1948 to 27th October 2001] gather a lot of results that show variations in the range of normal. In the scientific literature, there is a lot of contradictory information. The mean and standard deviation of adult penis sizes can differ from article to article. According to William A. Schonfeld and Gilbert W. Beebe, (1942), it has long been evident that there is a clinical need "for more thorough knowledge of normal variation in the size of male genitalia." In their study, they refer to the erect length of the penis as length when fully stretched. The measurement was taken from the mons veneris to the tip of the glans. The erect circumference of the penis was estimated by means of a regression equation. The age group from 20 to 25 years included 54 subjects whose mean erect penis length was 5.13 inches. The flaccid circumference measured 3.37 inches and the equated erect circumference of 4.48 inches.

What appears to be omitted in analysing these surveys, and what I found a huge flaw in the methodology, was looking closely at the question that is asked! You can ask five questions on the same topic, phraseology will give a range of different answers, even from the same person. What are also omitted are any references to the term 'phallic fallacy' which is the belief that a larger flaccid penis increases more in size during erection than a smaller flaccid penis does.

In his article on The ‘Small Penis Syndrome,' John Murtagh, M.D. (1989) included average penile sizes.  He found the average length to be 3 to 4 inches flaccid and 5 to 7 inches erect. Average circumferences were 2.5 to 4 inches flaccid and 4 to 6 inched erect. Murtagh has found that males often visit doctors for counselling about anxiety related to penile size, particularly some men who become preoccupied with size after entering a more sexually active lifestyle. "It is a manifestation of abnormal body image,” he said.

An article in 'Men's Health Magazine' (June, 1996) indicates that the average erect penis length now widely accepted by doctors is 5.1 inches.