Men's and Women's Views on Penis Size Across the Lifespan
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Psychology of Men & Masculinity Copyright 2006 by the American Psychological Association 2006, Vol. 7, No. 3, 129–143 1524-9220/06/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/1524-9220.7.3.129 Does Size Matter? Men’s and Women’s Views on Penis Size Across the Lifespan Janet Lever David A. Frederick and California State University, Los Angeles Letitia Anne Peplau University of California, Los Angeles The media equate a man’s penis size with his power and masculinity. Views about penis size were assessed in an Internet survey of 52,031 heterosexual men and women. Most men (66%) rated their penis as average, 22% as large, and 12% as small. Self-reported penis size was correlated positively with height and negatively with body fat level. Whereas 85% of women were satisfied with their partner’s penis size, only 55% of men were satisfied with their penis size, 45% wanted to be larger, and 0.2% wanted to be smaller. Satisfaction did not vary across age groups from 18 to 65. Men reporting a larger-than-average penis rated their appearance most favorably, suggesting a possible confidence effect of perceived large penis size. Keywords: body image, body mass index, age, penis size satisfaction, penis size Urologists and psychotherapists often en- 1995; van Driel, Weijmar Schultz, van De Wiel, counter patients who complain about the length & Mensink, 1998), perhaps because men con- of their penis, but these patients are usually well sider the size of their penis to be an important within the typical range for penis size. Many feature of their sexual prowess (Francken, van patients also worry that their romantic partner de Wiel, van Driel, & Weijmar Schultz, 2002). may not be satisfied with their penis size (Alter, Men’s concerns about penis size are fueled by cultural messages equating penis size with mas- culinity. Kilmartin (2000, pp. 215–216) ob- served, “‘Real men are . described as having Janet Lever, Department of Sociology, California State huge penises....Infact, the penis is sometimes University at Los Angeles (CSULA); David A. Frederick described as ‘his manhood.’” and Letitia Anne Peplau, Department of Psychology, Uni- Popular media, especially TV and men’s versity of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Those interested in a parallel paper on breast satisfac- magazines, frequently emphasize the connec- tion among women in this sample (Frederick, Peplau, & tion between penis size and masculinity (Leh- Lever, 2005a) and in additional papers on body image man, 1993). Pornographic movies, magazines, from this and other projects should contact David Fred- and Web sites featuring men with very large erick. We thank Elle magazine for access to the data from the Elle.com/MSNBC.com Sex and Body Image Survey. penises also reinforce the cultural message as- We are grateful to the UCLA Graduate Division; the sociating large penis size and masculinity. Center for Culture, Brain, and Development; the Depart- Women’s exaggerated sexual responses to ment of Psychology; and the Communication Studies overly endowed men in these pornographic im- Program for providing financial support for David Fred- erick. We would also like to thank Sheila Allameh, Anna ages may also convince men that women have Berezovskaya, Monica Birnbaum, Iva Boteva, Lesley strong preferences for large penises. Most men Bulechek, Lisa Burklund, Jeremy Casey, David Creswell, are aware that the penises in these pornographic Erika Forster, Martie Haselton, Johanna Jarcho, Kathleen images are atypically large, but persistent expo- Lambert, Henry Madrid, Traci Mann, Tara Mulrenan, Leila Sadeghi-Azar, Janet Tomiyama, Andrew Ward, and Erika sure to these images may cause men to overes- Westling for their assistance with this database and the manu- timate the average penis size and underestimate script of this article. We are grateful to Carol Edwards, who the size of their own penis. helped to create the database. Men’s worries about their personal inadequa- Correspondence concerning this article should be ad- dressed to David A. Frederick, Department of Psychology, cies have created a large market for penis en- University of California, 1285 Franz Hall, Los Angeles, CA largement products and procedures. A recent 90095-1563. E-mail: enderfl[email protected] issue of For Him Magazine featured separate 129 130 LEVER, FREDERICK, AND PEPLAU full-page ads for three different penis enlarge- cm) long when erect. Measurements made by ment pills: Argionic Desire (2005), Magna-RX sex researchers, however, tend to be signifi- (2005), and ProϩPlus (2005). These advertise- cantly smaller than self-reports by male re- ments promised an increase in penis size of up spondents. In two carefully controlled studies, to 5 in. over a 60-day period. The ads also penis size was measured by researchers after included testimonials that reinforce men’s be- men self-stimulated themselves and/or in- lief that women are more sexually satisfied by gested pharmaceutical drugs to induce erec- larger penises: “I’m [now] 8 in. and much tions (Senegezer et al., 2002; Wessells, Lue, thicker. My girlfriend wants it all the time” & McAninch, 1996). Combining the means (ProϩPlus, 2005, p. 131). and standard deviations reported by these re- Instead of taking pills, some men purchase searchers, we calculated that the mean erect weight systems, stretching devices, vacuum penis length was 5.3 in. (13.5 cm), with 68% pumps, or even silicone injections in an attempt of men measuring between 4.6 and 6.0 in. to lengthen their penis (Templer, 2002). Some (11.7 cm and 15.2 cm), 13.5% between 3.8 men who seek more dramatic results undergo and 4.5 in. (9.7 cm and 11.4 cm), and 13.5% penile enlargement surgery. Advertisements for between 6.1 and 6.8 in. (15.5 cm and 17.3 surgical enlargement of the penis are featured in cm); only about 2.5% of men possessed a the sports sections of major newspapers such as penis over 6.9 in. (17.5 cm) long, and 2.5% the Los Angeles Times and include captions like were under 3.7 in. (9.4 cm) long. “Size Matters” (Beverly Hills Surgical, 2005) Folk beliefs suggest that penis size is related and “Bigger is Better” (Total Life Enhance- to other physical traits, such as foot size, hand ment, 2005a). These ads promise men great size, height, and weight (Paley, 1999). Past re- benefits to pursuing surgery, such as increased search with sizable samples has found penis size confidence and desirability to women. Adver- to be correlated positively with height (Ed- tisers’ Web sites feature before-and-after sur- wards, 1998; Ponchietti et al., 2001) and nega- gery photos and testimonials, including some tively with weight (Ponchietti et al., 2001), but from women. Illustrative is the letter from in one small-scale study (Schneider et al., 2001) “D.T.,” who wrote, it was found to be unrelated to age. I was satisfied with our lovemaking ....However, my husband did not like the size of his penis ....Since his Research on Men’s Attitudes Toward surgery, he has more confidence. And, to my surprise, Penis Size I have been overwhelmed with the difference in our sex life. His increased length, and especially his added From a psychological perspective, however, thickness have satisfied me more than I ever dreamed possible. (Total Life Enhancement, 2005b) the crucial issue may not be actual penis size but rather a man’s perception of the size of his penis The flourishing penis enlargement industry relative to other men’s. Very few empirical indicates that at least some men worry enough studies have assessed the association between about penis size to spend money on costly prod- men’s beliefs about their penis size and satis- ucts and on potentially risky surgery to boost faction with their penis or psychological well- their self-confidence. However, little is known being. A small survey (Lee, 1996) of 112 col- about how many men have such concerns and lege men found that most men viewed their whether women do attach importance to penis penises as average (69%), but the rest of the size. men were more likely to believe they were smaller (26%) rather than larger than average Research on Actual Penis Size and Other (5%). A similar pattern of results was found in Physical Characteristics a small survey of 123 young men in the Korean military (Son, Lee, Huh, Kim, & Paick, 2003), Available research on penis size has typi- suggesting that in contrast to the normal distri- cally focused on determining human variation bution of actual penis size discussed above, in actual penis length. Summarizing results some young men underestimate the size of their from 25 sources, Templer (2002) concluded penis. that the typical penis was approximately 3.5 There have been a few studies attempting to in. (8.9 cm) long when flaccid and 6 in. (15.2 relate penis size to satisfaction. A study by PENIS SIZE SATISFACTION 131 Edwards (1998) found that only 10% of men Goals of Present Study who rated their penis as “modest” were content with their penis size, compared with 40% of the A recent large-scale survey about body image average-sized men and 70% of the “endowed” among more than 50,000 heterosexual men and men. However, these findings were based on the women, ages 18–65, provided an opportunity responses of men (mean age ϭ 30 years) who to examine men’s perceptions of their own pe- chose to participate in a survey posted on Ed- nis as well as women’s perceptions of their wards’s www.sizesurvey.com Web site, and partner’s penis. Our analyses had four main thus may reflect only the views of men partic- goals.