The Penis Monologues: Is Penis Length the Result of Female Choice?

Salvatore Durante 1181257

PROTAGONIST: Salvatore Durante SETTING: At home (in basement/salon, family room computer station and living room)

SHOT 1: Title credit: The Penis Monologues: Is Penis Length the Result of Female Choice?

SHOT 2: Medium shot of Salvatore Durante, sitting in a chair getting ready for the day.

Hello, ladies and gentleman, my name is Salvatore Durante. A common concern for most men is their appearance and the length of their penis as they believe females will always choose the man with the largest penis. However, the average penis is around 5-7 inches in length unlike the enormous penises depicted in porn. But it got me thinking do females really choose in this way? And more importantly did female promiscuity affect penis length? It looks like I got some work to do (styles hair with mousse).

SHOT 3: Medium shot, at home on computer.

Before we can understand what can affect penis length we need to consider natural selection, sexual selection and sperm competition. Natural selection is based on differential reproductive success which is the amount of offspring you produce and the amount of offspring that survive to reproduce themselves. Individuals who survive to reproduce are said to have traits that enabled them to adapt to the specific pressures of their environment. These traits that allowed them to survive in the environment are said to be passed on to the next generation. Sexual selection is intrasexual competition which occurs between the same sex, which is generally male to male competition for a mate of the opposite sex. There is also intersexual competition which occurs between the opposite sexes and typically we find that females will be the choosier sex as they will choose males who are the most fit as they will be more likely to produce offspring that will also be fit. Both are mechanisms of evolutionary change. Finally, sperm competition is the competition between two or more male`s sperm for the fertilization of a female`s ovum. This occurs when a female has sex with two or more males in a relatively short period of time. With these mechanisms of evolutionary change in mind Gallup et al. (2003) hypothesize that the human penis evolved as a semen displacement device. In their experiment they used several male phalluses of varying size and shape which were inserted into a plastic vagina with varying semen simulators. They were trying to simulate what occurs in sperm competition as they hypothesize that a male would try to remove a rival`s semen out of the vagina. What they found was that longer penises were able to go deeper and were better at displacing a rival`s semen, thus allowing the other male to fertilize the female`s ovum. With these findings they conclude that the genital anatomy of males specifically penis length was a result of a history of sperm competition. Well it seems like I have found an answer to the problem of penis length in men. My work here is done!

SHOT 4: Medium shot, sitting in living room surround by books. I appear dishevelled and tired.

(Sigh) It appears that I was terribly mistaken. Dixson (2009) explains that the argument developed by Gallup et al. (2003) is highly dependent upon high female promiscuity. This is true for some primate species where we find varying testicular sizes. However, humans are not as promiscuous as the common chimpanzee and if we were we would see an increase in testicular size and not penis length. Dixson argues that it is highly unlikely that sexual selection via sperm competition affected the evolution of penis length in humans. Dixson finds that in humans, primates and other mammals the length of the penis and the depth or length of the vagina evolved in tandem. This occurred, regardless if sperm competition occurred. Males need to place sperm efficiently in females when erect so that their sperm can have the best opportunity to fertilize the ovum. If we compare the average erect penis length being 5-7 inches with the average aroused vagina length being also 5-7 inches, we see a striking similarity. Dixson speculates that natural selection and sexual selection had some effect on the human penis morphology. We now have an explanation for penis length, but do females choose based on penis size? Dixson (2009) explains that the human penis is displayed more prominently than other non- human primates. Dixson et al. (2007) showed varying penis lengths to women and found that this influenced females rating of attractiveness. However, the largest penis was not rated as the most attractive in all reports. What we find with respect to the conception that females will choose the largest penis, is an ambiguous preference to the length of the penis. Future studies interested with explaining penis length preferences need to be explored further. And more importantly, the concept of sperm competition affecting penis length in humans should be rejected.

Thank you for listening,

This is Salvatore Durante.

Good Night.

References

Dixson, A.F. (2009). Penile morphology, sexual selection and human evolution. Sexual selection

and the origins of human mating systems. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 61-70.

Dixson, B.J., Dixson, A.F., Li, B., & Anderson, M.J. (2007). Human physique and sexual

attractiveness: Sexual preferences of men and women in China. American Journal of

Human Biology, 19, 88-95.

Gallup, G., Burch, R.L, Zappieri, M.L, Parvez, R.A, Stockwell, M.L, & Davis, A. (2003). The

human penis as a semen displacement device. Evolution and Human Behavior, 24 (4), 277-

289.