Manhood: The Rise and Fall of the Penis (10 page)

t h e p e n i s

Compression

of exiting blood

vessels in erection

Smooth muscle

Obliquely

tissue

exiting vein

Sinusoids

Artery

Flaccid

Artery

Erection

In ruminants a globe-shaped glans transforms into a thread-like appendage, which during mating extends into the uterus; in rams this is 4 cm long. In carnivores and insectivores there are spines and thorns in the glans. At rest these are hidden in a kind of sac. In an erection, however, they protrude, giving the female extra stimulation. Such protuberances occur in man too. In the scientific literature there are descriptions of almost a hundred patients with such abnormalities.

They are almost always a kind of horn, which in over 30 per cent of cases involves cancer. Treatment is fortunately simple and usually solves the problem: the diseased part is removed surgically. Urologists call this a partial penis amputation, though after such a disfiguring operation it is still perfectly possible to enjoy a normal sex life. Unfortunately there is often a lack of good counselling in such cases.

In certain cultures men made protrusions for their glans. In nineteenth-century Java, for example, this was quite normal. Grooves were cut in several places and filled with tiny stones. Once the wounds were completely healed, the glans had an irregular, bumpy surface which provided extra vaginal stimulation. For the same purpose the Dayaks and other primitive peoples drove a bamboo pipe right through the glans or put a bone through it. When performing everyday activities the bone was replaced by a feather; only the tribal chief was entitled to have a second hole made. In Europe too people looked for ways to 47

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increase women’s pleasure in coitus. In eighteenth-century France penis rings with hard protuberances, called
aides
, were used, while in Russia such rings were fitted with tiny white teeth; in South America the preference was for horsehair. Modern ribbed condoms are the latest variant.

The genitalia of the kamikaze drone of the honey bee are also decorated, with yellowish protuberances and all kinds of fringes and hairs: at orgasm they explode within the queen like a spring and form a natural chastity belt, which bars access to other suitors, even though the mating drone itself drops dead.

Some rodents and felines are blessed with true foreskin glands, producing, for example, musk, which quite a few women use in perfume on a daily basis. (Assuming that perfumes are intended to attract men, it is odd that women should use male glandular secretions.) It is true that Homo sapiens also has glands near the foreskin, but they are usually a source of great worry and misery. Countless patients think they have contracted a venereal disease when they first observe the sebaceous glands on the underside of the head of their penis. In yet another category of patients, not used to pulling back the foreskin on a daily basis and washing the glans, abundant sebaceous secretions accumulate beneath the foreskin. These are called smegma, a whitish substance with the consistency of bath soap, which accumulates in the folds of the sex organs. In the view of some scientists smegma is carcinogenic. To put it more delicately, it is soap that does not cleanse.

Before a urologist can examine the inside of the bladder, the penis must first be disinfected. This places quite a burden on nursing staff, who have to disinfect up to fifteen penises a day. One nurse in my department refers to these sebaceous secretions as ‘home-made cheese’.

Going hard, going soft

In only a few men (a mere 8%) is the erect penis completely vertical. In between 15 and 20 per cent the angle of erection is approximately 45

per cent above horizontal, though on average it is above the horizontal. The penis is suspended on bands, in such a way that when erect it pulls towards the abdomen.

The fact that the male penis is so prominently visible may explain why nude photos of women were accepted much earlier than those of men. Because of the need to point when urinating, boys become acquainted with their penis at an early age, and hence it comes as no surprise that boys start masturbating at a younger age than girls. In the course of time, while cycling or horse-riding, they notice that stimulation of the penis can produce a pleasant sensation. Quite a few young 48

t h e p e n i s

The suspension

Pubic bone

bands.

Ligamentum

fundiforme

Ligamentum

suspensorium

men worry about what they regard as a lopsided penis, which they blame on excessive masturbation. Their concern is completely groundless. Every man’s penis is slightly askew, as mentioned previously, usually inclining towards the left. On the basis of interviews the American researcher Alfred Kinsey (1894–1956) claimed as long ago as the 1950s that between 70 and 80 per cent of men hang to the left. This was confirmed – incredibly – after scientific research by radio logists. It was noted how the penis hung on a large series of x-ray photos of the pelvis minor. The point is that on a blank x-ray, that is, one without contrast, the penis is easily visible as ‘soft-tissue shadow’, as it is called in medical jargon.

Certainly, there is increasing interest in sexology in radiodiagnos-tics. In fact, the first magnetic resonance imaging of coitus was carried out in Groningen in the 1990s. This requires a couple to make love to order in the narrow tunnel of an mri scanner. It is scarcely surprising that many male test subjects were unable to perform. Women of course did not experience the same problem. In addition, this research showed that the penis penetrates less far into the woman’s body than doctors had hitherto assumed.

The penis is nothing but a big blood sausage, albeit one consisting of three compartments, or masses of spongiform erectile tissue. When it is engorged with blood as a result of sexual arousal and there is very little drainage, the penis becomes hard and stiff, and an erection occurs. The twin erectile tissue compartments on the top of the penis, the
cor pora
cavernosa
, fill first, followed by the third compartment, the
corpus
49

m a n h o o d

spongiosum
. The two upper compartments are linked in several places, and their ends are attached to the underside of the pubic bone. At the top the previously mentioned suspension bands act as a kind of lever between these erectile tissue compartments and the upper surface of the pubic bone. Otherwise the erect penis would start flopping about. The third compartment surrounds the urethra and runs into the glans.