Is bigger
always better? When most people hear that question they either
immediately or eventually think about penis size, and the more
direct question that many men and women want to know, does penis
size matter?
The reality is
that sometimes penis size matters, and sometimes it doesn’t.
There are those of us who have unique personal tastes
(affectionately known as size queens), but others prefer
variety. Some folks might be happy driving a Tercel one day and
an SUV the next. Another key piece of information when talking
about how much penis size matters, is making sure we know we
agree on what is an
average penis size.
Rather than
rely on old sayings, fashion magazines, and the hundreds of
emails in your inbox every day, let’s look at what research
tells us about whether penis size matters?
Does penis
size matter to women?
A survey of 556
women between the ages of 19-49 asked participants whether penis
length and girth matter. The findings included:
Ø
18% said penis length was very important, 22% said penis girth
was very important
Ø
57% said penis length was somewhat important, 53% said penis
girth was somewhat important
Ø
25% said penis length was unimportant, 25% said penis girth was
unimportant
A major flaw of
this study was that it did not specify an optimal size. So women
who felt penis girth mattered may have different ideas of what
the ideal penis girth is. The assumption might be bigger is
better, but this isn’t confirmed by this study.
Another
ingenious study, done by Canadians, had women read erotic
passages and rate them on the steaminess of the passage. The
only thing they altered was the size of the penis. While some
respondents did score the larger penises to be hotter, the
differences were not statistically significant. Indicating that
in a fantasy realm at least, bigger may not necessarily mean
more arousing and penis size may not matter as much as other
things.
While there
have been other surveys that have asked women about the
importance of penis length and girth, and most report that where
this is a preference, girth is reported as more important then
length, there doesn’t seem to be any academic research that
actually addresses what size is preferable. If there were such
research we could expect, of course, there to be great
variability in size preferences.
Does penis
size matter to men?
There is no
question that men have a preoccupation with penis size. Most men
seem to think penis size matters, and many worry about the size
of their penis at some point in their lives. There have been
several studies that have confirmed that men’s perception of
penis size is skewed:
Ø
An Internet-based survey of 52 031 heterosexual men and women
found that while 85% of women were satisfied with their
partners’ penis size, but only 55% of the men were satisfied
with their penis size.
Ø
Several studies that have asked men to evaluate the size of
their penis, compare it to “normal” and then have actually
measured their penis size, have shown that most men
underestimate the size of their penis, and overestimate what is
average penis size.
Ø
Studies have also shown that men tend to compare penises in a
way that is likely to end up with negative evaluation (e.g. they
compare flaccid penis to an erect penis).
Ø
One study of men who were seeking penile enlargement surgery
found that most of the men had penises that were in the average
size range, despite their belief that they had unusually small
penises.
It seems from
what research we have, that men think penis size matters more
than women. Which begs the question, Why do guys worry and talk
about penis size so much?
One answer is
that we’re still stuck in this penis-centered idea of sex, where
great sex comes solely from a man doing unbelievable things with
his penis.
Let’s remember
first, that lots of people are having great sex with no penis
involved at all! And beyond that, most women don’t orgasm from
penetration at all, so most orgasms are not being produced from
a penis of any size. I think we still focus on penis size,
because we still think that a dick is the measure of a man. And
this is the worst misconception of all.
Related
Links
