The penis as public part: Embodiment and the performance of masculinity in public settings

Abstract

Drawing on an online ethnography at PeniSanity.com, a support site for men who perceive their penises to be small, this article examines site members' descriptions of their everyday experiences of exposure to the gaze of other men. Site members describe offline exposure as inducing anxieties about having their 'small penises' seen. In contrast, online exposure, particularly at the website itself, is often described as liberating. I conclude with a discussion of the contextual resources available in these settings that account for these differences.

Hidden, visceral and traumatic: a dramaturgical approach to men talking about their penis after surgery for penile cancer

“…Creating a sense of tension in building up to when participants looked at their penis, these narratives parallel appearances of penises in fiction where it is visible in a climactic moment, revealing a hitherto unknown truth. Del Rosso's () ethnography of a support site for men who consider their penis too short could be read as a counter‐narrative; the website shows anxiety over being seen, whereas the narratives in this study show the protagonist looking at themselves post‐surgery. Nevertheless, there is a similarity in that the act of seeing or being seen may reveal something traumatic (a penis too short, unable to function).…”

“…What PEPC shows is that the agency for a “good” outcome lies with specialist treatment centres and the participants instead have a body image of their penis that is largely hidden and traumatic when revealed. Future research could bridge these conceptual difficulties and build on work by Cameron (), Potts () and Del Rosso () by exploring, first, experiences and representations of cosmetic and elective male genital surgery and male genital mutilation (either accidental or deliberate); and second, the everyday experiences of having a penis, such as hygiene, public concealment and private display.…”

The association of genital appearance satisfaction, penis size importance, and penis-centric masculinity to chronically discriminatory ideologies among heterosexual men.

“…That the penis maintains its status as a symbol of masculinity seems undeniable, and the link between cultural representations of the penis, and the cultural conflation of masculinity with large penis size, is well studied (e.g., Addelston, 2008; Bordo, 1999b; Lehman, 2006, 2007). Scientific research into men’s experiences of their penis and their masculinity in tandem, however, is minimal (e.g., Del Rosso, 2011). The small body of research bridging these topics generally focuses on clinical populations, such as men with erectile dysfunction, penis size shame, or prostate cancer, and typically aims to understand men’s sense of masculinity following clinical symptomology related to decreased sexual functioning (e.g., Fergus et al, 2002; Veale et al, 2014).…”

Colonising antinormative sex: The flexibility of post-porn heterosex in random webcam sex

“…This closed down the potential of the site, but it simultaneously introduced nonnormative heterosex practices and contradictory affects unique to random image based sexual gestures. As Del Rosso (2011) observes, the online display of the penis to other men can function to liberate the user from the homosocial pressures that are ‘fraught with danger, with the risk of failure, and with intense relentless competition’ (Kimmel, 2005: 33). The perpetual display of the naked, faceless, unknown bodies, appearing without context or narrative, shifts the symbolism of straight exhibitionism.…”