"They're like a banana wearing tights"

[andrewducker]

Following a few discussions I've bumped into, including one yesterday here I've been wondering about this.

[Poll #1533638]

Comments

[andrewducker]

If you've filled it in incorrectly (i.e. for genitalia you have) then you can click on the poll number at the top and then edit your answers. Lots of people don't seem to know this.

[andrewducker]

I've always found it odd that a large chunk of people are actively disturbed by genitalia. I've always been fascinated by them.

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

Ooo me too - they are pretty - I've never examined another vagina though. So the best viewpoint I have is porn or looking in a mirror!

[goldrose.livejournal.com]

I have a vagina! 99% of the time I rather not look at peen, but when I do, I usually end up finding them funny. Tho.... some are SCARY!

[andrewducker]

The other odd thing is that none of the men I know would admit to finding Vaginas funny, strange or ugly - but it seems to be quite common amongst exes of women I've talked to. So either I know more enlightened men than most, or men aren't comfortable saying it where women can read it.

[goldrose.livejournal.com]

I do, on occasion, here men talk smack about "ugly" vaginas.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Vaginas are funny!

I don't think I've encountered ugly ones. But some vulvas/clitorises are definitely cuter than others.

[palmer1984.livejournal.com]

There are quite a few in this poll who admit to finding vaginas ugly :).

[andrewducker]

In my defence - there weren't when I typed that response, and only two of the people who selected "ugly" didn't do so as part of selecting pretty much everything - I'm assuming that someone who selected "ugly" and "attractive" is basically saying "Vaginas - you get all sorts". Oh, and the two people that did both just find them ugly, I don't actually know. But, yes.

I am actually slightly surprised how close the two different sets of results came out. While not being willing to claim even the slightest shred of scientific accuracy over the poll I was expecting the results to come out quite differently to each other. I sit corrected!

[wildeabandon.livejournal.com]

I find them fun, so I guess sexy would apply, but I also think they look a bit funny, especially when flaccid. I also find them an object of a great deal of envy.

[zz]

an object of a great deal of envy.

something i always have difficulty understanding, given i have envy in the other direction. :>

[marrog.livejournal.com]

Shouldn't we be answering for the genitalia(s) we like to sleep with rather than the genitalia we don't have? I know that good data is not a priority of yours, but your lesbian:gay man flist ratio is going to skew this data, because there are more women who don't sleep with men filling out the first question than men who don't sleep with women filling out the second.

I know that you don't require your polls to have sensible results, but it seems like this one is doomed from the start.

[ipslore.livejournal.com]

But if you're answering according to genitalia preference, that'll bias the results towards 'sexy', 'attractive', etc. and away from 'disturbing' or 'ugly'.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

The usefulness/uselessness of which is depenent on what one is actually testing, see below.

[andrewducker]

I'm interested in the alienation effect that comes from not having a particular set of genitalia.

And yes, homosexuality would bias this - but as a percentage of my flist you're an awful lot less than the straight people, so the bias won't be that massive.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

Interesting.

For the record, then, despite being a lesbian (?), I think penises look less funny when erect.

[andrewducker]

This seems to be quite common. No longer looking like a dead balloon animal is probably a good thing in that respect :->

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

Now she has a point. I answered assuming erect!! When they're not 'up' they just kind of freak me out - For a while there used to be women's porn mags available which had naked men(I have no idea if they still do them), however the men weren't allowed to be aroused as that was considered Hard core porn - I flicked through one or two issues and gave up as it just did nothing for me! Whilst I find male aimed porn mags far more interesting....

GAH, there go my latent lesbian tendencies again!!

[dougs.livejournal.com]

The other factor, of course, is that I almost always see mine from a particular angle and I often see someone else's from a quite different angle. I'm not sure "alienation" is quite the right word for that.

[andrewducker]

Apparently this is a major cause of worry about penis size. The foreshortening effect of staring downwards at a penis that's almost parallell to the direction of gaze is quite severe.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

And no men own mirrors?

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

I imagine quite a few men don't own full-length mirrors.

Regardless of that downwards is always going to be the most common, indeed the default, viewing.

Regardless of that, I'm not convinced downwards is foreshortening. Porn is quite often shot from this perspective to achieve the opposite effect.

[andrewducker]

Full length ones? Not many. I didn't grow up with one - the only mirror I encountered regularly was the one in the bathroom, above the sink.

[0olong.livejournal.com]

I've mostly only had access to full-length mirrors in shared areas, and I'm led to understand that carefully inspecting your genitalia in shared hallways is widely frowned on.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

No free standing shaving mirrors? Ever? Really? (They'll even show you a magnified view if you like...)

[0olong.livejournal.com]

Only in the last few months, as far as I can remember.

[henriksdal.livejournal.com]

mm, worry about willy size is a deeply ingrained biological thing (a display organ to intimidate other males), or so it assumed due to human penissesus being massive in relation to body size; see, e.g., average Gorilla body mass and knob length and compare it with Homo Sapiens.

[andrewducker]

There's a relationship, IIRC, between mate competition, infidelity, penis size and semen production. Humans are infidelitious with large penises, IIRC.

And yes, probably ingrained in some way - but made worse by the angle we see it at.

[henriksdal.livejournal.com]

also, I struggle to think of penises in a detached, aesthetic way. They're not as nice as pussy, but I am aware of a lot more variation between women than I know of between men - possibly because I never paid that much attention to willies when they were thrust in front of me.

Therefore, attractiveness of bits depends on the owner?

[andrewducker]

That came up in discussions with Julie - that it has a lot to do with the owner of the genitalia.

[avatar.livejournal.com]

It's kind of subjective depending on who's you're talking about.

[broin.livejournal.com]

They're like faces. Well, not exactly like faces. But some are funny, some are ugly, some are attractive.

[mooism.livejournal.com]

[X] confusing

[meihua.livejournal.com]

To anyone who posted "ugly" or "disturbing" for vaginas, I can recommend reading - or attending a production of - The Vagina Monologues.

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

I wonder what the equivalent is for the much higher proportion of women who find penises ugly and disturbing? All I can think off is Puppetry of the Penis which would probably make them seem more ugly and disturbing.

[meihua.livejournal.com]

I think that before you can make penises seem less disturbing they would have to be less disturbing. That means less penis/rape imagery, which means tackling rape culture.

[meihua.livejournal.com]

"be" is badly put. I mean, less commonly associated with disturbing things. That association coming from loads of places, of course, a lot of them social forces.

[zz]

well, "ugly" for me is that given they all look different, some are more visually pleasing than others, hence why i ticked that *and* "attractive". :)

[broin.livejournal.com]

Or 'Teeth'.

[avatar.livejournal.com]

why

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

curious. penises that is.

[aliiis.livejournal.com]

I have always been kind of envious of boys having a body part that completely changes shape and size regularly - kind of like frilled lizards, or TRANSFORMERS! Not fair.

So I guess for 'cool' read 'TOTALLY COOL'.

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

Our evil Decepticons?

[broin.livejournal.com]

Ch-ch-chu-chu-choo. Roll out!

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

Which other animals don't have periods in heat and have sex 'for fun'? Which other animals don't have a penis bone? Bueller?

[andrewducker]

Bonobos are infamous for having sex for fun.

Also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_sexual_behaviour#Sex_for_pleasure