I’ve always been really glad I don’t have a penis.
Like many women, I have been obsessed since childhood with toning, shaving, bleaching, dying, starving, and kegeling various parts of my body in a compulsive attempt to will them into society’s good graces. I can only imagine what I would put a penis through if I had one to feel inadequate about.
There’s just so much that can be “wrong” with a penis, and the societal import of having a “good” one is incredibly high. Add to that the fact that even in the age of plastic surgery, supplements, and miracle drugs, there remains little to no reliable, effective method of enhancing or otherwise altering the penis to suit society’s demands, and having a dick has got to be a nightmare for anyone without bulletproof self-esteem.
Size Matters
I should clarify that I’m talking about the physical penis-having itself. The corresponding social advantages that often accompany being born with a dangling appendage between your legs? Different story altogether.
Blame porn, blame the media, blame rap music, what have you. Either way, society has spoken, and when it comes to dicks, the unanimous ruling is clear: the bigger the better. Big dicks are almost universally lauded in the media, while small ones are fodder for cheap jokes in just about every sitcom ever made. Simply from growing up against the background of Seinfeld reruns, I knew that I was supposed to want to have sex with a big penis long before I had ever even seen one in person.
The Cut and the Uncut
Of course, society’s demands of male genitalia don’t stop at size. One of the most dominant and problematic Western standards dictates that the only good dick is a circumcised dick.
The 2016 ensemble comedy “Bad Moms” features a much-publicized scene in which Mila Kunis’s newly-single character anxiously asks what she should do if she encounters an uncircumcised man, to which Kristin Bell’s character responds, “Run out of the room screaming. It’s like finding a gun in the street. Just scream and get out of there.”
Dick jokes are all in good fun, right? After all, it’s just comedy. But imagine if, instead of three women swapping dick jokes while primping in a bathroom, this scene took place among three men in a locker room discussing the horrors of “pepperoni nips” or uneven labia. When women’s bodies are made into objects of ridicule, it’s just cause for much needed feminist backlash. Yet when the tables are turned, an ignorant joke about uncut dicks is prime material for a movie trailer.
Land of the Free, Home of the Circumcised
What this problematic excuse for comedy also overlooks is the fact that circumcision is a Western tradition almost unheard of in many other parts of the world. In fact, with America the sole country in which circumcision is still the norm, this controversial custom is not only predominantly Western but predominantly American.
In the age of an America increasingly marred by racism, xenophobia, and tense global relations, disparaging attitudes toward uncircumcised penises are more than just a sexist reverse double standard. Given the historical and cultural origins of circumcision, the privileging of cut dicks is yet another example of society’s destructive allegiance to Western beauty standards.
The bottom line here is simple. If groundbreaking, feminist-driven movements promoting body and sex-positivity are finally shutting down negative commentary about women’s bodies, then the same mentality needs to be extended to male bodies as well. The male body should not be treated as an object ripe for ridicule or disparagement any more than the female body. And while women’s bodies have long been subjected to harmful ideas, criticism, comedic gags, and even legislation at the hands of a sexist society, we all know two wrongs don’t make a right. Body positivity is about accepting and honoring all bodies, whether male or female-identified or identifying, thin or curvy, cut or uncut.
At the end of the day, skin is skin. Don’t be a dick about it.
Really? Circumcision is/was the norm in the US? I’m shocked! In European countries it’s the other way round. Circumcision is only done because of medical or religious reasons (that is, only in muslim and jewish religion). Non-medical, forced and unvoluntary circumcision of non-adults is really just genital mutilation, which is forbidden by law. Sadly, forementioned religions for some reason are legally free to mutilate boys this way, although doing genital mutilation of girls is forbidden (luckily). It is time to make genital mutilation unlawful, unless there is a solid medical resaon for it. Removing a perfectly fine and useful body piece of non-adults without permission for religious or cultural reasons is just criminal. Making fun of non-circumsized, natural penises is mindblowingy stupid.
Thank you for having the integrity and compassion to write what is right. It would be nice if you and the rest of refered to the world would stop using unnecessary negative adjectives such as ” non or un- before the word circumsized it’s a violation of the English language and should be challenges if you see it on a Scrabble board because theres circumsized penises and their are penises there’s no need to disgribe a natural unaltered penis an non or not and even uncircumsizesd. Try using the logic on any other body part …for example you may have an amputated leg but to describe a normal leg as unamputated leg it’s just a leg ! And when you say penis you should be talking about the ones with foreskin . The prefix non an un are negative and give the impression of something is wrong or missing or bad for a few examples ( unemployed unloved unwanted nonbeliever nonsince underdo you see the negative implication that it has so by saying uncircumsized you envoke thoughts that it’s missing something or that it’s under par and undesirable . Kutos for having men’s backs or foreskins lol it’s nice to see a woman who seems to understand what equallity it about and I don’t think you wrote this because you were outraged about penis shaming or that it happens all the time I believe you wrote this because you were outraged that nobody has and you got a good view of the green grass on the other as side of the fence and realized that it’s not so great when you really open your eyes and mind and heart then you realize that we both have it pretty shitty and I hope men and women can mend the rift between them and support each other and not assume we’re enemies because of how we evolved men and women had there places and responsibilities to uphold but now times have improved to the point women no longer need a man’s help to survive or his protection and women want to do so much and explore the life that in the past wasnt really possible although a few did and as the women move into new rolls they enter the job market reducing available jobs for men to provide like men as required to do especially if he has a baby. Women don’t want to be maids at home or stay home with children the only thing women want to stay the same is for men to be men and when a man is valued by his bank account he has to be Alfa because women divorce men and refuse to share income when they make more than a man and it’s common to be I’m arrasses and seen as a fool for respecting a man you love and give value to as a person and .women do you realize men no longer want to be men because there’s no place for us in the family and can expect til death do you part to be about 5 years . Love us as we love you stop hate an let’s start over as friends so equallity and quality life can happen.