A Mind of its Own
I recently finished reading A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis, by David Friedman.* I enjoyed it and I can recommend it, too. Before you get the wrong idea, this is no nudge-nudge-wink-wink volumne, nor is it weighted down with academic weightiness; instead, it's a relaxed examination of the history of men's stormy and often unpredictable (or else: all too predictable) relationship with their penises. The style is neither up-tight nor too breezy, which strikes me as a bit of an accomplishment.
Chapters examined broad topics: the classical penis, the early Christian penis, the Renaissance penis, the African penis, the modern mechanical penis. I make it sound on the facile side, but the author deftly led the reader through major shifts in attitudes towards the penis. There is a marked contrast between Greek and Roman attitudes about the penis, symbolized by the friendly and frisky god Priapus, and the attitude of the early Church fathers (Augustine in particular) who saw the penis as a tool of the devil, the transmitter of original sin, that tell us a great deal about cultural developments over the past 2,500 years.
I found quite a bit of insight on the part of the author, too. I wondered whether the author might be overstating, for instance, the fear that European white penises (to be synecdochic) had for the huge and commanding (in their fears) black penis. However, I gained more respect for his position when he revealed an underreported fact about the lynchings of black men in America: they were almost always accompanied by castration of the victims.
I found no particular passage that stood out for quotation, so I thought I would let the following quick but lucid tour of the penis be the example.
The urethra, the penis's internal transport tube, runs from the meatus (the hole) to the bladder, a distance of about six inches — nearly half of that inside the body — and stretches when the organ is erect. It is surrounded by the corpus spongiosum. Together, they lie beneath two larger, even spongier bodies, the corpora cavernosa, which sit above them to the left and right; all of these bodies are encased by a lining called the tunica albuginea. The corpora cavernosa, which fill with blood when one has an erection, extend down the shaft into the body, where ligaments tie them to the pubic bone. These ligaments are severed in patients undergoing penile-extension surgery. Afterward gravity pulls the penis down, making it "longer" — and a lot wobblier, which is why most urologists neither recommend nor perform the procedure.
The tunica albuginea, the lining that surrounds the penis's internal workings, is another structural marvel — up to a point. "It is about as thick as a magazine cover," says Dr. Ajay Nehra of the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota. "It's very strong, but not very flexible," factors that enhance erectile firmness but create a potential for a serious injury called penile fracture. Actually, this is more like a muscle tear than a cracked bone. The cause is usually overly athletic intercourse, typically with the woman on top. Such fractures are rare, and it treated within twenty-four hours the tumica can usually be repaired. If not, injection drugs help in most cases. Major tears may require the insertion of a penile prosthesis.
Of ejaculation and orgasm, only the first takes place in the penis. The second occurs in the brain. But ejaculation is, of course, triggered by the brain, which receives pleasurable stimulation from the penis — sometimes only for a minute or two, as women well know — until it passes a certain threshold. As the brain erupts into orgasm, it still has the presence of mind to send signals to the genitalia. Sperm cells have already been produced by the testes and are in the epididymis. Another tube, the vas deferens, connects the epididymis to the urethra and transports the sperm there. (This is why ligating those tubes, in a vasectomy, makes a man sterile.) Glands called seminal vesicles meet the vas just before they enter the urethra. These provice fructose and other secretions required for the sperm to exist outside the body. The prostate, which surrounds the base of the urethra like a donut, also provides chemicals enabling the sperm to complete their trip.
At "show time," sperm are moved from the epididymis, through the vas, and deposited at the bottom of the urethra, near the prostate. At the same moment, the seminal vesicles and prostate contract, emitting their fluids. These secretions mix together, then are forced out by a series of convulsions by the bulbourethral muscle, which surrounds the urethra, near the bottom. (Imagine holding a sausage with the casing cut open at one end in your fist, then squeezing.) "Sperm make a journey the equivalent of a marathon in two to five seconds," says Dr. Abraham Morgentaler, a urologist at Harvard Medical School. Is it any wonder men fall asleep so soon after sex?
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* David M. Friedman, A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis. New York: The Free Press, 2001.