Frankly Speaking

Since I mused the other day about the "magic pill" and my college Sex Ed class with the woman who asked what it's like to have a penis, I have thought some more about this. You may recall that I thought the professor's answer to this question -- "I would say, it feels natural" -- was probably unsatisfactory to her. I mean, what does that mean? It feels natural?

Apparently other women have had the same thought and asked the question on the Internet in some places. But the answers they're getting there are worse. Guys answering say, "It's great. You can pee standing up." OK, that's an ADVANTAGE to having a penis, but it doesn't get to the question of what what it's LIKE to have one.

In a sense, I understand the professor's answer. "It feels natural" equates to "I have always had one, so I don't know how it would feel without one, or how a person would feel any other way." I mean, if I asked, "How does it feel to have a vagina?" could you answer. I'm curious, too, but could you answer?

Well, I'm going to head out into these waters and see if I can answer the seemingly unaswerable: How does it feel to have a penis?

Well, first thing, I'm going to drop saying "penis." You say that in the doctor's office. Otherwise, the whole world calls it a dick. Maybe a cutesy name sometimes, or something stronger when you're actually getting down and dirty. But dick will do most of the time.

I think some of this curiousity comes from the protusion between your legs. Women have no such encumberance. How aware are you of that thing? Does it get in the way, like, when you walk?

The answer to the first gets to the good professor's answer. Guys, at least ones that aren't post-operative transsexuals, have always one. You usually aren't any more aware of it than you are, say, your arm. That's partly because of the answer to the second question. It's not really set on your body squarely between your legs. It's a little more up front than that, with the back of your ball sack being the only thing that's squarely between your legs. And generally your balls are so free that they'll sit a little more up front too and out of the way when you walk. So, no, it doesn't get in the way when you walk generally (unless you've gotten hard and it's sitting awkwardly in your pants, in which case an adjustment is in order). I imagine having it there also accounts for the difference in the way men and women walk, men having developed a gait that assures your dick is comfortably out of the way.

So when I walk down the street, and I'm thinking about, oh, where I have to be, or what I have to do, or about, well, just about anything, you are just not aware of your dick's presence. You have to think about it for it to "be there."

Now can I think about it? Sure. If I think about my leg, I am aware of it. But in the case of my dick, it's probably even more pronounced, maybe because it's so integral to being male, maybe because it's so valued, or maybe it because has so many nerve endings (the better to have pleasure in sex).

I'm also not likely to think about my leg too often, unless it's hurting for some reason. My dick, I'm going to think about a little more often that. Not that it randomly pops up in my brain. But, men think about sex often, and when they do, they may have occasion to think specifically about their dick.

If I'm walking down the straight, and I think about dick, I can feel it's presence in my pants, a little protusion, flaccid and filling out the slight "pouch" of male pants somewhat but not very completely (and thank goodness it doesn't fill completely, because if it got hard, you'd have no room and would burst your damn pants). And frankly, if I think about, even that protusion can feel pretty good sitting there, without any action again. Nerve endings, again, I suppose. Or maybe I just associate it with pleasure.

If something gets me hard while I'm dressed, generally, my clothes will force it to slowly rotate around from it's hanging position, to standing up right in my pants, pointing toward the sky and pressed against my pants. That's what your pants generally allow. When you have looser stuff, like sweats, you're more likely to the infamous tenting effect.



An erection isn't generally painful, of course, unless your dick just gets hung up awkwardly in its confinement. There's a fullness to it, and unlike your flaccid state, I'm pretty sure you're always aware of it when you have a hard-on. Occasionally, it can be soooo hard that it's a little uncomfortable on its own, like its ready to burst, and it doesn't move quite as well, either, at that point. Usually, it's not at that point, however, and it's just a hard-on wanting some attention -- from you or someone else.

And so, other than what it's like to have sex with it -- a topic for another time, I suppose -- that's where I'll leave it. If I didn't get to something, you can surely ask, and I can try to answer, but I have no idea if this answer was satisfactory. In sum, there's nothing much to think about, until it stands up and asks for attention.

Labels: cocks, dicks, penis