Serious Question: Are Men Obsessed With Their Penises?

And are women just as obsessed with our boobs and vaginas?

It seems to me — just through casual observation over the years — that men are kind of wrapped up in their penises. Many men give their penises pet names. Many men seem to worry quite a bit about size. Some men go so far as to name their penises “Little <insert your name here>,” suggesting that for a decent percentage of men, their penis is an integral part of their very identity.

When my daughter was little, and I socialized with other moms with young kids, the moms of boys would sometimes tell amusing anecdotes about how their boys would play with their penises or take them out at inappropriate times. Please note none of this was shaming talk of their boys. None of these moms insisted their boys not ever touch their penises, and they didn’t shame their boys for playing with their penises. They just had to gently remind their boys penis-play should be saved for private spaces and times. Young girls just don’t have the same kind of relationship with their vaginas, and maybe that’s where it all starts — in childhood. I can see how a penis would be an intriguing, almost irresistible body part for a little kid.

And all of this penis-centricity is fine — it’s just interesting, to me, a person born with vagina…