Misunderstandings about the glans
First, a few misunderstandings need clearing up: one, that the penis is a highly sensitive organ. That is totally untrue: the number of free nerve endings, compared, for example, with the lips, is extremely small. Only underneath the glans are there a relatively large number of free nerve endings.
The second misunderstanding is that the penis has to be active to become erect. This is also untrue: on the contrary, in order for the penis to stay flaccid the smooth muscle cells in the erectile tissue of the penis are contracted virtually all day long. At night during the rem sleep phase, and in sexual arousal, these smooth muscle cells relax, the spongiform network in the erectile tissue can enlarge and there is an erection.
The third, most serious misunderstanding is that the sole purpose of the glans or head of the penis is to be sucked on. It’s true that the glans is soft, but for a quite different reason. In the view of the gynaecologist Robert Latou Dickinson (1861–1950) it had become soft in the course of evolution so as not to put too much pressure on the woman’s internal sex organs during intercourse. However, this proved an incorrect interpretation.
The glans forms the end of the corpus spongiosum, the mass of erectile tissue surrounding the urethra. Just as in the twin sections of erectile tissue, the corpora cavernosa, the pressure in the corpus spongiosum increases during erection, but to a much lesser extent than in the corpora cavernosa. Otherwise the urethra would be squeezed shut so that the sperm could not be discharged at its intended destination.
Relatively little attention has been paid to the glans in poetry. Only the short-lived, doomed, alcoholic poet Paul Verlaine sang its praises in
‘Hombres’ (1891): ‘my choice morsel, with its gush of divine phosphorus’. The poem is part of a collection published clandestinely after his death, in which this famous poet presents himself licking and gorg-ing, revelling in sex with women, but also yearning for homo sexual love.
In Ancient Greece competitors in the Olympic Games were naked.
However, it was forbidden for them to display their glans – that was considered vulgar. So a ribbon was bound round the foreskin, for what reason is not entirely clear.
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Compression
of exiting blood
vessels in erection
Smooth muscle
Obliquely
tissue
exiting vein
Sinusoids
Artery
Flaccid
Artery
Erection
In ruminants a globe-shaped glans transforms into a thread-like appendage, which during mating extends into the uterus; in rams this is 4 cm long. In carnivores and insectivores there are spines and thorns in the glans. At rest these are hidden in a kind of sac. In an erection, however, they protrude, giving the female extra stimulation. Such protuberances occur in man too. In the scientific literature there are descriptions of almost a hundred patients with such abnormalities.
They are almost always a kind of horn, which in over 30 per cent of cases involves cancer. Treatment is fortunately simple and usually solves the problem: the diseased part is removed surgically. Urologists call this a partial penis amputation, though after such a disfiguring operation it is still perfectly possible to enjoy a normal sex life. Unfortunately there is often a lack of good counselling in such cases.
In certain cultures men made protrusions for their glans. In nineteenth-century Java, for example, this was quite normal. Grooves were cut in several places and filled with tiny stones. Once the wounds were completely healed, the glans had an irregular, bumpy surface which provided extra vaginal stimulation. For the same purpose the Dayaks and other primitive peoples drove a bamboo pipe right through the glans or put a bone through it. When performing everyday activities the bone was replaced by a feather; only the tribal chief was entitled to have a second hole made. In Europe too people looked for ways to 47
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increase women’s pleasure in coitus. In eighteenth-century France penis rings with hard protuberances, called aides, were used, while in Russia such rings were fitted with tiny white teeth; in South America the preference was for horsehair. Modern ribbed condoms are the latest variant.
The genitalia of the kamikaze drone of the honey bee are also decorated, with yellowish protuberances and all kinds of fringes and hairs: at orgasm they explode within the queen like a spring and form a natural chastity belt, which bars access to other suitors, even though the mating drone itself drops dead.
Some rodents and felines are blessed with true foreskin glands, producing, for example, musk, which quite a few women use in perfume on a daily basis. (Assuming that perfumes are intended to attract men, it is odd that women should use male glandular secretions.) It is true that Homo sapiens also has glands near the foreskin, but they are usually a source of great worry and misery. Countless patients think they have contracted a venereal disease when they first observe the sebaceous glands on the underside of the head of their penis. In yet another category of patients, not used to pulling back the foreskin on a daily basis and washing the glans, abundant sebaceous secretions accumulate beneath the foreskin. These are called smegma, a whitish substance with the consistency of bath soap, which accumulates in the folds of the sex organs. In the view of some scientists smegma is carcinogenic. To put it more delicately, it is soap that does not cleanse.
Before a urologist can examine the inside of the bladder, the penis must first be disinfected. This places quite a burden on nursing staff, who have to disinfect up to fifteen penises a day. One nurse in my department refers to these sebaceous secretions as ‘home-made cheese’.
Going hard, going soft
In only a few men (a mere 8%) is the erect penis completely vertical. In between 15 and 20 per cent the angle of erection is approximately 45
per cent above horizontal, though on average it is above the horizontal. The penis is suspended on bands, in such a way that when erect it pulls towards the abdomen.
The fact that the male penis is so prominently visible may explain why nude photos of women were accepted much earlier than those of men. Because of the need to point when urinating, boys become acquainted with their penis at an early age, and hence it comes as no surprise that boys start masturbating at a younger age than girls. In the course of time, while cycling or horse-riding, they notice that stimulation of the penis can produce a pleasant sensation. Quite a few young 48
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The suspension
Pubic bone
bands.
Ligamentum
fundiforme
Ligamentum
suspensorium
men worry about what they regard as a lopsided penis, which they blame on excessive masturbation. Their concern is completely groundless. Every man’s penis is slightly askew, as mentioned previously, usually inclining towards the left. On the basis of interviews the American researcher Alfred Kinsey (1894–1956) claimed as long ago as the 1950s that between 70 and 80 per cent of men hang to the left. This was confirmed – incredibly – after scientific research by radio logists. It was noted how the penis hung on a large series of x-ray photos of the pelvis minor. The point is that on a blank x-ray, that is, one without contrast, the penis is easily visible as ‘soft-tissue shadow’, as it is called in medical jargon.
Certainly, there is increasing interest in sexology in radiodiagnos-tics. In fact, the first magnetic resonance imaging of coitus was carried out in Groningen in the 1990s. This requires a couple to make love to order in the narrow tunnel of an mri scanner. It is scarcely surprising that many male test subjects were unable to perform. Women of course did not experience the same problem. In addition, this research showed that the penis penetrates less far into the woman’s body than doctors had hitherto assumed.
The penis is nothing but a big blood sausage, albeit one consisting of three compartments, or masses of spongiform erectile tissue. Whe
n it is engorged with blood as a result of sexual arousal and there is very little drainage, the penis becomes hard and stiff, and an erection occurs. The twin erectile tissue compartments on the top of the penis, the cor pora cavernosa, fill first, followed by the third compartment, the corpus 49
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spongiosum. The two upper compartments are linked in several places, and their ends are attached to the underside of the pubic bone. At the top the previously mentioned suspension bands act as a kind of lever between these erectile tissue compartments and the upper surface of the pubic bone. Otherwise the erect penis would start flopping about. The third compartment surrounds the urethra and runs into the glans.
Surrounding the head is the foreskin, which can easily slide back. Unlike the shaft of the penis, the glans is reasonably well equipped with nerve endings, of which the frenulum or ‘little bridle’ is the most sensitive.
Under the skin of the pelvis, besides a thin layer of connective tissue, there is a sturdy sheet of the same tissue. This sheet is adjacent to the casing of the erectile tissue compartments, the tunica albuginea.
Since the erection is brought about by vasocongestion in the erectile tissue compartments, it is important that the relevant arteries are intact. These are in order: the great abdominal aorta, which divides into two in the pelvis, and branches of which go to the leg, the buttock and the penis. The two arteries leading to the penis each have three branches: one runs across the top of the penis, one through the middle of the corpora cavernosa and one through the corpus spongiosum.
Those running through the two corpora cavernosa are the most important: they branch into countless tiny arteries and join the tiny veins that drain the blood off again. These small veins discharge into larger veins in the erectile tissue compartments that subsequently drain the blood into the inferior caval vein in the abdomen.
Crura
Outer layer of
tunica albuginea
Inner layer of
tunica albuginea
Corpora cavernosa
Cross-section of
the penis and the
Corpus spongiosum
pubic bone.
t h e p e n i s
The blood supply
to the penis.
Arteria dorsalis penis
Arteria cavernosa
Arteria pudenda interna
Arteria bulbo-urethralis
In order to produce an erection the veins must widen, the muscles on the spongiform tissue in the compartments must relax, and the veins must be somewhat compressed. This happens through the effect of nervous stimuli. There are two erection centres in the spine for this purpose, one level with the sacrum and one with the lumbar vertebrae.
If, for example, there is complete paralysis of the lower body as a result of a spinal fracture, an erection may still be produced through manual stimulation, a so-called reflex erection. As soon as the stimulation stops, the erection disappears. Coitus is not possible.
Is the penis actually eatable as a blood sausage? Yes: Midas Dekkers writes about this in his book on bestiality, Dearest Pet. The recipe comes from the humble Jewish Yemeni culinary tradition: blanch and clean a goat’s penis. Boil for ten minutes and cut into slices. Sauté onions, garlic and coriander in oil. Add the penis and fry. Mix chopped tomatoes, pepper, cumin, saffron and salt and pour the mixture over the penis. Cover the pan and braise slowly for two hours until cooked.
Experts have found the taste disappointing.
The vagina dentata
Some men are incapable of giving themselves sexually. They act tough, but really they’re wimps: their penis goes limp when they try to man -
oeuvre it into the vagina. This is not true impotence, but is caused by the deep-seated fear of losing their beloved organ, fear of the vagina dentata, the sharp-toothed vagina, with which a man’s penis can be bitten off. The vagina dentata plays an important part in an old African legend: beautiful girls descend to earth from heaven and repeatedly steal a hunter’s bag. When a man keeping guard catches them, he 51
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shoots one of them, but pays for his attempt to rape her with his member: her vagina contains extremely sharp teeth, with which she bites off his penis.
An age-old Siberian fairy tale also tells of the vagina dentata, though this story has a fairly happy ending for the man. On one of his journeys a hunter meets a one-eyed cave-dweller. She claims him as her husband, but he hesitates. Though he finds her big breasts appealing, her strange face deters him. There is also a sound emanating from her body that is like the gnashing of teeth. When she has fallen asleep, he investigates where the noise is coming from. Between her legs he discovers two rows of teeth. The hunter then devises a trick. He looks for an oblong stone and when the woman wakes up and wants sex with him he puts the stone between his legs and her secret teeth grind and break on the rock-hard material until her vagina becomes like that of any other woman. Eventually the man takes her home with him as his slave.
The vagina dentata is also found in modern feminist literature. Ela, the heroine of the novel F/32, the debut of the Greek writer Eurydice Kamvisseli, has an amazingly tight and greedy sex organ, which is inexhaustibly described. She has a fan club of hundreds of ex-lovers, who wear a coloured ribbon round their penis, marking their place in the strict hierarchy of sexual feats. The book contains unforgettably amusing, instructive and enchanting passages. This is one from the prologue:
Ela presents her cunt to men with great abandon, as if it were John the Baptist’s silver-tongued head on a platter, gives them license to do anything to it, to try their luck and not spare it . . .
‘Don’t mistake my cunt for the kudos,’ Ela warns men at times, hoping to tip the scales . . . ‘Enter it at your own risk.’ They break into a cocky laugh.
Not long afterwards her cunt devours them whole . . . If you didn’t know, it must be clear by now. The fear of the vagina dentata and the accompanying premature loss of erection before entering, are as old as mankind. The only thing that helps is to talk about it.
Men obviously sometimes have weird ideas about female genitalia: not only that there are teeth set in them, but also that women have two vaginas rather than one. This is an age-old theme described by the Italian Poggio Bracciolini in his fifteenth-century Liber facetiarum (Book of Humour): a completely idiotic farmer, who hasn’t a clue about sex, gets married. In bed he thrusts his ‘spear’ into his wife’s backside.
Delighted at his successful attempt he asks her if by any chance she has 52
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two vaginas: one is enough for him, the second is superfluous. The wife, who is having an affair with the parish priest, then proposes donating her second one to the church. The farmer of course agrees. The couple invite the priest to supper, and after the meal they all get into bed. The priest first introduces his member and the stupid farmer makes do with his portion. ‘Remember our agreement, use your own share and leave mine to me,’ says the farmer. To which the priest replies: ‘As God is my witness: I don’t desire your portion in the least, as long as I may use the church’s share.’ The priest can carry on as before.
Doctors used to link the size of the nose and the dimensions of the genitalia. The idea was shown to be absurd, but there are so-called nasogenital alliances. One of these is the anatomical affinity between the erectile tissue compartments in the penis and those in the clitoris and the olfactory mucous membrane. When someone becomes sexually aroused, the olfactory mucous membrane tends to become rather swollen. As a result sexually stimulated people have slightly more difficulty in breathing through their nose. It can happen that a man has the urge to sneeze when confronted with an attractive woman. There is obviously after all a link between the nose and the sex organs. No wonder that in Ancient Rome adulterous men had not their penis, but their nose cut off!
There are complicated forms of cooperation between the sense of smell, the sex hormones and the sexual urge. These operate throug
h pheromones. The word ‘pheromone’ is a contraction of the Greek words fero (transfer/carry) and hormao (set in motion). Pheromones are substances that secrete organisms in order to induce a reaction in members of the same species. They do this through various glands. A male pig, for example, produces the pheromone androstenol in its mouth which causes a fertile sow to go rigid, so that he can mount her at his leisure.
Pheromones can be picked up via the tastebuds and olfactory recep -
tors, on the tongue, in the nose or via Jacobson’s organ. The latter is situ ated on the floor of the nasal cavities of, for example, reptiles and mammals. In man it has become rudimentary in the course of evolution; researchers from the University of Michigan recently showed that the two genes that govern signal transfer in Jacobson’s organ are no longer functional in man or anthropoid apes. The genes are there but 22 million years ago were shifted to an inactive chromosome section. The loss of pheromonal communication was compensated for by the gradually acquired ability to see a wider colour spectrum (red, orange and green).
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Length
From an early age one hears the complaint, sometimes disguised, about being under-endowed. According to the American sexologist Barry McCarthy, two out of three men think their penis is too small. He attri -
butes their worries about the length of their penises to various factors.
In the first place little boys see their father’s penis for the first time when they are at an impressionable age. Second, in changing rooms one usually sees another person’s penis from the front: the other person’s penis appears to be bigger because a man can only see his own penis from above. Seen from above, however, there is what visual artists call ‘foreshortening’. The penis seems smaller than it really is. Third, flaccid penises can differ widely in length, while in erect ones on the other hand there is never that much difference. And fourth, men don’t know much about the subject in general, because they don’t like talking openly about these kinds of intimate matters.
Manhood Page 6
