Manhood: The Rise and Fall of the Penis (6 page)

Musculus cremaster

Fascia spermatica externa

The covering of

the seminal cord.

t h e t e s t i c l e s a n d t h e s c ro t u m The appendices

of the testicle and

the epididymis.

Paradidymis

Appendix epididymis

Vas aberrans

Appendix testis

superior

Vas aberrans

inferior

and the rectum, the duct widens into the ampoule (
ampulla ductus
deferentis
). Within the prostate the duct narrows to the ejaculatory duct, or
ductus ejaculatorius
. The two ejaculatory ducts discharge at a point near the
verumontanum
, a thickening in the rear wall of the urethra that runs right through the prostate.

Appendices

Attached to the testicle and the epididymis are a number of appendices that are polyp-shaped, up to 1 cm long and up to 2 cm in diameter.

These are: the
appendix testis
(Morgagni’s hydatid), the
appendix epididymis
, the
paradidymis
(organ of Giraldis), the
superior vas aberrans
superior
(Haller’s organ) and the
vas aberrans inferior
.

An appendix testis is found in 90 per cent of men. It originates from remnants of Müller’s duct, a structure in the embryo from which female sex organs are made. The other appendices (remnants of mesonephric tubules) are much less common. An appendix to the epididymis is found in 30 per cent of men, the last three mentioned in a maximum of between 1 and 5 per cent. Torsion can result in acute pain in these organs – nearly always in the appendix testis – and in the atrophy of the appendix. There is, though, absolutely no need for an operation in such cases.

33

chapter two

The Penis

Impotence means literally the inability to perform sexual intercourse, though the word is often used in a disparaging sense, implying helplessness. Impotence is probably one of the best kept bedroom secrets and, at least for those affected, one of the most shameful. Fortunately a euphemism has been devised: erection problems or, even more useful, erectile dysfunction or ed.

Modern medicine sees the erection of the penis as based on a neuro-vascular reflex, dependent on a correct hormonal balance, a healthy anatomy, an adequate blood supply and an undamaged and efficiently functioning nervous system. If one takes all this on board, one realizes that it’s easy for things to go wrong occasionally. Put more strongly, it’s a miracle that things go smoothly so often! So this chapter will highlight not only the technical, but also the miraculous aspects.

Displaying an erection or having sex in public is not usually pos -

sible – in fact, it’s illegal. So to show that one is functioning properly as a man, there is only one option, which is to father a child. If that fails, for example because of poor sperm quality, the man involved feels seriously inadequate. These days things are a little less pressured, since quite a few married couples opt – by their own testimony, at least – for voluntary childlessness. (This topic will be discussed in greater depth later.)

There has never been such a thing as an impotent woman. Leaving aside anatomical or mental abnormalities, every woman is capable of passively accepting a man’s sexual advances. This is sadly not true of the man, and for that reason a man’s relationship with his penis is not comparable with a woman’s with her clitoris and/or vagina. A woman says ‘I’m not in the mood’; for her the vagina is an integral part of her body. Of course a man’s penis is too, but an erect penis, the phallus, is more.

34

t h e p e n i s

In the novel
Io e lui
(1971, English title
The Two of Us
) by the Italian writer Alberto Moravia, the hero Federico is constantly getting into difficult and embarrassing situations because of his huge and demanding penis, which he calls Federico Rex. It is a confrontational book: the protagonist is constantly debating with his unruly member and plunging into every conceivable erotic folly. The final scene is humiliating for Federico: his member, ‘he’, carries him back triumphantly to the woman from whom he had tried to escape:

To satisfy him, I pressed the bell once more. Standing stiffly in the air, ‘he’ seemed now to be rising up, in short, successive jerks, as if to bring himself to the level of the keyhole and look into the flat. At last I heard a slight bustling sound. Then Fausta’s voice asking: ‘Who is it?’

‘It’s me, Rico.’

Fausta’s hand undid the chain, the door opened, and she appeared on the threshold in her dressing-gown. She looked at me, looked down, saw ‘him’ and then, without saying a word, put out her hand to take hold of ‘him’, as one might take hold of a donkey’s halter to make it move. Then she turned her back to me, pulling ‘him’ in behind her, and, with ‘him’, me. She went into the flat; ‘he’ went behind her: I followed them both.

The title of the novel is very apt, in both Italian and English. Many men suspect or think that their penis has a will of its own and does what it likes. Quite a few men refer to their penis as ‘he’. It is the symbol of the ability to procreate with the accompanying feelings of male self-worth. Muscularity, determination, effectiveness, penetration, directness, strength – the phallus underlies them all.

And so it happens that every man discovers one fine day that his penis is not like an arm, finger or leg: it doesn’t react automatically.

The penis can be compared to a well-trained dog, which usually follows the instructions it is given – but the owner must always allow for the possibility that one day it will refuse, despite the fact that it is trained, or in more human terms, socialized. Men can gain some control over their penis: on a nudist beach, for example, you scarcely ever see men with erections, although there are naked women (or men) to admire everywhere. A half-naked woman lying in stirrups for a bladder examination is unlikely to provoke an erection in any urologist. He is focused on the sick woman in front of him.

35

m a n h o o d

The phallus

Phallus is the name given to the erect penis as a symbol; most people associate the term penis with something or someone else, for example their bearded biology teacher from school or sex education manuals.

This is not to say that the sex education manuals of, say, the 1960s were bad books – on the contrary, they preserved some of the mystery surrounding the adolescent penis. Their modern counterparts are so intrusive that little is left to the imagination. One of the nicest things about puberty is surely discovering things for yourself and making your own mind up. Fortunately for most young children the discovery of the differences between the male and female external sex organs is still a very exciting business. Who has never played ‘doctors and nurses’? In such situations the differences are discussed at length, something that most adults no longer do or dare to do. In his fascinating novel
The
Year of Cancer
(1972) the Flemish writer Hugo Claus shows that it can sometimes still happen.

‘You’ve got the nicest pussy I’ve ever seen,’ he whispered.

‘No,’ she said. ‘It used to be nice. But when I had the baby they stitched me up wrong. And afterwards I got piles. It often hurts really badly.’

‘I love you,’ said Pierre.

‘I love you,’ she said. ‘And you’ve got the nicest one I’ve ever seen too. I don’t usually look at them with men.’

‘But if you’ve never looked, how do you know mine’s nicer?’

‘Well, I have sneaked a look. Most of them are red or bluish. Ugh!’

The girl in this story emphasizes a common female view of the penis.

With the phallus it is a different story, for men too. In many ancient cultures the phallus was the symbol of immortality, of vitality eternally renewing itself. It was no accident that at the end of his life the celebrated English writer D. H. Lawrence was fascinated by the Etruscans, who placed a phallus on every grave. As an outwardly visible bio logical feature the phallus came in the course of history to bear a heavy religious and moral burden. Consequently the study of the phallus led to the study of theology, of the phallus that rises and when the party is over dies again, and that as an ‘immortal’ can repeat this feat again and again: the eternal resurrection of the flesh.

The phallus cult was a striking feature of Ancient Greek religion, and the impotent man was more mocked than pitied. For the Greeks a 36

t h e p e n i s

small phallus was preferable, since a large one was associated with barbarians and satyrs. That may have been connected with Aristotle’s view that a shorter penis enhanced fertility. He thought that ‘sperm cools down less the shorter the distance to be travelled’.

Both in front of temples and at the doors of Athenian homes there stood a herm, a square column with a man’s head and an erect penis at the front, but without limbs. Herms stood not only in front of homes, but also at city gates, outside citadels, in markets and in gymnasiums.

In short, they were everywhere in Ancient Greece. The herm was wreathed in green and had olive oil poured over it. During worship people put their hand on its head, or took hold of it by the beard or the phallus. The latter action particularly would not be possible nowadays.

But wait a minute! In Piazza Signoria in Florence there is a Neptune in the middle of a pool, around which are a number of seated bronze fauns all naked and with erect penises. Although for the most part the bronze of the fauns has the familiar oxidized colour, the phalluses are like brass, due to the countless hands that have taken them by that part of the body and stroked them. Florentine women believe that this increases their chances of becoming pregnant. But what a difference: while the touching in Florence takes place in secret, in Ancient Greek it happened freely and publicly. Sexuality and religious observance were inseparable. Of course, the symbolic significance of the phallus embraced much more than sex alone. At Dionysian celebrations its religious importance was stressed, and huge phalluses were borne in pro -

cession. Dionysus was the god of intoxication, of the ecstatic rapture brought about by wine, the blood of the earth, the god of passion and of the rowdy exuberance that characterized these autumnal festivities.