* This question is often asked by us and our friends with various opinions but no facts. Based on hearsay and all the adult movies it appears that, generally speaking, black men have larger penises than white men. Is this true? There is no mention in the Kinsey Report but there appear to be big differences. Also, do men with large penises also have large testicles?
Actually, penis measurements do show up in the Kinsey study. In it he says that the average white male has an erect penis measuring 6.2 inches long and 3.7 inches around, whereas the average black male has an erect penis 6.3 by 3.8 inches. A difference of 0.1 inches is not what you’d call statistically significant. You’ve heard of “growers” vs.“showers”? That is, growers appear small when flaccid but become much bigger when erect vs. those that appear larger when flaccid and don’t fill out all that much. That may account for some of the mythology since other researches have indicated that Africans and those of that descent may tend to be larger when flaccid. As for testicles (or hands or feet or Adam’s apples), there are no consistent correlations with a man’s penis size.
* I find the things you write about fascinating and always turn to your column first. Can you tell me where I can read more about sex and relationships and research in these fields?
Online searches will usually bring up new findings in the various fields of human relationships. The popular press is always searching for new tidbits in the professional journals to bring to the general public. A few professional journals which you can check out yourself are The Journal of Sex Research (www.sexscience.org), Studies in Gender & Sexuality (www.informaworld.com/hsgs), Culture, Health & Sexuality (www.informaworld.com/tchs), and the International Journal of Sexual Health (www.informaworld.com/WIJS.
* My father read me something from the Reader’s Digest that says a 5’8” man has to earn almost $150,000 more a year than a 6’ tall man to get the same number of dates. Do you think he was making up statistics to get me to stay in college?
Maybe. You have noticed, I’m sure, that tall …um..tops short in the dating and mating game for most women, as does wealthy over poor. Probably the same is true of gay men as well. Most women’s wish list is lead by a sense of humor, however. “Makes me laugh” being one of the top 3 must haves for the majority. It wouldn’t hurt to be tall, well-educated, earn a good living and have a great sense of fun but, as my dear Grandma used to say “There is a lid for every pot.” I personally have a strong preference for short men and have never given much weight to a man’s income. Then again, I am not your typical woman and I don’t have the same ax to grind as your father does.
* Have you ever heard of singing underwear? I was listening to Public Radio in my car and I think that’s what I heard. It may have been Syrian underwear, but neither of those make any sense.
Aha! How about Syrian singing underwear? Honest. Oddly, there is a marketplace in Damascus, Syria that specializes in lingerie with embedded electronic chips that play tunes and flash lights. Why this odd cultural blip shows up there and not elsewhere, I know not, but I did hear a BBC broadcaster doing a piece on just this phenomenon. I have amused myself trying to come up with appropriate tunes for underwear to play.