One dragon may breed nine different offspring. - Chinese proverb
Human beings come in all shapes and sizes, and nowhere is that more evident than in their sexual anatomy. Because genitalia can still function within a wide range of cosmetic and morphological variation, there was little if any evolutionary pressure to prevent even extreme variance from the average, and nobody is more aware of such differences than prostitutes are (except, perhaps, physicians who specialize in those anatomical areas).
The average erect human penis is 14 cm long, and the great majority of men fall between 10.7 cm and 19.1 cm; it is 12.3 cm in circumference, with the majority falling between 11 and 13.6 cm. So any of you male readers who fall into those ranges (and I know some of you went for the tape measure as soon as you read those numbers) are average, even if you think you’re small, and anything over 19 cm is really quite large even if your porn movies tell you otherwise. Despite the myths, no study has ever detected any correlation between penis size and race, and my own extensive experience backs that up. It is believed that the myth about black men having exceptionally large penises began in bathrooms and locker rooms, the only places normal heterosexual men ever see other men’s genitalia; black men’s penises tend to shrink very little when flaccid in comparison with those of white men (a statistical truth supported by my own observations), so a white man seeing a black penis might think, “If it’s that big when it’s soft, how big must it be hard?”
Since I know most of you are thinking about it, let’s get this out of the way early: The biggest penis I ever handled was on a white man (a regular who was a physician from Texas), and it was as long as my forearm from elbow to wrist and as thick as my wrist. My tape measure says that’s 29 cm long and 15.6 cm in circumference (11.4” long and 6.14” around). And considering that I’ve seen over 4000 men professionally, I think it’s safe to say that the “twelve inch cock” of porn legend is so fabulously rare that the average woman has a greater chance of being hit by a meteor than of encountering one. No, I wasn’t able to fit it all; I doubt many women could (he said he had never met one). His girth wasn’t the issue; I’ve fit thicker (though shorter) ones. It was just that rather amazing length! Even as experienced as I already was when I met him, I must admit it was rather intimidating; he warned me about it on the phone because he had already encountered a few professionals who were too afraid to even attempt it.
His was the largest one I ever encountered, but not the longest; that title does indeed go to a black man, whose penis was roughly 36 cm long (though that’s just a guess based on my memory of how it looked against my torso). In circumference, however, he was very typical, which gave his penis a rather snakelike appearance. His proportions were so irregular, in fact, that he could not achieve a normal erection. Though the last few inches of his member were reasonably firm, the rest of it was comparable to a garden hose with the tap turned on; that is to say, it was semi-rigid but still quite flexible. His method of accomplishing intercourse was novel to say the least; he knelt between my legs, grasped his penis around the middle and inserted it as one might a dildo, then moved it in and out with his hand! What fascinated me most about this procedure was that it didn’t seem to bother him in the least; clearly this was the way he had always had to enjoy women, so he was used to it.
On the other end of the spectrum are men who are so tiny that it’s difficult to accomplish anything with them. Once a man’s penis gets down to about the size of my thumb (5 cm long) or less, condoms won’t stay on properly and only rear-entry position allows him enough depth of penetration to accomplish what he’s trying to accomplish. Obese men with tiny penises (it’s notable that the two problems often go hand-in-hand) sometimes can’t even manage that, so oral or manual stimulation are the only options. At least it isn’t difficult to fellate such clients, and if they don’t get to enjoy much of what their better-endowed brothers have they can at least get to experience a few things which are denied to normal-sized men, such as a woman taking both penis and testes into her mouth at the same time. This of course presumes that the testicles are in proportion to the penis, which isn’t always the case; in fact, with larger penises I saw no correlation whatsoever. Even the enormous monsters I described above had normal or just slightly above average testicles, and customers with very large testicles (sometimes larger than tennis balls) usually have normal-sized penises. Only when the penis was pathologically small did I often see a correlation in testicular size; I presume that in such cases the two were related, representing a kind of arrested development which, as I mentioned above, was often accompanied by obesity and an odd kind of softness which made me feel as though the customer were a kind of giant baby rather than a mature man.
So far I’ve just talked about size, but shape is often more important. The normal penis is either ramrod-straight or has a slight upward curve, but there are many variations. I have seen curves so pronounced that the tip points almost straight up when the base is perpendicular to the man’s body, and also downward, left-hand or right-hand curves. These severe bends are symptoms of Peyronie’s Syndrome, a penile disorder caused by a kind of plaque which builds up in the erectile tissue (see also here). Besides the undesirable cosmetic effects, this disorder can make intercourse extremely uncomfortable or even painful for the woman (though most of my clients with the problem said it did not hurt them). I found the downward curve the worst; in one such case the client actually bruised me internally, though I didn’t really notice it because he was long enough that the bruise was very deep in my vagina and thus not impacted by the next two clients. When my husband had me the next day, however, it was acutely painful because he was long enough to hit the same spot; the discomfort persisted for a couple of days.
Though my husband’s penis is a fraction above the normal range of length, it is unusually thick and so causes me no discomfort as long as I can control his depth of penetration with my legs. But when a man is unusually long and only of normal thickness, there is insufficient friction to act as a brake on vigorous pounding and the head can actually impact the cervix in women who, like me, have fairly small vaginas (more on this below). This is acutely painful in a way no man can possibly understand (just as no woman can really know what impact to the testes feels like), so when I dealt with such men I was careful to avoid the rear-entry position (which shortens the vagina) and used my thighs to control the angle and depth of his penetration so as to keep his “bottoming out” to a minimum. The opposite variation (above-average thickness with normal or below-average length) carries no direct problems for the woman, but is associated with a higher-than-normal rate of condom breakage. Finally, there are a few conditions peculiar to uncircumcised men (such as thickening or stiffening of the foreskin leading to pain, infection and inhibited erection), but fortunately these are easily cured by circumcision.
Just as men have considerable variation in penis size and shape, so women have considerable differences in our genitalia as well. The average depth of an unaroused vagina is about 10-15 cm and an aroused one 18-22 cm; women who have had children may be a few centimeters deeper and those who have had hysterectomies are sometimes shorter. Like those of men, women’s sexual equipment inflates with arousal; this is why even an experienced woman can be injured in a rape, when her unaroused organs are smaller. But unlike the penis, the vagina is a muscular organ and can be affected by position; the vagina is shortest when the legs are drawn up toward the torso (as in cowgirl and rear-entry) and longest when they are extended (as in the missionary position). This is why I prefer the missionary position over all others; it allows the woman to control both the angle and the depth of penetration by simply moving her legs up or down. Since my vagina is small and tight I can only accept large men with my legs down, but can allow men of average or short length deeper penetration by pulling my knees up toward my tits. Unfortunately, men who have seen too many porno movies seem to believe that all women are over 22 cm deep and can thus take even the largest organs with their legs up on the man’s shoulders or their knees pushed down onto the mattress! It usually wasn’t too difficult to get my legs out of such a man’s grip, but occasionally one was adamant and needed me to explain that the near-virginal tightness he was enjoying so much (and which I maintain to this day with Kegel exercises) went hand-in-hand with the shorter depth which disallowed such porn-star contortions with a well-endowed stallion like himself.
Porn causes one other occasional problem for some escorts; it tends to make inexperienced young men think that women’s external genitalia are more alike than they actually are. As a bisexual woman and a call girl who did hundreds of couple calls I can tell you that there is as much variation in vulvas as in penises; most nude models I’ve seen have fairly subtle labia majora and well-defined labia minora, but I’ve seen girls in real life who had huge labia majora and almost no labia minora or vice-versa. Some labia are quite wrinkly, others smoother, and they vary in color and appearance. Apparently there’s even some variation in vulva-shape preference between different men’s magazines, or at least the photography makes it seem so; once on a multi-girl call I had a stripper tell me, “Oh, you have a pretty little Playboy pussy, but I have a big, nasty Hustler pussy!” It seemed as though she meant it as a compliment, so I took it as one.
The clitoris actually varies more in size than the penis does; 75% of it is inside a woman’s body, and though its full length is roughly 10 cm the exposed portion ranges from 2-60 mm. Though it is usually hidden by the clitoral hood it is completely exposed in some women and totally effaced in others; a “recessed clitoris” is completely below the surface and reveals itself only by stimulation (if at all). But none of this can be explained to jackasses; girls with unusually-shaped genitalia are sometimes insulted by rude clients, and I’ve even heard of ignoramuses accusing girls of being post-operative transsexuals because their vulvas don’t “look right” to these (usually young) men, who obviously consider themselves some sort of sex experts because they’ve been with a couple of dozen women. Fortunately, older men have more experience and therefore realize that the genitalia of women, like those of men, come in all shapes and sizes.
Well, this is a topic I certainly never expected to see.
Now, Jay, do I detect a note of sarcasm?
I didn’t run for the tape measure, but I did have to do some metric-to-imperial conversions. I’m more familiar with the metric system than the average American, but not that familiar.
Part of the reason men in porn look so blessed is because they shave or trim their pubic hair, which makes the penis look larger. Another reason is that many of these men just aren’t very tall. A seven inch penis on a man who is five-foot-six just looks bigger than a seven inch penis on a man who is six-foot-five. Oftentimes they’re not as tall as their female co-stars, and it’s camera angles and other old-fashioned movie magic which hides this fact.
Of course, no mere Human can match the mighty tentacles of the Overfeind, BWAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
…. hentai nerd.
)
(I mean that with fondness, honestly.
In Canada we have the strange dichotomy of having officially converted to metric and yet still getting 90% of our TV programs from the USA (who have not.) Pretty much you need to have some familiarity with both, especially to converse with the older generation.
In practice, most measurements to with the human body are still talked about in Imperial standard (height, weight, dick).
Considering what your name links to, I don’t doubt that it was with fondness.
Maggie, thanks for using the metric system! This way I don’t get lost in a jungle of feet, inches, yards, and whatnot.
In my country, in general, men aren’t as worried about penis size as in the US (the Land of Stats, as a compatriot of mine once put it — every televized sports event looks like the interior of a Terminator’s head). I’ve frankly never measured mine, though the general impression by looking is that I would be near the lower end of the spectrum of normalcy that Maggie describes. (So what? Sue me.
)
I think that come the nano-age, there are going to be a lot of guys running around with fifty centimetre dongs… and just as quickly finding out that this does not cause every woman to swoon for them.
This is also another myth that I wished I could understand. Sure, within reasonable limits, I can understand that a slightly larger penis could provide more pleasure (though even there, at least in my experience, this depends so much on the other side of the equation!… women’s vaginas [not vulvas] also come in different sizes, as the Kamah Sutra already says); but this fixation with having a Texas-sized penis… Brr. It’s like women who think their breasts have to be bigger than their heads.
You write very well, very cleanly, consecutively and coherently. You would make an excellent true-crime writer.
Thank you! I have a few friends who enjoy reading that genre, but I’m afraid it doesn’t really interest me. I reckon my two closest approaches were my column of last October 5th (which borders on it) and November 15th (which contains a description of a fictional crime).
You’re welcome.
True-crime as a genre is a relief from the infinite sameness of fiction. When one reaches a certain age it’s unbearable to read the instantly dead chatter of the merely intelligent. One goes to true-crime for the basic refreshment of fact.
Further. One has to abandon some of one’s wincing at “bad writing” to really dive satisfyingly into true-crime. It is a rich surprise how well truth and interest easily survive even the clumsiest writing.
Jack Olsen’s “The Misbegotten Son” is one of the greatest books of the last century. Check it out sometime.
Hi,
I’d like completely unsubstantiated “facts”: When I was in what you’d probably call preclinic (and before I flunked out), I learned that obesity is often correlated with estrogen levels, both estrogen synthesised from things ingested and “self-made” estrogen. Eating large amounts of soy products, for example, has been shown to increase estrogen levels in humans. And the leptin produced in fatty tissue might also hinder penis development. As you can tell, I know all the technical terms in English. Anyway, more estrogen during childhood and puberty in men -> smaller penis. Then there is the fact that in severely obese men, the fatty tisse above the pubic bone and generally the genitals might increase in size, thus making the penis not only look smaller, but actually reducting the productive penile length. In persons where that is the case, you can usually push against the perceived base of the penis (at the “top”) and push away the fat to reveal another 1-3 inches of penis that have never known a woman.
So basically, what you’re saying is that those “giant baby” types are probably men who were exposed as children to high levels of estrogen or environmental estrogen-like molecules (such as those present in soy and resulting from the breakdown of certain plastics), and that this caused both a higher fat level and retarded penile development. That certainly makes sense, and also explains their odd softness.
I haven’t measured mine, but I’m pretty sure I’m very average in length. I was shocked by your figure for average circumference, though. Even if your figures are for the head and not the shaft, mine must be pretty skinny. (Goes with the rest of my body, I guess.)
I haven’t seen a lot of porno, but I have seen a video with a girl whose clitoris was completely uncovered. It looked very dick-like. She had small labia, too, and a very flat chest (but with long, pointy nipples). I don’t know if these features were related, but I’m guessing they were. I really don’t think she was a transsexual– surely, any surgeon would’ve tried to make her genitalia more traditionally feminine than that.
I thought the descriptions of size and variation of both sexes’ genitals in Mary Roach’s book “Bonk” were pretty interesting. There’s also a lot of stuff on Masters and Johnson’s research, and, interestingly, a bit based on some of the observations of Marie Bonaparte (now there was a well-adjusted courtesan of sorts!) on the correlation between ability to achieve orgasm through vaginal penetration and the distance between the urethral opening and the clitoris. The closer the clitoris to the urethra, the more likely a woman will be able to achieve climax through vaginal intercourse. (I was not in a position to verify this in my limited experience prior to marrying, not having heard of the theory until sometime last year.)
Have you ever read it?
I’ve not ever read that before, but it’s certainly interesting. I suspect there’s an inverse correlation between size of the external clitoris and the ability to achieve orgasm only through intercourse, because the less of it shows the closer the other end is to the anterior vaginal wall.
“The average erect human penis is 14 cm long, and the great majority of men fall between 10.7 cm and 19.1 cm; it is 12.3 cm in circumference, with the majority falling between 11 and 13.6 cm.”
Maggie, I just discovered your blog and I LOVE it! Intend to wander through the archives. Should keep me busy for a while.
Here’s a question for you: Do you know if the average length measurements quoted above are bone pressed or non-bone pressed?
Also, here are a couple of links on the topic I’d appreciate you commenting on when you have an opportunity. Thank you.
Here are the links:
http://www.mraverage.com/results.htm
http://www.penissizedebate.com/
Thanks once again.
I’m not sure what you mean by bone-pressed.
Bone pressed means measuring by pressing the ruler back to the pubic bone. As opposed to non-bone pressed which measures from the surface of the lower abdomen, where the penis attaches to the body.
My sources didn’t specify, but I strongly suspect if they intended some special technique they would have described it.
Thanks Maggie, this was a very interesting article. I was wondering about a couple other things. What was the thickest penis you saw and at what thickness did sex become painful? Also, was there a length or thickness of penis beyond which most escorts would not have sex?
I never encountered one I could not accept because of thickness, and I honestly don’t think very many escorts have, either; the vagina is elastic enough to allow a baby’s head through, and there’s no penis remotely close to that in diameter. There is a common male myth that a lot of sex can make a woman loose, but this is pure, unadulterated nonsense; only childbirth can do that. Excessive length is a problem because it can “bottom out” against the cervix, but in that case a thin penis is worse than a thick one because it allows the head to ram harder against the sensitive tissues, whereas a thick one will be slowed down by friction.
I’ve heard that this “bottoming out” is painful, while some women seem to find it merely “uncomfortable.” I’ve heard that some like it, but I don’t know if that’s true. I suppose that everything is liked by someone.
Hello Maggie,
Given your vast knowledge, would you care to offer some advice for the smaller-than-average men married to larger-than-average women?
Between oral, manual and toys, we have different ways of giving each other satisfaction, but sometimes I’d wish we could make the good old-fashioned penetration work for us.
I think we’ll try your “knees towards tits” position. Do you have other suggestions?
Thanks.
Woman on top is good for men with smaller penises, and also allows for manual clitoral stimulation. Knees alongside tits is good as well, and rear-entry (“doggie style”) can be, with one caveat: it won’t work well if the woman is generously endowed in the derriere. This can be mitigated somewhat if she is flexible and can get on her knees while pressing her bosom as flat against the mattress as she can; it also helps if the man crouches to penetrate instead of getting on his knees. And of course, there’s also anal sex; a smaller penis is actually an advantage in that activity.
Wow, that was fast!
Thanks again!
well i was born with pretty servere hypospadias, about 8 cm erect, even though i am above 5cm, as stated in the article, penetration can be difficult
i really enjoyed reading this article
oh, and i am a pretty thin guy too
hello maggie, here is a question for you, if i measure from my testicles to the tip of my penis (bottomside) when erect i am about 6 cm, but if i measure from my abdomen to the tipof my penis (topside) it is about 8, does that make sense? so how large would you say i am, are you familiar with hypospadias?
thanks