The Penis: Fun Facts, Photos and More

It's Movember and our thoughts turn to men's health, suicide prevention, the prostate and, of course, the penis. So ... if you've ever had burning questions here's your chance to delve into the meat and potatoes of this fascinating topic.

The Penis Book: A Doctor's Complete Guide to the Penis--From Size to Function and Everything in Between

"This is the comprehensive guide to everything you need to know about the penis, for men and women alike. Written by Dr. Aaron Spitz, this book is full of in-depth information, expert medical advice, and even humour to put the reader at ease. In addition to information on everything from sexually transmitted infections to the science of blood flow, Dr. Spitz presents an easy-to-follow five-step plan for holistic penis health, including advice on eating a plant-based diet, meditation, and heart-healthy workouts."

Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That?: And Other Reflections on Being Human



"Why do testicles hang the way they do? Is there an adaptive function to the female orgasm? What does it feel like to want to kill yourself? Does "free will" really exist? And why is the penis shaped like that anyway? In Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That?, the research psychologist and award-winning columnist Jesse Bering features more than thirty of his most popular essays from Scientific American and Slate, as well as two new pieces, that take readers on a bold and captivating journey through some of the most taboo issues related to evolution and human behavior."





The Penis Book

"Think you know everything about penises? Bet you don’t know what hospitals do with foreskins after they’ve been snipped away. How fortunes were made in the war against wet dreams. The one song you should never whistle at a urinal. Or the woes of working on a “hopping penis” assembly line." If you like this one you may also enjoy Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint.





The Final Member (DVD)

"Thirty miles from the Arctic Circle, in the town of Husavik, stands the Icelandic Phallological Museum, the world's only Penis museum. Over 40 years, the founder and curator has collected every specimen from every mammal except for one elusive penis needed to complete his collection. The film follows the curator's incredible, sublimely comic, often shocking quest to complete his eccentric collection, and the two intrepid men who have raised their hands to be the first human donor."





How's It Hanging? Expert Answers to the Questions Men Don't Always Ask

"An easy-to-read guide to men's health written by two doctors who have decades of clinical experience treating sexual problems, prostate problems, urinary leakage, pelvic pain, urinary tract infections, and questions about infertility. They have seen countless male patients describe the problem simply as "something's not right down there," either because they are embarrassed about the issues or unaware of them. Fifty percent of men will have one or more of the conditions discussed in this book during their lifetime."

God's Doodle: The Life and Times of the Penis

"Throughout history man has revered his penis as his 'most precious ornament'. Yet, ambivalently, his penis has always been the source of man's deepest neuroses too. 'God's Doodle' is the tale of the penis and the ups and downs of history, distilled from myth, world cultures, religion, literature, science, medicine and contemporary life."

Skin Flutes & Velvet Gloves: A Collection of Facts and Fancies, Legends and Oddities About the Body's Private Parts

"With over twenty years of experience as a sex educator and sex therapist, Dr. Terri Hamilton brings you this detailed look at everything you wanted to know about male and female 'private parts' and didn't even know to ask. In chapters such as "A Hose by Any Other Name" she examines historical and psychological perspectives on genital nomenclature and presents over 500 common - and not so common - nicknames. Dr. Hamilton also peers into a Pandora's Box of sexual scandals, untangles the mystery of pubic hair, tells tales of size and sighs, secrets and secretions, folklore and fertility rituals, and unveils the genital origins of numerous modern day social customs."

Manhood: The Rise and Fall of the Penis

"In Manhood, experienced urologist and sexologist Mels van Driel offers an unprecedented history of the penis--with answers to everything you wanted to know, and even some questions you'd never thought to ask. Investigating the penis and its functions, van Driel's work ranges from impotence to the speed of ejaculation, and from inguinal hernia to infertility." See also Van Driel's other book With the Hand: A Cultural History of Masturbation.

A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis

Cultural Encyclopedia of the Penis

"Peter. Pecker. Wiener. Dick. Schlong. Penis. Whatever we choose to call it, the penis is more than just a body part. This A-to-Z encyclopedia explores the cultural meanings, interpretations, and activities associated with the penis over the centuries and across cultures. Scholars, activists, researchers and clinicians delve into the penis in antiquity, in art, in religion, in politics, in media, in music, and in the cultural imagination. They examine the penis as a problem, a fetishized commodity, a weapon, an object of play."

Happy Down Below: Everything You Want to Know About the Penis and Other Bits

"Dr. Oliver Gralla provides a clever and highly entertaining remedy to that situation. Packed with colorful anecdotes and quirky illustrations, this cheeky guidebook offers practical tips and clear, accessible explanations for helping men (and women) better understand the male body, learn to care for it, and become more comfortable speaking about it with their doctors when things go wrong. With plenty of relatable metaphors, and a light, conversational tone, Dr. Gralla provides simple, research-based answers to questions such as: Do male enhancement pills actually work? Why does erectile dysfunction happen, and how is it treated? What is a "normal" penis-and how big is it really?"

Out in the Open: The Complete Male Pelvis

"Focusing on pelvic structure and development, the book explains how male sexuality develops throughout a man's life-from birth onwards. An experienced Rolfer with an academic background in physiology, the late author R. Louis Schultz, PhD, offers the fruits of his wisdom gleaned over the course of his twenty-five year bodywork career. A valuable guide for bodyworkers and laypeople alike, the book addresses such topics as - genital structure - bodywork techniques to treat pelvic tightness - erection, masturbation, and ejaculation - the link between emotion and male sexuality and sexual stereotypes and myths."

Thomas Joseph Enright 25 was Maple Leaf Garden's first streaker in 1980. Toronto Star Photograph Archive

Art, Photography and Drawing:

Drawing the Male Nude

"Giovanni Civardi has built a reputation for his skills as an artist and teacher and here he provides a unique introduction to drawing the male nude. This books provides a large collection of images that illustrate the shape and form of the male body in a variety of postures, accompanied by clarifying notes and stage-by-stage demonstrations for you to follow." See also the work of Gottfried Bammes Complete guide to life drawing.



Don Bachardy: Nudes

"In early 2002, the renowned Santa Monica-based portraitist Don Bachardy (born 1934) was commissioned to draw a different nude from life every day. For the next two years, Bachardy created thousands of images and a body of work that reflects a lifetime of observing, depicting and processing the human male form, to which his numerous previous publications are testimony."

George Platt Lynes: The Male Nudes

"The elegant male nude photographs of George Platt Lynes, many never before published, from a newly discovered archive of negatives. George Platt Lynes was the preeminent celebrity portraitist of his day ... But he also produced a separate body of work, kept largely hidden during his lifetime: photographs of the male nude. Many of these photos were shot in the studio and, like his fashion and dance work, were painstakingly posed and lit." See also Uncovered: Rare Vintage Male Nudes.

Attila Richard Lukacs from the Collection of Salah J. Bachir

"Attila Richard Lukacs was catapulted to international attention in the early 1990s for his monumental, sexually charged canvases drawing on the traditions of European history painting. His large-scale paintings and, in particular, his provocative treatment of the male nude added an element of notoriety to his critically-designated status as a contemporary master of figurative art. More recently, Lukacs has exhibited an extraordinary series of Polaroid photographic studies of the numerous studio models that have informed these very works."

Naked Men: Pioneering Male Nudes 1935-1955

"This extraordinary book documents a fascinating moment in the history of American culture--a period in the 1930's, 40's, and 50's that gave birth to new notions of male beauty and desire, and to a new type of male icon. Long before Stonewall and the gay pride movement, there was a small group of daring men--both photographers and the models who sat for them--who helped pave the way for male sexual liberation." See also Naked Men, Too: Liberating the Male Nude, 1950-2000 and Male Bodies: A Photographic History of the Nude.

Male Desire: The Homoerotic in American Art

"Examining the history of homoeroticism in American art, Male Desire surveys how the male body has been portrayed for the last century and a half. From the academic-style paintings of Thomas Eakins in the 19th century to Félix González-Torres's conceptual works in the "age of AIDS," this fascinating book by the well-known art historian Jonathan Weinberg highlights specific artists while illuminating the artistic and cultural contexts in which they worked. Accompanying Weinberg's engaging text are 170 compelling images of the male physique."

Additional titles:





Nude Men: From 1800 to the Present Day

"This exploration includes glimpses into the life-drawing classes of European art academies, representations of men during the time of the French Revolution, "Sturm und Drang" and late Impressionism. It also offers examples of 20th century art. Egon Schiele and Richard Gerstl are the key representatives of radical self-observation in the mirror of the naked self. However, this volume also presents artists such as Jean Cocteau, Antonio Canova, Johann Heinrich Füssli, David Hockney, Ferdinand Hodler, Edvard Munch, Auguste Rodin, Andy Warhol, Nan Goldin and Louise Bourgeois."

Paul Cadmus: The Male Nude

An American master studies the male form.