Research on Women’s Attitudes About Penis Size

With all this emphasis on the importance of penis size to men, the voices of women have been neglected. One study found that self-reported sexual arousal did not differ among college women who read a vignette about sexual activity with a man whose penis was described as being 3, 5, or 8 in. long. Needless to say, however, textual descriptions likely have less influence on arousal than visual images or real life encounters.
In another study women were asked about the importance of two aspects of penis size: length and girth. Only 21% rated length as important, whereas 33% rated girth as important.Absent from past research is information about how women perceive their partner’s penis size and whether they are satisfied with the size of their partner’s penis. If the vast majority of women are satisfied with their partner’s penis size, then many men may be worrying needlessly about the size of their penis.

Goals of Present Study
A recent large-scale survey about body image among more than 50,000 heterosexual men and women, ages 18–65, provided an opportunity to examine men’s perceptions of their own penis as well as women’s perceptions of their partner’s penis. Our analyses had four main goals.
1. Self-reported penis size and penis size satisfaction. The first goal of this study was to assess how men view their penis size in a larger and diverse sample of adults. Second, we examined how self-reported penis size relates to penis size satisfaction. We predicted that men who rate their penis as small would be less satisfied with their penis size than men reporting an average penis, and that men who reported an average penis would be less satisfied than those reporting a large penis. We also investigated how three other physical attributes— height,body fat level, and age—related to men’s beliefs about their penis size. Consistent with past research, we hypothesized that taller and thinner men would be more likely to report a larger penis size, but that there would be no age differences in reported penis size.

2. Men’s attitudes toward penis size and body exposure concerns. A second goal was to investigate how negative attitudes about penis size might relate to self-consciousness during sexual activity. Do men’s concerns with penis size relate to their comfort with exposing their bodies to a romantic partner? We hypothesized that men who reported a small penis and men who were not satisfied with their penis size would be less willing to undress in front of their partners and more likely hide their penis from their partners during sexual activity.
3. Penis size and overall body satisfaction. If men believe that a large penis is the cultural ideal, self-perceived penis size may relate to men’s perception of their general physical attractiveness.Men with a larger-than-average penis may experience a confidence effect that might lead them to rate their body more positively,not only on general measures of body image but also on attributes such as facial attractiveness that are seemingly unrelated to penis size. Conversely, men with a small penis may experience an insecurity effect that might lead them to rate their body and face less favorably.Thus, we predicted that men reporting a PENIS SIZE SATISFACTION 131larger-than-average penis size would rate themselves most positively on body image and facial attractiveness.

4. Women’s satisfaction with their partner’s penis size. A final goal was to provide a careful examination of women’s perceptions of their partner’s penis size among a large sample of women of differing ages. In addition, past research has not examined how women’s assessment of their partner’s penis size is related to their satisfaction with their partner’s penis size.Consistent with prior research, we predicted that women would report being satisfied with their partner’s penis size whether they considered it to be average or larger than average;however, in contrast to the vignette study finding that men with small penises were as arousing as men with average or large penises we predicted that women who consider their partner to be smaller than average would be dissatisfied with their partner’s penis size.