For many US office workers, the day begins with deleting spam. These days, a lot of electronic junk mail hits below the belt by seeking to profit from many men's deepest fear -- that their penises are too small.
From the vague "Expand your horizons" to the blunt "Want to increase your penis size?" the hard sell of penis-enlargement products plays on men's insecurity, experts say.
Virtually anyone with an e-mail address is bombarded daily with messages touting penis pills, herbal supplements and the latest rage, penis patches, all with the same inflated promise that they will enlarge a man's sexual organ.
Herbal supplements marketed as "penis pills," which contain ingredients ranging from soy protein and damiana leaf to ginkgo biloba and ginseng root, and dermal applications like the "penis patch," claim to be capable of lengthening men's penises by up to 10cm in as many months.
But no peer-reviewed studies comparing men who used the products to a placebo group have ever been conducted. Since the products have disclaimers stating they are not intended to treat medical problems, they fall outside the US regulatory process. The Federal Trade Commission says there is no evidence the products have any effect.
Psychiatrists say the marketers sending out such messages are hoping to take advantage of a primal obsession.
"The penis is a primary symbol of male sexuality and dominance," said Dr. Frank Muscarella, a clinical and evolutionary psychiatrist at Barry University in Miami Shores, Florida.
Muscarella, co-author of Psychological Perspectives on Human Sexuality, said the size of a man's penis "is indicative of masculinity, prowess and dominance."
Big is best?
"On a psychological level, men buy into that. And even if they don't, advertising does," he added, citing a recent truck billboard that showed a sexy cowboy crouching with a pick-up between his legs.
Muscarella said men tend to focus on the more "concrete" aspects of sexual attributes like shape, form and size. He likened it to the male attraction to, and often obsession with, women's breasts.
An obsession with penis size is not a uniquely US phenomenon, said Virginia Sadock, a psychiatrist at New York University Medical Center.
"This is not limited to the United States by any means," Sadock said, noting that in Japan there is a condition known as "koro," in which a man suffers from delusions that his penis is actually shrinking back into his stomach.
And Muscarella said that the French are known for trading rumors about men with small penises, often accompanied by jokes and derision. At the heart of the problem, Sadock said, is that since men don't see many penises other than their own, they have little basis for comparison.
The exception, she said, is pornography, which gay men view more that straight men. And comparing one's penis size to a porn star's could lead even a well-endowed man to feel inadequate.
So perhaps it's not surprising that New York's gay community self-help arena has expanded beyond problems such as alcoholism and over eating to the affliction of a small penis.
"What is Small, Anyway," is the working name of a support group in Greenwich Village, which acts as a safe haven for gay men who have small penises, or feel as though they do.
Participants complain about a gay community in which men brag about being bigger than they are and a country where big is king. Like at other support groups, most in this group are grateful just to be in a room together with people trying to confront the same problem.
Quick relief
A slim man with reddish hair told a recent meeting that he is made to feel he doesn't measure up. "In our community the idea of what's average [size] is very distorted," he said.
Purveyors of the products insist they have received more than 90 million orders but are notoriously hard to track down or even identify, and typically they refuse to speak to reporters when found.
According to Wired magazine, some 6,000 people ordered pills from Goringly.biz through the Amazing Internet Products Web site over a four-week period, spending on average US$100 each for two bottles. Wired traced the ownership of AIP to a 19-year-old New Hampshire chess whiz, Braden Bournival, who shied away from a reporter for the magazine who approached him at a chess tournament last summer.
Relief from the barrage of spam may yet be in sight however after Congress passed a law aimed at sharply restricting unsolicited e-mail ads.
In the March 9 edition of the Taipei Times a piece by Ninon Godefroy ran with the headine “The quiet, gentle rhythm of Taiwan.” It started with the line “Taiwan is a small, humble place. There is no Eiffel Tower, no pyramids — no singular attraction that draws the world’s attention.” I laughed out loud at that. This was out of no disrespect for the author or the piece, which made some interesting analogies and good points about how both Din Tai Fung’s and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) meticulous attention to detail and quality are not quite up to
April 28 to May 4 During the Japanese colonial era, a city’s “first” high school typically served Japanese students, while Taiwanese attended the “second” high school. Only in Taichung was this reversed. That’s because when Taichung First High School opened its doors on May 1, 1915 to serve Taiwanese students who were previously barred from secondary education, it was the only high school in town. Former principal Hideo Azukisawa threatened to quit when the government in 1922 attempted to transfer the “first” designation to a new local high school for Japanese students, leading to this unusual situation. Prior to the Taichung First
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) hatched a bold plan to charge forward and seize the initiative when he held a protest in front of the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office. Though risky, because illegal, its success would help tackle at least six problems facing both himself and the KMT. What he did not see coming was Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (將萬安) tripping him up out of the gate. In spite of Chu being the most consequential and successful KMT chairman since the early 2010s — arguably saving the party from financial ruin and restoring its electoral viability —
The Ministry of Education last month proposed a nationwide ban on mobile devices in schools, aiming to curb concerns over student phone addiction. Under the revised regulation, which will take effect in August, teachers and schools will be required to collect mobile devices — including phones, laptops and wearables devices — for safekeeping during school hours, unless they are being used for educational purposes. For Chang Fong-ching (張鳳琴), the ban will have a positive impact. “It’s a good move,” says the professor in the department of
RSS