This is inspired by numerous, numerous mentions by parents and others that one reason to have their child circumcised is to avoid harassment or ridicule when other guy see his penis in the toilet or communal showers.
My own experience tells me this is total bullshit, the number one rule of male toilets and communal showers is to mind your own business. To comment even jokingly on another man’s genitals, or to be noticed staring at him, would be the faux pas equivalent of loudly farting in court. If you don’t mind the risk of getting into a fight and are male try it out, go to a gym or public pool and start staring at men showering or commenting about their junk, I am not responsible for your safety BTW
The only way I could see it happening at all is friends giving each other shit, again friends who know each other and are joking.
This has been my experience from middleschool on(age 13 and up) in younger grades there were no trough urinals or communal showers.
I’ve never seen or experienced this in my life, in the restroom, locker room, or anywhere else. I always hear people bring it up, when discussing circumcision, but I absolutely cannot fathom any male making fun of another male’s foreskin.
Communal showers are becoming a thing of the past anyway, aren’t they? It’s pretty easy to be a guy these days and never have other guys see your penis (except perhaps a medical doctor), and never see anyone else’s penis. That’s been my experience, anyway.
At high school, about size. There was an obese kid at school (who I later learned died of a heart attack aged 22) who appeared also to have micropenis and was the subject of the most horrendous mocking ever. Poor bastard. What an awful life.
As a British kid at elementary school in the US, aged seven, I once caught sight of a classmate’s micky at the urinal and was amazed to see that he wasn’t circumcised either, unlike everyone else. I remember we had a conversation about it. I never got mocked for my uncut state though and I never felt bad about it.
I’m 28 and my impression going through middle/high school in the US was that communal showers were old fashioned and on the way out. They were there but were used mostly by guys playing sports, those only going to PE/gym would not shower usually(or shower with swim trunks on).
OK, actually, here’s an interesting story from high school. As a freshman, I was on the wrestling team, and we all showered after practice in the locker room (which was pretty small.) Almost everyone showered nude. I never heard anyone comment on anyone else’s peter. But there was this one guy who rarely showered (after practice, I mean) and when he did, wore underwear. Nobody ever mentioned it to his face, but a rumor began to circulate that he had a hooked penis. Apparently a girl had sucked his dick, and she told someone that it was hooked. All of us found out, and would joke about it (when he wasn’t around.) Sometimes we referred to him as “Captain Hook.” We always teased him about a bunch of other stuff, but never about the dick.
To this day, I wonder if it was really hooked, or if it was simply curved upwards the way some guy’s dicks are when they’re hard, and maybe this girl had just never seen a hard dick before and thought that it was “supposed to be” perfectly straight or something. That, combined with his modesty in the shower, = hooked penis rumor.
My junior high boyfriend was an extremely geeky kid who was nicknamed “Donk” by the other guys. I later found out that it was short for “Donkey Dick,” because he was apparently quite well endowed (which I can’t confirm, we never got past side boob groping during slow dances). So sometimes it happens, I guess.
My guess is that any mocking wouldn’t be done while in the locker room, but would, as has been mentioned elsewhere in this thread, be done by the chattering rumor-mongers around school. It wouldn’t be blatant “haha, look at your nasty cock,” but would get back to him in subtle jabs here and there. That’s how a lot of school-age mocking seems to take place.
When communal showers were the norm, the guy with the smallest penis in town was known and often picked on. Now without communal showering being as common, is there more widespread self-doubt of every guy thinking he has the smallest penis in town?
Only junior high (8th grade). One guy named Bob seemed to always get an erection in the showers which earned him the nickname “Boner Bob”.
We were all, what, 14 years of age?
Another kid hadn’t gotten his pubes yet and he was teased often.
In the olden days, when I went to school (11970 or so), 8th - 12th were considered high school. When I was in 8th grade we had gym at the same time as some 12th graders and I can remember some cruel taunting and what would be considered abuse today, like hard towel snapping and shoving into lockers and worse. I can’t remember any comments about penis size or shape though. Every guy knews the thing grows and shrinks.
I don’t buy this at all. In the kind of culture where people will shout to a crowd at the top of their lungs “Hey look at this, Mark’s got a tiny little dick hahahahaha!!!”, why would someone’s circumcision status be something only to be spoken about in whispers?
FWIW, as a pediatrician I get that concerned expressed by quite a few Moms-to-be while they are deciding whether or not to circ … usually ones considering not circing but worried that he’ll be teased. They are generally reassured to hear that such teasing does not really happen so much and then go with their decision to not have their boy circumcised.
My take on it is that any boy teasing must admit to having taken the effort to look and notice the other boys penises and few boys want to deal with the “what’s up with you being so interested in my penis (or whatever slang they choose to use)?” question. Sometimes a little homophobia is not too bad a thing.
BTW called “Horse” growing up … but for other reasons!
I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s when communal showers after gym and sports were still the rule. I also served in the army where virtually everything was communal during basic training. Commenting on another guy’s peepee, whether positively or negatively, would have immediately got one labeled as a “fag.” Other physical characteristics were fair game, to be sure. It was the rare fat kid who didn’t get mocked for having boobs.
This, IME, is more common. Where men are lauded for having bigger packages rather than humiliated for small or uncut packages. Otherwise, as already stated, looking or talking about another dude’s package in the shower/locker room is a major social taboo.
How can you know he’s really the smallest when you’re judging males on flacid pensis. Some guys have antenna dicks, others just stiffen from their placcid state.
I am bi-sexual and have spent time in many gyms and quite some time in prison. I have seen so many cocks. I have showered and dresses and lived with nude males in close quarters.
Commenting on others is almost completely unheard of in public. It happens but is unusual. Friends on the other hand if they are the type to undress in front of each other privately may make a few more comments and some light jabbing but nothing more harmfull than other types of joking and poking fun.
That being said there is occasional outliers that will get mentioned or nicknamed but never just for being uncut. there has to be something else going on.
