# Men, ever seen a guy harassed about his penis in the toilet/showers? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 26, 2012, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-ever-seen-a-guy-harassed-about-his-penis-in-the-toilet-showers/610681 "2012-01-26T04:23:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-ever-seen-a-guy-harassed-about-his-penis-in-the-toilet-showers/610681/41 "2012-01-27T18:49:05Z")
I have never seen or experienced this directly. However, in about 1982 I was a counselor at a day camp where the kids had regular swimming lessons. They changed into their swimsuits in a large communal locker room; I had them use lockers that were all in two adjoining rows for crowd control purposes. About halfway through the summer one boy’s parents came to me and asked me very politely if I would mind changing their son’s locker to a row apart from the other boys. “He’s getting some teasing,” they said. I told them that was just fine, that I certainly didn’t want anybody to be teased, but I must have looked a bit confused. “He’s not circumcised,” the father explained. “Ah,” I said. I hadn’t seen it, but who was I to doubt it? Anyhow, I moved him, and there were no further problems. Other possibly useful details: This was in the US. The kids had just finished first or second grade, so we’re talking about 7 or 8, so young. The boy’s parents were of Italian origin–not sure if the boy had been born in the US or not. He was well liked by the other kids, and I certainly never saw any behaviors that made him an obvious target of teasing. The window of opportunity for the boys to look at other kids’ genitals was small; back when I had been a camper (same camp) we had lined up naked and walked through the showers naked before putting on our swimsuits, but times had changed and by '82 the kids simply took off their clothes at their lockers and immediately put on their swimsuits. As I said, I never saw it happen, and I don’t think anything that happened was traumatizing. But it’s a data point. ---
**Author:** ![Upsurd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/71e660/32.png) [@Upsurd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Upsurd)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-ever-seen-a-guy-harassed-about-his-penis-in-the-toilet-showers/610681/42 "2012-01-27T18:52:02Z")
To me it has never happened, that’s all I can say. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-ever-seen-a-guy-harassed-about-his-penis-in-the-toilet-showers/610681/43 "2012-01-28T00:37:08Z")
As more evidence that straight guys generally don’t pay much attention to other guys’ penises, I give you this story. I don’t remember exactly how the topic came up but my housemate mentioned having a birthmark on his penis, describing it as ring shaped. I had to point out to him that all cut guys have that - it’s the circumcision scar. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-ever-seen-a-guy-harassed-about-his-penis-in-the-toilet-showers/610681/44 "2012-01-28T01:42:39Z")
I have been showering at gyms since the 70’s. Never seen a person openly mocked or even commented about for a small penis. There was occasionally some muttering about some very large members, but is was in no way mocking. [Goodfellas] It was outta _respect_.[\Goodfellas] ---
**Author:** ![PaulParkhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@PaulParkhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaulParkhead)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-ever-seen-a-guy-harassed-about-his-penis-in-the-toilet-showers/610681/45 "2012-01-28T02:25:29Z")
> [@Dinnerz](#): > > In the U.K it’s opposite. Uncircumcised is the norm here. I do recall the instance of one classmate getting a few jabs for being circumcised. Years down the line, all of which bringing intense pain for me due to a tight foreskin i decided to get circumcised - this being one the best decisions i have made. But it was this that made think “Why is it the opposite in America?” …can anyone answer that? My experience in the UK (secondary school from 1984-1990) is similar to yours: only the circumcised kids ever got made fun of. Of course, I was never actually in a communal shower with the kids who got this abuse - there were only a couple of them and they weren’t in my PE class. So that lends more weight to the theory that these things are passed around by gossip and rumour. When you ask “Why is it the opposite in America?”, do you mean “Why do uncut guys get abuse?” Presumably because most American boys are cut. If you mean “Why are most American boys cut, and most British boys uncut?” well, I don’t know. I’d do some googling on the subject and post the results, but I don’t want to risk being the one who kicks off a circumcision debate here. The results are never pretty. ---
**Author:** ![wheresmymind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/91b2a8/32.png) [@wheresmymind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wheresmymind)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-ever-seen-a-guy-harassed-about-his-penis-in-the-toilet-showers/610681/46 "2012-01-28T05:46:52Z")
Maybe that was a problem 30 years ago, but communal showers in middle school/high school are pretty much a thing of the past nowadays. I’m pretty sure more and more boys are being left uncut, so it should be less of an issue in the future. It’s pretty weak argument at best anyway. Even if it was sure to invite teasing, teenagers get made fun of for EVERYTHING. Their clothes, face, hair, body, mom… Sometimes for fun, sometimes not. Throwing one more thing in there isn’t going to cripple them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-ever-seen-a-guy-harassed-about-his-penis-in-the-toilet-showers/610681.md?page=2)