LGBT Book & Video Blog

By David M. Friedman

This is a very interesting book, one of the more enjoyable reads in some time, that is if you don't mind reading about castration, lynchings and medical horrors. Friedman, a writer of some note, has developed a combination of science, history and mythology into a fairly comprehensive whole. He has divided the history of the penis into six eras, each with a humorous title descriptive of the era.

The first, "The Demon Rod", begins with a witch's burning for having had intercourse with the Devil. In rather gory detail, he often describes the horrors inflicted upon, or because of, a penis. He moves quickly to Bobbitt and Clinton, and reviews the way the penis has been made an evil thing, the cause of original sin and moral weakness. He defines the Virgin Mary's sanctity as her lack of contact with a penis. Reviewing mythology and history, he includes inscriptions on the walls of Karnak, circa 1200 BCE, listing the number of penises cut off various classes of prisoners, the use of circumcision for religious identification and purification, Augustine, and other Christian efforts to demonize male sexuality. Handbooks for confessors in 6th Century Ireland listed the length of penance for various sins, for example, seven years for premeditated murder, ten for coitus interruptus, fifteen for anal intercourse and life long for oral sex. The penis is worse than the poleaxe. There was one exception, the penis of Jesus. That Jesus was sinless and still had a penis proved that man could overcome his lust and live a pure life. In religious art of the 14th to 16th Century only Jesus was shown having genitalia, other men had them hidden. (The same is true today in the religious right's efforts to ban all nudity in any art, and our Attorney General's orders to cover the nude statues that often showed up behind him in press conferences.)

Chapter two is titled "The Gear Shift" and begins with Leonardo de Vinci's work on anatomy and art. He recorded in his famous notebooks more information on the male organ than any man had ever done before his time. He dissected many a corpse, and drew details previously unknown, but for unknown reasons added a duct for sperm from the spinal cord to the glans, consistent with the prevailing beliefs in the source of life. Man's relationship with his organ could be redefined scientifically, thus the shift. He draws his title from a quote from di Vinci: "Often a man is asleep and it is awake, and many times a man is awake and it is asleep. Many times a man wants to use it, and it does not want to; many times it wants to and man forbids it." Most men have found this to be true. Friedman continues this chapter with a discussion of the scientific understanding of the penis and semen through the 18th and 19th centuries. He covers the masturbation fears and attempts to defeat the desire to do so. More of this review by David S. Hall, Ph.D.