READERS are blowing up the tip line asking us to cover the story below. Here’s a sampler:
- “Where to even start?”
- “I think the title says enough”
- “I think this one is fairly obvious”
- “interesting/ridiculous contrasts between public health awareness vs. outrageous journalism”
- “I think it’s pretty self-explanatory why this is interesting. Scientific fact? Post-colonial subjugation through emasculation? What do desi women (or gay men) think?”
You asked for it. And here it is, via the BBC:
A survey of more than 1,000 men in India has concluded that condoms made according to international sizes are too large for a majority of Indian men. …
Over 1,200 volunteers from the length and breadth of the country had their penises measured precisely, down to the last millimetre.
The scientists even checked their sample was representative of India as a whole in terms of class, religion and urban and rural dwellers.
The conclusion of all this scientific endeavour is that about 60% of Indian men have penises which are between three and five centimetres shorter than international standards used in condom manufacture.
This news is the top item in William Saletan’s science round-up this morning in Slate, which offers a translation of the key finding for any macacas that aren’t down with the metric system:
Thirty percent of Indian men are 1 inch short, and another 30 percent are 2 inches short.
Cue up another round of outrage, snark, statistics, exotification and sundry manifestations of sexual anxiety. As you can see, two of the tipsters left comments questioning the reporting of this story. Media hype? Colonial plot? Lou Dobbs?
Speaking of sexual anxiety: For those of you who read this site because you are considering becoming involved with a diasporic macaca, I would caution that you not jump to any conclusions about his member until you’ve had a chance to inspect it for yourself. Emigration leads to changes in diet and other health factors, which results in changes in body type. Just because your macaca’s grandpapa might have had a teeny weeny doesn’t mean your wholesome, corn fed, suburban cul-de-sac raised American desi shares the predicament. Whew!
Discuss. [Previous Sepia jimmyhat analysis here.]
Phew, looks like I don’t need to buy me a Hummer.
This is my logic: * General nutrition has a important part to in human development. * Since 35-40%of the people in India live in poverty ** Assumption, people in poverty tend to be malnourished Question: How malnourished do people have to be before things are under developed Even if there is some affect, this would skew the real average compared to the theoretical average. etc etc etc What is the median?
I think there is a case to be made that this can’t be generalized to all south asian and is specific to India for the above logic. Perhaps this is a vain attempt .. haha
ovaltine, why don’t see survey the local ladies with some N > 10 under their belt?
i think that the govt. of india should get the best statisticians we have (and we have many) hire a A-1 lobby group and put a spin on this and set the record straight. this is too wierd — all of a sudden we’re a nuclear capable nation with small dicks. maybe we have the deepest yoni’s? come on we need something!
Siddharta said
I had a pony like that. In Delhi.
or, we could survey the dudes and renormalize by dividing by 3.
i’ll go first, i have a 21 inch cock.
I could write, oh I don’t know, 55 55’s on bad-soft-bookporn today. This discussion is such a fertile ground for all the bad puns that I have kept under the covers for the eight years since high school.
What’s with all the Indo-centric comments? Shouldn’t it be South Asian men? There’s a topic that people can discuss across borders. Or does a Punjabi from Pakistan feel he is in a better position than a Punjabi from India?
Or does a Punjabi from Pakistan feel he is in a better position than a Punjabi from India?
foreskin counts, so don’t count on it.
PLEASE PLEASE say it ain’t so!
Excellent question. Research must be conducted immediately. Either Sin or I will get right on that.
dont know about kama raja – but the surgical technique involves minor nip and tucks and hanging a heavy object from the penis 24/7. it sounds quite horrible – and imagine going through airport security like that. also, people who need help getting it up, get surgery to put a little balloon in there which inflates the organ to turgidity so the man can get it on and feel like a smiteful man.
ultimately, i think the point is.. the penis is not really a sexual organ – as long as there is the appearance of festivities, it doesnt matter if there is procreation or not.
Everybody knows- Size don’t matter. It is all in the performance 😉
oh! CENTImeters. i misread that as millimeters.
i stand corrected.
The diminutive Punjabi penis is lamented in folksongs sung by Punjabi women; I’ve heard them at mehndhi parties too (Amitabh, back me up on this.) Given that Pakistanis are disproportionately Punjabi, I would say they are in the same boat as the rest of the brownz. I will not speak to the Bengali dick.
This sucks.
Not only are we among the hairiest guys around but now we’ll also be known as having small penises. Couple this with my extraordinarly long nose, and I’ve lost before the game even began!
🙁
race & penis size.
Good point. Maybe should even be limited to the area in Bombay and the class, religion and age of those men. With no evidence whatsoever, I sumbit that the sample included a disproportionate number of Hindu Gujjus from Byculla between the ages of 20.5-20.6 who suffered extra shrinkage from all that Bombay pollution. They have NOTHING (zip, zilch, nada) in common with us well-adjusted, well-fed, far-away Americans (not to speak of well-adjusted, well-fed, far-away Indians).
Let the furious differentiating begin. Screw all that South Asian unity garbage!
dude… most guys here have N>10 … at least those who hit the showers after gym… but that being said, i dont think i’ve seen 10 desi guys in the gym in all… hmmm?
or maybe your 21 incher is flat like a tapeworm and you keep it spooled up… har har har.
Forsake the Foreskin
“Not only are we among the hairiest guys around but now we’ll also be known as having small penises. Couple this with my extraordinarly long nose, and I’ve lost before the game even began!”
hey, napoleon was short and reputed to have a very small penis and he’s still a topic of conversation for other reasons, including bedding beautiful women. don’t despair 🙂
desitude said
Why not? Who is he and what hasn’t he done to you?
🙂
Not only are we among the hairiest guys around
No problem – I can vouch for this
;))
hmmm…maybe that’s why the kama sutra is from india, to compensate for other “short” comings??
not really. girls dont care about penises or what you look like. it’s what’s in your heart that matters. koff buy a lamborghini. Red. now. koff
p.s. i am enjoying this thread majorly. keep it up guys.
FYI. Many local brands used to import condoms from other Asian countries. Govt. heavily subsidized them. Hum do humare do and all that. It’s a family planning slogan for those not raised in desh.
Questions.
“The scientists even checked their sample was representative of India as a whole in terms of class, religion and urban and rural dwellers.”
“Over 1,200 volunteers from the length and breadth of the country had their penises measured precisely, down to the last millimetre.”
I admit I am terrible at math but isn’t India’s population around 1,103,371,000 and over 1,200 means what? Now the population being estimated around 1,103,371,000 obviosuly taking out women and children is there not still an extremely large adult male population? And could it not be possible that there is a generalization being made about the MAJORITY of Indian men? Or is there some sort of mathematical or statistical formula to calculate the penis size of the majorty of men using a sample size of say 5000 Indian adult males ? And does it account for a multitude of variables? Can anyone give some answers?
Enough with the length, can we move onto width/breadth/circumference now?
I just don’t know what to do with you people. Foreskin totally doesn’t count, the Punjoos are pretty decently hung, and most of the desi men I’ve been with tend to have been on the smaller side of my statistical sampling, but even there I’ve had some (un?)pleasant surprises. That is all. Anna and I will return with more in-depth (and lengthier) research later on.
I will not speak to the Bengali dick
I think one of my ex’s said that to me.
Years back when I was in India, I believe it was Mysore and I was visiting the Mysore Palace (hey I am a tourist) at one point I had to sit down and put on my shoes, which they made us take out (I hate that, even when I have to do it at peoples houses!) and some local, instead of going past me, stepped over me, I chose the worst moment to look up, he was wearing one of those skirt things, lets just say that it firstly scared my fragile 19 year old mind, soap people SOAP, and also it wasnÂ’t much to write home about.
What about the girth????????
A N N A, you are just digging yourself deeper
Findings may be average, but extremes are interesting too. If this dude knows what he is talking about: mumbai mirror (ask the sexperts)..there is hope for macacas!
ahhh here is the enrollment and the SOS of the study 🙂
“length and width of the male organ in different parts of the country could help bring down the 15-20% failure rate of condoms because of breakage or spillage”.
James, the original population size does not matter. The p-values (measures of how accurate the statistics are) depend mainly on the sample size, given that the population size is large enough. That said, the analysis is accurate for the bulk of the population if and only if the samples are chosen uniformly at random. The Bombay-bias is definitely an issue in this study. Kudos to the commenter for pointing that out.
If I were a manufacturer deciding on a one-size-fits-all condom size, I would pick a size to the right of the normal curve. So of course the condom would be larger than the average size (ahem) member.
oh my god… :-)) I have a friend who had EXACTLY the same experience. Except that he got a whiff as well – and he says he still has nightmares about that.
Desitude, I haven’t come across particular songs like that but I’m not surprised they exist…but all these “naughty” wedding songs are just meant to be kidding around (I think!).
and how is that a bad thing? DEEPER is good. if we can prove DEEPER, we debunk this entire clusterfuck. now hush, i am attempting to conduct very important research on punjabi males (indian ones–sin is on top of the pakistani punjabis) and i’m totally behind.
Oh Lord. Gawker is on the case now too. They are running an interview on member size with Ex-Intern Neel Shah. The terms “Taj Mahal” and “chutney bottle” are employed.
Funnily enough Anna, I’m totally behind the Punjabi males too. 😉
nice
ps. I am a punjabi male
it’s been my experience that lighter-skinned south asian men are more well-endowed than darker ones.
🙂 god, i’m regressing this friday afternoon… there are so many ways we can intrepret this.. thanks for the laughs.
it’s been my experience that lighter-skinned south asian men are more well-endowed than darker ones.
Troll alert!
Just to make sure that comment was for ANNA and not SIN..
whew!!
Not to worry. I’m also planning to be on top of this entire issue, even if that means I have to start with Former Gawker Intern Neel.
That actually means you’re a top.