Got balls?
September 25, 2011 3:20 PM Subscribe
Are testicles underappreciated as sexual attributes?
Testicles seem to be an under-sexualized part of the male anatomy.
Is this true or is there actually pr0n out there with a lot of close ups of balls? Or something like slow motion shots of bouncing testicles.
I know having big balls is used as a metaphor for some kind of virile masculinity, but do people think of exceptionally large testicles this way?
I know they're homologous to labia, which no one really focuses much on either, but testicles are so much more prominent, you'd think they'd get more attention.
Plus they move and jiggle, kinda like breasts - and everyone loves those!
Testicles seem to be an under-sexualized part of the male anatomy.
Is this true or is there actually pr0n out there with a lot of close ups of balls? Or something like slow motion shots of bouncing testicles.
I know having big balls is used as a metaphor for some kind of virile masculinity, but do people think of exceptionally large testicles this way?
I know they're homologous to labia, which no one really focuses much on either, but testicles are so much more prominent, you'd think they'd get more attention.
Plus they move and jiggle, kinda like breasts - and everyone loves those!
there is an astronomical amount of porn that focuses on ball licking, sucking, fondling, restricting, and stomping. as for non-porn, "play with his balls" has been in the top 20 of cosmo style sex advice for decades.
posted by nadawi at 3:28 PM on September 25, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by nadawi at 3:28 PM on September 25, 2011 [3 favorites]
there is an astronomical amount of porn that focuses on ball licking, sucking, fondling, restricting, and stomping
This. The stomping in particular makes me cringe, but there must be a large market because they keep producing it.
And there's the subculture around ball-stretching (or ball-sack-stretching?), ball jewelry, ball weights, and those cute little ball cage things.
abirdinthehand
Epony-testicle?
posted by Forktine at 3:38 PM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
This. The stomping in particular makes me cringe, but there must be a large market because they keep producing it.
And there's the subculture around ball-stretching (or ball-sack-stretching?), ball jewelry, ball weights, and those cute little ball cage things.
abirdinthehand
Epony-testicle?
posted by Forktine at 3:38 PM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
i'm gonna go out on a limb and speculate that you're clearly not watching any gay porn. pretty much any of it. if you want straight stuff, i can't help you.
posted by patricking at 3:39 PM on September 25, 2011 [4 favorites]
posted by patricking at 3:39 PM on September 25, 2011 [4 favorites]
Response by poster: oh right, well the scrotum is homologous to labia, pardon me.
Yeah, I'm not really watching much porn of any kind- that's why I need to ask!
I'm more interested in the visual appreciation aspect itself. People want to see balls being licked or stomped or whatever, but do they look at that guy and think damn what a great set he's got? I guess I have to check out some gay porn.
posted by abirdinthehand at 4:33 PM on September 25, 2011
Yeah, I'm not really watching much porn of any kind- that's why I need to ask!
I'm more interested in the visual appreciation aspect itself. People want to see balls being licked or stomped or whatever, but do they look at that guy and think damn what a great set he's got? I guess I have to check out some gay porn.
posted by abirdinthehand at 4:33 PM on September 25, 2011
I think that.. there isn't visual appreciation for any of the boy bits, to be honest.
I've never had an instance, in any of my crushes where I thought to myself: "I wonder what he looks like down there. Are his balls pretty? I wish I could get a glimpse."
My mother once told me: Don't tell them [future boyfriends] this, because they want to think they're special.. but once you've seen one, you've seen them all.
It seems far more common, to me, that guys (even straight ones) are the ones who are interested in how their boy bits look when compared to female interest.
Why this is..? I'm not sure. From an evolutionary perspective.. the theory is that woman look for men who can hunt and protect.. and therefore pass that trait off onto their children. Your balls don't testify how good a hunter you are. (although your metaphorical balls might!)
posted by previously at 4:52 PM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
I've never had an instance, in any of my crushes where I thought to myself: "I wonder what he looks like down there. Are his balls pretty? I wish I could get a glimpse."
My mother once told me: Don't tell them [future boyfriends] this, because they want to think they're special.. but once you've seen one, you've seen them all.
It seems far more common, to me, that guys (even straight ones) are the ones who are interested in how their boy bits look when compared to female interest.
Why this is..? I'm not sure. From an evolutionary perspective.. the theory is that woman look for men who can hunt and protect.. and therefore pass that trait off onto their children. Your balls don't testify how good a hunter you are. (although your metaphorical balls might!)
posted by previously at 4:52 PM on September 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
i think we're socialized against appreciating men in the same sexual way women are focused on - but i think it's also a heavily individual thing. i can tell you in detail about the pretty and less pretty cocks and balls i've seen. i very much disagree with the once you've seen one thing. i do agree that there are probably more women who feel that way (they're all the same/not much to look at) than don't, but there are certainly those of us who are curious about what a man is packing when we're just crushing on them in the bar.
posted by nadawi at 4:59 PM on September 25, 2011 [4 favorites]
posted by nadawi at 4:59 PM on September 25, 2011 [4 favorites]
I remember the writer-in-residence when I was in college was this super-virile muscular bearded bear (sadly, straight, as far as anyone knew) and every once in a while I got to see him in sweatpants, and he had the most amazing package- big, beautiful bull balls. None of this silicone crap and no cockring to accentuate it. Just God's beautiful creation framed by the most perfect muscular thighs...
Um- what was your question?
posted by ethnomethodologist at 5:27 PM on September 25, 2011 [3 favorites]
Um- what was your question?
posted by ethnomethodologist at 5:27 PM on September 25, 2011 [3 favorites]
I've never had an instance, in any of my crushes where I thought to myself: "I wonder what he looks like down there. Are his balls pretty? I wish I could get a glimpse."
Ahem. Speak for yourself.
I'm a woman who likes packages, and I've never particularly understood why it's such a thing for women to talk about how ugly packages (and their various components) are. I have theories--it has to do with women's participation in the patriarchal objectification of other women--but that's really just agrope shot in the dark.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 5:38 PM on September 25, 2011 [7 favorites]
Ahem. Speak for yourself.
I'm a woman who likes packages, and I've never particularly understood why it's such a thing for women to talk about how ugly packages (and their various components) are. I have theories--it has to do with women's participation in the patriarchal objectification of other women--but that's really just a
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 5:38 PM on September 25, 2011 [7 favorites]
One of Norma Klein's protagonists describes how she likes the way her lover's swing...and muses that it's similar to the way straight men like to look at breasts.
posted by brujita at 5:58 PM on September 25, 2011
posted by brujita at 5:58 PM on September 25, 2011
I suspect the underappreciation of balls in a sexual context might have something to do with their overappreciation in a comedic context. Guys are always getting hit in the balls on TV and in movies, for a cheap laugh. Their hairy, schweddy, eaten-by-Mr.-T balls. And funny and sexy don't usually go well together.
posted by Metroid Baby at 6:41 PM on September 25, 2011
posted by Metroid Baby at 6:41 PM on September 25, 2011
This is kind of an odd question to me. All kinds of people find all kinds of things attractive. I don't know why balls would be an exception to that. I've got aesthetic preferences (who doesn't) but by the time I see what a guy has going on the question of attraction has already been settled. So it's not like it's something I can or would select for.
For me anyway, what's attractive is context dependent.
Does that help?
posted by Space Kitty at 6:55 PM on September 25, 2011
For me anyway, what's attractive is context dependent.
Does that help?
posted by Space Kitty at 6:55 PM on September 25, 2011
As a child, I remember deciding that those boy bits made boys' bodies awkward and simply not neat, as girls' bodies were. I was very glad to be a girl. I've not exactly changed my mind about this as the male and female bodies within my sphere of reference have matured. I've always thought women were better looking than men though I've only ever been in love with men. There were some wonderful men but none were not chosen for the appearance of their crotches.
The very best looking set of male bits I ever saw belonged to a troubled adolescent who made it a habit to slip into people's back gardens and expose himself and on the occasion it was my back garden he chose, I had to call the police. I was sorry for the harsh treatment his offense would surely bring to him; he might have made a lovely artist's model or porn star and either might have changed the course of his life.
Recently, I read or heard comments that, when encountering someone, men routinely checked out other people's crotches--both men's and women's--while women did not. Well, nuts! I check out the crotches of men and the breasts of women (as well as their faces, hair, nails, clothes, shoes and accessories) and I think I have always done this. This is a realization I could have lived without, I think.
posted by Anitanola at 7:08 PM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
The very best looking set of male bits I ever saw belonged to a troubled adolescent who made it a habit to slip into people's back gardens and expose himself and on the occasion it was my back garden he chose, I had to call the police. I was sorry for the harsh treatment his offense would surely bring to him; he might have made a lovely artist's model or porn star and either might have changed the course of his life.
Recently, I read or heard comments that, when encountering someone, men routinely checked out other people's crotches--both men's and women's--while women did not. Well, nuts! I check out the crotches of men and the breasts of women (as well as their faces, hair, nails, clothes, shoes and accessories) and I think I have always done this. This is a realization I could have lived without, I think.
posted by Anitanola at 7:08 PM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
No. But I do appreciate your use of the "grab bag" tag for this question.
posted by alphanerd at 7:34 PM on September 25, 2011 [14 favorites]
posted by alphanerd at 7:34 PM on September 25, 2011 [14 favorites]
Perhaps they are "underappreciated" because big ones are associated with lack of intelligence:
Macroorchidism (enlarged testicles) is a common feature in mentally retarded males who do not have fragile X syndrome. However, macroorchidism is particularly common in males with fragile X syndrome.
Some of the males with fragile X will have macroorchidism before puberty. After puberty, nearly all will have testicles that are at least 2 times the volume of typical males.
That big penises and big balls are found on men and boys with mental disability is a staple of folklore-- as witness the 17th century Fanny Hill, for example, and as I recall, Vance Randolph's Pissing in the Snow, which is devoted to all the stories informants were embarrassed to tell him in his multi-volume survey of Ozark oral traditions-- and the association of fragile X with macroorchidism is well established, but the linked page is the only information-oriented source I've seen that claims large testicles are associated with mental disability in general.
posted by jamjam at 8:12 PM on September 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
Macroorchidism (enlarged testicles) is a common feature in mentally retarded males who do not have fragile X syndrome. However, macroorchidism is particularly common in males with fragile X syndrome.
Some of the males with fragile X will have macroorchidism before puberty. After puberty, nearly all will have testicles that are at least 2 times the volume of typical males.
That big penises and big balls are found on men and boys with mental disability is a staple of folklore-- as witness the 17th century Fanny Hill, for example, and as I recall, Vance Randolph's Pissing in the Snow, which is devoted to all the stories informants were embarrassed to tell him in his multi-volume survey of Ozark oral traditions-- and the association of fragile X with macroorchidism is well established, but the linked page is the only information-oriented source I've seen that claims large testicles are associated with mental disability in general.
posted by jamjam at 8:12 PM on September 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: so far I've found some like em big, some like em to hang low- but they always seem to remain part of the package and not really visually isolated much.
Well, it's been interesting. Basically I think, balls just can't really compete with penises for star quality- and since our society is hetero-dominated we will probably never see large-balled males featured in mass media- or maybe we do - and we just can't tell.
posted by abirdinthehand at 8:48 PM on September 26, 2011
Well, it's been interesting. Basically I think, balls just can't really compete with penises for star quality- and since our society is hetero-dominated we will probably never see large-balled males featured in mass media- or maybe we do - and we just can't tell.
posted by abirdinthehand at 8:48 PM on September 26, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:28 PM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]