How Timely

With my latest request for contributions to my project...how timely that the newest episode of Law and Order: SVU should be about a man whose balls are cut off by a former student whom he'd raped years before. Olivia, the policewoman in charge of the department, talks to the man's wife about adoption. The wife responds with, "...it would only be a constant reminder of the night he wasn't a man anymore."

2

3

Losing the balls means one is no longer a man? Really? How many men have lost both nuts to cancer? Does that mean they are no longer men? Too many people still equate our functioning parts,

4

5

6

or even having those parts at all, to "being a man." 

7

8

9

Even many men feel this way. Our parts are such an integral sense of ourselves that soldiers who've lost all (or part) of their genitals in battle go through an intense emotional trauma. Field medics and military emergency physicians have reported that the first thing injured soldiers ask is, "What about my dick?"

10

11

That is why I'm doing The Manhood Project; to help dispel that type of thinking. I'm asking for an essay (700-1,000 words) on what you believe it means to be a man, and a photo like this

12

13

If you'd like to contribute to this, email me at

whkattk@gmail.com

I'll send you the PDF with instructions.

What Happened?

I was asked what happened to The Manhood Project; if it had fizzled out. Remember the book project I mentioned a while ago (Would You?). Well, it lost some of its starch, so to speak. I'll need at least 25-30 before I can begin to pull everything together.

2

I am still in search of folks who would be willing to contribute a short (700 - 1,000 words) essay. It answers a series of questions which basically boil down to:

What does it mean to be a man?

3

4

Then it requires a photo like this: Full-frontal of this area only.

5

It seems that of all the male readers who stop by each day, most either shy away because of the essay,

6

7

Or they still have a problem with being seen nude - even if there is no name and no face attached to it.

8

9

10

11

12

13

That means there is still an awful lot of work to do. But, if you had been contemplating whether or not to join in and contribute, and you just haven't gotten around to it...email me.
whkattk@gmail.com
I'll send you the pdf to get you started.

Defining Moment

In the Jewish religion, it's the Bar Mitzvah which signals you are now a man. As I read the stories of the 100 men, I realized we all reach a defining point but it comes at different ages and stages of our lives.

2

3

In our pubescent youth, we think the boner and being able to cum is it. We jack off incessantly - well, most of us do - to try to tame the perpetual hard-on.

4

5

6

7

8

We age a bit, we lose our virginity by having partner sex. Then many move on to thinking the Conquering Cock boosts us to a new level of manhood. More sex, more partners make us a man.

9

10

11

12

Tears ran down my face as I read one man's story because his defining moment happened when he finally stood up to his bullying father. That was when he realized he'd achieved manhood. That was mine. I'd had enough of his fists, razor straps, and verbal abuse. It had nothing to do with my cock, how big it was, how I used it, how often I used it, or who I used it with.

B

C

What was your defining moment?

Manhood

The ever-observant Faithful Reader, Jean, sent a link to a story I found so delightfully refreshing I have to share it here.

Laura Dodson, the photographer and author who made such a big splash with The Bare Reality: 100 Women, Their Breasts, Their Stories, now does the same for the penis.
The cover below is a link to her website.

Photo by Laura Dodson

I would argue the reporter's lede line, "Penises. We talk a lot about them." She's right in that we think about them, but we sure as hell don't talk about them. That needs to change. And, to make that happen Dodson has interviewed 100 men, and photographed their penises.

Picture by Laura Dodson

Reporter Ellen Scott quotes Dodson: ‘Some men were happy to take everything off and walk boldly over to the camera,’ said Laura. ‘Some were very nervous. I think it felt quite emotional for a few men. Some were about to bare cancer scars, or suffered from a sense of shame about their body. Some were relaxed. Some were proud.’

That there were men who suffered shame is a problem. And Dodson is right on target when she proffered that the men who posed for her would've benefited from this book when they were younger

because it would've dispelled myths, and outright bullshit.

 Another thing Dodson said in the interview which struck me was, ‘Men feel pressure about body image, in similar ways to women, albeit a bit less so. I had no idea how many men carry around anxiety and insecurity about the size of their penis, or some aspect of their performance. Because penises are more taboo men don't see a big variety of real ones around.'

What an observation! 'Penises are taboo.' How sad. But, from my understanding, the book is as much about what manhood means to the men she photographed as anything. I hope this book tops the NY Times Best Seller lists for years. 

You can read the entire article here:

Metro News

You can pre-order the book via Dodson's website (I did):

BareReality

What does your manhood mean to you?