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Why Do Men Send Women Photographs of Their Wieners

Do not send photographs of your Member of Congress across a social network.
Euphemism party: Boener, Weiner, and Weiner's wife Huma

Now that Anthony Weiner has announced he will resign over some not-safe-for-public-work photos sent over the Internet, a few take-aways should be heeded. First, do not send photographs of your Member of Congress across a social network (note especially the words “social” and “network”). Second, the recipients of these photographs tend not to appear especially stimulated by them, any more than they would be likely to send images of their own private parts.

So why then do men feel so obliged to send TwitPics of rock hard tick tocks to the fairer sex? There are a few reliable explanations, from the world of psychology and common sense:

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  • they can, easily (thanks computers)
  • men tend to sexualize their penises to a point where they cannot appreciate how women might see them
  • men can’t not think about their penises when they think about sex
  • men are often thinking about sex when they are talking to women

The penis is the man’s mating tool, and like all objects, its quality tends to get measured by certain quantitative standards, shape and size foremost among them. It’s unclear, but worth considering, how a phenomenon like this is only exacerbated by a world in which, increasingly, everything can be measured, and if measured, adjusted to something near perfect.

On top of all of this, penis pictures, sent electronically, are, sexuality educator Robert Lawrence says, “shorthand for ’I’m ready and willing; are you?’”

“Whether they take the time to occupy the mind of the recipient, or try to, is a fascinating question,” sexologist Carol Queen told Anneli Rufus. “What does he imagine I think when I get his picture? I bet what I actually do think is a good deal more complicated than what he thinks I think.”

Some sage advice from about.com:

Sext With Words Rather Than Images
A man will have more success sticking to words when he’s sexting a woman rather than sending pics of his junk. A woman’s sexuality is largely mental, meaning that telling her what you’re going to do to her when you get together will be much more stimulating than a picture of your nether regions. Share your ideas about what the two of you could do in private and you’ll have her blushing every time she checks her phone. Let her use her imagination and have your member stick to in-person appearances only.

To wrap it up: it’s okay to leave more to the imagination, gentlemen – especially if whenever you Tweet your last name you already get a chance to draw attention to your junk.

Connections
Science Agrees, Men Do Stupid Junk To Get Girls
Women Make Men Dumb, Literally
Ones and Zeros: Weiner Came Clean, Photos Suggest
NYT: What’s Wrong With Adult Sexting?