What’s in a penis and why does it hold an audience in such rapt attention?

A Penis can be many things – a reproductive tool, a waste removal organ, an instrument for pleasure, a symbol of male power or an object of oppression. For Thando Mqgolozana’s protagonist Lumkile in A Man Who Is Not A Man, the penis is a symbol of manhood, community, self-importance and more whereas for Abimelech in Victoria Princewill’s In The Palace Of Flowers, the absence of the penis is a marker of attempted subjugation.

Because this is The Year The Penis Came To Tea, we have compiled a list of 10 penis facts for reading pleasure.

 

1. If you don’t use it, you will lose it. You need to have erections regularly to keep your penis in shape.

2. Shorter penises gain more length than longer ones when they become erect. The shorter the better?

 

 

3.  A healthy penis has 3 to 5 erections during a full night’s sleep.

4. Straight ahead, left or right, up or down – a man’s erection can point in virtually any direction.

 

 

5. Your penis is twice as long as you think. Half the length of the penis is inside your body.

6. Penis sensitivity declines with age, When testosterone levels start to drop, there will be an accompanying decrease in sensitivity.

 

 

7. Penises are born ready;  babies have been known to leave the womb with an ejaculation.

8. Having feet the size of Nigeria does not mean your penis will be large. The length of your penis has no correlation with your shoe size.

 

 

9. The Penis is not invincible, it can break – oops!

10. Every penis is unique! There’s no such thing as a normal penis. They come in all shapes, sizes and colours.

 

 

Keep up with the wonderful authors Thando Mgqolozona and Victoria Princewill on social media and pick up their brilliant books at cassavarepublic.biz or uk.bookshop.org