Comments on: A Tentacle that Shrinks and Swells with an Exquisite Sensitivity

A Tentacle that Shrinks and Swells with an Exquisite Sensitivity

chavenet — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 14:43:24 -0800

They wanted it because they'd just gone through a bad breakup and needed an edge in the volatile dating market; because porn had warped their sense of scale; because they'd been in a car accident, or were looking to fix a curve, or were hoping for a little "software upgrade"; because they were not having a midlife crisis; because they were, "and it was cheaper than a Bugatti Veyron"; because, after five kids, their wife couldn't feel them anymore; because they'd been molested as a child and still remembered the laughter of the adults in the room; because they couldn't forget a passing comment their spouse made in 1975; because, despite the objections of their couples therapist, they believed it would bring them closer to their "sex obsessed" husband (who then had an affair that precipitated their divorce); because they'd stopped changing in locker rooms, stopped peeing in urinals, stopped having sex; because who wouldn't want it? from Inside the Secretive World of Penile Enlargement [ProPublica & The New Yorker; ungated]

Related: The Big Penis War [Texas Monthly; ungated]

By: Abehammerb Lincoln

Abehammerb Lincoln — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 14:53:05 -0800

He fell in October 2022, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the Big Penis War. He had fallen forward and lay on the earth as though sleeping, although he was -like so many of the troops- propped up by his ginormous dong.

By: Abehammerb Lincoln

Abehammerb Lincoln — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 14:57:28 -0800

In the above, I'm just riffing on the related article's title. Some of the traumas described in the intro paragraph are horrid.

By: mittens

mittens — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 15:04:54 -0800

This is sheer body-horror played out on real bodies--and be sure to read on as Dr. Elist's practice tries to make sure that his mistakes are not discussed, let alone sued over. This man absolutely needs to be in jail.

By: mittens

mittens — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 15:06:47 -0800

(Like--not to abuse the edit window to add another thought--it's one thing to talk about someone getting a body modification with their informed consent, but the informed part was exactly what was missing from the discussions with these patients.)

By: mhoye

mhoye — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 15:27:52 -0800

This is sheer body-horror played out on real bodies Yeah. I feel strongly that people should be able to live comfortably in their bodies, modified if desired to whatever extent modern medicine can safely provide, but what's described in this article is not that at all. "William Brant, a reconstructive urologist in Salt Lake City, who told me he sees about ten Penuma patients a month, noted "the deep despair of men who can't unring the bell", god, I can't even imagine.

By: elkevelvet

elkevelvet — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 15:30:24 -0800

The device, called the Penuma, had been invented by James Elist — a silver-haired urologist who has been described on TMZ as "the Thomas Edison of penis surgery." ah, a real pedigree of scoundrel

By: Ickster

Ickster — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 15:45:35 -0800

and his oldest son, Jonathan, left a job at McKinsey to become the CEO of International Medical Devices, as they called their family firm Of course the shitshow ends up with a McKinsey douchebag in the mix.

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 15:58:08 -0800

Damn, what a nightmare. I feel for the guy, though. I have good friend about six or so years my junior, who had re-entered the dating world (pre-covid) following a (amicable, friendly) divorce. Among one of his tales of dating as a semi-old, is that of a similarly-aged woman who, during their first evening of sexytime, pressed his erection against his body, and quickly "measured" him by laying her palm along the length of it with her thumb extended. She declared him to be "very nice." Freaked him out a little. They dated for awhile, though. My friend is a pretty self-confident guy. Comfortable within his body. I can't imagine how such a thing, especially with a less-than-"nice" judgement, would affect a less confident man.

By: Ickster

Ickster — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 16:11:46 -0800

Not that I should surprised by what people are capable of, but I am still surprised by how many scumbags manage to get through the Hippocratic Oath when it's clear all they care about is money. Whether it's someone like this fuckin' guy or the doctors who act as paid consultants to pimp drugs or other devices, it's always disappointing that organizations like the AMA don't push back (and yeah, I know the AMA is actually a business organization rather than a medical one).

By: the antecedent of that pronoun

the antecedent of that pronoun — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 16:12:02 -0800

So I am sorry but I lost it where the paragraph above (the article itself) says

"I'm so sorry for another email," he wrote in December, "but I am freaking out about the fact I have zero sensitivity in my penis!"

and then the randomly interspersed comic says

"We wanted the kids to have all the things we never had"

By: Fiasco da Gama

Fiasco da Gama — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 16:12:54 -0800

This is extraordinarily grim, to the point I felt sorry not just for the patients, but for the journalist who seems profoundly affected by interviewing them all. Understandably! I came here to make some puerile dick jokes and I've got nothing

By: DeepSeaHaggis

DeepSeaHaggis — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 16:26:13 -0800

I hope everyone coming here to make dick jokes has learned that, in this context, they can indeed be very hard.

By: mmcg

mmcg — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 16:48:57 -0800

"It was very uncomfortable for my wife. She was getting microtears and was considering getting a procedure done to enlarge that opening."

That is just so... sad? Horrifying? Bizarre? Genital surgery folie a deux is a real head trip.

By: GoblinHoney

GoblinHoney — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 17:26:38 -0800

Ah, very uncomfortable read. Having a vivid imagination was not helpful. It sucks so many dudes have been trying to make other men get all fucked in the head over their penises. It sucks the artificial neurosis is so profitable to capitalists and it sucks that there are capitalists. It quadruple sucks some twisted inventor is allowed to make money experimenting on dude's dicks and lives, while also using the law to stop victims from discussing his horrible experiments, as well as publications trying to report on their mutilation.

By: moonmilk

moonmilk — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 17:53:39 -0800

The photo illustration in the New Yorker article is by Maurizio Cattelan!?

By: staggernation

staggernation — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 17:59:27 -0800

Genital surgery folie a deux is a real head trip. Worst O. Henry story ever

By: jamjam

jamjam — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 18:14:59 -0800

I think we're on the verge of being able to induce growth in the penises of adult men, anyway. You might be able to do it right now with semi off the shelf drugs and devices, which makes me think someone must be giving it a try. Which will make these guys feel even worse, I suppose.

By: mbrubeck

mbrubeck — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 18:16:26 -0800

I am still surprised by how many scumbags manage to get through the Hippocratic Oath when it's clear all they care about is money.

The earliest version of the Hippocratic Oath begins thus:

"To hold my teacher in this art equal to my own parents; to make him partner in my livelihood; when he is in need of money to share mine with him..."

Rather than "first, do no harm," it was literally "first, loan money to your med school prof."

By: jamjam

jamjam — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 18:25:25 -0800

Hippocrates invented what might be one of the earliest pyramid schemes, then! The things you learn on MetaFilter!

By: i_am_joe's_spleen

i_am_joe's_spleen — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 18:37:27 -0800

Great. Get rid of your crippling self-esteem problems by replacing them with entirely new, even worse problems! The information that most men seeking this procedure were already of normal size really emphasises how predatory this is.

By: Literaryhero

Literaryhero — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 19:39:00 -0800

This article is so well written. It is absolutely horrifying but then has some of the funniest things I have read this year. This spring, he was released from prison, where he'd served time for participating in a car theft ring that a prosecutor described as highly sophisticated and that Bryan described to me as a matter of "incorrectly filled-out paperwork." When he returned home, he got back into the enlargement scene. I feel like if this were a Netflix series we would all be saying it was too ridiculous to be watchable, and yet here we are in real life.

By: gtrwolf

gtrwolf — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 19:44:24 -0800

This is sheer body-horror played out on real bodies This is probably where Cronenberg drew the line.... (unless there's a scene or two I've suppressed in my unconsciousness).

By: dg

dg — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 20:55:53 -0800

... the informed part was exactly what was missing from the discussions with these patients Especially the one that was administered a 'fast-acting narcotic' immediately before being expected to consent to the whole lot of awful that tried to take away every right he had. There's an obvious parallel here with the breast enlargement 'industry', with the key difference being that particular sham has had more time to practice and has reduced the occurrence of some of the more obvious errors from the process. It's playing on the same insecurity at heart, though. An insecurity driven relentlessly by all forms of media including, but far from exclusively, pornography.

By: potrzebie

potrzebie — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 00:07:10 -0800

I'm sorry, He has also been named as a defendant in product liability lawsuits regarding inflatable penile prosthesis brought by plaintiffs Dick Glass and Semen Brodsky Are you KIDDING ME, I can't even make myself google these names to see if this shit is real

By: Nancy Lebovitz

Nancy Lebovitz — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 01:25:05 -0800

" The information that most men seeking this procedure were already of normal size really emphasizes how predatory this is." I think a lot of what's going wrong is the idea that just being normal Just Isn't Good Enough.

By: DeepSeaHaggis

DeepSeaHaggis — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 02:29:39 -0800

Dick Glass and Semen Brodsky I withdraw my skepticism towards topical humor. Honestly, it's not hard enough

By: i_am_joe's_spleen

i_am_joe's_spleen — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 02:36:46 -0800

This is where I boringly point that there is a Cyrillic letter that looks like e -- ё -- but it is pronounced yo and Semen is a sort of mistransliteration of Семён/Semyon ie Simon.

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 04:37:54 -0800

I think a lot of what's going wrong is the idea that just being normal Just Isn't Good Enough. Our culture idolizes the extraordinary ones, and pumps an unending stream of homilies on making yourself better and better. That "average" isn't good enough. You must strive for 110%. Second place is just the first loser. Etc. etc. It's a horrible, destructive message that has real consequences in many, many ways.

By: The Vice Admiral of the Narrow Seas

The Vice Admiral of the Narrow Seas — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 05:39:15 -0800

someone mentioned cronenberg upthread - yes, this is like if dead ringers were urologists instead of gynecologists.

By: Aardvark Cheeselog

Aardvark Cheeselog — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 06:01:01 -0800

Just scanning the thread has convinced me that I do not want to read TFA.

By: kingdead

kingdead — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 06:38:52 -0800

Like dg said, this sounds like the early days of breast implants. It's a visual culture, get ready for the standard dick shape and trying to tell "if it's real" just like they used to do with breasts.

By: The_Vegetables

The_Vegetables — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 08:19:18 -0800

I think a lot of what's going wrong is the idea that just being normal Just Isn't Good Enough. Like dg said, this sounds like the early days of breast implants. Exactly. I'd bet the majority of women who get implants have 'normal' sized breasts, and that plenty of men would like a ridiculously large penis even if the procedure causes it to lose a bunch of actual sexual functionality.

By: confluency

confluency — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 10:05:59 -0800

In the paperwork Mick had initialed on the day of the surgery, a clause said, "The clinic highly discourages seeking information elsewhere as the information provided can be false, misleading, and inaccurate."

Seems legit! Very reassuring and professional! I don't even have this body part, but I literally screeched out loud in horror multiple times while reading this. I am torn between a desire to share it because it's so morbidly fascinating, and not to, because it's so desperately sad and depressing.

By: Katjusa Roquette

Katjusa Roquette — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 11:44:26 -0800

I read the article in the New Yorker with absolute horror. An ordinary guy has NO reason to feel inadequate or insecure about what he naturally has. Even men who are below average can and do satisfy women and father children. They can still have a good time. Those are the reasons for having a penis right? That and being able to urinate. The operations described and the horrific aftermath for all too many men was appalling to read about. Then there is the financial side of this whole 'industry'. This article described men who were maimed for life and there were some who took their own lives. I can't begin to imagine the pain.

By: paper chromatographologist

paper chromatographologist — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 12:11:56 -0800

I read the article. It's mostly about an intellectual property dispute.

By: tiny frying pan

tiny frying pan — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 13:13:52 -0800

(It's the New Yorker, better put in some intellectual property stuff to keep the Rich People interested in a human interest story with a medical malpractice bent)

By: exlotuseater

exlotuseater — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 14:02:52 -0800

"The scrotal skin gave easily, like something ripe, and a few seconds later, the man on the table let out a high-pitched sound." help

By: jamjam

jamjam — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 14:25:41 -0800

René Malik, a YouTube MD Urologist, whom I've found to be highly credible over the 10-15 videos I've watched up to this point, says that having Covid can cause significant penis shrinkage, so we may be looking at increasing concern among men about this issue. By the way, I've linked to a 'short' because even though I remember seeing a thumb for a longer, more fully developed video from her about this issue, when I went to her channel page to look for it, after I scrolled through maybe 25 rows of three per row videos of hers, YouTube switched me forcibly to the 'Shorts' category, and would not allow me to look through any more entries for the longer videos no matter what I did. YouTube has gone to Hell almost as far down as Twitter has, and is rapidly becoming almost unusable if you want to actually learn anything instead of buying something.

By: Jon Mitchell

Jon Mitchell — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 21:58:10 -0800

that having Covid can cause significant penis shrinkage I wish they'd proved that earlier, probably would have quadrupled the vaccine uptake.