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Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That?: And Other Reflections on Being Human

Page 27

by Jesse Bering


  Another important set of editors is the one that came long before this book ever materialized, when earlier versions of many of the essays were published online. In going to bat for me in conceptualizing and implementing my Bering in Mind column at Scientific American, Karen Schrock is the one who really got me off the ground. I can’t thank her enough for giving me the outlet to exercise my lewd and lascivious thoughts—through Scientific American, no less.

  More recently, my editor at Slate magazine, Daniel Engber, has also been instrumental in helping me converse with readers about so many gloriously inappropriate topics. Dan and I share a penchant for the absurd and the scientific, two things that go together so naturally and can be such a jubilant concoction when things go just right. I’m enormously grateful for working alongside Dan and learning from him, in his role as an editor but also as a fellow writer.

  What would I be without my family? Much worse for the wear, certainly. My guess is that for a very long time, my family members haven’t known quite how to answer the question of what it is that I do for a living. Thank you regardless, Dad, Linda, Stacey(s), Adam, Jodi, Jakob, Gianni, Sydney, and those among the many close but scattered strands of Berings and Roths.

  Perhaps the most important individuals to thank, however, are the scientists and scholars who did the actual hard work. My summaries herein are only pale accounts of their ingenuity and, often, their genius. Among those I’d like to mention specifically for their contributions and help along the way: Gordon Gallup, Becky Burch, Ray Blanchard, Ara Norenzayan, Denys deCatanzaro, Roy Baumeister, and Michael Blume. Jonathan Jong was a resource-laden assistant who kindly zoomed more than one obscure article to me via the New Zealand ether. I’d also like to thank the staff at the Kinsey Institute in Bloomington, Indiana, for hosting me as an independent scholar.

  Finally, allow me to reflect in closing, in sincere and smiling gratitude, upon some heroes of my everyday life, my best nonhuman friends, “Big Tommy,” Gulliver, and Uma.

  Index

  The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

  Aché

  acne; anxiety; evolution; genetics; treatment

  acrotomophilia

  activation hypothesis

  Adams, Henry

  adaptive suicide

  Africa

  afterlife beliefs

  age orientation, erotic

  aggression; female; homophobia; male; “mate-guarding” behavior; slow speed–high aggressiveness hypothesis

  AIDS

  alcohol

  algolagnia

  alliance information theory

  American Journal of Psychiatry, The

  American Journal of Psychotherapy

  American Psychiatric Association

  American Psychological Association

  Amish

  amnesia

  anal sex; barebacking; gay male porn; sex role preferences; sexsomnia; slang terms; unprotected

  Andersen, Hans Christian

  Andersen, Monica

  androgens

  animal rights groups

  animals, see specific animals; zoophilia

  Annual Review of Sex Research

  anterior cingulate cortex

  anthropophagy

  anti-adrenergics

  antibiotics

  antidepressants; semen as

  anxiety; acne; death; erection and; homophobia; suicide and

  apathy

  Archives of General Psychiatry

  Archives of Sexual Behavior

  Aristotle

  Arnedo, Vanessa

  asexuality; essentialism; genetics and

  Asexual Pals

  asymmetry; testicular

  atheism

  Australia

  australopithecines

  autocunnilingus

  autofellatio; homosexuality and

  automatism

  AVEN

  Aztecs, cannibalism rituals of

  baboons; cannibalism

  Bailey, J. Michael

  Baker, Robin

  Barash, David

  barebacking

  Bartholin, Thomas

  Bartlett, Nancy

  Batts, Shelley, Behavioral Sciences and the Law

  Baumeister, Roy; escape theory of

  Beauvoir, Simone de

  Beck Depression Inventory

  Becker, Ernest, The Denial of Death

  Behavioral Neuroscience

  Behavioural Brain Research

  Beirne, Piers

  Belfast

  Belief Instinct, The (Bering)

  Bellis, Mark

  Belsky, Jay

  Bemporad, Jules

  benzodiazapines

  Bering, Vitus

  bestiality

  Bhowmick, Samar

  Bible

  bisexuality

  bitchiness

  Bixler, Ray

  Blanchard, Ray

  Blass, Elliott

  blood; vessels

  Blume, Michael

  Body Image

  Bogaert, Anthony

  bonobo

  brain; consumption; damage; epileptic; evolution; free will and; homosexuality and; laughter and; libidinal systems; masturbation and; neuroanatomy; pedophilia and; regions; sleep-related erections; suicide and

  brain damage; hypersexuality and; pedophilia and

  Brain Research Reviews

  Brazil

  breastfeeding

  breasts

  British Journal of Health Psychology

  Brookfield, John

  Bucy, Paul

  bumblebees

  Burch, Rebecca

  burial practices; cremation; green burial; specific-tree burial; symbolic immortality

  Burke, William

  Burns, Jeffrey

  Burroughs, William, Naked Lunch

  buttocks

  Butts, Nancy

  by-product hypothesis

  Campbell, Anne

  cancer

  cannibalism; genetics and; medical; ritual; sociopathic; starvation; taboo

  Caravaggio

  Carroll, Lewis, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

  Cassidy, Rebecca, Transgressive Sex: Subversion and Control in Erotic Encounters

  castration

  cats; penis; sex with

  Catholic Church

  Cautela, Joseph

  Cavenar, Jesse

  cemeteries

  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

  cervix

  children; fantasies; foot fetishism; hypersexualized behaviors; precocious puberty; pre-homosexual; religion and reproduction; sex-typed behavior; sexual abuse of; sexual development of; toy interests

  chimpanzees; masturbation; mirror self-recognition test; penis; semen; sex with; suicide

  China; cannibalism in

  chlamydia

  Cho, Margaret

  Christianity

  Churchett, Libby

  circumcision; semen displacement theory and

  Clark, Anne

  Clementi, Tyler

  Clinical Pediatrics

  clitoris

  clonazepam

  cocksucker (term)

  Cohen, Danielle

  Cohen, David

  colliculi

  colobus monkey masturbation

  Colombia

  Colombo, Matteo Realdo

  coma, encephalitis-caused

  conception

  condoms

  conjunctivae

  Consoli, Angèle

  contraception

  coprophagia

  copulation, see sex

  cortisol

  Cotard, Jules

  Cotard’s syndrome

  crabs

  Craig, Larry

  Crane, Hart

  cremasteric muscle


  cremation

  Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)

  Crick, Francis, The Astonishing Hypothesis

  criminality: pedophilia and; sexual fantasy and; suicide and

  cunnilingus; autocunnilingus; pubic hair and

  Curb Your Enthusiasm

  Current Biology

  Current Psychiatry

  Dahmer, Jeffrey

  D’Annunzio, Gabriele

  Darwin, Charles

  date rape drugs

  David, Gerard

  David, Larry

  death; anxiety; burial practices; Cotard’s syndrome; embalming chemicals; industry; suicide; symbolic immortality

  deCatanzaro, Denys; on adaptive suicide; mathematical model of self-preservation and self-destruction

  de Graaf, Reimer

  Dekkers, Midas, Dearest Pet

  Descartes, René

  determinism

  Developmental Psychology

  disease, and cannibalism

  DNA

  dogs; sex with

  Donatello

  dopamine

  dorsolateral prefrontal cortex

  dosage effect

  drugs; date rape; vaginal delivery

  Drummond, Kelley

  DSM

  Earls, Christopher

  Ebrahim, Irshaad

  Ecuador

  Edelman, Benjamin

  egg; fertilization; release

  Egypt; ancient

  ejaculation; delayed; female; flowback; genetics and; masturbation; premature; “refractory period” following; semen displacement theory; variation in male ejaculation latencies

  elephants

  Ellis, Bruce

  Ellis, Havelock

  Emotion

  empathy; acne and; sex and

  endorphins

  England

  ephebophilia

  epileptics; hypersexuality and

  Equus, see Shaffer, Peter, Equus

  erections; homophobic men and; sleep-related

  erotic age orientation

  erotophobia

  estrone

  Ethology and Sociobiology

  etymology

  eugenics

  European Psychiatry

  evolution; acne; asexuality and; brain; cannibalism; penis; premature ejaculation; pubic hair; religion and; semen chemistry; semen displacement theory; sexual jealousy and; suicide and; testicular; zoophilia and

  Evolution and Human Behavior

  Evolutionary Psychology

  exhibitionism

  eye

  fag hags; negative stereotypes; on television

  fallopian tubes

  fantasies; childhood; during sex; masturbation

  fatigue

  fellatio; autofellatio; foot; gay male porn; pubic hair and

  female aggression

  female ejaculation

  female orgasm; genetics and; lesbian; male income and; masturbatory; sperm retention and

  Fenwick, Peter

  Ferrell, Will

  fertilization

  fetishism, see specific fetishes

  Fillion, Thomas

  Finn, Mary

  Finn, Michael

  Fisher, Helen

  Flinders University

  flowback

  Foley, Mark

  Folia Primatologica

  follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH)

  food-borne disease

  foot fetishism; children; homosexual

  Foot Fraternity

  fornix

  Fort, Joseph Auguste Aristide

  France

  Franklin, Karen

  fraternal twins

  free will; brain and; deterministic factors; genetics and; as illusion

  French Sleep Research Society

  frenulum

  Freud, Sigmund

  Fry, Stephen

  Gajdusek, Carleton

  Gallup, Gordon; activation hypothesis; on chemistry of semen; semen displacement theory

  gay rights

  gender dysphoria

  gender identity disorder

  Genet, Jean

  genetics; acne and; asexuality and; cannibalism and; female orgasm and; free will and; homosexuality and; premature ejaculation and; religion and; suicide and

  Germany; Nazi

  gerontophila

  Gervais, Will

  Giannini, James

  Gide, André

  Gilbert, Paul

  Gilliland, Amy

  goats, sex with

  Golden Girls, The

  gonads

  gonorrhea

  Goodall, Jane

  gorillas; hair; lice; penis

  Gould, Stephen Jay; “Male Nipples and Clitoral Ripples”

  Gräfenberg, Ernst

  Graham, Cynthia

  Grandfield, Tracey

  Great Leap Forward

  Greece, ancient; suicide in

  green burial

  G-spot

  Guy, William

  Hagen, Edward

  Haggard, Ted

  Haines, Duane

  Hall, G. Staley

  Hamilton, Gilbert Van Tassel

  Hamilton, William

  handicapping principle

  hanging brain (term)

  happiness; laughter and; nonhuman primate; semen and; unreasonable standards for

  Hart, Trevor

  Harvard Business School

  Harvard University

  heartbreak; in homosexual polyamory

  hebephilia; homosexuality and; as mental disorder

  Hebrews

  Henning, Kris

  Herdt, Gilbert, Archives of Sexual Behavior

  herpes encephalitis

  Hess, Nicole

  heteroparity

  Hindus

  hippocampus

  Hippocampus

  Hitler, Adolf

  HIV

  Hodgson, Suzanna

  Holmes, Dave

  Holocaust

  homonegativism (term)

  homophobia; erection and; gay porn and; in parents; religion and; as repressed desire

  homosexuality; autofellatio and; barebacking; brain and; fag hags and; foot fetishism; forecasting in children; genetics and; homophobia as repressed desire; masturbation; men and teenage boys; in the military; navigational shortcomings; polyamory; pornography; sex role preferences; sexsomnia; sexual jealousy in; suicide and; teenage; teen suicides; top/bottom/versatile self-labels; zoophilia

  Hong, Lawrence; “survival of the fastest” theory

  Hood, Bruce, SuperSense

  Hopkins, Juliet

  hormones; acne and; female; FSH and LH, in semen

  horses, sex with

  Hutterites

  hyperorality

  hypersexuality; brain damage and; epileptics and

  hypertrichosis

  hypoactive sexual desire disorder

  hypothalamus

  identical twins

  immunosuppressants

  Implicit Association Test

  inclusive genetic fitness

  India

  infantophilia

  infidelity; same-sex

  injury, testicular

  insemination

  intelligent design

  International Classification of Sleep Disorders, Revised, The

  International Journal of Adolescence and Youth

  International Journal of Impotence Research, The

  Internet; porn

  interspecies sex

  in vitro fertilization

  Ireland

  Italy

  Jackson, Michael

  Japan

  jealousy, sexual

  Jehovah’s Witnesses

  Jern, Patrick

  Jews; Holocaust and

  John, Elton

  Johnson, Dominic

  Johnson, Virginia

  Journal of Abnormal Psychology

  Journal of Animal Behavior

  Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychia
try

  Journal of Biology

  Journal of Health Psychology

  Journal of Research in Personality

  Journal of Sex Research, The

  Journal of Sexual Medicine, The

  Journal of the History of the Neurosciences

  Kahn, Eugen

  Kama Sutra

  Kellett, Stephen

  Kessler, Morris

  kin selection

  Kinsey, Alfred; Sexual Behavior in the Human Male

  Kinsey Institute for Sex Research

  Kitavan Islanders

  Klüver, Heinrich

  Klüver-Bucy syndrome

  Koerting, Johanna

  Korda, Joanna

  kuru

  Lalumière, Martin

  lang, k.d.

  Langer, Susanne

  laughter; brain and; human; joyful; nonhuman primate; schadenfreude; as social signal; taunting; tickling

  Leitenberg, Harold

  Leonardo da Vinci

  lesbianism; brain and; forecasting in children; infidelity; masturbation; menstrual synchrony and; orgasm; pornography

  Lewis, Jerry Lee

  lice

  limbic system

  Lion, Ernest

  Lloyd, Elisabeth; The Case of the Female Orgasm

  lobectomy

  Lobo, Stany

  Lohr, Bethany

  Long, Eddie

  Luedecke, Jan

  Lukianowicz, Narcyz

  luteinizing hormone (LH)

  Maddow, Rachel

  male continence

  Malhotra, Deepak; Judgment and Decision Making

  mangabeys

  Mann, Thomas, Death in Venice

  Martins, Yolanda

  Masters, William

  Masters and Johnson

  masturbation; fantasies; female orgasm; homosexuality and; nonhuman primate; public; sexsomnia; teenage

  McClanahan, Rue

  McClintock, Martha

  McClintock effect

  McIntyre, Matthew

  Medical Hypotheses

  Medicine, Science, and the Law

  Meier, Brian

  Meiwes, Armin

  melatonin

  MELT

  memory

  men: acne; aggression; autofellatio; foot fetishists; homophobia; homosexual; masturbation fantasies; “mate-guarding” responses in; orgasm; penis shape; polyamory; premature ejaculation; pubic hair removal; semen chemistry; sexsomnia; sex with teenage boys; sleep-related erections; testicles; wealth of, and female orgasm

  “men who have sex with men” (MSM)

  menstruation; pheromones and; synchrony

  Meston, Cindy

  Mexico

  Meyer, Martin

  Michelangelo

  Miletski, Hani

  military; autofellatio and; “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ban on gays; homosexuality in; sexsomnia; suicide

  Millay, Edna St. Vincent

  Millican, Frances

  mirror self-recognition test

  monkeys; laughter; masturbation; sex with

  monogamy

  Montel Williams Show, The

  Mullally, Megan

 

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