Keep it in Your Pants

-Mary Beth

          Genitalia; it’s not so pleasant to look at, but why don't we think so? Why are they so much uglier than a knee, an ear, a mouth, etc.? They're all just parts of our body right? Well, not exactly. Male and female genitals carry a certain stigma along with them that has been socially constructed throughout history. The stigma is that they are to be kept private, hence the name "private parts." They are to be hidden and concealed like other "ugly" things, with no place being seen by others.
          Chapter 1 of Susan Bordo's, The Male Body, asserts that this privacy and thoughts of ugliness are a result of a mother's influence. It states that women are taught at a very young age to think that everything between their legs is "dirty." Perhaps this is to protect them and to keep them conservative-minded, as to not be lured by over-sexualized men. Yet, it is a mindset that stays with them and is passed on through generations, even to their sons. Thus, “some men and boys have come to believe that their penises are ugly to look at.”
          Although I agree that there probably a few men here and there that feel their penises are not the nicest thing to look at, I would say that there is a much higher percentage of women that feel that way about their vaginas. Men look at their penises every day. They are taught that it is a symbol of their manhood, and thus, something to be proud of. Although they may feel ashamed of their genitalia as children, whose mothers tell them to pull up their pants, once they reach puberty it becomes an organ to be celebrated, while the stigma of female genitalia lasts through adulthood.