What's average, anyway?

The industry that has sprung up surrounding penis size banks on males feeling that their member is inadequate, a judgment that naturally comes from comparing one's self to one's fellow men and finding one's self wanting. For most of us straight males, the overwhelming majority of our exposure to other erect penises is in porn, which is possibly not the best representative sample of phallic dimensions; it's like comparing your body mass index and neck girth against NFL linebackers.

What, then, is "normal"? And what is "average"?

The questions are not the same, and stated without further detail, both are nonsensical. In case you have trouble seeing the difference between the questions, try this: What is a "normal" woman's bust size? What is "average"? What is "normal" height, for men or women? What is "average"?

And just to throw some more details into the mix, what are the racial/ethnic factors? Latino men are shorter on average than Northern European men. Asian women have smaller average busts than African women. Taller women with small busts look out of proportion when smaller women would not.

Aside from John Holmes, what are we men comparing ourselves against?

According to Wikipedia (you knew there'd be an article, right? -- NSFW, due to pictures of what we're talking about), the average human penis is 5.1-5.9" in length, 4.85" in girth. Because of the nature of statistics, "The average penis size is slightly larger than the median size (or, put another way, most penises are below average in size)." (I guess that's the natural counterpoint to Lake Wobegon.)

Now, compare that Wikipedia assessment (and several of the specific studies which contributed to the average are cited) to these:













That's from a eBay listing for enlargement pills. According to this, the average is somewhere in the neighborhood of 6.5" to 6.75". This isn't unique on eBay, but for some reason (i.e., whoever made the graphic is pulling statistics out of their ass) no two graphics show the same distribution.

So will my world be crushed if the pills I bought don't work? No. Will I be out thirty bucks? Yeah, pretty much.