are penises a joke?

Are penises a joke? I'm not meaning to ask a silly question. But really are they?

I was youtubing one night and I came across the Dove Onslaught video, where the camera zooms in on a young re-haired girl, that I'd guess she's around 5 or 6 years old. Then an "onslaught" of images zip by of women in iridescent bikinis, sticky-glossed lips, tight bodies arranged with legs jarring out of the pictures and hips that gyrate like only a Victoria Secret model could. I understand that the "commercial" was meant to portray the unrealistic expectations of beauty. (Isn't that what all their ads are selling?) But the concept really made me think: What was my exposure to male sexuality in our media and culture? Here's a random list of the public and not so public images I saw.

Before the age of email forwards or funwall posts, people passed around photocopies of jokes. One I recall was two pages stapled together, and on the top sheet was a black square that read: rub here. Flip the page and there was an old man pitching a tent. Sexy... not really.

At a friend of the family's house, they had a knickknack that was a man in a barrel. When you lift the barrel up, his member just pointed up to his stupid smile. I'm sure it was a joke?!

Nude male playing cards: I can't remember why or how I got my hands on them, but I played Crazy Eights with them. All of the men were lying down, with one hand placed behind their head. Just laying there in a silly position that awkwardly implied the card holder had the next move... The sad part is I can't imagine a Chippindale model bragging that he was the Joker or Queen of the deck.

Any nude male modelling. Remember a nekkid Burt Reynolds in Cosmopolitan magazine? While the Pam Andersons and the Jenny McCarthys hook up with rockers and actors, the poor sap on the cover of an old Playgirl probably works in construction still enjoys candle-lit dinners.

Any Viagra or Cialis commercial or ad....

When I was 11, a friend's older asked me "out" - we were exclusive. One day he and his friend decided to flash me. The jumped out of no where and dropped their pants and couldn't stop laughing. We broke up.

- Lisa H.