As a war-weary female veteran of the Internet (been cruising since the good old dial-up BBS days, thankyouverymuch), I’ve seen my share of dick pics. While I have consensually received photographs of a lover’s genitalia (a completely different context), the vast majority of the dick pics I’ve looked at in my time have been unsolicited and from strangers.
They just popped up in my inbox. Oh dear.
Look, the potential for innuendo in an article like this is unlimited. So let’s just accept that going in. And make the most of it. (I’ve already deleted several sentences because I couldn’t let them stay as they were.)
Anyway, I’ve long been mystified by dick pics.
A few disclaimers: Now admittedly I’m not that into penises. I haven’t found them particularly arousing unless said dick were attached to a person I was super into. And in my experience, when it comes to unsolicited photographs of genitalia, it’s a sausage party. It rains dicks.
That said, I’m not sure exactly why someone would decide it was a good idea to randomly send photographs of their genitalia to a stranger (whatever form that genitalia might take).
I wondered what kind of man would send women dick pics — and why?
Thankfully, science has some answers.
What Kind of Man Sends Women Unsolicited Dick Pics and Why? #
A recent study of over 1000 men found the following:
- A frequent motivation for sending dick pics was the hope of receiving explicit images in return. The researchers cheekily paid homage to this major finding by titling the study, “I’ll Show You Mine so You’ll Show Me Yours.”
- The researchers deemed this reciprocal expectation a “transactional mindset.”
- Men who sent dick pics most commonly (82%) hoped that the recipients experienced sexual excitement in response to the pictures.
- Approximately half of men who sent dick pics said that they hoped that the gesture would make the woman who received it feel as though she were more attractive.
- Men who sent unsolicited dick pics were both more narcissistic and sexist than men who did not.
- A majority of men in the study stated sending dick pics was not something they did for their own excitement. Less than 20 percent reported that the act of sending dick pics aroused them in and of itself.
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Note about population: This study focused solely on (ostensibly cis) men who sent dick pics to women. It didn’t look into the experience of dick-having folks of other genders or into the dick pic behavior of men sending images to men.
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This post is part of an ongoing Poly Land feature called Psyched for the Weekend, in which I geek out with brief takes about some of my favorite psychological studies and concepts. For the entire series, please see this link.