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Do you enjoy a spot of penis ogling?

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As a heterosexual woman who is interested in sex, I have to admit that I enjoy the sight of a naked man.

I also enjoy seeing the naked male member.

Obviously not when it’s shown to me unsolicited, or in a threatening manner (I can’t believe I actually have to state that, but some weirdos are crazy enough to see that sentence as an invitation for harassment).

Yet, for many years Western culture has somehow advocated that women find naked men, and especially their penises, and the trusty balls that go with them, gross.

While I never thought the male member was an unattractive part of a man’s body, it’s not like I was ever encouraged to think it was a part to be celebrated. We’re encouraged to find biceps and sixpacks and pectoral muscles attractive, but for many years, anything lower than the hips and higher than the calves remained hidden to our curious eyes.

In her article about society’s issue with the penis and the constant objectification and sexualisation of women’s bodies, Laura Shortridge talks about the absence of male genitalia in our media and how women are socialised to view the world from the male gaze.

It is indeed a very seldom occurrence that the female gaze is catered to, and this is a pity, because male bodies are beautiful and sexy in their own right. And wanting to admire them was pretty much what I signed up for when I realised my sexual interest was in men.

But damn it’s hard to do.

Where we have been knee-deep in naked or nearly naked female bodies for decades, the interesting bits of the male body are only recently starting to stick out their heads.

The only place where male genitalia have made a proper showing is in porn, and I don’t always want to see dick merely as a tool used for sex.

People have been coming to the party recently though. Buzzfeed started a whole thing about the male cameltoe, or moose knuckle as it is hilariously called. Jezebel did a whole feature on Disney Princes’ penises and our sister site, Channel24 has been giving us everything from penis on the big screen to penis on the small screen to Jared Leto’s penis to Ben Affleck’s penis and many more.

Most recently the rockers from Taxi Violence all dropped trou for Marie Claire's Naked Issue. Thanks boys. We'll definitely buy the mag for *cough* charity.

And you know who were the only people who complained about it? Men.

Go figure.

What do you think about the naked male body? Do we get enough of it? Or can't we get enough of it.

Follow Lili on Twitter or follow Women24 on Twitter  and like us on Facebook.

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