(see where you fit in on the survey at the end of this article)
From www.altpenis.com
by Paul Aitken
Admit it. You’ve done it. Most likely in your adolescence when you first noticed it was getting bigger, or maybe later when you noticed everyone else’s was big and yours wasn’t. At some point almost every guy measures himself if only as an act of reassurance. The first ruler was invented in 1675 and I’m guessing it was measuring some guy’s dick before 1676.
Most of us have a number in our heads, no doubt rounded up to the nearest quarter-inch of where the end of our dick sits next to the ruler. Most of us when pressed as to what this number is will jack that figure up another quarter or half inch. If asked, I would answer quite truthfully, “Oh I don’t know, somewhere between 6 and 8 inches.” And then with a grin and a shrug I’d admit that it was probably closer to six. In truth, my maximum skin-busting erection never exceeded a hair’s width over six inches.
So there’s a lot of misinformation out there about dick size. Most porn stars list their dicks in the 10″ to 13″ range. In truth, hardly any of them exceed 10″ inches. Even the legendary dick of Ron Jeremy topped out at 9.75″. Most adult film actors measure somewhere around 8 inches. Now, don’t get me wrong, that’s still one hell of a dick. Hold up a normal sized sheet of paper. Its width is 8.5 inches. Imagine something that size sticking out from your loins. Now imagine something the length (11 inches) of that paper. Ever seen any dick that big on-screen or off? I sure haven’t. And I’m betting if you whipped something like that out of your pants more women would be running away than coming forward.
Most of us, whether from watching porn or listening to friends brag about their imaginary seven-and-a-half inches, have been left with a pretty misguided notion of what the average sized dick actually is. But what is average? If we were to add up the length of every erect adult penis in the world and divide the total by the number of penises, what would that result be? Well, the answer is anywhere from 5 to 6.5 inches, depending on which study you want to rely on. That’s right; after dozens of rigorous scientific studies conducted in every part of the world, the only thing we can tell you with certainty is that if you’re less than 5 inches you’re smaller than average and if you’re larger than 6.5 inches you’re bigger than average. But what if you’re in between? An inch-and-a-half is a big variance. In any particular study it’s roughly the difference between the 10th and 90th percentile. How, you may ask can there be such a discrepancy between results? Well, it turns out that it’s damnably hard to accurately gauge the size of the average erect dick.
Why is it so, er, hard? It certainly seems simple enough: get a stiffy – whip out ruler. Ah, but as any man can tell you. There are stiffies and then there are stiffies. The difference between a half-ass erection and a raging hard-on can be as much as an inch. Then there’s the methodology. Where do you measure from? Along the top? Along the side? From the bottom? Each method gives a different result.