I believe that studies have shown that the sight of their own penis is erotically stimulating for most men of whatever sexual orientation. I think that women, who are far less likely to be primarily sexually visual-oriented, generally underestimate how much visual cues play an active and important role in male sexuality. Anyway, making their own penis more apparent, not to mention perhaps apparently larger, probably increases that "stimulated by sight of own penis" behavior.

I'm the wrong guy to ask, as I've never understood any sort of landscaping down thataway, on either gender. We are mammals. We have hair. It's nice. *shrug*

On the other hand, there are a lot of men who are insecure about their size. No matter what anyone says about size not mattering, it's always gonna be there in the back of their minds. Consequently, anything that might give them an edge in that area without being too entirely obvious is probably going to be employed at one time or another.

bmarkey, you must not have ever run into a specimen such as this. (nsfw)

I'd like to add the point that the motivation probably is just to present the organ more explicitly visually, as I think is the case of the motivation of many (not all) women and/or their partners in shaving.

It's interesting to me that with regard to genital depilatoration, there is a tendency for women to assume that, either in the case of male or female depilatoration, the presentation is symbolic. There is, in the case of women, an awful lot of women assuming, have been told, or otherwise assert that a male preference for shaven women is linked to a pedophilic impulse. I hear this a lot less these days as the brazillian hair removal thing has gone mainstream. But that interpretation, along with implicit or explicit condemnation, will come up almost every time this matter is discussed.

In this thread we see the interpretations of male genital depilatoration as an attempt to symbolize or suggest a larger penis—and another interpretation is the same as the pedophilic interpretation. Notice the distinction I'm making: matildaben is baffled that shaving would attempt to somehow fool someone into thinking the penis is larger and that this would necessarily fail because a sex partner will know with certainty one way or another. In this sense, the shaving is assumed to be sort of symbolic: it's a means to an end, it suggests a characteristic.

In contrast, I think that as is the case for the motivation of many men for preferring shaven women, it doesn't represent something, it simply is a visual trigger. It's an end to itself. It doesn't "mean" anything.

(I'm not making an absolute argument about all people, just prevalent tendencies.)

Being of average endowment, I really could care less about the apparent size of my unit. I don't need a technician's service manual to operate the thing properly.

However, being of the large, wooly variety of humans, I trim my junk and other bits because if I don't I'm constantly over-warm, tangled, itchy and otherwise annoyed.

See above.

I'm sure I don't know. I have never felt the need to trim my pubies.

Motivations for trimming are various. I fully support the trimming for cleanliness and averting the hair-between-the-teeth problem. I guess I just wasn't aware how strong the visual motivations might be in the case of those who promulgate the "looks bigger" meme (since, as a woman, my sexuality is generally less visually oriented) ... so apparently the answer is that in those cases the visual presentation satisfies the man himself more so than the woman involved.

I always thought it was something women would say to convince their men to do it.

I cornrow and dread my pubes, so maybe I'm not the one to ask. Tonight I have little Oscar statuettes instead of beads.

Ouch. Talk about bumping uglies!

Having to shave every day is enough work as it is. I think it's done for the same reason guys pee off balconies: so they can yell "hey, look at this!"

I cornrow and dread my pubes, so maybe I'm not the one to ask. Tonight I have little Oscar statuettes instead of beads.

I'd like to be at the oscars party you're going to! : >

I don't like shaving (little cuts, itchy, angry red bumps) but I did like the resulting increased sensation. I could not go without trimming now though.

As for the "looks bigger" meme, it kinda does. On film. But since most of us are not porn stars, it isn't a good reason to shave.

I view it as a simple matter of "turnabout is fair play"

Yeah, blade-shaving the crotchular region is evil and dangerous. I did that once or twice in an much younger and more industrial phase. I'm just talking electric clippers.

No sharp things down there, even fingernails are nerve-wracking enough.

I shave.

I just don't care for body hair that much, and neither does my lovely wife. It can be a hassle, with stubble and bumps, but it's manageable. I don't do it for the "size enhancement" though . . .