Pathetic phalluses

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Pathetic phalluses: "Freud was wrong. It's not women who suffer penis envy, but men - they all want a bigger one. But, says Jacques Peretti, they should be careful what they wish for

this scene outlines the two essential male fantasy-come-misconceptions about sex, true to this day - namely, (a) that sex is not an intimate, loving experience between two people but a cold, hard performance with the man's penis resolutely centre-stage, said performance climaxing with the unfurling, to great fanfare, of the mammoth member; and (b), that in spite of what women say, no matter how much they assure us men that "size doesn't matter ... it's what you do with it that counts," etc, we know the truth, that size does matter, that they're lying, and what's more, they know it, too.

it is this homoerotic fascination with size that has made it possible and even necessary for certain men to pursue the ever-larger penis - just as some women become obsessed with creating bigger breasts. Increasingly, this post-feminist, post-men's-movement phenomenon of body modification is seen not as self-harm but as a form of consumer liberation. So is penis enlargement becoming as acceptable as breast enlargement?

Friedland is paying Dr Harold Reed, who operates on two or three men a week at his clinic, $11,000 (£6,000) for two procedures - first lengthening by surgery, and then using weights to maximise girth.

The operation is relatively simple - cutting the suspensory ligament, allowing the penis to drop and hence appear longer - but the majority of men who come for a consultation are suspicious of going under the knife, not least because it can go very wrong, and because, in the twilight world of penis enlargement, clinics can close overnight and the owners disappear.

Mike Salvini runs a website called mattersofsize.com ("The bigger pecker Mecca") and sells a kind of weighted metal splint."