Scrotums, let’s face it, are not the most attractive of the sexual organs. As the authors of a recent study describe it, it is “a sac-like structure containing the testicles” which “semifloat” around in there.
The scrotum is outside of the body as the temperature inside is too high for sperm cells to be produced. When it’s warm, the scrotum is relaxed to allow heat release, and when it is cold, muscles contract and it wrinkles up together. As you grow older, these muscles weaken and your scrotum, already maybe not the prettiest dancer at the ball, begins to sag.
But someone must like scrotums, or find them attractive, right? Well, according to a study of the attractiveness of different scrotal types: not really.
The team, who published their paper in April 2023, was hoping to investigate men’s and women’s scrotum preferences, to help assist people who were thinking of undergoing scrotum “tightening”. They presented 659 participants with photographs of four different scrotums, which had been altered in terms of length and width to provide a cool nine images per scrotum, giving the volunteers a total of 36 ball sacks to rate in terms of attractiveness.
The team first wanted to see if there were differences in perceived attractiveness perceived by men and women.
“No gender-related difference emerged in the assessments of scrotums 1–3,” the team wrote in their study. “By contrast, men rated scrotum four as significantly more attractive than did women.”
The study also looked at the personality traits of the participants using a questionnaire, as well as their age, openness to new experiences, and use of pornography. Again, they found no correlation between any of these factors and how participants rated the scrotum types. While they did find that men were less critical of scrotums than women – given how they rated scrotum number four as slightly more appealing than women did – “overall, almost none of the 36 images we showed participants was rated as ‘attractive’, as most values were in the negative range”.
“Ultimately, it was barely possible to identify a “beautiful” scrotum,” they concluded, “we must instead speak of the least ugly.”
One positive outcome of the study is that it showed the use of pornography did not negatively affect men’s views of their own scrotums. This was not the case with the penis, however, with a study cited by the authors finding that men who consume more pornography were more dissatisfied with their penises than those who watched less.
“One might assume that women are generally more exacting in their evaluation of their partner’s genitals than are men. Women perceive a prominent, large penis as a measure of masculinity, so any deviation from the ideal image could lead to a less positive assessment of the partner’s genitals,” the team said, exploring one final theory. “We were unable to confirm this hypothesis, finding no significant gender difference in participants’ evaluation of their partner’s genitals. The reason for this may be that the scrotum does not have the same importance for women as does the penis.”
In summary, scrotums aren’t that appealing to anybody, so try not to worry about it.
The study is published in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology.
Source Link: Study Finds What People Find Attractive About Scrotums, And It's Sort Of Good News