Jason Ramsland 🏃🏻‍♂️🥾🔨🪚

Curious because it's relevant to a sexual harassment / sex discrimination brief that I'm working on this week:

In your view, is it part of the cultural zeitgeist to correlate hand size with the size of male reproductive organs?

(not asking whether it is a true or accurate belief, just whether the notion has percolated through culture, USA culture in particular)

Yes, this is a generally understood reference
65.6%
No, this is not a generally understood reference
34.4%
Poll ended at .
Dec 19, 2022 at 4:22pmWeb
Show threadAndrew LeaheyDec 19, 2022
@Jason I know the reference, but have to admit that I only heard about it in the last 5-10 years.
Show threadGreg GentryDec 19, 2022

@Jason Yes, but ...

I think it's most often referred to in the negative - as in this bit from a 2011 article, "Long regarded as a myth and source of much amusement..."

Or, "One of the most common myths out there is that our hand size is directly correlated to our penis size."

Show threadGen X Public DefenderDec 19, 2022
@Jason I think your poll question is ambiguous. Do you mean (1) are people generally aware of this claim/notion/joke or (2) do people generally believe the claim is actually and empirically true? I think the answer to #1 is generally yes and #2 is generally no.
Show threadJason Ramsland 🏃🏻‍♂️🥾🔨🪚Dec 19, 2022
@GenXPD you nailed it. The question is about cultural awareness of the myth, not about the truth of it. Edited accordingly for clarity.
Show threadBrant VogelDec 19, 2022
@Jason I always heard shoe size.
Show threadJason Ramsland 🏃🏻‍♂️🥾🔨🪚Dec 19, 2022
@brant I've heard that one too, probably more prominently.
Show threadT. Austin BrownDec 19, 2022
@Jason When I was a kid, the story was that it was equal from the tip of your thumb to the tip of your little finger when you make the telephone sign.
Show threadJason Ramsland 🏃🏻‍♂️🥾🔨🪚Dec 19, 2022
@AustinB I heard that one too! also base of hand / palm to tip of middle finger.
Show threadChad LevinsonDec 19, 2022
@Jason I'd say context matters a great deal here. Any observed feature can stand in as a proxy for an unobserved feature. Hands and feet are probably the most frequently used in this regard, but if someone said, "he has really big ears, and we all know what that means," I might take it as inappropriate in certain contexts.
Show threadStu Duerson, machina exo deusDec 20, 2022
@Jason
Correlation of any bodily quality of a male to their sexuality, for the purpose of 'innocent' verbal harassment, is self-generating. It's part of trying to establish a heirarchy, a pecking order among males. It hardly matters, the body part mentioned. It could be foot, hand, thumb, nose, chin size...any protrusion. It's more than zeitgeist, it's baked in...evolutionary.
Show threadLorryDec 20, 2022

@Jason I thought it was feet - Maybe it's cultural? But I'd change my vote to "yes" with the re-wording.

I suspect it might have come to the social limelight the last few years because of Trump's "tiny hands" and Stormy Daniels making a big deal of other tiny assets.