This “Big Dick Energy” issue wouldn’t be complete without the book that inspired it. Edited by Dian Hanson and published by Taschen in 2008, The Big Penis Book dares to collect over 400 images of (mostly) erect penises in an expensive and groundbreaking art book. “Who can deny the allure of a big dick?” asks Hanson. “Flaccid or erect, it is esthetically stunning –commanding every onlooker to consider capacity and consequence.”
Hanson summarizes the history of the male nude in photography –from the early naturist and bodybuilding magazines to the sexual revolution of the 60s. But then she chooses to “concentrate on photographers active during this first exhilarating burst of freedom, spanning the period from 1968 through the early 90s.” And where did she find these “very, very large penises” if not amongst the naked hustlers of the Athletic Model Guild and the many porn stars shot by Fred Bisonnes for Advocate Men and Falcon Studios?
‘The Big Penis Book’ • Athletic Model Guild.
It’s no coincidence that the 11-inch penis on the cover belongs to gay porn star Chad Hunt (active in the early aughts) and that the endpapers feature John Holmes’ legendary manhood (13 inches?) While some of the models in Hanson’s anthology are unknown or little-known, many are the porn stars who defined an era: Giorgio Canali, Rick Donovan, Chad Douglas, Bill Eld, Scott O’Hara, Al Parker, Lee Rider, Glenn Steers, Jeff Stryker… And the (in)famous porn studios that launched them: Colt, Falcon, Filmco, Old Reliable…
‘The Big Penis Book’ • John Holmes.
Hanson confronts two stereotypes head-on: “No racial or ethnic group is uniformly large and no group is uniformly small,” she observes. And yet (perhaps provocatively) some of the biggest tools on display are Black –courtesy of Zebra Studios and Third World Studios. Second stereotype (and one that Playgirl explores in this issue): “Women, we are constantly assured, care nothing about size,” Hanson quips, “Men may be more candid.”
‘The Big Penis Book’ • Colt Studios.
What makes The Big Penis Book groundbreaking? The fact that Hanson didn’t collect nudes by renowned fashion photographers (George Platt Lynes or Cecil Beaton or Richard Avedon…) She didn’t select Mapplethorpe’s cocks, controversially exhibited at museums and art galleries worldwide. She picked plain pornographic images of “very, very large penises.” Unapologetically (paradoxically?) blurring the line between the ‘artistic’ and the ‘obscene.’
‘The Big Penis Book’
