There’s a growing community of women online who willy like d–k pics.
Here’s the thing: I didn’t come of age in the time of d–k pics. I met my husband when I was 22. We got married when I was 25. I’m now 31, and I can hardly think of anything less appealing than receiving an unsolicited snapshot of someone’s naked groin on my phone. I use that phone to call my mother!
But I’m no prude, and I know that this stuff happens. Guys, apparently, like sending d–k pics. I assumed most women were like me — that is, incredulous that a guy would think so highly of his member as to send out a photo of it, wanted or not. But I was wrong.
Because there’s a growing community of women online who love a d–k pic. Like, seriously, love them.
On Reddit, there are multiple subreddits dedicated to the *ahem* art of the d–k pic. There’s the private, members only (pardon the pun) r/LadyBonersGoneWild which currently has 82,000 participants and counting. There’s the matter-of-factly named r/penis. These subreddits are filled with pics from random guys — mainly young-ish (anywhere from early 20s to early 40s, it would seem), gay and straight, married and single (some men post pics of their girlfriends’ and wives’ hands wrapped around their bits, you see) — and their d–ks. You can’t see their faces, only their downstairs areas. And that’s what the ladies want.
“I just love d—s,” Katherine*, a Perth-based medical student tells me. “With these subreddits, I’m just looking at c—s. It’s really easy for me to [orgasm] that way.”
Katherine says she looks at d–k pic sites — like the ones on Reddit — three to four times a week. “I’m single, and I like masturbating, and these sites make it really easy for me to [orgasm]. Mainly I look for guys touching themselves — that seems to turn me on the most.” While Katherine herself is a self-professed “loiterer” (“I don’t leave comments,” she tells me), there are plenty of women who love commenting on the pics. The comments are universally flattering and encouraging, ranging from compliments (“Your d–k is lovely”) to the overtly sexual.
New Zealand native Madeleine Holden is a lawyer by trade but is now a professional d–k pic reviewer too. Seriously. Holden started her site Critique My D–k Pic in 2013 after receiving a particularly uninspired textual offering. “I was struck by how unnecessarily rare it was to receive a good, consensually shared d–k pic and I realized men needed some help with getting their d–k pics to that level.”
She now receives hundreds of submissions a day and charges anywhere from $12 to $33 to offer her musings and review of each shot.
One critique reads: “This is a lively, vibrant d–k pic, sender, with a great burst of color. Your d–k pic contains movement and narrative, which is a huge plus: the interplay between – and positioning of – your hands is excellent and there’s a good amount of self-interaction here.”
So how does she explain the appeal of the d–k pic to many women?
“Men, their penises, and other people and their penises are attractive, and I can say that with certainty, because people tell me they’re attracted to them every day,” Holden said during an online Q and A.
Medical student Katherine acknowledges that, for many women, unsolicited d–k pics can be at best, off-putting, and at worst, true harassment. But she says the medium is definitely part of the message here. “I know why women don’t like getting a random d–k pic when they’re online dating, or if they’ve just met a guy,” she says. “I get it. It can be weird and just gross. But these are safe spaces. The women who come here want to see d–k pics, and the guys who post here want to share them. I actually think it’s really healthy and positive — and if it helps someone get off, then all the better.”
*Name has been changed.