Does pen*s envy actually exist?

Answer 1

This is just an opinion, as I don't have time to back up what I'm saying but I'd say the prime site of conflict when it comes to sex organs and jealousy is the womb.

I don't envy men for having a pen*s any more than I think they would envy me for having a c*nt but I do sometimes envy their lack of a womb. Or, rather, I sometimes envy the fact that this means they have the liberty of being able to automatically look to *someone else* to give birth if they want to become a genetic parent. In turn, I think some men feel disempowered by this reliance on a women's ability to give birth and that this is where a lot of oppression of women stems from.

PS: With regard to the wider question about penis envy, I'm with Bumbleboi (haven't I liked one of your answers before?), Bikerchick Jill, la_thumpera, Chris S and the person with a rather decorative looking name that doesn't show up when I try to cut and paste it.

Much as I'd like to agree with what Jude says, I would suggest old Freud was actually part of the problem, rather than the critic of women's suppression that s/he presents him as.

PPS: Obviously, some Female to Male transexuals might have pen*s envy. However, this is by no means always the case. (The FTM porn star Buck Angel, for example, is a self-identified "Man with a Pu*sy". He doesn't have a d*ck and I don't think he cares too much.)

Answer 2

First, it is necessary to define this word 'exist'. It is not necessary for something to be perceived by the five basic senses, to know that it exists. Radio waves, electrons, sub-particles, black holes, and countless things on Earth and beyond, which are invisible have been proven to exist. Love is a feeling, just like anger, joy, sadness, anxiety, fear, passion and others. We cannot say that all these feelings don't 'exist' when they have already been experienced by all normal or average persons, who have read countless romantic books, watched tearful movies, and daily interactions with family members, friends, etc in quarrels, show of love, hugs, etc. I believe that love exists in humans and also in some intelligent animals like dogs, dolphins, monkeys, and those living in closely-knit family packs. Watch documentaries from National Geographic and you know what i mean. It is most surprising that it should be debated for hundreds of years. But in these modern times, it should not be. Imagine the reaction of most people, if this topic on something so basic and obvious is debated at any University or high-level institutions? It would give the impression that 50% of mankind is still doubtful, which is an impossible situation. Just my thought.... :-))

Answer 3

No. Penis envy does not exist. As many people above have mentioned, penis envy was a concept thought up by the debatable father of psychotherapy, Sigmund Freud.

More recent studies have found that women do not have a desire to be men or to have a penis and that this theory was incorrect. Part of this concept depends on the notion that females view their genitalia as nothing or a lack of genitals so view a penis as completing them and giving them sex organs.

Women do not feel this way and think more that having external genitals would be annoying and problematic.

Someone above said that the vibrator proves the idea of penis envy but this couldn't be further from the truth. I mean if anything that re-affirms that women know their own bodies.

Answer 4

Only in the minds of men so far as women are concerned. As a pathological condition it does exist in men--but it would be more aptly called "Big Penis Envy"

Answer 5

According to Freud it doea but I think it's wise to remember that his Psychosexual development theory, although still highly credible in many respects, was formulated in a the Victorian Era and some Victorian Values are not only ones we scarsly regonise but also ones which really don't exist anymore. It is much easier to imagine why a Victorian Woman would be seen as being envious of the Male postion in life than it would to apply this logic to a modern woman. I always wondered why the opposite does not exist, vagina envy if you will; I am certain it must.

Answer 6

Only in Freud's little sexist mind it does. :-) However, I have not yet met a woman who desires to have a penis any other way than she already gets it. Hah!

However, I believe that the only people who do have penis envy are the men themselves. It is usually the men who talk about women wanting bigger sizes. Women who say they do, simply have not found an adequate lover yet, after all it's not the size of the ship that matters, but the motion of the ocean.

Some men, with small penises desire bigger ones because the guys with big penises like to announce it to the world. So the guy with the small one feels like he's less of a man because of the loudmouths who broadcast their big ones.

That, my dear friends, is my opinion. :-)

Answer 7

Freud was talking about the fact that in his day women were seen as subservient to men, their concerns were not taken seriously and they were just dismissed as being 'hysterical'. Therefore he thought women were envious of what the pen1s signified - power. He was the first person to really try to understand what was going on inside someone's head, including women. As such I think a lot of his ideas are very relevant today, even though the language he used, e.g. 'pen1s envy' is not really very helpful, but the concepts behind them, are.

Answer 8

Depends who you ask...

My wife would deny that penis envy exists, because technically, she owns mine. She certainly has a lot more say over what I do with it than I do.

Sigmund Freud pioneered the idea, but his studies were based on a handful of individuals, and then applied to the masses. Therefore they lack a certain amount of validity.

On a personal note, I would certainly miss it if I lost it. So I for one would be eligible for penis envy.

I'm sure there are many feminists out there who would argue that penises do not actually exist in a literal sense, and are simply tools of oppression designed and utilised by patriarchal males.

But let's be honest, if penis envy were never an issue, then the concept of the 'vibrator' would never have taken off, would it?

Hope that answers your question.

Answer 9

According to Freud, it does. However, the only time I've suffered from pen*s envy is when I've had to pee at the side of the road.

Answer 10

Yes, it actually exists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penis_envy

Penis envy in Freudian psychoanalysis refers to the supposed reaction of a girl during her psychosexual development to the realisation that she does not have a penis. Freudian thought considered this a defining moment in the development of gender and sexual identity for women. The parallel reaction in boys to the realisation that girls do not have a penis is Castration anxiety.

In contemporary culture, the term is sometimes used inexactly or metaphorically to refer to the idea that adult women wish they had a penis, or to refer to anxieties between men about the size of their genitals.