Mels van Driel
Reviewer: B.I. Laureano
From a feminist perspective one could argue that we already hear enough about manhood and the penis. I agree in many ways, especially when examining popular culture; but with regard to the anatomy and physiology of the penis we are kind of going based on older research. I remember my days teaching Human Sexuality, and all of the texts had the same information about the penis, even though I knew there was new research available.
Mels van Driel, a sexologist and urologist, attempts to answer many of our questions regarding the penis. I know I had several very specific questions that I was looking forward to having answered: Does the Cowper’s gland have a neck closure like the bladder neck closure? What are the findings that were historic and still culturally relevant? In what ways has an assumption based on sex assigned at birth connected to ideologies of gender identity?
I’ll give it to van Driel: he’s done an extensive amount of research into his topic and has created a very interdisciplinary text. He pulls from poetry, Greek mythology, literature, music, narratives, and hard science. It is not often that these disciplines come together in a scientific text and are treated with the same amount of respect. I found it fascinating that van Driel states in his introduction “art always takes precedence over science.” Most impressive is his work investigating art and its connection to science, especially among well known artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, who did not find genitals at all beautiful and discovered that the penis becomes erect not by air but by an accumulation of blood.
Unfortunately, not all of my questions were answered. I was very disappointed that he spent very little time discussing the Cowper’s gland (only mentioned three times in the text) and none of those times did he attempt to answer my specific question, but this is of course a personal complaint. His writing is very much targeted for an audience that is well read in the subject matter. I find this a bit challenging, as I was hoping to use this text in my next Human Sexuality class, and think the vernacular he uses may be challenging for students new to the field of sexology and sexual science. However, if you are looking for a conversation piece, a text where you will discover new things, gift to someone who thinks they know everything, or if you need a specific reference, van Driel has written such a text. I can imagine this book sitting in the libraries of several of my colleagues and in the personal libraries to medical professionals. And I can also imagine it on a bookshelf in a fraternity house where several, if not all, of the members will poke fun at it, but secretly learn some of the most useful information about their bodies they will ever come across.
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