Is your penis a ‘shower’ or a ‘grower’?

Richie Benson body image, penis and balls, sexual intimacy

Whether you’re a ‘shower’ or a ‘grower’, the truth is that it has nothing to do with how good sex is

For as long as humans can remember, there’s been plenty of conversation about penises. More specifically, there’s a lot of debate and pressure around penis size and sex: whether it’s better to be a ‘shower’ or a ‘grower’. Having a ‘shower’ means having a penis that’s large when flaccid (soft), so it doesn’t have to be erect (hard) to ‘show’. Having a ‘grower’ means having a penis that’s small when flaccid, which grows larger when someone has an erection.

All this talk can cause a lot of people to worry about their own penis size and shape. Roughly 50% of people with a penis worry about their size. That’s a lot of people and worry! We go over some of the reasons here. But every penis is as unique as a fingerprint, and that’s how it should be. Penises can curve left, or right, or have no curve at all. They can be circumcised, or not. They can be thin, or thick, or somewhere in between. There’s nothing unusual about any of these descriptors!

Spoiler alert:

Ultimately penis size has no impact on how good and pleasurable sex is. Good sexual intimacy is about listening to the other person, trying to understand what feels good for them, and communicating what feels good to you. It is much better to understand what you and your partner enjoy, rather than worrying about measuring or comparing size. If your sexual partner seems to care about penis size, or criticises your body in any way, it sounds like you’re sleeping with the wrong person?

Through all the changing room and online chatter about it all, just try and remember one thing. Sex is about connection, not the size of your penis.