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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To wonder why penis graffiti is so common in the UK?

159 replies

FlannelShirt · 22/08/2024 14:26

At least in the part of the UK where I live (the North, without getting too specific…I know the North is a large area), maybe it’s a regional issue?

But I have lived in three different countries and only experienced this since moving to the UK. I never saw penis graffiti like this before moving here.

Every time I go out there is a penis scribbled somewhere. On a bus bench there is a massive one with hair and stuff squirting out that anyone who wants to relax while waiting for the bus has to sit on.

There was another along a children’s nature walk by the river, on a white wall, about 4’ tall and bright red. Thankfully someone painted over that one.

But I see them, big and small, sometimes even made with the dark juice of some random piece of fruit (as seen near a farm and wild fruit hedge, made on the path).

These are just a very small sampling of the many penises I have seen while out and about.

I suppose people will say ‘because kids’, but why not in other countries I’ve lived, where kids exist? I’m not slamming the UK, I’m genuinely curious.

OP posts:
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GingerLiberalFeminist · 22/08/2024 14:48

On roman sites? I've only ever seen it on roman archeological digs.
However there is penis graffiti at Pompeii, which tells us that it's not a new thing!
None down here to my knowledge (South east)

ErrolTheDragon · 22/08/2024 14:50

After a moments thought about the romans etc the question might be more why it's just graffiti nowadays rather than phalluses being carved in stone or sculpted in pottery.

You can buy a replica or one of the prize exhibits from one of the Cambridge museums....ideal gift for the man who has everything except an inferiority complex perhaps?Grin

https://potted-history.co.uk/products/phallic-chariot-vase-cup

GiantHornets · 22/08/2024 14:50

I’m in the south east, there are plenty of penises here.

Also seen penis graffiti all over the UK, and throughout Europe.

SummerSplashing · 22/08/2024 14:52

GingerLiberalFeminist · 22/08/2024 14:48

On roman sites? I've only ever seen it on roman archeological digs.
However there is penis graffiti at Pompeii, which tells us that it's not a new thing!
None down here to my knowledge (South east)

@GingerLiberalFeminist

of course there are. I'll take photos for you.

its always been a thing, it will always be a thing. Nothing to do with marking or patriarchy. Just easy to draw & shock value or funny.

& yes, all over Europe too.

SummerSplashing · 22/08/2024 14:52

GiantHornets · 22/08/2024 14:50

I’m in the south east, there are plenty of penises here.

Also seen penis graffiti all over the UK, and throughout Europe.

SNAP 🤣

StormingNorman · 22/08/2024 14:53

Because we are a childish people who find willies funny. See also boobs.

RuffledKestrel · 22/08/2024 14:56

Where I am it's a way to get stuff fixed by the council quicker... Draw them over a pot hole, a broken fence, a smashed bus stop. Council come out much quicker than normal 😅

HateMyselfToo · 22/08/2024 14:56

We're all uptight Brits and repressed so penises are seen as rude.

OrangeBlossomsinthesun · 22/08/2024 14:58

I live in southern Spain and do see penis grafitti but not very often, although there is plenty of other grafitti, usually those name tag things. Also, grafitti in toilets here is totally different, at least in the ladies. It's never "Susan is a slag" or "phone 4553543 for a good time". It's only ever girls names, like friends or couple names, like "Juanito y Maria para siempre, 01/95/2023".

NeverDropYourMooncup · 22/08/2024 14:58

MigGril · 22/08/2024 14:35

Working in a high school is the worst, you just become so immune to it. Although my colleague keeps saying they should really learn how to draw them properly. Or things like if theirs looks like that they should really see a doctor 🤔

I had an absolutely serious conversation with a colleague about how I didn't think she needed to be quite as concerned as she was (but to obviously still CPOMS it) when a 14 year old's art book included a lot of penis drawings, as they were so wrong in parts, he'd clearly never seen one that didn't belong to him, not even on a sculpture by Michelangelo.

I've also loudly critiqued drawings of breasts whilst the clown drawing tits with his mates when they should have been listening to the plenary artist dissolved into a puddle of excruciating embarrassment and recommended that if the giant phallus on the back of the door was in any way a self-portrait, the artist had better get himself to the GP because he appears to have either phimosis or an exceptionally short frenulum.

But I went to a mixed school, so I'd seen so many on desks, drawing boards, blackboard and pretty much every surface by the age of 13 that I rarely noticed them beyond 'something else that needs to be cleaned off that surface'.

wetback · 22/08/2024 15:00

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines - previously banned poster.

DancefloorAcrobatics · 22/08/2024 15:00

Well, some people ( immature boys, girls teenagers... ?) think the dangly bits are cool. They are expressing this in art for everyone to see.

Garlicfest · 22/08/2024 15:00

Incidentally, mediaeval churches ALL have carvings of penises and/or vulvas! All over Europe. They would originally have been brightly painted.

Mediaeval pilgrims carried talismans showing flying dicks and sometimes vulvas.

To wonder why penis graffiti is so common in the UK?
To wonder why penis graffiti is so common in the UK?
To wonder why penis graffiti is so common in the UK?
WiddlinDiddlin · 22/08/2024 15:06

... the truth is, the cock and balls is a classic.

CascaChan · 22/08/2024 15:08

rumred · 22/08/2024 14:30

It's everywhere and I hate it. I had planned to go and draw vulvas as a counter measure but lost my bottle.

To me it signifies men saying we rule, this is our territory.

With respect you are overthinking this. It’s just a tradition of dick jokes. Mild obscenity makes people laugh. It was tradition in my secondary school to draw cocks on the characters in the French textbooks.

BlueEyedLeucy · 22/08/2024 15:09

It’s a classic. It’s been etched all over the place since humans have been scribbling on things, even churches have their fair share as shown above.

wetback · 22/08/2024 15:12

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines - previously banned poster.

IamnotwhouthinkIam · 22/08/2024 15:13

Haven’t read the whole thread but I voted YABU OP because not just a UK thing - it’s a worldwide thing. Boys/men have been obsessed with their genitalia since humans have been around as far as I can tell 🤣 Puppetry of the Penis anyone?, peeing in public - writing in the snow, urinal “games” etc Any excuse!

It’s not even necessarily sexual- even when they are babies as soon as the nappies off, they are often playing with it and then when older they are drawing them too, I’ve even seen grown men mindlessly doodling penises instead of making notes 🤦‍♀️ I bet there are cave paintings of just penises somewhere as well as all those ancient phallic statues.

Maybe if our genitalia was as easily accessible we’d be as obsessed as boys/men? But somehow I just can’t imagine it🤣

Blackberriesandcobwebs · 22/08/2024 15:15

Did anyone else have a brain fart and think you meant tattoed penises? Lots in the north?

I'll get my coat ...

Teanbiscuits33 · 22/08/2024 15:15

They’re easy to draw and people find them amusing because of their use. Vulvas are more intricate and require more work 😂 it’s just the rude connotations people think it’s funny to draw them everywhere. Also see tacky hen nights with the phallic shaped everything! It’s funny when you’re younger but it gets boring very quickly.

PinkyAndTheBarnacle · 22/08/2024 15:16

00BonneMaman00 · 22/08/2024 14:46

I thought you meant actual graffiti on actual penises! 🤣🍆🎨

This is also what I thought….like tattoos… 🤦‍♀️

BurningBright · 22/08/2024 15:19

The Cerne Giant is the ultimate in penis graffiti. And that's in Dorset. So I don't think it's a regional phenomenon. Or, indeed, a very modern one...

Underthesinkk · 22/08/2024 15:21

Is it people though? It's men, or boys, isn't it? I always thought it was really odd at school that they drew a piece of their own anatomy. Would have made more sense to me if they'd drawn boobs...

FlannelShirt · 22/08/2024 15:24

For example, when I visit family who live in a major city in the States, I don’t see penises scribbled everywhere like I do when I come back to the UK. I’m trying to figure out why there is this discrepancy. Same with another country I visit a couple of times a year, again penis street drawings are not a common occurrence there. I’m sure people are just as obsessed with the penis as anywhere else in the world, but they’re not scribbled all over the place.

OP posts:
eggandchip · 22/08/2024 15:25

WiddlinDiddlin · 22/08/2024 15:06

... the truth is, the cock and balls is a classic.

😂