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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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eggandchip · 22/08/2024 15:26

We get it in our area never see a fanny though.

Castlereagh · 22/08/2024 15:27

I've seen loads of cock (graffiti) in the Netherlands and Belgium 😁

wetback · 22/08/2024 15:29

This reply has been deleted

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

IamnotwhouthinkIam · 22/08/2024 15:33

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.

I can only think that in some places they might consider it offensive- so if there is money to do it or people are willing/able (community service etc) it’ll get cleaned off as a priority, even compared to other graffiti. If you didn’t see a lot of swear words either, then I suspect that’s the case.

Whereas in the UK (and in many parts of Europe), we either don’t care as much/aren’t as easily offended, or just aren’t willing to spend the time/money to do so 🤷‍♀️

TheMarzipanDildo · 22/08/2024 15:37

Highest form of comedy innit.

Starlight1979 · 22/08/2024 15:37

I work in the north in a city centre and can honestly say I've never seen penis graffiti...

FrillyKnickersAndNoFurCoat · 22/08/2024 15:38

In Watford there was Wanksy painting a penis over potholes.

To wonder why penis graffiti is so common in the UK?
Moveoverdarlin · 22/08/2024 15:38

My neighbour is a care taker in a secondary school. He always says ‘90percent of his job role is scrubbing dicks off the wall. He said one went the entire length of a 70 corridor’. Couldn’t help but laugh when he said that. It was the same when I was at school.

My good friend is a well to do solicitor now, but she was a nightmare for drawing willies on chairs in a black marker pen. She would do it on plastic school chairs so it looked like it was poking out the bottom of your school skirt.

Oh and we’re in the SW so not just a northern thing.

godmum56 · 22/08/2024 15:40

google penis pilgrim badges.

FlannelShirt · 22/08/2024 15:41

IamnotwhouthinkIam · 22/08/2024 15:33

I can only think that in some places they might consider it offensive- so if there is money to do it or people are willing/able (community service etc) it’ll get cleaned off as a priority, even compared to other graffiti. If you didn’t see a lot of swear words either, then I suspect that’s the case.

Whereas in the UK (and in many parts of Europe), we either don’t care as much/aren’t as easily offended, or just aren’t willing to spend the time/money to do so 🤷‍♀️

Yeah that’s a good answer I think…and America is fairly puritanical on the whole. I suppose it boils down to culture and what’s seen as funny/acceptable. When I moved back here as an adult I was pretty shocked by British tv as in the US, you didn’t see nudity on regular tv. I’m not judging or saying one is better than the other, just culturally it was a shock.

OP posts:
CabbagesAndCeilingWax · 22/08/2024 15:42

Bare jokes innit.

Sarvanga24 · 22/08/2024 15:43

I refer you to the Bayeux Tapestry ...

To wonder why penis graffiti is so common in the UK?
To wonder why penis graffiti is so common in the UK?
Needmorelego · 22/08/2024 15:44

@FlannelShirt ahh America.....
A bunch of puritan conservative christians ! Married women probably don't even see their husbands weiners........
(apologies to most of America 😂)

FlannelShirt · 22/08/2024 15:46

Starlight1979 · 22/08/2024 15:37

I work in the north in a city centre and can honestly say I've never seen penis graffiti...

That’s surprising, maybe they clean it up?

Not that long ago I was walking past the McDonalds in the city centre and some bright spark had graffitied the word ‘cum’ in large letters on the side. Just that. No picture. Just cum 🧐 Something else I saw somewhere, not personally but someone posted a photo complaining they were on a long country walk and at the very end, on a sign by the path at the summit was written ‘fresh ejaculate’.

Anyways this is off topic-ish, just rambling now.

OP posts:
SamanthaVimes · 22/08/2024 15:48

I was taking a picture of DD yesterday as she’d climbed up a big (for her) rock near the playground and had to reframe the shot because there was a giant penis graffiti.
I find it mildly irritating as it’s just so unimaginative but I have to admit back in school I definitely thought it was funny so maybe it’s an age thing?

I agree with PPs saying boys are obsessed from the start, my 2yo DS can’t get enough of his!

Drippycandle · 22/08/2024 15:50

I went to look at a grammar school in the north west. There were so many cock and balls scrawled in the textbooks and etched on the tables it felt like male territorial behaviour or something and I decided it was not a place for my daughter.

Needmorelego · 22/08/2024 15:52

@FlannelShirt a few weeks ago this election poster near where I live.....
Makes you proud to be British 😂

To wonder why penis graffiti is so common in the UK?
To wonder why penis graffiti is so common in the UK?
tennesseewhiskey1 · 22/08/2024 15:53

Pompeii.

Rugglesbarry · 22/08/2024 15:54

B===l) - - -

Maray1967 · 22/08/2024 15:56

Watch James May’s series on Japan - there’s a penis festival held there. On race across the world there was a penis sculpture park in South Korea, I think.

Maray1967 · 22/08/2024 15:57

And anyone seen the chocolate penises in Bruges? Perhaps OP’s part of the North is very cosmopolitan…

GasPanic · 22/08/2024 15:58

Don't see that the Cerne Abbas giant has been mentioned yet.

Drippycandle · 22/08/2024 15:58

I also have noticed signs in society that were returning to 1970s/80s style mindless vandalism. I wonder why it is. Boredom? Cuts to youth services? Cost of living?
The other day I noticed a smashed up bus shelter and it felt retro and depressing. I grew up in a deprived area of the Uk in the late 70s/ early 80s where we couldn’t have nice things like bins or bus shelters, as people would simply set fire to them or smash them up. We had concrete bins and just a post where a shelter should be for the bus.
From the 90s it seemed to improve for a while and now we seem to be regressing again .

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr · 22/08/2024 15:59

That classic cock ‘n’ balls is called a “speednob”. They can be drawn incredibly quickly with practice, quickly enough to throw one down on your deskmate’s exercise book while his head is turned.

FlannelShirt · 22/08/2024 16:03

Drippycandle · 22/08/2024 15:58

I also have noticed signs in society that were returning to 1970s/80s style mindless vandalism. I wonder why it is. Boredom? Cuts to youth services? Cost of living?
The other day I noticed a smashed up bus shelter and it felt retro and depressing. I grew up in a deprived area of the Uk in the late 70s/ early 80s where we couldn’t have nice things like bins or bus shelters, as people would simply set fire to them or smash them up. We had concrete bins and just a post where a shelter should be for the bus.
From the 90s it seemed to improve for a while and now we seem to be regressing again .

The bus shelter and phone box near me are constantly being smashed up, repaired, smashed up…

OP posts:
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