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By BuckcuB
"I keep as delicate around the bowels as around the head and heart."
"Shove it up your ass!" "Fuck you!" "Blow it out
your ass!" These are just three of the most-common
male-male hallowed insults, and strangely enough all
three evoke and involve that most-inviolate part of
the body -- the anus.
Routine rectal exams are exploited as comedy-fodder on medical-themed television comedies. And in the real world, one study after another has shown the "digital rectal exam" as the procedure male patients detest above any other. When did the asshole become such an icon of taboo? When did that muscular ring of tissue become the final unexamined territory of the male body? BuckcuB has pored over a lot of literature on this topic, both scholarly and anecdotal, and there seems only one conclusion: men are seriously uncomfortable with their assholes! Having their assholes become an unavoidable issue, as in a medical examination, tends to evoke feelings of severe apprehension and even panic. Why so? Let's talk about that. Americans are in general uncomfortable with discussion of anything relating to their genitals. Males according to the anecdotal evidence seem to be far more sensitive on this topic than are women, who seem to be more "in touch' with their own bodies. There are degrees of discomfort. A man being asked to drop his shorts and cough, during a routine hernia check, feels some discomfort wholly unrelated to the procedure itself. Other parts of the body are routinely examined more minutely. And extensive testicular examination evokes an even more negative response, although such an exam can detect testicular cancer and masses which require immediate attention. There is clearly an undercurrent of puritanical homophobia involved in these feelings of discomfort. When formally quizzed, a majority of men express both their distaste for another man handling their genitals at length -- and also the fear that their body will respond involuntarily by producing a reflexive erection, Physicians are well aware of this common occurrence, but frequently don't reassure the patient that it doesn't mean he's gay -- it only means his nerve endings are in good working order.
But the be-all, end-all of false and furious modesty
is the anus! Even medical procedures near the anus --
doctors frequently receive the plaintive "Oh, can't
you give me the shot in the arm, instead?" when the
doc indicates the injection is intended for a gluteal
(ass) muscle. It seems that over the past few
decades, men have begun to view their hindquarters as
terra sacra sacred ground which must not be
violated in any way!
The real sweaty-browed panic sets in, however, when the doctor announces the need for a digital rectal exam. For the uninitiated, the exam consist of this: The doctor first places the patient in a relaxed and comfortable position -- usually bending over the edge of the exam table with his arms folded atop the table. Then the doctor dons either a whole-hand glove or a single-finger glove, lubricates it liberally, and gently introduces one finger into the rectum to palpate the prostate gland, and to feel for any obvious abnormalities like large polyps. Except for the apprehension, it is not at all a painful procedure. A well-lubricated, gloved finger gently but firmly introduced by a physician, who is familiar with the anus and colon, simply does not cause what anyone would call "pain." Regrettably, most men don't realize any discomfort is due to their tenseness and "clenching" during the procedure. Why has the male asshole become such an icon of inviolability? On the medical side of things, we let doctors stick their fingers in our mouths; handle our scrotum and testicles, look into all our other orifices with bright lights, and we accept it all as a normal part of the exam. But the minute that anything in the ano-rectal area is brought up, the patient tends to freeze with dismay.
Third, the man may fear an unreasonable amount of pain involved in the process. Let's be frank: men daily pass stools of far greater length and diameter than a doctor's probing finger. The physician's finger is a far less formidable object, given those circumstances. Fourth -- and perhaps most importantly -- the patient may feel there is something "gay" going on during such an exam. A "gay" exchange requires the sexual interest of one or both parties to the act. It's unlikely that your doctor will feel such interest, and it's equally unlikely that you feel that way either. The asshole is more personal and private than any other orifice because of our Puritanical upbringing. We are taught that the "things down there" are dirty and unmentionable. In many ways, we are also taught that the asshole is a cunning enemy, to be conquered early as part of toilet-training. Any further fooling-around with it may negate our lifelong effort to only void our bowels at an appropriate time and place. Then, take straight porn. Everything is exposed -- except, usually -- the male asshole. Even sequences where women perform anilingus on a man are carefully shot so that one sees plenty of female tongue, but little or nothing of the orifice she Is pleasuring. Consider the broad comedy of many popular films. In the 1980's the Eddie Murphy Film Trading Places reaped one of its biggest laughs from a situation where one of the bad guys, dressed in a gorilla suit, is caged with a real (and amorously-inclined) male gorilla. When the real gorilla finds the correct open seam in the rear -- and the proper orifice beneath -- the broad eye-rolling agonized slapstick of the bad guy generates a huge laugh. Our culture is full of more common references: "Stick it up your ass!" "Shove it, asshole!" "You're an asshole!" and others. The asshole has become fair game for this kind of cultural denigration. Few stop to think that without assholes, we would shortly be a very ill and poisoned species! The anus is the portal from which we expel waste -- but what upsets many is that it can serve other functions. Many gay men can testify to the extremely pleasurable sensation of anal sex. The anus is richly supplied with erotic nerve endings, being in such close proximity to the genitals. Having those nerve ending rhythmically stimulated can be a source of great pleasure of many a man. Perhaps it is those twinges of initial pleasure which panic straight men undergoing some procedure involving their anus? And perhaps it is the sense of ultimate privacy which lends some special taboo to the anus. Tucked neatly between the buttocks, the anus is rarely seen unless intentionally exposed. Even the act of thus exposing it may seem uncomfortably erotic to some. We don't think very much about the human asshole. Famed author Kurt Vonnegut, in his Breakfast of Champions, stunned the publishing world by including on several pages his own depiction of an asshole. Despite concern from his publisher, the "asshole-doodles" stayed through to publication. But outside of Vonnegut and any number of dry medical tomes, you'd be hard-pressed to fine any discussion at length on the asshole. BuckcuB believes the asshole is a sadly neglected subject. For a body part about which we hold such intense feelings, we seem to discuss it very little even in fun, and discuss it seriously very little indeed. |
Buckcub 