Even though a little penis pageant may sound absurd to many, the idea isn’t just out there, and it has attracted a lot of attention in recent years. The idea of a small penis pageant is pretty straightforward: people embarrassed by their rather diminutive penis gather to compete for talent, swimwear and fancy dress. The whole point of the pageant is to acquiesce in yourself, and to disrupt current expectations of the male form. Some people believe that this pageant isn’t solving a major issue and in fact it’s a cover-up for a much bigger problem. In this article, I will examine the little penis pageant and see if it is as self-loving as you may think, or does it gloss over a deeper, more troubling issue.
The Small Penis Pageant is a pageant of mischief and novelty that promotes the beauty and eccentricity of men with smaller than average penises. The Small Penis Pageant was first developed in 2013 by Brian Sloan, founder of the adult toy line Autoblow. The pageant started life as a promotional stunt for the company’s newest offering, the Autoblow AI, an artificially manipulated male sex toy. But it soon caught on, and became a venue for men to own and love their bodies, no matter how big or small their penis.
The pageant’s concept is to subvert cultural and aesthetic conventions that fetishise and prioritise the size of a man’s penis. It aims to foster body positivity and self-love for men who feel underconfident or underappreciated due to their smaller than average penis size.
Since its conception, the pageant has been both praised and derided. Others find it a refreshing, liberating forum that embraces the different and opposes toxic masculinity. Others perceive it as a denigration and objectification of men.
The pageant operates much like a beauty pageant, with competitors demonstrating their abilities, answering questions, and engaging in multiple rounds of competition. But rather than concentrating on their looks, the pageant evaluates contestants by their personalities, courage and humour.
The pageant has had an array of candidates, from men with micro penises to men with slightly below-average penises. They come from a diverse range of backgrounds and careers, from teachers to lawyers and even doctors.
Perhaps the most important part of the pageant is the talent round, in which the contestants are able to display their talents and skills. The talent round, whether singing and dancing, stand-up or magic, never goes unremarkable and demonstrates that a man is not judged by his penis size.
The Small Penis Pageant, in turn, is a place for men to write about their own bodies and self-worth issues. So many contestants have spoken about how the pageant helped them shed their insecurities and accept their bodies.
On one level, the small penis pageant can be seen as a positive and empowering practice for men who might feel they don’t measure up due to their size.
In a world that usually defines masculinity by penis length, such men may be rejected and dehumanised. They use the pageant as an opportunity to express their bodies and rebuff cultural norms. It enables them to showcase their skills, their personalities and their self-esteem instead of just looking good on the outside.
Besides, the pageant could also serve as a way to educate and start a dialogue about the destructive nature of body shaming and men’s false beauty expectations.
Women have always struggled against the strict notion of beauty that has been forced upon them, and men are pressured to live up to a certain ideal. Bringing awareness to the matter, the little penis pageant can dispel male body shame and foster a more open society.
But the little penis pageant has its detractors too, who say it’s not tackling the problem.
Some even think that the pageant is furthering the stereotype that a small penis is unflattering, and that men need to grow bigger. By forcing a competition on size, it can also perpetuate the pernicious assumption that the value of a man lies in his genitalia. Moreover, the pageant can also be read as trivialising men who truly do have a tiny penis due to conditions such as micropenis or erectile dysfunction.
In addition, some analysts say the pageant does nothing to address the real problem — the society’s insistence that men sport a big penis.
Far from helping men accept themselves, the pageant could be perpetuating the message that men must modify their bodies to a certain image. This breeds a vicious cycle of insecurity and self-regard, as men might constantly feel like they have to measure up (literally and figuratively) in order to be attractive.
The Small Penis Pageant is still popular and has gone as far as bringing it to countries like the UK and Australia. It also influenced related pageants, including the Tiny Miss Pinoy Pageant in the Philippines, which celebrates men who are shorter than average height.
Probably the pageant’s biggest contribution is that it breaks the taboo and stigma around penis size. It encourages open and candid dialogue about male self-image, and resists the false expectations of society.
At a time when men feel indoctrinated into a masculine norm, the Small Penis Pageant reflects back on how all bodies are different and beautiful in their own right. It fosters self-love and self-acceptance irrespective of one’s body parts.
Conclusion:
The miniature penis pageant is a contentious and controversial issue. Ideally designed to foster self-love and defy conventional wisdom, it can also feed toxic ideologies and stigmatise an existential issue. Perhaps instead of glorifying and stigmatising certain body types, we need to support body positivity and acceptance for all. All in all, we should need to accept the fact that there are issues with body image that are prevalent among all, regardless of sex, and that we can and should strive to make the world a more open and tolerant place for all shapes and sizes.
