Friday, April 30, 2010

Pain Tolerance

While in the shelter I got into a friendly conversation with a guy in his late twenties. He was telling me very enthusiastically how he was now dating someone in Germany. After I congratulated him, he went on to explain his plan for visiting his new boyfriend. He needed to sort out the flight, but he would have three months to find a job in Germany. But first, he needed to get his teeth fixed.

He shows me his lower jaw, which has no teeth at all. The story is that one of his wisdom teeth became infected, and the infection spread. So he had to have all his teeth pulled.

"Ow, sounds painful," I say.

"No, I didn't feel anything. The gave me some gas, and then some Novocaine but, nah, I didn't feel a thing."

Very manly, I think to myself.

Conversation turns back to his boyfriend.

"He has two piercings. On in his lip - here - and one... a bit lower."

"Not his toe I assume," I reply.

"No, not his toe. Man, I could never get that thing pierced. Ouch."

...

Manly pain tolerance, it seems, does not include tolerance of penile pain. It it a performance of masculinity to be hyper protective of one's penis?

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