It tends to happen the most with other atypicalities, but even when it doesn't, it just doesn't look right. Humans have certain proportions, ratios, and we can usually tell when someone is off by a fairly small margin. Genitals are no different in that regard.
You might not immediately think "micropenis", but you'd be able to tell things weren't normative.
Now, it might be pretty easy to shove that aside and assume it would grow later on, and they do. They just don't grow to normative proportions, they stay micro, just not the same size as they start.
I don't think it was that uncommon for a boomer dad to never change a diaper. One of my friends dad was bragging about it and my own dad was a little surprised to see me change one. Luxury of a single income supporting a middle class family of 4 I guess.
Well, considering the is dated last year, I didn't consider that anon would be old enough to have boomer parents and be coming out late in life, but that is possible. I sometimes forget that my generation hasn't all come out yet. I'm just so used to the only people coming put in my life being under 30, that it's become three unconscious association that someone coming out has to be younger.
You'd think I'd know better, what with seeing the occasional article about someone from my mom's age range deciding it's time to transition, and she was at the tail end of the baby boom.
I'm 40 and would have no idea how big penis of a toddler should be - and with all growth hormone stuff happening, I wouldn't feel comfortable at judging at this age (besides that it is mostly irrelevant in long term relationships)
Also, my personal penis, so to speak, can be very minor, but as a grower I needed to step up my confidence, when being naked - but of curse instead of an actual micro penis, mine seems to be just shy and needs some encouraging words or kisses.
So maybe I can't relate.
Micropenis is typically noticed in the initial physical exam after birth. The upper limit for that criteria is about half of the typical/normative, so it's visually distinct even at birth. It's not determined by erect length at all.
Penises do grow over time, no matter what size they start, but there's limits to how much. Even as puberty hits, someone with a micropenis will only get so much extra because of the underlying limitations of the tissues. If someone of normative length gets a 10% change (as an example, I don't recall the actual number ranges for pubertal changes), that same basic range is all the person with a micropenis is going to get too.
And you're exactly right, it has next to zero impact on long term relationships. I wanna say that out of maybe fifteen or sixteen patients I had that fit the criteria, all but three had kids. So it's definitely not a barrier to sex at all. The one patient I had that was unusually talkative about it (most of them would just state the fact and describe any special needs they'd have for bathing, then never mention it again) said that once he read "the joy of sex" and learned how to do oral, he and his wife did fine, which she said was true as well, fwiw.
39 year old dad here. Being proud of not changing diapers was my dad's generation for sure. I've certainly changed plenty, and I can't think of any peers who haven't.
Yeah, that's true. I just don't think that way. Kinda dumb of me to not consider the possibilities. I mean, it could be a step-dad, and they didn't become anon's dad until later. Could have been deployed in the military and didn't have the chance. Someone else pointed out that the dad could have been older, in the actual baby boomer range; and that reminded me that I had assumed anon was a younger person when that doesn't have to be the case
I just default to the idea of fatherhood that I was raised around, and how I wanted to be a dad. Couldn't get out of my own head before I commented lol. You'd think I'd know better
A big reason that drove me was that I have a micropenis.
Fake. There are no "reasons to drive someone" other than their internal gender, this sounds like something a cis personsomeone who thinks being trans is a choice would say.
Edit: For clarity, I'm not speculating on whether or not the OP in the post is trans or cis, I'm saying it doesn't sound like a real story because it sounds inauthentic to the trans experience. A trans person could easily think this up, like anyone can make up a story that is close to their experiences, but since it isn't real it doesn't really pass scrutiny.
That's such reddit logic. You assume everyone has a perfect understanding of themselves, but people have a lot of different things internally that drive them and they're not always aware of it. When I was young I was interested in other men, and frankly, quite disgusted by it. It's the habitat I was raised in and if you'd asked me back then, I'd have told you it was because I was a sinner. The real reason as I came to discover was indeed that I'm just gay. It took a lot of steps and discovery to get there. I'm not saying this is real, I'm just pointing out that just because your logic is correct does not mean that this person if they are real has made enough discoveries about themselves to be strictly logical.
You assume everyone has a perfect understanding of themselves
The 'understanding' of gender is appreciating how gender is socially constructed. That requires observation of society, hence revealing of new information, hence a journey of understanding.
Your own gender is an experience, one that is even present (although not labelled) without the social norms. It's what you experience as what you want to be and do. It would exist without the social construction of gender. You could prefer certain colours and certain toys regardless of what society says is 'right' or 'wrong' for your external genitalia and designation on a birth certificate. I have known what society thinks about gender is not important to me since I first saw gender norms in the real world. I found the whole concept ridiculous. I've known that I am treated as male for having a penis, but am actually not interested in gender, since before I discovered terms like non-binary.
Someone saying that "you need to watch Gordon Ramsay says about cooking before you know what food you like" is ridiculous. You've had experiences and you prefer some of them without Gordon Ramsay. He doesn't even need to exist.
Someone saying "you realise your gender preferences by being mocked for your micropenis" is being similarly ridiculous. Gender does not equate to external genitalia.
It's not a 'perfect understanding'. It's 'having experiences', which everyone does.
When I was young I was interested in other men, and frankly, quite disgusted by it. It’s the habitat I was raised in and if you’d asked me back then, I’d have told you it was because I was a sinner. The real reason as I came to discover was indeed that I’m just gay. It took a lot of steps and discovery to get there.
You did have an understanding of yourself. That was scared out of you by threats. You didn't discover that you were gay - you just knew it, because it was a feature of your experience - you discovered that other people were wrong when they told you that was disgusting.
But seriously, yeah, people don't seem to realize that people tend to want to pick the path of least resistance. If someone really is trans I have to believe it's because who they are is so at odds with the expectations of society.
Edit: added a qualification because I am not trans
Exactly. Coming to terms with being trans, when trans people have been seen as nothing but the butt of far too many jokes in damn near all exposure most of us had growing up, is a difficult process rife with cognitive dissonance and defense mechanisms. No one wants to be trans, they just want to be their gender and have to be trans to get that.
two of my trans women friends, when getting their sperm frozen before starting hormones, found out they just have XX chromosomes and never had working sperm in the first place
i think we underestimate how many intersex people there are
Yup. My belief is that we are likely to eventually combine the categories of transgender and differences in sexual development (formerly known as intersex) as we discover more about it's biological origins. The vast majority of people have never been karyotyped and have no idea what their chromosomes are.
That's a good point. I haven't browsed 4chan since way before they had any LGBT community/rep visible on it, I don't know what kind of convoluted views they have. Let me guess, some of them unironcally identify as "agp" don't they?