Why do women have penis envy?

Why do women have penis envy?

After I have your attention with my sensational headline, I will proceed with a simple disclaimer:

Since this is a sensitive topic to quite a few people, I ask you to avoid unnecessary conflict and keep criticism and discussion civil, sober and factual. A discussion is not there to determine the winner, but will only flourish when the involved sides create an exchange of opposing and challenging views.
Not all criticism and opposing opinions are offensive and criticism and opposing opinions can be phrased less offensive.

To not wait any longer and get started already:

A while ago I was browsing through the depths of the internet and stumbled across a certain statement. A statement which was in itself very simple, but for me it held great meaning.

Did you ever felt a moment of clarity? A moment where you suddenly understood something which was clouded before? I did when I read that statement. I did understand something, in a train of thoughts, just by a few words. That simple statement was the following:

“Feminism IS about helping us women achieve rights that will make us finally be recognized as being equal to men in every way.”

At the first glance this sounds like any other equality phrase we have read thousands of times. On a closer look it becomes evident what deep meaning lies in those few words. “Being equal to men” is the confession of an entire movement and their motivation. It’s the confession that feminists do feel inferior to men.

After realising it, it seems as obvious as it gets. They value their own worth on masculine attributes. For some reason they put men on a pedestal and they try to compete and fight them on their homesoil. Naturally they will have the genetical disadvantage there and as a result feel inferior and self-loathing. Vice versa it would naturally be the same outcome with men having the disadvantage and feeling inferior on womens homesoil. It is made to disappoint and end in disaster.

But why do these girls and women feel like that? Why is it mainly one gender doing it that excessively? In order to answer this and due to my liking for football (soccer for the americans), I will use an analogy on based off this sports. Most other teamsports work equally well though.

The common notion in most teamsports is that there are both offensive and defensive-minded players, and roles. Yet, in the majority of cases the world stars are the ones being considered offensive players. It’s the offense getting the most attention by being the most spectacular to watch. We pay more attention to a random goal than to a world-class tackle by a defender. We pay more attention to a meaningless dribbling on the sidelines than a good positioning to disrupt the opponents attacking. The list would go endlessly on, but that is the simple nature of things.

That doesn’t mean that defending players are of less importance. It just means they receive less attention. The very same issue happens for women in our society and in humanity as a whole. Typical male actions are just more attention gaining.

Men are the offensive and women are the defensive players of our society. As in sports we pay more attention to the offensive players. We pay more attention to what is flashy. We pay more attention to that one out of ten times that dribbling worked than we pay attention to the ten out of ten times where the defensive tackling was done successfully. We pay more attention to that one in a million billionaire than we pay attention to the loving housewife of 5 children. We pay more attention to the male president than to all those hard-working nurses out there.

Naturally that lack of attention and approval can lead to a sense of inferiority and repulsion towards ones own strengths. It is fully understandable that a woman might feel undervalued by this human approach and that feeling can easily result into wanting the same as men in hope of getting the same appreciation and attention. That is a false conclusion though. A vicious spiral going downhill.


Maybe Freud’s penis envy theory was indeed right. Not in a literal, but a metaphorical sense. The penis itself is a symbol of male strength and power. It is the active sexual organ, the one penetrating. Maybe he was right that in the life of most girls comes the realisation of feeling inferior by physical strength, but also by attention and approval of humanity as a whole.

Additionally Freud stated as well that denying the own “being without penis” will result in taking over male behaviour and (gender-)role patterns. I observed as well that this sense of inferiority can result in an overcompensation of common male stereotypes. Hypersexuality, because men only think about sex (“slutshaming”). Overly competitive behaviour, because men only compete. If violent, violent crimes by women turn out to generally be more sadistic than of men, because men are violent by nature. So on and so forth. Eventually it is distorted to the extent that these women see the actions of men in the same intensity as they practice it themselves.
In addition to the feeling of inferiority this can also lead to the denial of the possibility that men can become victims of domestic violence, rape and other such violent crimes at the hands of a woman. By seeing men as above themselves and specifically as being physically stronger, they can’t comprehend such crimes as that would let their mindset and worldview collapse.

As a result these girls and women will be drawn a lot more to feminism and other social justice causes as they see morals, emotionality and ethical arguments as part of their own homesoil. It is a sense of last resort of not feeling inferior. Admitting to lose there would therefore be a huge issue and could result in dealing the finishing blow to an already wounded, or even broken, self-worth.
The feminist fight is an act of deeply ingrained loathing for themselves. By now women have all the rights and even more than men have, yet still these feminists feel oppressed. It is a self-made problem by projecting their inner self-loathe on a certain group being made into the perpetrator. It is safe to say that they will never be satisfied, even if they had all the advantages in the world. The entire fight is a lost cause as long as it remains symptom fighting without getting to the core of the problem.

It easily explains why women get statistically more and more unhappy in the liberalising western countries. While they are fighting windmills by trying to compete more and more with men to become “equal”, they disregard their own strengths and needs of being women. It is not only resulting in feeling inferior to men, but also results in losing the connection to their own feminine self as well as the intimate and complementary bond a man and a woman can share.

How some people called it out already. Modern feminism is a hate-movement. But it is less a hate-movement towards men, but it is a hate-movement towards femininity which is projected on men being the culprit.


To finish the article with the football analogy I started above, I will translate a saying of my native language:
“The offense wins games, the defence wins championships.”

Male traits might win “games", might bring society forward at times. However, without the feminine traits, without offspring, without stability of the family and without anyone who covers the offenses back, there will be no championships to be won.


Note: This is purely based on my own personal observations out of western countries. I don’t have a degree in psychology nor sociology. What you take out of this text is entirely up to you as an individual.

Additionally I am generalising to sum up a general issue without getting into individual cases which obviously differ.


Unfortunately I cannot link websites yet. Therefore to give you a good read to the offensive/defensive player analogy I recommend you the article "The No-Stats All-Star" by Michael Lewis about the NBA player Shane Battier written for the New York Times.For the extra lazy ones (like me) google the following: "The No-Stats All-Star Michael Lewis NBA Shane Battier New York Times"

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Most Helpful Guy

  • I don't see the question. You basicly explained what is happening. The only thing I would add is that feminisim also came about because women saw male priviledge and were upset that they themselves did not have said priviledge, ignoring that it came with a equivalent responsibility. For instance voting, men got the right to vote (here in America) about the 1850s, 70 years before women which was there priviledge, this however came with the responsibility of being drafted into the military and various civil service functions (like bucket brigades). Men did have the "priviledge" of disciplining his wife, but that came with the responsibilty that he would be held legaly responsible for her transgressions (perhaps with the exception of murder), in fact if a man beat his wife, he would be punished, if a wife beat her husband, he would also be punished. Usually by public humilation and I believe in france he would be forced to ride a donkey backwards while the towns people would throw pretty much what ever they could at him. Its because a women who was not under her husbands control really couldn't be controled at all. Same thing with owning land, married women couldn't own land and it whent straight to her husband, the reason was because he was legally and socialy obligated to take care of her and so was forced to pay the taxes on the land. He could not fullfill his obligations if she could dictate how the land was used, if he was to poor to pay the taxes but she refused to sell the land then it would not be fair to have him suffer the consequences. Over all I would agree with what your saying. The biggest irony is that feminist hate women not men. Women are naturally inclined towords child rearing, yet feminist think this is insulting. The funny part about that is that our children are literally the most important thing to us both socially and biologicly since they will ensure the survival of our genetic line, and our society, making it one of the most important jobs there is. Its quite strange how things have gotten so twisted.

    • There is no question, but just my take. Aka I wrote down my view and train of thought of the matter. Other than that one also needs to see where the less freedom of women in the past came from. It wasn't necessarily oppression, but in those more barbaric times a means of safety. The woman at home is less likely to be in danger than the one with full freedom. After all, freedom and safety are often contradictions where you can only have either or a compromise. In return the men with more freedom also had more responsibilities and risks to take (classic example of women and children first on the sinking ship) That was not because of a disregard of women, but because womens lifes were considered worthy more protection than mens lifes. Naturally there were also people who abused that freedom and women who had to suffer from that. In no means do I want to justify it. But in the past this basic foundation simply was the most efficient for the species survival. I agree with you nonetheless

    • "that came with the responsibilty that he would be held legaly responsible for her transgressions (perhaps with the exception of murder), in fact if a man beat his wife, he would be punished, if a wife beat her husband, he would also be punished." Source? Anyway, in order for the right to vote, men (potentially) give blood through warfare and women give blood through menstruation and childbirth (for the perpetuation of the human race). Though I wouldn't agree with women being forced to give birth against their will, so I also disagree with men having to sign up for the draft. Anyway, @mytakeowner: "women and children first" is very rare. most ships abide by "every man for himself."

    • @mistixs <a target="_blank" class="media-link" href="https://domestibooks. google. com/booksl-responsibility-for-wives-debts/
      https://books. google. com/books? id=xjQwAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA694&lpg=PA694&dq=husband+imprisoned+for+wifes+debt&source=bl&ots=HhvfALxHZg&sig=gyNxVHT61Ro-SvkXsIXJ6FPa0Lg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjI-Neb-ejKAhXFRyYKHfRVD7oQ6AEIMDAE#v=onepage&q=husband%20imprisoned%20for%20wifes%20debt&f=false
      https://books. google. com/books? id=rEcwAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA97&lpg=PA97&dq=husband+imprisoned+for+wifes+debt&source=bl&ots=T41qRpXxGO&sig=APM_2Ot0eTrYYTDHBQJQpdm6Qh4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjI-Neb-ejKAhXFRyYKHfRVD7oQ6AEIPTAI#v=onepage&q=husband%20imprisoned%20for%20wifes%20debt&f=false
      Also women and children first is quite common and has historicly been enforced hence only 100 women dying in the sinking of the titanic as opposed to the 1358 men who died.

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Most Helpful Girl

  • Penis envy is a greatly falsified and discredited theory, if a woman is genuinely jealous of another guy's genitalia then she has to have some form of gender dysmorphia.

    We don't have envy of anything, it's mainly just resent that the Western world is greatly patriarchal. Feminism isn't about self-hate or loathing either, they just want to raise awareness and fight for women's social rights.

    • Feel free to state which rights women are missing in the west. Especially the ones men have.

    • Ah I should've known that you're one of those guys...

      ukfeminista.org.uk/.../

    • 1. Are you incapable of stating your own thoughts or is it just more convenient to hide behind a website which hopefully will ifght the battles you started? 2. None of those are legal rights, but potential one-sided social issues. 3. Linking to a website relating to feminism to support your argument for feminism is quite questionable as that website is biased. That is like if Palestines would link to a Palestinian website about Israels wrongdoings, it's as if Russia would link to a russian website about the wrongdoings of the USA, etc. P. S. I did not argue in my MyTake that Penis Envy is a correct theory. I specifically said it is not in a literal way, but it could be seen as a metaphorical term. Women don't envy the male genitalia, but the male genitalia is something solely masculine and therefore can have symbolic meaning of envy towards men. Reading comprehension is something great.

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What Girls & Guys Said

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  • You know, speaking of sentences that "jump out at you", you wrote one such a sentence for me:

    "They value their own worth on masculine attributes."

    Exactly why anyone would do this, especially anyone who wasn't male but really just why anyone would (even us males), is totally beyond me. There are a lot of people doing exactly that though. A pity.

    I'm not a Freudian though, so I don't believe penis envy exists.

    • I only partly agree. I do agree everyone should have their individual way of expressing themselves outside of being forced into certain behavioural pattern. Outside influences are an issue here though, independently of who is that ouside influence (Society, Feminism and other movements, Parents, School, etc). Yet, I do believe there is beauty in being a man and being a woman and there are certain characterstica which are more fitting for either side to be strongly developed and if nature runs it's course most men will naturally be more masculine and most women will be naturally more feminine. The issue is that femininity has become the synonymous to weakness, and Feminism certainly played a strong role in that development.

    • " The issue is that femininity has become the synonymous to weakness, and Feminism certainly played a strong role in that development. " I agree. That is a sad myth.

  • No one has penis envy tbh XDDD
    I'm extremely glad I don't have one actually.
    Sounds like a PAIN to tuck that thing in after you pee and to get erections
    But hey, its also a pain to have child birth and a period
    Did you know that the 3rd most painful thing other than being eaten/burned alive is said to be child birth. :/ So I can see why penis envy exists I guess

    • Actually thats not true. There is a pain-scale often used from 0-10 and self-reported. Child-birth usually scores a #8. A kidney or gall stone is usually around 9-10. Though part of it is perception as - unlike with kidney and gall stones - childbirth releases hormones which dull the pain as well as dopamine and other joyful hormones when having succeeded in childbirth. Additionally that what you go through that pain for is pretty much always worth it and kinda makes you partly forget about the pain afterwards. Fun Fact: Most women who have serious health risks, if they carry out the child, still choose to do so. Less than 2% of abortions are due to health-risk. Fun Fact 2: In the viking belief women who died during childbirth were considered to go to the highest sphere in Valhalla. That's the sphere where male-vikings could only get to, if they died fighting. Dying during childbirth was considered to die while fighting. Germanic and Celtic beliefs were similar due to the same origin

    • Oh that is interesting... Well if I die during childbirth there's always an upside XD...

    • And you get lots of beer in Valhalla !

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  • I don't have penis envy. I don't want to have a penis. If I had a penis, this world would be brought to ruin because 99 percent of men would be gay. That's why God made me into a female.

    Do you want to know what kind of destruction I would bring about to the human race? Do you want to know how I would be?

    -I would spread STIs and not feel horrible about it.
    -What is monogamy?
    -I would have a constant stream of men begging for me 8 incher.
    And tons more.

    A lot of women don't have penis envy for this reason. If we managed to get them, it would be the end of the human race.

    (This is a joke. I feel like I need to put a disclaimer because there are a bunch of idiots who wouldn't understand. And some who would still take issue even when I specifically stated that this was a joke).

    • Seems like a lot guys wish for having such a penis so sending dick-pics will finally come to fruition. No more unnecessary dating. Just show your junk and the girls drop 'em panties.

    • LOL. I've had guys send dick-pics who weren't that size. It all depends on being proud of what you have.

    • I did not receive dickpics. Do I miss out?

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  • “Feminism IS about helping us women achieve rights that will make us finally be recognized as being equal to men in every way.”

    thats actually sexist and its not feminism. feminism strives for equality between./ not busing men as a standard. that came out of the 19th century literature when women literally were not equal under the law to men. that literally equality would mean making women equal to men under the law. anyone using men as a social standard is not talking about feminism.

    also more guys suffer from penis envy than do women. lol

    additional sexism, exists in the first place bc men had ovary envy. the wheel;e being able to bring life into the world. so they tried to possess it. out of envy. an envy that took thousands of years to conquer. women dont have punks envy,. they are just left picking up the pieces of ovary envy and stuck using awkward language set in place many centuries ago bc of the limitations placed on the language by jealous men.

    • Even if it isn't the phrase most feminists use their actions still prove it. They define the worth and equality on the grounding of male attributes with femininity being seen as equivalent to weakness. "We want to earn as much as men." "We want to have as much sex as men without being seen as sluts" "We want to go topless like men" "We want to have as many female politicians as men" "We want to have X and Y like men" Just to name a few without any consideration that men and women could be different and therefore have different drives and aims (with the exception proving the rule). Furthermore actions speak louder than words. Also your ovary theory sounds superfically logical, but has no means of backing it up and never was a legit theory to begin with. You just end up trying to justify the history - as you perceive it - with it.

    • I do think men are afraid of female sexuality though, thats why men try to control it. In the West they have failed, in other countries they opress women because of this very fact

    • It actually was a legit theory that has been studied by psychologists. Look up "Womb Envy." Well, here:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Womb_and_vagina_envy

      And America ranks 98th in the world for www.thenation.com/.../, PAKISTAN, Israel, and SAUDI ARABIA.
      https://www. thenation. com/article/why-does-us-still-have-so-few-women-office/

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  • Yes, you and I have the same general view, and here are my comments:
    - Your flashy title got many people off point as I see in the comments.
    - Women and Men are different because of the different roles they are more suitable to (Just had to say it here)
    - Feminism indeed is gaining the propaganda globally, but in real life there are many parts of the world, where I believe there is really unfair conditions for Women there.
    - I like another example of how to put things in prospective but I have another one, in movie projects: Usually the actor/actress, the director or writer gets all the fame and the producers on the other hand gets the money. If they acknowledge each others effort and their own while doing what they can best will always produce the best results.

    • "Your flashy title got many people off point as I see in the comments." Because most simply don't bother to read articles, but just skim over it. Attention Span of maximum 3 seconds.

    • NPR: "Just for lols" XD Since we seems to agree to the main points, it is time to go off topic like those comments (if we are not already) :P. What do you think about Twitter? I think the twitter culture and texting are limiting the people's attention time to 140 words, and some times they get passionate about a cause which is actually made-up in the 1st place. Of course the facebook posts are also affecting but to a limited extend.

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  • Yes interesting take. I think women and femininity have actually been destroyed, and as such because we are intertwined with men, men are destroyed too, the family and eventually society. We are at the end stages now I think. The groundwork was laid long ago. Women do seem ashamed to be women, why I don't know.

    • Yeah. Its ridiculous how feminity is equated with weakness at this point. Forgetting the beauty about it.

      You might also find this experiment an interesting read: https://www.mostlyodd.com/death-by-utopia/

      I think its pretty spot on if we compare the state of our society currently which is truly sad to see. Men and women should be complementing each other and learn from each other instead of competing and abandoning their gender-identity.

    • That was an interesting read. Yes I agree we aren't meant to compete with each other we are meant to be very different and complement each other. I think our society is in a vacuum, what scares me is what will come into it to fill that vacuum?

    • Unfortunately I assume it will be a key part of a societal collapse at one point. It's plain impossible to have people go up against their nature all their life without causing issues.

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  • Wanting equality isn't so much wanting to be the same but rather treated equally.

    "It is the active sexual organ, the one penetrating."
    The vulva can be active too. Have you ever heard of a woman being on top? You could say her vagina enveloped the penis.
    Also, what's more active than a woman pushing during childbirth?

    Anyway, I took a class last semester on Psychology of Sexuality.
    My textbook concluded that it is not women who have penis envy but men (generally having envy of other men's larger penises).

    • You nailed it

  • Feminists always get upset and attack the traditional housewife.

  • This was bland.

  • You lost the argument when you said feminists feel inferior to men. This is not true. It is not that we feminists feel inferior to men, we are simply bothered by how patriarchal and sexist our society is.

    • "You lost the argument..." You would have done well to read my take properly as I even wrote the following in my disclaimer: "A discussion is not there to determine the winner, but will only flourish when the involved sides create an exchange of opposing and challenging views." Furthermore even if you disagree with my point of view on feminism - disagreeing with one aspect doesn't necessarily invalidate all points I have raised. As an - admittedly extreme - example: Pretty much everyone will agree that Hitler wasn't a good guy. Yet, he did several good things for Germany like the increase of animal rights and higher protection towards them, the rebuild and improvement of german universities, autobahns, etc. A disagreement therefore shouldn't deveice yourself from seeing other points which you might find valid. Even if you disagree with 98% and only agree with 2%.

    • I don't care about your opinion because I am not interested in learning anything about a theory as outdated and sexist as "penis envy".

    • Once more: If you would have read it, you would have figured in my starting that the headline was meant to be sensational and further down you would have realised that I indirecly say that the penis envy theory to be incorrect. The theory itself was just meant as a way to get my points across. Your willing ignorance coupled with your pointless need to say something, when you don't have anything to say, makes you look pretty bad. Here is some advice: Sometimes it is better to only say something, when you have something to say. Almost everyone can get words out of their mouth, but not everyone is capable of giving these words meaning. Additionally you should understand that the world isn't black and white, but has infinite amounts of grey-tones.

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  • Although i was born in the west my origins are from asia.
    I'm actually happy with my size, I don't really go around looking at men's genetalia.
    But some people are insecure.