Scientists have finally answered the age-old question that has plagued sexual politics since time immemorial: do the aesthetics of penis size matter to women? A small caveat: the phalluses in question are flaccid CGI penises on hairless, silver models of a men, and the experimental subject group is comprised of 105 Australian women. This little hitch has not stopped news sources from hailing the study's findings as definitive, because since when has an evolutionary pseudo-science experiment's lack of reliability ever prevented the media from making stereotypical generalizations about gender? (Literally never.)

"Science proves women like men with bigger penises," reads a deadline on NBC news. The phrase "Size Does Matter" is featured in the headlines of articles from TIME, The Huffington Post UK, Medical News Today, and Business Insider, among others

The experiment, however, is hardly the final word on anything, especially not on evolution. The procedure consisted of biologist Brian Mautz and his team asking 105 Australian women to each look at 53 life-size computer-generated images of opalescent gray men, each of which had a different height and shoulder-to-hip ratio (ranging from "the dancing baby from Ally McBeal after puberty" to "extremely virile and tall man"), as well as varying flaccid penis lengths. Each woman was asked to rate each gray-skinned, completely bald man on an attractiveness scale of 1-7. The team's findings are as follows:

Surprisingly, larger penis size and greater height had almost equivalent positive effects on male attractiveness. Our results support the hypothesis that female mate choice could have driven the evolution of larger penises in humans. More broadly, our results show that precopulatory sexual selection can play a role in the evolution of genital traits especially when considering our evolution prior to the introduction of clothing. Given our upright posture and a non-retractable penis, it would have been literally right out there in the open for prospective females to assess.

Matt Soniak offers a good summary:

An increase in penis size was also a bigger benefit to attractiveness, and a smaller penis was less of a detriment, to the taller, fitter figures than it was to shorter or potato-shaped ones. For example, a model that was 185 cm tall (about 6 ft) with a 7-cm-long (about 3-in-long) penis got an average score for attractiveness. To get that same score, a model that was 170 cm (about 5'6") needed a penis of about 11 cm (about 4.5 in) in length. Boost the taller guy's penis by just about centimeter, and the shorter guy needs double that to keep up and get the same attractiveness score. After that, the shorter male pretty much can't continue to compete. To really reap the benefits of a big penis, a guy needs to be attractive in the first place, Mautz says. If he isn't, even the biggest penis in the world won't do him that much good.

But the researchers also discovered that big can be too big. Once penis length surpassed a certain point — about 3 inches flaccid (7.6 cm) — attractiveness began abating.

The researchers have presented their paper as further proof that female preference has in fact driven the evolution of larger penises in humans.  Moreover, the study shows that there may come a point for women when extreme features violate an aesthetic sense of normal physical proportionality. Overly exaggerated features — even ones that are important to attractiveness — cease to be appealing because they may indicate a problem from the standpoint of reproductive fitness. It would be interesting to see a follow-up study determining if and when broad shoulders and height cease to be attractive.

How is it scientifically sound to extrapolate something presumably evolutionarily hard-wired into all womankind from surveying a small group of women from a very specific cultural, geographical, and historical location? The idea that women prefer larger penises is far from unheard-of or revelatory, but to trace the origin of this alleged predilection to the cradle of human evolution is to engage in a lazy form of pseudo-science that reflects, rather than reveals the reason for, contemporary attitudes about sex and gender. (Side note — the ancient Greeks thought that small and thin penises were preferable; they saw a smaller phallus as more elegant and aesthetically pleasing, which goes to show that admiring well-endowed men is not necessarily an innate human trait but they also liked a lot of anal sex so who can really know).

 
(compiled from a few sources, tried to hit on the hot spots to get some good conversation going)

Since they only sampled 105 Australian women, it's not fair to say that all women prefer a larger penis.

The sample should be representative of the population.
Their population is ALL women ("science proves women like men with bigger penises") yet their sample is of Australian women only.

They are trying to see if there is a positive correlation between attractiveness and penis size.
Correlation does not mean causation.

Not all correlation is linear:
"researchers also discovered that big can be too big. Once penis length surpassed a certain point — about 3 inches flaccid (7.6 cm) — attractiveness began abating. "

-The larger the sample size, the better (more costly and time consuming, but more accurate results)
-They only sampled Australian women (what about European, Western, Asian, Indian, and African women?)
-One person's gauge of attractiveness may be different from another person's, so it can vary widely.

Personally, sometimes I prefer a man with a great tongue who has excellent skills making a woman climax over & over again achieving multiple O's.  

Smile 4 me

They are using diagrams of flaccid penises.  A flaccid penis doesn't tell the whole story, some are growers and some are showers.  You may have a guy who when flaccid is only a couple of inches, but when erect is around 6 inches or you can have one that hangs 4 inches flaccid but will only expand to six inches when erect.

It's not the size of the ship, it's the motion of the ocean.

That way they would not see his face.

Providers lie that they like a small pee pee.  It's bull shit.

..is this whole wave phenom at stadiums across the country a sexual innuendo?   I dunno.

I don't know quite how to break this to you, but while a lady may have a personal preference in her personal life.  A professional providers are just that, professional.  Anyone who is involved in a service industry has clients they are fond of and other clients not so much.  There have been a couple of providers in my experience that I would consider to be friends.  But I have absolutely no delusions that our physical relationship is anything but professional.  If they enjoy our encounters I am pleased, but their business is about pleasing the customer.

and give the rapid rise and fall of each participant, would it not be a "premature" phenomenon?

 
That's good to hear.  I do enjoy using my tongue on a women.