Manhood, the fascinating new documentary about the fast-growing penis-enlargement industry, has a lot of scenes of penises being injected with sharp needles. But somehow, they aren’t the most wince-inducing.
The film, which just premiered at SXSW, uses penis-enhancement procedures as a kind of metaphor for modern insecurities about manliness. Director Daniel Lombroso lingers on small but telling details.
At one point, an anonymous man receiving shots to increase the girth of his member says, enviously, that some of his friends are so well-endowed that women refuse to have sex with them.
He leaves unclear why being too large to have sex would be better than actually having sex. But the moment underlines the film’s observation that some men, succumbing to porn, podcasts, and other pressure, care more about appearances than behavior.
Bill Moore, the main subject of the doc, argues early in Manhood that deflating your bank account a bit to inflate your penis can be a good investment. He sees Big Dick Energy as a very real thing, and thinks his patented girth-enhancement procedure can provide men the confidence they need to jumpstart their lives.
His technique increases girth through a series of injections that cost thousands of dollars per session. And his success is proof that at least one man has prospered from penis enlargement. (An important caveat: He’s focused on width, not height, which he says can’t be easily increased.)
Lombroso and his Manhood team step back and let their subjects tell their stories without judgment, an approach that yields some jaw-dropping moments. The director was drawn to the subject in part due to the secrecy around the procedure.
“I do think it’s becoming more common. There’s no statistics,” Lombroso said. “We tried to nail it down, but anecdotally, when I started the project, there were a few clinics, and now there’s 32 — in every major city.”
In a Q&A after a screening of Manhood Monday, Lombroso and his team tried to place penis enlargment within the context of a masculinity crisis, looksmaxxing, and the Manosphere of male-skewing podcasters.
“We’re in obviously a really bizarre news time, and truth is up for debate. And a lot of people treat podcasts like the news right now,” said Kerry Mack, one of the film’s producers. “With the inundation of information, we just hear voices, and it’s really difficult to parse out who is a journalist and who’s some fucking guy with a microphone.”
Besides Moore, Manhood mostly on Ruben Ramirez, a father of five who pays thousands for penis enlargement before running into money troubles, and David, a young man hiding his homosexuality and amateur video stardom from his religious mother.
David gets injections to be bigger for the cameras, but undergoes a disastrous enlargement procedure — not at the hands of Moore. David spends much of the film trying to line up a procedure to remove the remnants of it. Telegenic and kind to everyone, he’s an excellent PSA about the potential perils of penis enlargement.
How Manhood Director Daniel Lombroso Got Men to Open Up About Penis Enlargement
During Monday’s Q&A, Lombroso explained that he worked at The New Yorker before departing to make the film, which raised the eyebrows of some of his colleagues. He was able to win the trust of his Manhood interview subjects by first gaining the trust of Moore, and then by sitting in his waiting room, asking his patients if they would be willing to discuss their procedures on-camera.
Many did — some anonymously, and some with no reservations.
“I would just sit in the waiting room and introduce myself to everyone who had come in. And the patients were extraordinary,” Lombroso said. “Many of them were not identified in the film, but I met a very famous megachurch pastor; a border patrol agent; a father of five, Ruben; a dairy farmer; and a divorcee back on the market. We just tried to be really patient with them and wait till they felt comfortable.”
Ramirez, who attended the Q&A with Moore and the filmmakers, expressed no regrets about the procedure, or appearing in the film. He’s a comedian and big fan of comedy-adjacent podcasts, including The Joe Rogan Experience.
He says in Manhood that he first learned about penis enlargement from an appearance by Moore onYour Mom’s House podcast, a podcast hosted by Christina Pazsitzky and Tom Segura.
“It’s just not something we talk about,” he added Monday. “Even guys, just a couple guys together. It’s still awkward to talk about it.”
Ramirez said going public about the procedure was about being open, just as he is in his comedy.
“I tend to live by the moment,” he said. “I mean, even deciding to get the shots because I heard it on the podcast.
He also said he recommends the procedure: “I would tell any guy who wants to consider it, why not? Instead of getting that BMW, just get the Civic [and a] big cock.”
Moore, meanwhile, said he hoped the film would make men be more open about cosmetic surgery.
“I think what this film questions is, why is it so hard for men to talk about having a cosmetic procedure when it’s so easy for a woman to talk about it at the dining room table, in front of the pastor, if he happens to be sitting there?” Moore said. “But yet men have to be insecure and hide and not able to be open about themselves.”
He added: “What makes you a strong masculine man is understanding that you have insecurities and that you’re able to open up and talk about those with your friends.”
Manhood premiered at SXSW and plays again Thursday. You can read more of our SXSW coverage here.
Main image: Bill Moore in Manhood. Courtesy of SXSW