Hacker News Reader

Comment by mlevental | Hacker News Reader

>How could I possibly answer that sat next to my daughter? :o

i'm not trying to start a fight but i will never understand this. you're embarrassed to talk about your body in front of your daughter. what's the point? i remember my mom had a UTI and was embarrassed to discuss it with me when we were on a trip (so she suffered in kisilence). this woman whose body i literally was created in couldn't bring herself to tell me about something normal/typical about her body because of what? puritan culture? i will never get it.

Edit: why am I getting downvoted? What have I said that's so offensive?

View on HN

The reminder that we have genitals is more unbearable than enduring excruciating pain in those genitals.

Genitals, the stuff genital-adjacent like sex or waste-release -- it's all viscerally disgusting, particularly in the context of family members, and unmoors us from the sanitized, half-reality we have to live in so that we can tolerate each other comfortably.

With strangers, though, it's mostly fine. It makes ironclad sense, just like everything else.

This isn't related to a medical issue. This is reluctance to share with my child the specific size of my genitalia. You think that is peculiar?

I guess I feel like I'd be amazed if she hadn't seen you naked a bunch of times growing up anyway? Maybe my family was odd!

I'd still probably not have the conversation for fear of embarrassing her and that seems fine?

you are normal but normal is strange :)

Don’t feed the trolls.

You had a phone call that completely perfunctorily implicated the size of your penis. As far I'm concerned that's about as uncomplicated as a medical issue - there's no allusion to anything sexual. To wit: do you use your mouth during sex? Would you shy away from answering how large a mouth guard you needed over the phone in front of your daughter?

You must do you, and may the repercussions for that be no more serious than a few downvotes. But as far as everybody else is concerned, this matter is, if not actually outright sexual, at least sex-adjacent, and therefore not an appropriate topic for discussion when one's children are around.

(Your children will probably be grateful for this.)

This might not be logical, but there you go. Something these things aren't. If you feel strongly that this is so ridiculous that things should change, then let nobody tell you that you are wrong, but I think you'll find that this is a minority viewpoint, and you'll attract few fellow travelers for your quixotic quest.

Maybe it's because we're from different cultures (I'm french) but that situation sounds also ridiculous to me.

I've seen both my parents naked and sex was taboo, sure, but genitals in itself (like talking about the size of ones penis for an health issue) were not that much. That situation was not sexual at all and I'm sure your children wouldn't really care (or maybe it's the fact that it was less sacralized in my family). I do not feel traumatized by that and even feel a little insulted by the: > (Your children will probably be grateful for this.)

I'm not saying that one situation is superior to the other one, but I perfectly understand the point of the person you're answering to and feel all those downvotes are a little unfair for a real (and in my pov, valid) opinion.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com