Busting the ball myths (part two) - the center of the male body

David and his testicles 

It was springtime and it means time for the annual spring cleaning! Not only cleaning our apartment which was, after all the lockdowns, in a total mess but also cleaning the mind. While I was removing dust from some old things in cupboards I came across a small replica of David from Michelangelo. It was a gift from my aunt when she was traveling to Italy, sadly she passed away a couple of years ago. I used to have it on display, but it always triggered some giggles and female banter on penis sizes causing some awkward situations especially when male visitors were also around, so I decided to take it out of sight. It is pity because I like the little statue so much. I like the curly hair and nicely build body in a fighting stance. 

Holding this little statue in my hands brought back some memories of my aunt. When I was an inexperienced teen, she gave me some pieces of advice on dating and relationships with men. Among many of her wisdom one stuck in my head, she used to say “A man’s heart and his balls break easily, be careful with those.” 😊. While recalling memories from the past, I was cleaning the dust from the statue’s tiny male parts carefully and gently, like they were real testicles.

Genitals as the center of the male body

Renaissance art is so beautiful, the artists resurrected the ancient Greece aesthetics, they were not ashamed to show the male body in its purest form. Although David’s penis is cutely small—our art teacher said a small penis represented decency and good manners—his testicles are of normal size, very anatomically correctly shown with the left one being a little bit bigger and hanging slightly lower. They are presented proudly, uncovered as an essential part of his torso. It reminded me of another Renaissance piece, Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci. It is a famous study of the human body proportion. The genitals clearly represent the center of the male body; it somehow signifies their importance to the man. Why am I telling you all of this?

With this post, I would like to debunk another self defense myth that seeks to discourage women to target testicles by saying that testicles are not easily accessible and a target difficult to aim for. If we look at David or Vitruvian Man, their reproductive glands are positioned in the center of their body, hanging outside not protected by any muscles, bones, or cartilage, but by their penises and the thin scrotum skin. Is it a very small target?  Surely not a huge one, but testicles’ surface area is similar to any other prime target; are eyes or Adam’s apple any bigger? Its position in the center of the body makes the testicles a very convenient target for attacks either with hands or legs from most positions: standing, sitting, or on the ground. In some situations, a woman can even use her head, elbows, or butt. 

Testicles are approximately on the same level as hands, so regardless of the type of attack: a GTP, punch, or a chop with the ridge of the hand, or the position of the attacker: standing in front or behind you, it is extremely easy to get to them, without needing to generate much of a movement and it happens in the periphery of his eyesight. Hence, such an attack can be quick and non-telegraphed. This contrasts with the techniques using the hand for instance to attack points on the face when the woman’s hand often needs to go all the way up giving the attacker a chance to react and block it.

When attacking testicles with the knee, this does not need to go on a very long trajectory; just quickly and sharply lifting the knee enables it to gain enough acceleration and power for a deadly strike. When front kicking with your foot, the testicle is the target closest to you when he is in the most distant position. Moreover, his thighs will ‘guide’ your foot to the right spot. The same is true for a back kick with your heel. 

If choosing to kick the shin or kneecap you might not get enough room for sufficient acceleration and force and kicks ‘above the belt’ or even high kicks to the head are not suitable for female self defense; let’s leave those for action movies. I am not saying a woman should forget other vital points of the male body, there are some other valuable besides testicles, and Linda’s course covered those in detail as well. In conclusion, attacking testicles is by no means bulletproof but saying it is a hard target has nothing to do with reality; just looking at classic statues or your naked male partner should clearly tell you otherwise.