Why Thai women cut off their husbands' penises

**StrontiumDog** · 20-11-2012, 12:57 AM

Why Thai women cut off their husbands' penises | Education | The Guardian

Why Thai women cut off their husbands' penises

An epidemic of penile amputations in Thailand led researchers to inquire into what was going on

Marc Abrahams
The Guardian, Monday 19 November 2012 16.30 GMT

'It became fashionable in the 1970s for the humiliated Thai wife to wait until her husband fell asleep, then sever his penis with a kitchen knife.' Photograph: Alamy

About once per decade, the medical profession takes a careful look back at Thailand's plethora of penile amputations. The first great reckoning appeared in a 1983 issue of the American Journal of Surgery. Surgical Management of an Epidemic of Penile Amputations in Siam, by Kasian Bhanganada and four fellow physicians at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok, introduces the subject: "It became fashionable in the decade after 1970 for the humiliated Thai wife to wait until her [philandering] husband fell asleep so that she could quickly sever his penis with a kitchen knife. A traditional Thai home is elevated on pilings and the windows are open to allow for ventilation. The area under the house is the home of the family pigs, chickens, and ducks. Thus, it is quite usual that an amputated penis is tossed out of an open window, where it may be captured by a duck."

The report explains, for readers in other countries: "The Thai saying, 'I better get home or the ducks will have something to eat,' is therefore a common joke and immediately understood at all levels of society".

The bulk of the paper reports how the doctors and their colleagues learned, over the course of attempting 18 reimplantations, how to improve the necessary surgical techniques. Unambiguous photographs supplement the text.

"Interestingly", the physicians remark at the very end, "none of our patients filed a criminal complaint against their attackers."

An article called Factors Associated with Penile Amputation in Thailand, published in 1998 in the journal NursingConnections, explores the reasons behind that. Gregory Bechtel and Cecilia Tiller, from the Medical College of Georgia (in Atlanta), gathered data from three couples who had been part of the epidemic. The couples, by then divorced, discussed their experience calmly. Bechtel and Tiller report that in each case, three things had happened during the week prior to dismemberment: (1) a financial crisis; (2) "ingestion of drugs or alcohol by the husband immediately prior to the event; and (3) public humiliation of the wife owing to the presence of a second 'wife' or concubine".

In 2008, the Journal of Urology carried a retrospective by Drs Genoa Ferguson and Steven Brandes of the Washington University in St Louis, called The Epidemic of Penile Amputation in Thailand in the 1970s.

Ferguson and Brandes conclude that: "Women publicly encouraging and inciting other scorned women to commit this act worsened the epidemic. The vast majority of worldwide reports of penile replantation, to this day, are a result of what became a trendy form of retribution in a country in which fidelity is a strongly appreciated value."

• Marc Abrahams is editor of the bimonthly Annals of Improbable Research and organiser of the Ig Nobel prize

**draco888** · 20-11-2012, 01:19 AM

"fidelity is a strongly appreciated value" ????!?

**MANICHAEAN** · 20-11-2012, 03:30 AM

In Jamaica it is also a common practice. There was one instance where the man’s dong was tied to a balloon and was last seen travelling across the Caribbean to Cuba.
Bit unfair on the ducks in that particular case.

**English Noodles** · 20-11-2012, 04:32 AM

What a moron for posting this shite. Wanker!

**BobR** · 20-11-2012, 05:09 AM

Many Thai males are such useless childish twats, it could not happen to nicer people.

**ChrisM** · 20-11-2012, 05:42 AM

My wife knows she will be the one to lose out if she feeds mine to the ducks

**bobo746** · 20-11-2012, 05:48 AM

^ I think the ducks might feel a little short changed as well.

**Rural Surin** · 20-11-2012, 06:29 AM

Originally Posted by draco888

"fidelity is a strongly appreciated value" ????!?

Heh Heh...
Blind rhetoric, surely...

**MANICHAEAN** · 20-11-2012, 06:59 AM

As articulate as ever Poodles.

**alitongkat** · 20-11-2012, 07:58 AM

article :

in each case, three things had happened during the week prior to dismemberment:

(1) a financial crisis;
(2) "ingestion of drugs or alcohol by the husband immediately prior to the event; and
(3) public humiliation of the wife owing to the presence of a second 'wife' or concubine".

**alitongkat** · 20-11-2012, 07:59 AM

...always have enough money at home (avoid "financial crisis"), then any dangers very limited...

**Rural Surin** · 20-11-2012, 09:21 AM

Concubine...
I rather like the ring of it.

Class.

**WilliamBlake** · 20-11-2012, 09:55 AM

Originally Posted by Rural Surin

Concubine... I rather like the ring of it.

A concubine doesn't need a ring - that's the beauty.

**Gravesend Dave** · 20-11-2012, 09:55 AM

My wife threatens me with this when I show women more than a friendly interest. Would she do it?,I think most unlikely she would devoice me or I like to hope forgive me. Prevention is better than cure as they say so dont get caught. I like the what they dont know wont hurt them, works both ways really.

**Anatidaephobia** · 20-11-2012, 10:04 AM

Originally Posted by draco888

"fidelity is a strongly appreciated value" ????!?

yeah, I went "?????" as well.

Originally Posted by English Noodles

What a moron for posting this shite. Wanker!

Concerned about being exposed? Again?

**StrontiumDog** · 20-11-2012, 04:45 PM

Originally Posted by English Noodles

What a moron for posting this shite. Wanker!

Then don't read it, if you don't like it, retard. Apparently The Guardian felt it was worth doing.

Thanks for the red too.

You really are a most unpleasant person. This board was a much nicer place when you weren't posting.

**draco888** · 20-11-2012, 09:12 PM

Originally Posted by WilliamBlake

Originally Posted by Rural Surin

Concubine... I rather like the ring of it.

A concubine doesn't need a ring - that's the beauty.

maybe not but what about the apartment, car, allowance...................

**AjarnJonesy** · 20-11-2012, 11:04 PM

So here is a question... is fidelity a thing of the past? I mean just because you live in Thailand you dont have to be faithful?

**Rocksteady** · 20-11-2012, 11:19 PM

Originally Posted by English Noodles

What a moron for posting this shite. Wanker!

Hmm! WTF?

**OhOh** · 21-11-2012, 01:54 AM

Originally Posted by AjarnJonesy

So here is a question... is fidelity a thing of the past? I mean just because you live in Thailand you dont have to be faithful?

Ask the ex head of the CIA, the current Prince of Wales, every Frenchman ..............

**PlanK** · 21-11-2012, 01:58 AM

Originally Posted by Rocksteady

Originally Posted by English Noodles

What a moron for posting this shite. Wanker!

Hmm! WTF?

His experience of the matter must have been different.

**MANICHAEAN** · 21-11-2012, 03:01 AM

He was never suckled as a child.

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