Enlarge Magazine 
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“Enlarge Magazine” is a fictitious and ironic magazine about penis size and enlargement, and as a consequence of that, about (toxic) masculinity. This is the second publication by Marco Tiberio and Maria Ghetti.

Toxic masculinity is the set of socially regressive [male] traits that serve to foster domination, the devaluation of women, homophobia and senseless violence. Some researchers agree that toxic masculinity has three main characteristics: hardness, anti-femininity and power.

Phrases like "Real men don't cry" and "don't be a sissy" can seriously affect men's mental health and, no doubt, those around them as well. Thus, men raised in a patriarchal society will identify with the ability to dominate and believe that exercising their power over women is not just a freedom, but a right.

The imperative "you must be strong", to which they are  educated, pushes men to withdraw into themselves without expressing their feelings. Being "sensitive" is not typically feminine, feeling emotions is human, and it will not be enough to hide one's feelings to make them disappear. Also, because it does  not make one a "strong man" to ask for help, many silence their psychological problems, which can lead to depression and suicide, a leading cause of death among men around the world. Mental health is everyone's right.

Insisting on the adoption of  cultural models that propose rigid divisions between  specific human categories, and from which homophobia and misogyny derive, is a mistake, because self-realization always takes place through a process of mediation and interpretation. In this process there is no longer any room for prejudice.

Leaving toxic masculinity behind naturally segways onto the redefinition of  what it means to be a man. Every  person should aspire to find a healthy definition of their individuality and work towards this.

At this point, the connection between toxic masculinity and penis size insecurity might seem quite flagrant.

A look at history allows us to understand how much the male genital organ has always been associated with the concept of power. A great emphasis on penis size marked both Greco-Latin and Roman cultures. For the Greeks, the measurements had to be similar to those of an adolescent athlete, for  the length of the penis indicated proximity to divine intelligence.So, the smaller the penis,  the closer the man  was to divine power. Among the Romans, on the other hand,  god Priapus became an  object of veneration: a small bearded man with a huge phallus with which he could penetrate men and women became a symbol of strength, sexual instinct and male fertility.

Nowadays, the exaltation of the body and  of genital organs in particular, inevitably triggers  a feeling  of inadequacy towards the parametres imposed by society: a "healthy" male must have adequately sized genital organs and an early and impeccably active sex life, which according to the stereotype, implies that the man is always ready, eager, free from problems, fears or shame.

It is estimated that at least two thirds of men thought they had a member that was not up to standard.

This is because many adolescents explore their  sexuality having scant knowledge of the matter, often incorrect and inaccurate. Mainstream porn surely played a huge role in this. Tools, products and magic treatments which should allow you to improve the size of your penis populate the internet. But, of course, what is completely left out in all this is the physiology of the penis. Not even surgery proves to be always effective.

There are companies that make tons of money by selling penis pumps, the main tool featured in this book. And penis pumps have been on the market since the 19th century. Be careful, we’re not talking about micropenises, but of all those men who only believe that a bigger penis would make them a better lover. And the irony here is that there is an entire industry playing around and living on the fears of men. But ok, enough with the serious. Luckily, times are changing, a nouvelle vague of porn is helping not only to empower the female body, but also the male counterpart. However, opposite to what female photographers have done in the past few years, the photo projects actively challenging the clichés of the perfect male body can still be counted on the fingers of one hand. And goes without saying, this is also true for the penis, men’s best friend.

Research has proven the existence of  penis size-related anxiety in  about five or six out of 10 teens. Small penis anxiety, which is fairly common, is characterized as a fear that size may affect the quality of relationships and that this may lead to judgment and comparison with other sexual partners. Less frequent, but not less relevant  is also a disabling and functional phobia that leads to  the avoidance of sexual activities as a whole.

Small penis syndrome is not easy to deal with and neither is it to  solve because adolescents are usually unable to communicate their emotions about the sense of inferiority and inadequacy that lie behind the size of their genitals.

So this is more or less what “Enlarge Magazine” is all about.

A visual and highly ironic (erotic?) journey across the tools that  supposedly help men become  “better lovers”. Here, we have played with existing photographic styles and narratives to build new ones, which will hopefully  teach us something. Even though what exactly this is remains unclear. The magazine is divided into articles and each of these covers  a different topic: from the best water penis pump on the market to Greek statues with small penises, passing through  food and FAQs.

All the photographs in the magazine are original (except those on the last page) and all the texts have been downloaded from blogs and forums on the matter (except the editorial). The goal is to learn something about  a still largely unknown industry while  laughing about fears, uncertainties and also our body. We don’t need to be serious all the time, come on! Sex is better when you laugh and don’t worry too much about it!

And of course, if I can spare you an advice, don’t buy that pump, or any other pump. My girlfriend said it didn’t work, even if I thought it did!