DANISH DICK DRAMA

The prehensile penis of John Dillerman

THE PENIS MAN

Denmark’s equivalent of the BBC, DR, has launched a new animated series aimed at fourto eight-year-olds about John Dillermand, a man with the world’s longest penis (‘diller’ is Danish slang for penis, so ‘dillermand’ literally means ‘penisman’). With his enormous schlong, he can perform feats such as conduct rescue operations, etch murals, hoist a flag and even steal ice-cream from children.

Unsurprisingly, the show has met with criticism. “Is this really the message we want to send to children while we are in the middle of a huge #MeToo wave?” wrote Danish author Anne Lise Marstrand-Jørgensen. The programme comes just months after TV presenter Sofie Linde kickstarted Denmark’s #MeToo movement. Christian Groes, an associate professor and gender researcher at Roskilde University, said he believed the programme’s celebration of the power of male genitalia could set equality back. “It’s perpetuating the standard idea of a patriarchal society and normalising ‘locker room culture’... that’s been used to excuse a lot of bad behaviour from men. It’s meant to be funny – so it’s seen as harmless. But it’s not”.

But Erla Heinesen Højsted, a clinical psychologist who works with families and children, said she believed the show’s critics may be overthinking things. “John Dillermand talks to children and shares their way of thinking – and kids do find genitals funny,” she suggested. “The show depicts a man who is impulsive and not always in control, who makes mistakes – like kids do, but crucially, Dillermand always makes it right. He takes responsibility for his actions. When a woman in the show tells him that he should keep his penis in his pants, for instance, he listens. Which is nice. He is accountable.”

Højsted admitted the timing was poor and that a show about bodies might have considered depicting “difference and diversity” beyond an oversized male organ. “But this is categorically not a show about sex,” she said. “To pretend it is projects adult ideas onto it.”

DR has a reputation for pushing boundaries. Another popular children’s TV character is Onkel Reje, who curses, smokes a pipe and avoids bathing. Gepetto News, a spoof news programme for children featuring puppets, had a character who loved crossdressing. And Ultra Smider Tøjet (‘Ultra Strips Down’) caused outrage in 2020 for presenting children aged 11-13 alongside a panel of nude adults.

The public service broadcaster responded to the latest criticism about their new star John Dillermand by arguing it could just as easily have made a programme “about a woman with no control over her vagina.” Guardian, 6 Jan 2021.

LONG-LOST JOHNNY

A 120-year-old condom has been found in Japan. The vintage sheath was identified as one of the first mass-marketed condoms in Japan, the Yamato Kinu model, a brand that earned its popularity due to its reputation as an effective protective against syphilis. Major outbreaks of the disease, known as baidoku (literally ‘plum poison’), had afflicted Japan at the turn of the 20th century. Newspaper adverts for the Yamato Kinu product have been dated to as far back as 1896. soranews24.com, 25 Jan 2021.