ABSTRACT
In 1967, fewer than 50,000 men had vasectomies. In 1971, the vasectomy had seemingly gone mainstream, with expectations of a million men undergoing a vasectomy procedure. This chapter sets out to consider how vasectomies are discussed in pornographic magazines of the time, specifically a type of publication called the ’sociopornographic.’ Marketed as ‘marriage manuals,’ these magazines served double duty insofar as they are ostensibly about educating the reading, but they are implicitly pornographic. In this chapter, I show how the magazines respond to the question of why one might seek a vasectomy, how the procedure is described, and then a consideration of two themes: vasectomy and pleasure, and vasectomy and population control. Simply, the penis was undergoing some fascinating changes during a relatively brief period when the vasectomy had become sexy, popular, and mainstream.
