Young Men Tend to Focus on Enjoying Their Arousal

At puberty a boy's mind naturally focuses on his penis and its responsiveness. Some young men can become erect many times through the day. Boys enjoy the visual stimulus of nude pin-ups from adolescence onwards. Girls are not aroused by male nudity. Men are expected to keep their genitals out of view to avoid offending women. Boys do not spend time imagining the social context of having a family as girls tend to.

From puberty onwards, boys are fascinated by their penis: the way it grows and is pleasurable to touch. They learn that their appreciation of eroticism can take them from arousal to orgasm. The average white male ejaculates for the first time around the age of 13 years 10½ months (13.88 years).

Ejaculation involves the emission of creamy liquid called semen (commonly known as spunk). Semen is made up of fluids from various glands including Cowper's gland and the prostate, which are all situated close to the testicles (or testes). The testicles (commonly called balls) produce the sperm (or spermatozoa) which are the genetic material needed to make a baby. Young men wake up each morning with an erection and have spontaneous erections throughout the day as sex-related thoughts occur to them or simply as a result of seeing someone they find attractive.

When he is aroused, a boy's penis becomes erect and hyper-sensitive so it is very pleasurable to touch. Initially some boys stimulate (or masturbate) themselves because they enjoy the feelings of orgasm when they ejaculate. Later a man has a strong urge to have intercourse with an attractive person.

Even as virgins, boys are aroused by the prospect of sexual activity with a lover. They may masturbate by imagining engaging in intercourse. They imagine the sexual attributes, genitals and behaviour of a partner. They do this through buying pornographic magazines or watching porn movies. Some boys enjoy comparing notes on the sexual attributes of the opposite sex and their chances of manoeuvring a girl into a sexual situation. This is a chase situation where the man is the predator and the woman is the target.

Kinsey found some couples who lived in rural areas had intercourse four times a day every day of the week. When a man works near his home, he is able to return for lunch and also set his own daily schedule so that there is time for sexual activity. It is unlikely that modern lifestyles and office working allow couples to have sex this frequently today. But even in the 1950s such frequencies were unusual. Most couples undoubtedly hover around the once a week mark. This is logical since the weekend offers a break in the work routine and more opportunity for shared companionship.

Kinsey noted that the frequency with which couples had intercourse varied considerably. He concluded that this was primarily a factor of the man's sex drive. Kinsey found that young couples had intercourse between two and four times a week. This frequency slowed down over the years in line with the decline in male responsiveness. By the age of forty average intercourse frequencies had dropped to about once a week on average.

Male changes at puberty include the shoulders broadening and the chest cavity increasing in capacity. The voice box develops so that the tenor of a man's voice is lower than a woman's voice. The Adam's apple, thyroid cartilage that protect the larynx, causes men's voices to deepen. Male mammals often use a loud call as a means of establishing authority. Men's hips are narrower and their buttocks are smaller than women's. On average men are taller and more muscular, they have less body fat than women. Many men have a heavy growth of hair on their face, chest, arms and legs.

Personal hygiene becomes more important as hormones cause hair growth and increased sweating. Most men shave every day and they need to wash regularly as well as use deodorants. There is a natural discharge from the penis that can accumulate and cause infection if not cleaned. The penis can become infected although this is fairly rare as long as a boy learns the proper hygiene. A boy needs to pull back his foreskin and clean his penis regularly. Mothers do this for young boys until they can do it for themselves. Circumcision helps to avoid infections and involves cutting the thin piece of skin that attaches the sheath of the penis to the glans. Circumcised men may experience different sensations from intercourse.