The man with two brains: hegemonic masculine subjectivity and the discursive construction of the unreasonable penis-self

Hagemonic masculine sexual subjectivity is constituted via the inside/outsi de dichotomy in ways that perpetuate the distancing of men from the sexual actions of their bodies. This occurs through the metaphorical exteriorisati on of male sexual corporeality: the penis comes to represent the man, to st and in for/up for him as a separate entity, a 'self' with its own will outs ide the man's conscious control. This 'penis-brain', culturally invested wi th a primal 'carnal' intelligence, operates in contrast to, and thereby res ists, the man's rational cerebral though. This paper presents a discursive analysis of the production male heterosexual subjectivity as exteriorised, using as texts extracts from popular media material and transcripts from in terviews with men and women on notions of heterosexual health, safer sex pr actices, and male sexuality. It examines how men may employ the concept of the irrational penis-self as an alibi, or excuse, for the enactment of coer cive and riskier heterosexual behaviours.