The co-design and acceptability of a genital body image educational video for people with a penis

Abstract

Within body image research, genital body image has not received significant attention. This project aimed to explore how positive genital body image could be fostered among people with a penis by co-designing and developing an educational resource. Participants were 22 people in Australia who identified as having a penis and were involved in three phases of co-design focus groups. Thematic and content analyses were used to generate themes across the data with each phase informing the next, culminating in a prototype resource being shown to participants in the final phase. Amongst the predominantly cisgender men sample, there was consensus that a brief, animated, educational video could have potential in promoting a positive genital body image in people with a penis. For video content, participants were not supportive of challenging societal messaging around penis size that “bigger is better”. Instead, participants supported the inclusion of information about the range of penile functions, promoting acceptance of penile size/appearance and that fulfilling intimate relationships were possible irrespective of penis size. The feedback was positive overall for the final prototype video. To our knowledge, we describe the first co-designed educational resource for people with a penis and contribute to the understanding of this understudied topic.