"Please Do Your Part And Wipe Your D—": This Nursing Student Went Viral For Explaining Why People With Penises Should Wipe After Peeing, And It Makes A Lot Of Sense
"Urine is a slightly acidic substance. So, if you let that sh— build up in your pants, that's just f—ing gross."
Kenny He is a 19-year-old nursing student at the University of Massachusetts Boston and a certified nurse's aide in the state of Massachusetts. He also recently went viral on TikTok for explaining why he — someone with a penis — wipes after peeing just like people with vaginas do.
In the video, Kenny responds to a comment made on a different video of his that shames him for wiping. "Every single day, it becomes harder and harder for me to have male friends. It's basic f—ing hygiene," he says.
Kenny then decides to take us all to school and shows us a diagram of male genitalia. From there, he gives anatomical reasoning to back up wiping after peeing. "This right here is the internal urethral sphincter. This contracts to open."
Moving on, Kenny points out the urethra. "As you can see, that is a lot of real estate inside the penis, in the urethra. There's no peristalsis that happens in the urethra, like it happens in your esophagus or your intestines."
"There's no muscle that contracts to push the rest of the pee out," Kenny explains. "So, no matter how clean you think your pee is, there's residue leftover. There's gonna be pee leftover."
"There's a reason we have something called the bulbourethral gland," Kenny points out, "that secretes something we informally know as 'pre-cum.' The purpose of the bulbourethral gland is to help flush out whatever's left in the urethra before the penis ejaculates. So, humans have evolved to have something like the bulbourethral gland because the penis is not a very clean organ."
"I think it's safe to assume you don't stimulate your bulbourethral gland every time you go pee. ... But, every time you do take a piss and don't wipe, you're letting all of that urine build up inside of your pants."
"Urine is a slightly acidic substance," Kenny continues, "So, if you let that sh— build up in your pants, that's just f—ing gross. I'll concede and say that wiping your dick is not a perfect solution, but by doing so, you limit the amount of urine leftover in your garments after you pee."
"I don't know why wiping for both genders isn't normalized, because women do it. Their urethra is much shorter than the males, so they're at a higher risk of infection for UTIs. Just because we have a longer urethra as males, that doesn't mean you shouldn't wipe. You can still get UTIs from letting pee sit for hours at a time."
"So, please, do your part and wipe your dick," Kenny concludes. "If women wipe, you should wipe, too! We both have urethras!"
Nearly 10,000 people commented on Kenny's video, many of them agreeing with him and commending him for bringing this up:
BuzzFeed reached out to Kenny, who reiterated his reasoning behind wiping after peeing: "The simple reason why people with penises should wipe after peeing just like people with vaginas do is that you want the least amount of urine residue after peeing. People assigned male at birth have longer urethras than people who are assigned female at birth. When a person with a penis pees, there is bound to be urine leftover in the urethra and the tip of the penis because water has adhesive properties, and there is no peristaltic motion that 'squeezes' the rest of the urine out as our bodies do in our digestive system. Any still water, especially a substance filled with inorganic compounds like urine, is not hygienic and can lead to bacterial infections (urinary tract infections) or simply just smell gross."
He continued, "That's why it's crucial to squeeze the penis starting from the base, all the way to the tip, then wipe to get rid of any residual urine. I think this isn't very common for cis-gendered men simply because it's seen as 'feminine.' There is this facade a lot of people believe where if they wipe, they are considered 'gay' or 'girly.' I believe it's deeply rooted in toxic masculinity and homophobia."
Kenny's informative video has evolved into a series where he covers hand washing, hand sanitizer, and the similarities and differences between male and female urinary and reproductive systems. "It turns out a lot of people, especially cis-gendered men, are misinformed about the anatomy of the penis and think cis-gendered women only have two orifices or openings when they have three," Kenny told BuzzFeed. "There have been a lot of people sharing their experiences with their partners regarding personal hygiene, and a lot of them, especially cis-gendered women, note that their partners have stains and smells in their garments, as well as more frequent UTIs and bacterial vaginosis."
To confirm Kenny's claims, BuzzFeed reached out to Dr. Rena Malik, M.D., a urologist and pelvic surgeon based in Newport Beach, California. And, as it turns out, Kenny is definitely not wrong. According to Dr. Malik, "What Kenny describes is very common, where men have a drop or two of urine at the end of their stream, and we call this a post void dribble. Now, if it's a drop or two, it's not usually an issue, and even if it's a dribble, it's more of a nuisance than anything."
"This is caused by a couple different possible reasons," Dr. Malik continued, "One reason is that there are muscles around the urethra called the bulbospongiosus muscles, and these can contract to help you propel your urine forward. They do become weaker with age, and can make it more likely that men develop post void dribble. Another reason is because the prostate gland can enlarge. It is very, very common for men to have prostate enlargement or benign prostatic hyperplasia, which can then cause urine trapping in the part of the urethra that passes the prostate called the prostate urethral. That urine then dribbles out later."
While Dr. Malik maintains that UTI's are still pretty uncommon in those with male genitalia regardless of if they wipe or not, she did say that there are definitely hygienic benefits to wiping after peeing. "To reduce urine leakage onto clothing, mostly."
Kenny told BuzzFeed that he'd like to tell any wiping naysayers "to stop associating sitting down to pee and wiping with femininity and associate it with being hygienic instead. We're living in a post-pandemic world where hygiene was all we could think about for the last four years. We got people to start wearing masks, washing their hands, and being cleaner in general. We just need that for the bathroom now. Social constructs can change, and I am more than happy to support the 'squeeze and wipe' campaign."
Lastly, Kenny highlighted the importance of being knowledgable about the human body in general, because ignorance can have sweepingly negative consequences: "In our own bureaucracy, we have policymakers at the highest level passing legislation regarding personal health choices without being adequately informed. Abortion access is being determined by people who have no clue how a cis-gendered female's body works, and what the difference between an embryo and a zygote is. It's truly unfortunate that sciences such as biology and chemistry aren't more heavily emphasized in our secondary and post-secondary education system."
"Regardless if you plan on becoming a lawyer, a financial analyst, or a nurse, having a foundational understanding of how the human body works is a life skill that everyone should possess," Kenny concluded. "I hope this message is ingrained in every single young person's mind, because we have the power to change the way society thinks about health and hygiene."
To see more of Kenny's content, you can follow him on TikTok.
