When I was in grade school, I was walking to school with my older sister when we were flashed.

It wasn't a guy in a trench coat who gave us a quick "snapshot" of his genitals before scurrying away like you see in the movies.

In this case, this man was standing totally naked in his window and casually holding his penis (which was more a slow exposure than a flash I suppose).

It was at that moment, however, that I came to the realization that many men are, well, obsessed with their own penises.

Case in point: Weinergate.

As you probably know by now, Mr. Anthony Weiner is a Democratic Congressman from New York with his eye on becoming mayor one day. Last week, a photo of someone's, ahem, weiner, er "popped up" on Mr. Weiner's Twitter feed.

The image was visible to all Weiner's followers even though it was specifically addressed to a 21-year-old Seattle student (who incidentally claims she doesn't know him).

Mr. Weiner initially insisted that his account was hacked but finally came forward this week and admitted that he had exchanged explicit photos with six women over the past three years.

He's not alone: over the recent past everyone from Brett Favre to PC candidate George Lepp have been accused of sending inappropriate photos of their private parts. These situations beg the question: why do so many men like to show other people their bits?

If you've ever gone on Craigslist, Chatroulette or just about any other slightly anonymous chat forum – you will find a veritable sea of penises on display.

I'm remembering one particular photo I saw in the "Casual Encounters" section on Craigslist in which a man had carefully placed his penis on to his Blackberry to indicate how "wide" his weiner was.

Not to mention my experience when I once investigated Chatroulette for the show and was confronted with so many men's junk I felt like I became part of the trash.

This is particularly interesting because if you ask your average woman what she finds most attractive about a man, I promise you that 99 per cent of the time she will not mention that particular part of his anatomy.

And for those male readers out there, it's not that women find this part of you unappealing, it's just that there are other parts on the male anatomy that are more visually appearing.

And this is a two way street – even though we love our vulvas, the fact is that you probably don't want to look at a sea of women's vaginas who you don't know. On second thought, maybe you do.

I'm with Leslie from XOJane.com when she says that "the person to whom the penis is attached is usually what makes that particular penis an interesting prospect."

So for those of you who are inspired to show your penis off to people who don't know you, please consider the art of subtlety and take a page from this guy's handbook.