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Where do we go when we die? Are we alone in the universe? Does size matter?

Some things we can never know. But the answer to the last question—according, at least, to the men of r/gettingbigger—is a resounding yes. And jelqing is one of the key ways to achieve it.

Caleb Anthony, 25, a dispensary worker in California, has been insecure about his penis size since adolescence. “When I was younger, I was definitely overweight,” Caleb says. “I was also really tall and I am a light-skinned Black guy, and so it was like things like that. The whole BBC [big Black cock] stereotype played into it.”

In his late teens, Caleb began researching penis enlargement online.

“I was just googling and I was mainly on YouTube, like looking up videos or methods or routines of how to get bigger,” he says.

That’s when the algorithm recommended videos from Hink, a penis-enlargement content creator on YouTube who coaches men on lengthening techniques. Caleb began asking questions on Hink’s livestreams.

“I just started going through his channel and seeing his whole process of everything,” Caleb says. “It showed me how easy and realistic this is.”

In September 2024, Caleb began following Hink’s Enlargement Course, which sells for $100 on his website Peak Male Physique. Caleb began stretching his penis—for 30 minutes, using a penis pump for 20 minutes every day.

In the 10 months since, Caleb says he has grown his penis from six to seven inches in length. He keeps a monthly log of his progress in his Notes app.

“It just definitely increased my overall confidence,” Caleb says. “Not so much about being bigger necessarily, but I looked at it as another form of self-improvement.”

Not only that, but in Hink’s livestream chats and Discord, Caleb feels like he’s part of a community.

“I think for men, because this is something that’s so taboo or private for us, it’s harder for us to really be more open about it,” Caleb says. “Like, hey, this is actually a lot more common than we realize.”

As long as there have been men, there have probably been men who wanted a bigger penis. But in a wellness-obsessed digital era where biohacking is increasingly commonplace, enlargement techniques have become more codified and commoditized than ever. And in the last few years, the online community has been, well, growing.

Today there are 165,000 users on r/gettingbigger, 200,000 on MattersOfSize.com, and 82,000 on r/AJelqForYou. “Jelqing” is a method of manual penis enlargement, or PE, which involves putting your thumb and forefinger in an “okay” position and repeatedly stroking one’s shaft with pressure from base to tip. Its name is derived from the Persian word jalq, which means masturbation. (There are widespread claims online that jelqing originated in ancient Arabia or Sudan, but scholars have found no original sources to back that up.)

Jelqing is the first PE term to rise from the murky depths of online forums and breach the broader manosphere. In 2024, jelqing became a meme in itself on looksmaxxing TikTok and pickup artist YouTube.

“For the longest time, people were told, no, you can’t make your penis bigger, which is a lie,” Hink, who asked to use his online pseudonym, says. “And now people are actually seeing that. And it’s kind of spreading. I won’t say like wildfire, but it’s definitely spreading.”