The Lazarus Sign

Before we start, let me explain this subject is from one genders viewpoint and may not be suitable for every reader. If easily offended, look away.

As defined a boner also known as erection, a stiff, chubby, hard-on when an erect blood filled penis is brought on my sexual arousal.

A boner could be described as:

1. An erect penis

2. What your boyfriend ‘has’ when you are ‘making out’ with him

3. How big you wish his penis was all the time

The bane of an adolescent young man's existence is the boner. A boner usually happens during class, normally after eyeing an attractive girl. Extremely embarrassing the boner is. When a boner happens, you'll stick your hand in your pocket to tuck it into your boxers in a futile attempt to avoid discomfort or embarrassment. The worst case causes ejaculation in the pants.

Spontaneous erection, also known as involuntary, random or unwanted erection, is commonplace and a normal part of male physiology. Socially, such erections can be embarrassing if they happen in public or when undesired. Erections can occur spontaneously at any time of day, and if clothed may cause a bulge which (if required) can be disguised or hidden by wearing close-fitting underwear, a long shirt, or baggier clothes.

If this is getting too uncomfortable, let me get technical.

Parasympathetic branches extend from the sacral plexus into the arteries supplying the erectile tissue; upon stimulation, these nerve branches release acetylcholine, which, in turn causes release of nitric oxide from endothelial cells in the trabecular arteries. Nitric oxide diffuses to the smooth muscle of the arteries (called trabecular smooth muscle), acting as a vasodilating agent. The arteries dilate, filling the corpora spongiosum and cavernosa with blood. The ischiocavernosus and bulbospongiosus muscles also compress the veins of the corpora cavernosa, limiting the venous drainage of blood.

Erection subsides when parasympathetic stimulation is discontinued; baseline stimulation from the sympathetic division of the ANS causes constriction of the penile arteries, forcing blood out of the erectile tissue.

After ejaculation or cessation of stimulation, erection usually subsides, but the time taken may vary depending on the length and thickness of the penis.

A death erection, angel lust, or terminal erection is a post-mortem erection, technically a priapism, observed in the corpses of men who have been executed, particularly by hanging.

That is enough of the science. You can look back now. I’ll stop talking about the awkwardness of boy’s reactions to girls at that tender age when mating starts taking place.

My point here, excuse the pun, is during the time when ‘making out’ takes place there are voluntary and involuntary signs of attraction to each other.

Then again we often pull a ‘boner’. No, it is not what you are thinking. Get your minds out of the gutter.

When we do something really stupid. We buy the wrong present or forget an anniversary or run a red light or wake up with a stranger in a hotel. That is a ‘boner’.

Maybe it was the Lazarus sign

In ‘The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion’, art historian and critic Leo Steinberg notes that a number of Renaissance era artists depicted Jesus Christ after the crucifixion with a post-mortem erection. The Roman Catholic Church suppressed this artwork for several centuries.