Let's talk body parts.

Thanks to a recent indulgence if mine called the Kindle, I've been reading quite a bit in recent weeks -- more than I should, really, because reading a lot can mean writing too little.

Anyway, I've been noticing recurring instances of unintentional anatomical misinformation and/or abuse.

First, many authors (hell, many people in general) seem to be under the impression there's a "thick vein" running along the underside of a penis. Now, I've never been the proud owner of penis, except when I've held a man in thrall (usually for the amount of time it took him to get off), and I've never been a medical student, but I had begun to suspect some time ago that this dense tubular structure was not, in fact, a vein.

Nagged by doubt, I looked into it (well, not literally).

Sorry to say, fellow writers, you need to consign the Mighty Penis Vein to the erotic-romance biohazard scrap heap. That tubular structure is the corpus spongiosum, a column of sponge-like tissue that fills with blood during an erection, keeping the urethra -- which runs through it -- open. (That bit is from Web M.D.) Wikipedia describes the corpus spongiosum as "expandable erectile tissue."

Then there are lips. No, not netherlips. They're in m/f erotic romance, and I haven't read any in years (in part because of phrases like netherlips).  I mean the lips that ring a person's mouth.

In every story I've read, characters bite/nibble/chew their lips. Frequently. This is no exaggeration. A chapter can't go by, it seems, without some (usually nervous) guy treating his poor lips like slabs of peanut brittle.

As a result, I've declared a moratorium on lip-biting in my own books -- unless, of course, one character is doing it to another. But no more self-cannibalism!

So what body parts in romance fiction have you seen mislabeled, ill-treated, or behaving in strange ways? I seem to have become hyper-aware of this stuff, but I'm hoping it will teach me some lessons. 'Cause I'm sure I've been guilty too!