The Penis Stays in the Picture

[Horny Hefty]

Male nude print is flop with men
A gallery has replaced a painting of a naked man with a female nude
after it received dozens of complaints
The Mark Jason Gallery, in Bell Street, Marylebone, removed the
offending image by artist Edd Pearman after more than 30 men voiced
their objection.
Some said the picture would upset women, others said it was pornographic.
Mark Jason said: "We did not anticipate just how uncomfortable and
angry London men would feel about Edd's screenprint of the naked man."
He added: "It all comes down to the fact that the British feel
compelled to sexualise everything, and also that female nudity is
deemed as more acceptable to the general public than equivalent male
nakedness.
"I resent having been forced into this situation, and would have
rather stuck to my guns as a matter of principle, but to be honest,
the amount of people walking in off the street to express their
displeasure almost equalled the amount of people wanting to buy the
images."
One Response to "The Penis Stays in the Picture"
So what's the issue? Yes, some women (as well as some men) are afraid
of penises–sometimes with very good reasons. Sometimes that fear
extends to images of penises; we certainly know people who won't open
Familiar Men. But in this case, especially with the way the complaints
are described, that doesn't sound like the issue; instead, it wouuld
appear that these men may be displacing their own sense of being
threatened onto women. Our guess is that part of the issue is what
Familiar Men model Jonathan D. Katz gives in the piece he wrote for
the book:
"Power is based on the projection of power, and real male bodies
unerringly repudiate that projection. … To see a penis is to know that
it couldn't possibly be a phallus. If male power is premised on the
cloaking of the male body, then it is to its uncloaking that we must
turn for our collective liberation."
Without a doubt, this isn't the only issue bothering the men who
complained. Penises in public space are highly charged. What other
things do you think might be going on?
Leaving aside our own desires to see this work showcased, it's just
sad that any part of the human body (or the bodies of half the human
race) should be considered cause for alarm.
This entry was posted on Friday, December 16th, 2005 at 1:52 pm and is
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Laurie Says:
December 20th, 2005 at 11:10 pm
As anyone who seen our book cover for "Familiar Men" knows it is PG.
You can't have a penis on a book cover if you want on view in regular
bookstores. It was really hard for us to figure out photos that would
represent the variety of men in the book and still have bookstore
acceptable cover images.
In the case of the bottom photograph of Jonthan Segel playing the
violin, we used the aesthetics of the cover edge to do as little
cropping.
We're happy with the cover but we would have loved not to have to
limit our choices so much.