Sunday, December 11, 2005

Uncomfortable, Isn't It?

A gallery has replaced a painting of a naked man with a female nude after it received dozens of complaints.

Sure is a good thing nobody complains about female nudes!

I mean, naked men are soooo scary.

10 comments so far. What are your thoughts?

Anonymous said...

Well, not to be offensive but a naked penis is not the most attractive thing in the world. On the other hand, neither is a vagina but Hollywood types like boobs and they sort of come as a package.  

Posted by Steph

Kameron Hurley said...

Actually, I'm quite keen on all the boy parts.

I certainly wouldn't mind seeing more of them... it's the guys who were all coming into the gallery to complain, apparently. 

Posted by Kameron Hurley

Jennifer said...

I didn't see any naked boy parts in that article. Whattsup? 

Posted by Jennifer

clindsay said...

Only naked men with man-boobs are scary. :-) 

Posted by La Gringa

Hal Duncan said...

Fucking philistines. What fucking year is this anyway? Presumably sometime pre-Michelangelo.

Man, I'm tempted to post some gay porn on my blog just to redress the balance. Show these motherfuckers some boy parts to be *really* scared of. 

Posted by Hal Duncan

A.R.Yngve said...

You see, a lot of men are insecure about the size of their... blablabla.

When an insecure man sees a representation of another man's... blablabla... they feel challenged: "Is this man's blablabla bigger than mine? And what if someone else finds out? Just the thought of it makes me shrink! Help!!"

Alternately, if the representation of the... blablabla... is noticeably small, the insecure man will think: "Is that normal? Is a grown man's blablabla supposed to be that small? Is mine too big? Am I normal? HELP!"

Or, the insecure man might suffer an identity crisis: "Oh no! I'm looking at a painting of another man's blablabla! Does this make me gay? Is anoyone else looking at me looking at this painting? What if they think I'm gay?? HELLLP!!"

Then again, I can imagine there are insecure women who can't cope with male or female nude paintings...
;-)
 

Posted by A.R.Yngve

Anonymous said...

It's easy to mock the men who protested this, but it's also easy to feel sorry for them. Unless you're a real advocate of evo psych theories, you have to assume that men are educated to feel that uncomfortable around other naked men (witness the Greek counter-example) and it's easy to argue that the consequent shame/fear/homophobia/etc. complex which surrounds male nudity provokes all sorts of problems- for instance, the inability to recognize or discuss male beauty. It's sad; it limits the way people feel allowed to see themselves and others, both in terms of male self-regard and the cultural acceptance of the sexual (or merely physical!) regard of men by women and other men. 

Posted by Brendan

clindsay said...

Hal, please please post some boy porn. A little known secret: It's a gay chick's favorite kind of porn!!! 

Posted by La Gringa

Anonymous said...

Hi, I've been lurking on your blog for a bit. I really enjoy the feminist essays.

Anyway, this kind of thing drives me nuts -- I published a magazine at my college campus a couple years ago with male nudes in it to try to combat the idea that only the female nude is 'passive' or 'artistic.' Our magazine didn't get pulled, but we raised a lot more eyebrows and gasps of "They shouldn't be allwoed to do this!" on our liberal campus than expected. 

Posted by Rachel

Bruno said...

LOL! Nice blog and amusing commentary. I must make a note to pop around again...