Foreskin in Art

[Joseph]

Are foreskins really gross? November 20, 2007

(original blog can be found HERE (http://intactivist.wordpress.com/2007/11/20/are-foreskins-really-gross/).)

What stunned me about this piece, artistically, colorfully portraying the beauty of normal, healthy male anatomy was how incredibly similar it looks compared to a woman's petal-like folds.

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa295/kogejoe/paul.jpg

"AS EACH FORM EMERGED ON THE CANVAS,

THE JOY OF CREATION BECAME ANGER

AS I ASKED MYSELF WHY ANYONE

WOULD CHOOSE TO DESTROY THIS UNIQUE

AND BEAUTIFUL PART OF A MALE'S BODY."

Paintings by Paul Davis Jones


I (Joseph) Begin...

The female genitalia is celebrated in works of art all the time. In particular, what comes to mind is feminist artists like Georgia O'Keeffe, and works of art like Judy Chicago's "The Dinner Party." The labia and/or clitoris aren't portrayed as "extra," "ugly," "superfluous," and/or "redundant." Rather, they are portrayed as the beautiful part of a whole that they are.

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa295/kogejoe/OKeeffeSmall.jpg
Works by Georgia O'Keeffe

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa295/kogejoe/DinnerPartySMALL.jpg
Plates from Judy Chicago's "The Dinner Party"

It's about time somebody painted the penis in art as it is, and not as the American psyche thinks it "should be."

For what would the reaction of feminists be would that artists portrayed circumcised or infibulated vulvas?

The circumcised penis often appears in art as "just another kind of penis." Would the circumcised or infibulated vulva elicit the same reaction?

[Randel]

Dear Joseph,
I appreciate you sharing the Art. Actually quite beautiful. If we are created in God's image,..? Why destroy it,..?
Randel

[cloud7]

it would make sense that in some sense they appear similar as they form from the same pseudo genitals that are more female design in the womb.

can't find the website now, but there was one that had an animated graphic that showed how it developed, essentially the vagina like opening closes and the clitoris like structure grows in males, where in females there is less of a change

[Joseph]

Actually, you can find info on the androginy of the human fetus in almost any healthbook. (maybe not if it's a Christian school textbook...)

Basically babies have ambiguous genitalia (some argue that a baby is a female by default, me, being a masculist resent that... :D ), and they basically look the same until it starts developing into one sex.

The clitoris is basically the same organ as the head of the penis, the foreskin is the same material that makes up the labia minora, and the scrotum is equal to the hairy labia majora in females.

I think it's in the DOC video:

http://www.doctorsopposingcircumcision.org/video/prepuce.html

[Randel]

.......the carpet does match the drapes..........