This is not what a feminist artist looks like.
I am not in a habit of trashing a show before I see it, so I won’t trash the 2-day “EXPLICIT” exhibit at Morgan Avenue Underground in Bushwick this weekend. After reading this Vice profile however, it’s clear that there is an ethical and intellectual fail in its conceit. Girls? You’re dicks.
There are 300 dick pics in this show — “dicks covered in cum and dicks sprinkled with marijuana,” etc etc. Of the four anonymous “artists interested in feminism, the internet, sex, porn, and power,” several created fake OKCupid profiles soliciting aforementioned dick pics.
One of them posed as a gay man on Grindr, poaching a whopping 150 photos. That’s half of the show. And yet, these women have the balls to pretend that their show is reactionary against a part of male culture that blitzkriegs unsolicited photos of their penises to embarrass, assault and “give the societal shaft” non-consenting women? While you’re emulating revenge porn? While exploiting gay culture? While calling it “feminist?” While pretending that by impersonating people you’re making some sort of statement about “honesty and authenticity online” and how we should check that a profile we’re communicating with isn’t a fake profile, like theirs?
Please don’t call yourself feminists. You are dicks, like those dicks from Kappa Gamma and their Facebook tit pic collection.
It’s not just your nonchalant malice that irks me; it’s your political pretensions — the blanket criminalizing of the male body, the transference of guilt from Man-On-Woman Unsolicited Online Indecent Exposure into a completely unrelated situation, inside a social sphere which you conned your way into — A Place Where Consenting Gay Men Seek and Send Each Other Photos of Dicks. There, you invented this “guilt” to smugly justify your dick move.
It’s ok! It’s only the internet! Right? Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
At least you cropped out the faces.
I love how you talk about your show being “controversial” because penises are gross, “ridiculous” and “fascinating.” As if there’s something inherently wrong with a hard cock. As if getting over feeling “uncomfortable” around cock and “vaguely guilty” about the project is some transgressive act of art and a great personal journey we have to congratulate you on for completing.
Congratulations. In New York, internet impersonation is a class A misdemeanor that caries a $1,000 fine and up to a year in prison.
Dear readers: If you go to the show, “No photos please.” Protect the anonymous artists’ privacy.
