My little disappearing dick

[imomus]

Was it Germaine Greer who said "What really terrifies men is the bodies of other men"? So true. If the taboo on male nudity comes from anyone, it comes from men.

Male nudity probably wouldn't be taboo if women ruled the world. Certainly not if the comments by women under this photo by Madi Ju and Patrick "Pat Pat" Tsai are anything to go by; female Flickr users fell over themselves to call the nonchalant, indie-ish cock shot "sweet... awesome... cool... cute... delightful".



The picture (entitled "Shanghai") originally ran in the My Little Dead Dick photo-diary, a collaborative effort by American-Chinese photographer couple Madi and Pat Pat. As Selena Hoy from Pingmag reported last week, Madi and Pat Pat have now broken up, and not altogether amicably.

The Pingmag story was slightly disturbing; amidst semi-naked photos of his ex, Madi Ju, Patrick Tsai used the interview to advertise his arrival in Japan and amorous pursuit of a new photographer partner, Ume Kayo. Whether Ume is requiting his passion is not clear at this point, but it's safe to assume that Madi can't be too happy about the feature.



The focus of the controversy that's blown up over this article wasn't Patrick's declaration of love for a Japanese photographer, though, or his use of photos of his ex to generate cultural capital for himself. It was his penis. The problem, in other words, wasn't that Patrick wasn't being a gentleman, but rather that he was so obviously and so vulnerably... a man.



Pingmag used the "Shanghai" image -- the same image you'll see in this month's edition of Theme magazine, and the same image designer Ian Lynam chose to pick up when he linked the Pingmag story from Meta No Tame. A day or so later, the Shangai image had disappeared from both Meta No Tame and Pingmag, amidst complaints that it was "not safe for work". Meta No Tame quickly updated with a zero-comments story about 1960s Japanese student radicalism, but there was a distinct feeling that a small revolution had been quelled in its own backyard -- in the interests of workplace propriety.



The male organ, unsheathed, becomes, at last, unthreatening. By keeping it hidden, we keep it scary. Attitudes are changing, though, in the West and Asia. As we saw during the Edison Chen affair, the Chinese government tends not to give a damn about sex and nudity -- religion and political agitation see them clamping down hard, but sex scandals provoke, at best, a slow and nonchalant response. In Japan, though, things are a bit different. People are reluctant to show their faces in public, let alone their naked bodies. The reckless, circumcised, racy, immodest, ungentlemanly but undeniably manly Pat Pat may find the archipelago Not Safe for his Work.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks to you and your not-so-disappeared dicks, Momus, I've just lost my job. They told me to pack up my desk and be out of the building by 5pm. No penises allowed, apparently. Thanks!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

You only worked that shitty job to put clothes on your back, Anon. Who needs 'em?

[33mhz.livejournal.com]

ITT: We break the taboo on male nudity.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Shanghai is the new San Francisco!

[sarmoung.livejournal.com]

"Meta No Tame quickly updated with a zero-comments story about 1960s Japanese student radicalism, but there was a distinct feeling that a small revolution had been quelled in its own backyard -- in the interests of workplace propriety.

Here I was hoping that the Marxy-sniping season had finally come to an end!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I would never snipe at a man who appears naked on his own blog!

[(Anonymous)]

Momus, you've passed up an excellent opportunity to talk about your own penis and its part in your career. You're famously well-endowed; do you think this gave you an extra boost in your life that translated into exposing yourself, shall we say, in the marketplace of art and showbiz? Do you think you would have ever written "The Penis Song" if you had an average, or less than average sized appendage? Would you have plastercasted your penis if it hadn't been such a whopper? Would you have even written blog posts encouraging male nudity if your trousers were hiding a little winkle of a dick? Is this post actually slyly saying: "I am Momus and no it's not a gun in my pocket"? Please enlighten us!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

"My Penis and its Part in my Career" is the book I will publish when you've all completely lost interest in me. The MS will be scrawled on toilet paper in my cell at the Bastille and will catch fire during a violent civic disturbance over the high price of food.

[(Anonymous)]

"Madi and Pat Pat have now broken up, and not altogether amicably"
it seems taht this is the reason why they erased their account on Flicka

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Their Flickr account (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mylittledeaddick/) still works for me. Is Flicka something different?

[robinsonner.livejournal.com]

Streaking now seems so revolutionary.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I'm working on a film treatment based on this entry. It would make a great J-horror flick:

Curse of Pat Pat's Chin Chin: Websites running photos of Pat Pat's chin chin are being discovered, days later, hacked to pieces. Wearing an unfeasibly tiny miniskirt, sparkly shoes and a glittery-strapped keitai, trainee reporter and amateur panty photographer Sachiko closes in on the internet curse... and the penis at its centre. But someone -- or something -- doesn't want her to penetrate the mystery."

madi ju

[(Anonymous)]

You can find, I guess, most pictures on Madi Jus page; http://www.madiju.com/love_diary.htm

ƒredrik/typografism.se

Re: madi ju

[imomus.livejournal.com]

So that's (http://www.madiju.com/images/lovesdiary/0043.jpg) where all those "Take me to the kittens!" buttons lead!

[(Anonymous)]

Penises are so 'in your face', rockist and 'punk'. Why can't we just cover them up instead of all this latent aggression? WHY?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I think you're getting "latent" and "blatant" mixed up.

But punk hated the penis. Lydon famously described them as "two-and-a-half inches of squelching noises". Which shows he never even dared to look at his own.

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

"Was it Germaine Greer who said "What really terrifies men is the bodies of other men"? So true. If the taboo on male nudity comes from anyone, it comes from men."

HAHAHA WHAT??!

*puts you on imageblock again*.

So why don't women buy p*rn?

[(Anonymous)]

It's been tried. Over and over. Fails. No sales. Every time.

I'm afraid male body aversion is a joint venture.

[trickseybird.livejournal.com]

[dogsolitude-v2.livejournal.com]

Reminds me: not watched Dune in ages...

ugh

[(Anonymous)]

the whole NSFW thing really irks me. i hate that as a medium the internet censors itself so that a billion office drones (myself included) can bugger off on the computer without worrying that our surfing will get us canned. the internet should be a tool for communication and broadening knowledge (and masturbating) and not a simple time-waster for the eight hours a day one must sit at a desk. whatever happened to rubik's cube or the beloved tamagotchi?

Re: ugh

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's always someone else's conservatism being invoked, never one's own. If it's not "my boss won't like this", it's "my kids shouldn't see this". As a result, a completely spurious "tamest common denominator" flattens exactly the passion and excitment people crave in their quest to escape enforced dullnesses of all kinds.

[akabe.livejournal.com]

i thought the point of the beckham billboard and the armani equivalent plastered al over europe is the fact that , unlike most underwear pix we normally see , you actually can see the penis. veiled but you can

The same men who made the boating pond at the Psycho Cities show

[imomus.livejournal.com]

[jaimi.livejournal.com]

It's amazing how shocking male nudity is, really. Kurt Kauper's nude portraits of hockey players made the front page of the Boston Globe (http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2007/11/29/in_artists_vision_an_icon_in_the_flesh/) not too long ago -- just because you could see an artist's rendering of Bobby Orr's dick.

[jyotease.livejournal.com]

by chance, do you know if the breakup was recent?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I understand it happened in April / May this year.

[desant012.livejournal.com]

I like that idea of the penis being as belonging to some kind-of mystery cult, its power and identity always covered up only to be revealed during ceremonial occasions where its true power is shown. Never thought about it like that; should've written my requisite Women's Studies course paper on that back in school.

lol true power

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

teenage mutant ninja penis

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA PENIS

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA PEEEEENIIIIIIIIIIS!

heroes in a half shell!

PENIS POWER!

[lupoleboucher.livejournal.com]

"What really terrifies men is the bodies of other men"

What would someone like Germaine Greer know about that. Obviously absurdly untrue: the type of thing only a feminist idiot could come up with. Men take all of their clothes off in front of each other without any embarrassment in the locker room of the gym. Duh. Those who don't like looking at other men's dongs (in the gym or anywhere else) are probably merely heterosexual. I doubt heterosexual women go checking each other's bearded clams in the locker room either.

idiot feminist?

[trickseybird.livejournal.com]

(http://s164.photobucket.com/albums/u10/lolincest/100dadtechnology/?action=view&current=momus6.jpg)

[trickseybird.livejournal.com]

[trickseybird.livejournal.com]

[trickseybird.livejournal.com]

(http://s164.photobucket.com/albums/u10/lolincest/100dadtechnology/?action=view&current=81831750.jpg)

[trickseybird.livejournal.com]

(http://s164.photobucket.com/albums/u10/lolincest/100dadtechnology/?action=view&current=406321569_c273755a48.jpg)

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

HUMMINGBIRDS???!!

IN MY VAGINA????!!!!!!

It's more likely than you think.

[(Anonymous)]

Woo for male nudity.

I did some nude modelling recently for a female aquaintance, and for free too.

Apart from recurring nightmares of castration, i haven't regretted it one bit.

penis...

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Momus,
I'm editor of PingMag and there's not so much to say about it other than: I put the pics -- in but when our precious sponsors saw the text, they kindly asked us to remove the penis and the dead dog. End of story.

warm greetings,
Verena

http://www.pingmag.jp

Re: penis...

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Hello Verena!

See, I didn't even notice that the dead dog had gone too!

Funny, after blogging this yesterday I ended up at a party here in Berlin with one of Patrick's best friends!

[expiring.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

Hey Momus,

Thanks for picking this up. I didn't think it was a discussion we even needed to have, considering how innocuous the pics are (relationship quarreling aside). Obviously I was wrong.

And I'd just like to point out again that Madi's breasts are still up.

-selena-

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Hello Selena!

I suppose the thing I'm most curious about is Ume Kayo's reaction! But -- Japanese discretion being what it is -- I doubt we'll ever know that.