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?

[(Anonymous)]

Hmm, guess you're right. A workplace that can't tolerate dicks is no place for me.

[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!

[(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!

[(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]

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

[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.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

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

[(Anonymous)]

I wrote a song called The Shy Penis.
How it disappeared in bathroom showers and always got up before me in the morning. It especially didn't like working under pressure and gave up employment in industries which required protective clothing.
Now it is a gentlemen of leisure, let's say.

[robinsonner.livejournal.com]

Streaking now seems so revolutionary.

[(Anonymous)]

but not for me, it says
"My Little Dead Dick doesn't have anything available to you"
it seems i don´t fit in their prgram because i neither have a dick nor the other thing, between my legs there´s only a kind of a silicon-driftwood

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Weird!

I had to click through some sort of "abandon hope all ye who enter here" agreement to see the content, though. And it keeps putting "Take me to the kittens!" buttons everywhere, just in case I change my mind.

[(Anonymous)]

Same here.

The jellyfish under your name suddenly looks like a giant, fluorescent penis. I s'pose it's today's post's fault, and I can probably never go back to "oh, beautiful jellyfish!" now.

-r

[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."

[imomus.livejournal.com]

When Mother Nature likes the forms she comes up with, she repeats them.

madi ju

[(Anonymous)]

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

ƒredrik/typografism.se

[(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?

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!

[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*.

[trickseybird.livejournal.com]

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.