November 22, 2012

"McCartney’s 'Great Wall of Vagina' deemed obscene by Tokyo police."

"The images are exactly that of female genitalia.... The degree of obscenity is high."

The description is accurate but fails to mention how artistic it is.

ADDED: Here's a photo of the "wall" as displayed — badly, I think. The individual rectangles ought to tile an entire wall, not be framed and lined up like that. I guess they are more saleable in that form, but it's just not a great wall of vagina. Plus, I'm sorry to be pedantic, but don't say "vagina" for "vulva." I'm not concerned about obscenity. It's the false advertising that bothers me. This is "Decorously Framed Vulva," not "Great Wall of Vagina."

57 comments:

alan markus said...

Always pays to follow the links - my first thought was "the Beatles - what the heck!!"

Meade said...

Bad Lip Reading

Chip Ahoy said...

Jamie McCartney's wall of dicks was also rejected. Didn't pass the penal code.

KCFleming said...

The wailing wall in Jerusalem has little pieces of paper, with prayers written on them, stuck in the cracks.

madAsHell said...

I thought the War on Womyn was over.

Jenner said...

Georgia O'Keeffe's renderings evoking the image of genetalia=artistic. This? Maybe, but that's because everything is artistic from someone's point of view.

But here's an observation-look at the differences between the specimens. It seems there is an age range. Is this hidden child porn?!

Meade said...

Weapons of Mass Labiation

Clyde said...

Like snowflakes, no two exactly alike...

Sorun said...

I bet that photos of the vaginal canal, minus the exterior parts, wouldn't be considered obscene at all. An artist ought to try that.

traditionalguy said...

Oh no. I just finished stuffing a 20 lb turkey between its spread legs and the Thanksgiving Day's art post is panels of turkey parts.

The Japanese are just not as thankful as they should be.

Hagar said...

Penile code, Chip. Penile code!

rhhardin said...

Vagina is feminist for vulva.

jungatheart said...

Colloquially, it seems that vulva has become vagina.

Years ago a French judge ruled that male nudity at a nude beach was illegal because of the potential for the penis to become lewd.

McTriumph said...

McCarthy is an idiot and not very worldly. Everyone that has ever seen Japanese porn on the internet know that the genitalia is always blocked out. Yes, I know, it's a waist of time to watch.

The only good Japanese erotica is centuries old.

Chip S. said...

That exhibit is racist.

Valentine Smith said...

So what are they? Gateways to a couple of internal organs? Big deal! At least penises stand for something.

ObeliskToucher said...

More like "Labian's Wall"...

Valentine Smith said...

Some of those vajayjays look like they could fly. Others look pretty reticent while others look determined even dare I say, aggressive. BTW I don't see any asian pubes there.

rhhardin said...

The feminist wants something that corresponds to penis, which is vagina.

Unfortunately vagina is internal so fails to correspond completely. It fails at display, which the penis has.

So the external genitals are used, but with the corresponding word vagina, and it's agreed to keep a sort of double meaning for it.

One to correspond to the penis in each way, display and coupling.

DADvocate said...

I never thought I'd see the day when vaginas became passé and boring. But, with all the stupid vagina crap from the campaigns, feminist books, art, etc, it's "Hohum, another pussy."

jungatheart said...

I just clicked on four of the panels. I find chaos and a lack of order that represents Woman, and man's fear of her. It's a disturbing work of art, and not obscene, but scary.

Meade said...

" It's a disturbing work of art, and not obscene, but scary. "

I agree - especially the few that appear to be tick-infested. Oh well, I didn't see any teeth. So that's good.

John Burgess said...

The art is just fine, but I also am put off by the vocabulary failure.

jungatheart said...

"The feminist wants something that corresponds to penis, which is vagina."

The penis corresponds to the vagina in an insert tab A into slot B kind of way. The analog of penis is the clitoris.

jungatheart said...

lol Meade.

Clyde said...

It should be noted that this is not an original idea. Back in the 1960s, some rock n' roll groupie Cynthia Plaster Caster did the same thing with stars like Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa.

As far as the ostensible positive motivation of helping women with their body image, that's a good thing. Unless they are lesbians, most women probably haven't had a good, close look at other women's genitalia. There is a broad range of "normal," and this helps show it.

McTriumph said...

"As far as the ostensible positive motivation of helping women with their body image, that's a good thing."...

"... most women probably haven't had a good, close look at other women's genitalia. There is a broad range of "normal," and this helps show it."

Clyde, you obvious don't understand women, no good will come from this, we will have to suffer endless articles, talk shows and books concerning the pain of vagina envy. As men it will of course be our fault.

rhhardin said...

There's a similar situation with Doberman tails.

The Doberman tail is usually cropped, so it doesn't turn up in dog show conformation competitions.

As a result, the Doberman tail has evolved to be any old shape undocked.

Probably for a similar reason.

As Paglia says somewhere, comparing the situation to the male, the female genitals are architecturally chaotic.

The male in actuality doesn't care much. His quest for knowledge about what the hell is attracting him at that point has turned to another goal.

It takes more of the woman to be erotic.

Wince said...

Human Sexual Response, one of the great New Wave bands, just had their 30 year hometown reunion with original line up.

What Does Sex Mean To Me

I put my finger to my tongue
And I taste vagina
I licked Betty Ford's boots (it's true*)
She wore 'em all over China
People say that Chinese people don't
Ball as much as we do
'Cause their cultural revolution has shown
There are more important
Things to see to

So I ask what does sex mean to me
And what does sex mean to society
What does sex mean to me
What does sex mean to me
What does sex mean to me

I see another baby born
One more mouth to feed
Sometimes I can't comprehend
This urge to breed
Travel through a crowded land
Where people love each other as they love the state
They love their work
Their work is love
Love's no excuse to procreate
Their party slogan reads
And I quote
Making love is a mental disease
It wastes time and
Depletes our energies

So I ask what does sex mean to me
And what does sex mean to society...

I see couples walking hand in hand
What does sex mean to them
Worried women switch
From pills to diaphragms
What does sex mean to them
My parents wonder how
They made me what I am
What does sex mean to them
What does sex mean to me...

Now I wonder what you think about
When you're lying there in bed
Someday I think I'll find you out
Push my finger through your forehead
It's just a kind of acupuncture
Wisdom from the east
When my finger presses your third eye
Your secret life is released


* "It's true." One of the guys in the band worked in department store order fulfillment, and licked a pair of boots before packing them in a box addressed to Betty Ford. He later saw those boots as Betty Ford stepped off Air Force One on a trip to China.

Mary Beth said...

What's the problem, lack of tentacles?

Methadras said...

Wait what? This is Japan we are talking about, where nearly every form of deviant sexual practices is recorded and cataloged and put on the internet for public consumption. They couldn't have blurred the vagina's out like they do in their videos? lol.

Meade said...

"What's the problem, lack of tentacles?"

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Please note that every one of those panels is some sort of alabaster color.

Those artist's models must have been together for quite some time for all their menstrual cycles to have synchronized like that.

edutcher said...

I thought the Japanese were a little more laissez-faire than that, but I guess I have to chalk it up to "modern art isn't".

(Palladian on my case in 5, 4, 3,...)

PS Meade, that picture is weird beyond weird and that you even knew it existed, Oy!

I'm not going to go into Mrs Meade's reaction, which I'm betting would be either like The Blonde's (O! My! Go-o-od!) or, "Oooohhh! Oh, honey-y-y-y-".

(let me guess, she showed it to you)

Unknown said...

But is it visible from space?

edutcher said...

PPS The title's lousy.

Just call it Pussy Galore.

chuck said...

What's missing is color. Classical statues were painted and so should be the vulvae.

McTriumph said...

Looks like my south trophy room wall, the three other walls are covered with dead animal remnants and one actual trophy.

Peter said...

All hairless. God damn it.

Valentine Smith said...

I think I detect some redundancy in the logarithm.

After hours of meditating on it, I've seen pterodactyls, SR-15s, the Mekong delta, a tennis court, a mass grave from the Battle of Hastings, a ski jump into a sulfurous pit, a wooden horse breeching the gates of Troy, Teddy Roosevelt's face, and earthquake rifts from the Plains of Thingvellir,

I get the humor in this piece but I don't see any vertical smiles.

Renee said...

Not the prettiest part of our bodies. Purely functional. The piercings grossed me out. I didn't see the photos as obscene or artisitc, from a medical anatomy point of view interesting. Boring in fact, the third panel.

Clyde said...

@ Peter,

Wrong. You obviously didn't click on the individual panels, because some of those ladies are definitely bearded!

(Just as several had jewelry on board)

rhhardin said...

Not the prettiest part of our bodies. Purely functional.

It's a lot harder to evolve pretty female genitals than to evolve male brain wiring that's obsessively attracted to functional ones.

The latter is what happened.

Feminine modesty created by male interest, not about things in themselves.

Bob_R said...

45 posts and no one has done a white pussy joke. Standards are falling around here. I guess the holidays are a good excuse. Things I'm thankful for .... let me think.

Dante said...

I agree - especially the few that appear to be tick-infested. Oh well, I didn't see any teeth. So that's good.

Sometimes, but unusually, vaginas do have teeth in them.

I do have a project in mind, though, in which the lips of men are superimposed with the major labia. Sometimes the inner lips stick out, and then it's like a tongue sticking out.

I just need to find a lot of women who will let me take pictures.

McTriumph said...

Bob_R
I've never seen a white muffin in all my extensive debauchery. Most are like the inside of a very rarely cooked pork chop. I believe them to be a myth, a story handed down verbally from generation to generation, an oral history. A myth similar to the Great white Buffalo. I could be wrong, there are a few women I haven't met.

Renee said...

"It's a lot harder to evolve pretty female genitals than to evolve male brain wiring that's obsessively attracted to functional ones."

Thanks, it makes a lot more sense now.

Methadras said...

edutcher said...

I thought the Japanese were a little more laissez-faire than that, but I guess I have to chalk it up to "modern art isn't".

(Palladian on my case in 5, 4, 3,...)

PS Meade, that picture is weird beyond weird and that you even knew it existed, Oy!

I'm not going to go into Mrs Meade's reaction, which I'm betting would be either like The Blonde's (O! My! Go-o-od!) or, "Oooohhh! Oh, honey-y-y-y-".

(let me guess, she showed it to you)


That picture is nothing. Actually there aren't enough tentacles there.

Michael said...

Oh, wow, contemporary art is really being daring, making us think about body parts. Because we hardly do that ever in this society.

Contemporary art is so small compared to art of other eras. Is there a genuinely great artist working right now? Hard to think of one (Odd Nerdrum maybe?)

Sorun said...

I have a photo of my colon that my doctor gave me after my colonoscopy. I'd happily contribute it to "The Great Wall of Poop Shoot" or some clever name the artist came up with.

Mick said...

without hair it's child porn.

Meade said...

Great Grilles of Genitalia

Wally Ballou said...

Great wall of beef curtains.

sonicfrog said...

Paul McCartney.... Nooooo!

amba said...

The variety is mesmerizing, though.

amba said...

The variety is mesmerizing, though.

Meade said...

sonicfrog said...
"Paul McCartney.... Nooooo!"

Baby, I'm a man and maybe I'm a lonely man
Who's in the middle of something
That he doesn't really understand