Vaginas with attitude.

So I hang around DeviantArt. I have a couple of favorite artists on there as well as a commission coming to me. One of my favorite guys on there is the user IMustBeDead because both his photography and photo manipulations are interesting and very well staged. Scrolling through his gallery, I was confronted by a very blatant vagina. In the comments section, he noted being inspired by the photographer Pelicanh. Curiosity got the better of me and I clicked.

Vaginas galore. This one happens to be my favorite.


No Glove - No Love by `Pelicanh on deviantART

Obviously by vaginas, I don't mean porn shots. I mean vaginas in their natural glory, be they pierced, shaved, or otherwise. I'm really very impressed. Its not every day that you come across a guy who can photograph a vagina for its aesthetic beauty and not just because they want to become well known as a jack off portion on DeviantArt. This is the only man I know that takes a picture of a vagina and then exclaims in its caption "Its so cute, I couldn't help it!". I would say that yes, some of his photographs push the envelope as to what's porn and what's not. However, I wouldn't hold that against him. In a world where feminists are defined as women who want special rights rather than equal rights, its hard for a man who likes vaginas to get by. I can only imagine the hate mail he gets.

Chauvinist. Pervert. Pig. Objectifier (yes, I did make this word up) of women. I'm sure a thousand numerous other insults have been thrown at him. In fact, because I'm an idiot, I just noticed that he published a journal along those lines. The only difference is that it seems to be underaged members of DA who have the most issues with him. Hm.My only issue? While I find his photography beautiful, I don't find vaginas particularly attractive. I just don't. And its not just female genitalia that I find not so amazing, its male as well. I think our reproductive organs are ugly. It just goes to show that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. After some research, churning through thousands of "OMGWTF" pictures, I found that there are women on DA that do the same thing with penises...they find them visually pleasing beyond the sense of 'oh my God, porn!'. While I greatly appreciate that there photographers out there that can look at our bodies as more than just sexual objects, I can't bring myself to look at a vagina and say "Wow, that is stunning".

Looking at Pelicanh's art made me realize one thing; I'm probably better off keeping my mouth shut if I encounter a group of feminists. I don't find the female body to be a wonderland. I don't find vaginas the epitome of Nature's artwork and I won't apologize for it. I don't find anything particularly beautiful about them whether it be physically or metaphorically. I find vaginas to be a bit horrifying. They don't look like flowers, they look like shriveled leather purses. Our 'cycles' aren't something to be celebrated...I find having a period to be devastatingly disgusting. I do wish that I could skip this whole thing and head right into menopause. Vaginas didn't create the world, vaginas don't make women superior, and I think the feminist tendency to worship them is quite disturbing. Talk about genital fixation.

I'm not sure where this whole vagina thing came about. Men who worship vaginas are likely to be considered sexist pigs (a term that never seems to grow old), but you can't say boo to a woman who does. If you do, you'll get accused of suspecting her to be a lesbian. Worse, you'll get an earful about how all the world's problems can be solved through simple appreciation of what a vagina can do and its historical/cultural impacts. "Ask not what you can do for your vagina, but what your vagina can do for you." This would be how I look at it. Vaginas are great in certain aspects. Who am I kidding? Vaginas can be really great. They can do amazing things besides bleed and pop out little humans despite some groups' attempts to focus on those two issues. I'm beginning to fear that in the wave of neo-feminism, women are forgetting that their woman parts are more than just objects to be put on a pedestal. Respect your vagina, but don't let it sit around collecting dust.

I suppose all those things combine into one big thing. This is why I respect and like Pelicanh's art. For one, he's a man. In the world today men who photograph naked women are usually considered nothing but pornographers and certainly not artists. Two, he's a man whose successfully doing what feminists have failed to do for years...he's showing a woman's vagina without making it a sex object and while not making it seem like some unachievable ideal. Three? I can't say anything else other than while our definitions of beauty greatly differ, Pelicanh is a man with balls.