From - Fri Jul 5 11:03:05 1996 Path: taco.cc.ncsu.edu!news From: Mary Pat Campbell Newsgroups: ncsu.soc Subject: that wonderful machine Date: Wed, 03 Jul 1996 10:39:21 -0400 Organization: North Carolina State University Lines: 40 Message-ID: <31DA8619.2781@quinn.physics.ncsu.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: quinn.physics.ncsu.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0b5 (X11; I; IRIX 5.3 IP20) well, i have noticed so many penis-postings (as it were) that i thought i'd do a little diatribe on the non-aesthetic male body: to wit, there's one thing that just hangs out and ruins the entire form. Why are art museums filled with hordes of statues of naked ladies, but few of men? I say it is because everyone can enjoy the aesthetics of the female body, but only men appreciate male bodies. Notice the harmonious curves of the female figure -- neck lines flow to breasts which curve into a nicely rounded abdomen to the wide hips and prominent buttocks into luscious thighs down to elegant ankles..and so forth. Balance, elegance, beauty all reign in the female form. One could almost say that of the male body, but one utilitarian organ in particular ruins the lines and draws all attention. And notice, other than the nose, it's one of the first things to fall off from statues. The penis sticks out. And that's all there is to it. However, with post-modern non-representative art, perhaps we'll see more male nudes, for classical aesthetics are no longer the norm. It's good to have some anharmonious element to one's work, incorporating inner tension, etc. In truth, all this talk of penises is rather sophmoric and un-inspired. At least find interesting synonyms, such as those found in _Fanny Hill_ (obviously written by a man) -- " that capital part of man" , "that enormous machine", "that instrument", "his grand movement", " that fierce erect machine of his", and I could go on and on. Nothing like good ole colonial smut. mp -- mp rides the range and the domain.... Mary Pat Campbell campbell@quinn.physics.ncsu.edu http://www4.ncsu.edu/~mpcampbe/