Um, so this is happening. A Tumblr has been created in which a dildo is poised in every photo and viewers are invited to do their best to find it.
"An installation art project about the place of rubber in our lives," the heading reads on the collection titled "Subtle Didlo."
I like this. And I will tell you why.
It puts the dildo in its rightful place. Front and center. Well, sort of. I mean, it's hiding. But it's asking to be found and -- like a car wreck -- it's impossible to look away.
Dildos are our friends. Certainly a friend to the lesbian. But no reason it shouldn't be a friend to gay men and straight men and women and every other self-respecting adult.
This cute little project makes these oft whispered about toys a little less daunting. It's hard not to laugh and imagine the little guy holding its breath thinking, "She's never going to find me! Ah! Look at her looking over there when I'm over here." Just makes me giggle.
I also like this project because it treats the penis -- or an object often intended to stand in for a penis -- as it should be treated, respectfully but not without humor. With Mark Driscoll being "Your penis in on loan from God," a little levity about the mighty member seems in order.
Once we start seeing our parts as instruments of pleasure instead of "those parts of which we shall not speak," we can really start enjoying them and using them properly.
Sure, the human body is beautiful. But let's not kid ourselves, our naughty bits are some crazy looking parts. It's time we got comfortable with them and stopped treating the whole sex thing with so much fear. It's sex for goodness sake.
I also like this project because it has an arty aspect a la Duchamp that the Art History buff in me is just delighting in. Art is about creating a reaction. It's about making a statement. It's about challenging the viewer to really look at it and question what she may or may not be seeing.
Subtle Dildo certainly does all of those things.
That's the other reason I like this project. The name. Subtle dildo. Ain't nothing subtle about a rubber cock. No siree, Bob. And as any lesbian -- or anyone else who uses one for that matter -- will tell you, you know when that little devil is in the room. Believe me, you know.
So the idea that there is any subtlety to a dildo is a kind of charming and I kind of like it.
I also like this project because it clearly does not take itself seriously. As it shouldn't. As men with them shouldn't. As women without them shouldn't. As anyone shouldn't.
What I like the most about this project is that it's a subtle reminder -- far more subtle than any dildo I ever met -- that we are all far more than the sum of our parts and what with do with those parts and whom we do those things with and how we identify regardless of what parts we were born with.
Subtle dildo, the personification to my mind of the penis, is a gloriously disembodied reminder that who you love and how you love them, who you f**k and how you f**k them makes no difference. Never. Ever. Ever.
Now, where is that dildo...
(Photos from http://subtledildo.com/)
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