In case you haven’t heard yet, Maymay and I have recently launched Male Submission Art, a new blog focused upon showcasing and crowdsourcing images of beautiful male submission. Thus far, the project has been not only successful, but a whole lot of fun. I open my email account to find massive files and link-fests, my favorite people sending their favorite porn? Amazing.
One of our first contributors sent us a range of very eclectic, very sexy photos, many of which were immediately re-blogged. Among them, ze sent a photograph of a bound, erect penis: essentially, a cock shot. Exactly as ze described it in hir email, the bondage is beautifully done. The man’s penis strains, his stomach muscles are tensed, his skin flushed with trapped blood. It is, undoubtedly, a beautiful cock in bondage.
When May and I sat down and opened the email to look through the images, the cock caught our attention.
“Should we post that?” I asked.
May shrugged. “My instinct is yes.”
“Hmm,” I said. “My instinct is no.”
We have yet to resolve this between the two of us, so I thought I’d throw it open to a bit of discussion here, and find out what you, the audience of the blog, think.
Can a cock shot be submissive?
I can explain, to some degree, why my initial instinct was to say no. The reasoning is threefold.
Firstly, because I do have a personal wariness around cocks that should be acknowledged. I am not a big fan of the penis, in general. I find the entire contraption a little off-putting, and wont to spit acrid goo at me. And where erotica is concerned, they’re just not to my taste. I have thousands of images in my porn collection, and not a cock shot to be found.
Secondly, because I do see a tricky distinction here between masochism and submission. I have often identified scenes that focused intensely upon the weapons and gear of kink as sadomasochistic, but not as D/s. This is another instance of the nuances between top/bottom and dom/sub, many of which are fluidly defined from person to person. A person in pain is not submissive. A person in bondage is not necessarily submissive either. But how to convey that distinction, merely a matter of attitude, in a photo?
Following from that point, the third: I’ve realized that I make a connection between character and submission. That is, for me to feel that a photo portrays an instance of beautiful submission, it must first convey a person who will enact that submission. An amputated body part is not, to me, enough.
In my gut, this is a matter of emotional connection. I have no emotional connection to this particular body part. As such, while I find the photo evocative and masochistic, nothing about it says submission to me. The cock has no eyes to cry with, no lip to quiver, no knees to kneel upon, no body to hunch, to protect, to evoke my dominant instincts. I do not care about it, beautifully bound though it is.
But perhaps this is an unfair bias I’m inflicting upon the Male Submission Art audience, to shy away from cock shots and their ilk. In all honesty, I don’t know. I know my personal tastes run deep, and are often counter-culture. We don’t have enough suggestions yet to get a truly fair sampling of what people are interested in.
So tell me. Can a cock shot be submissive? What do you think?
15 Comments
Weighing in because, well, I can: I think a well done, tastefully photographed cock shot can indeed be submission. Admittedly, I have an affinity for the penis whereas you don’t, so this might color my own opinion. However, I think that the principle of the thing is several fold.
Firstly, while acknowledging a distinction between masochism and submission exists, the distinction actually exists in the eye of the beholder. You acknowledge that very fact yourself when you say To me, however, as a person with a penis, the bound cock does actually evoke submission and so my interpretation of the photograph is one in which the man is submissive.
Secondly, and sort of dovetailing off the previous point, there is a distinct difference between “cock shots” and beautifully photographed pictures of the penis. Sure, it’s not always cut and dry, but I think the Internet would be a much better place if every blurry, badly lit, carelessly taken picture depicting a penis (and we all know how many of those godawful things there are) were replaced with a tasteful picture of a penis in beautiful bondage.
So really, I think we should reblog it because we have the opportunity to showcase the difference between a bad cock shot and an artful penis picture.
I would agree with May on this one. 1) an erect penis will almost always convey a sense of power, testosterone, and some would say male dominance – therefore, seeing it bound and restrained definitely exudes a sense of submission. I would postulate that a limp penis that was bound, would not convey the same sense of restrained emotion. 2) i’m just highly curious to see it, and i think there is a certain amount of let people see and make their own judgment.
Cocks in porn: I like them, but not isolated. I am a fan of the penis, very much so, in real life and in porn. If I look at a porn picture, I want to see the man with it. Or at least a good deal more of the man’s body than just this isolated part. How much more of the man’s body does the photo in question show?
I could, hypothetically, imagine a cock shot might perhaps be submissive in the context of a relationship, if someone instructs a submissive man s/he knows to do something specific with his penis and take a photograph of it, with just the penis showing up in the picture (Does that even happen? It wouldn’t be sexy to me). As porn in general, just cocks ‘n’ balls don’t turn me on, nor do they express any sort of submission.
There’s also this to consider: There are those rude men around on the internet who send cock shots of themselves to perfect strangers. There are even clueless men who actually use cock avatars on discussion forums, sometimes with accessories such as cock bondage, clips or chastity devices, thus giving the impression of a talking dick.
It would be great if an innovative site like malesubmissionart in general focussed on men’s expressive bodies in other forms than completely isolated genitals.
What maymay and SomeoneElse said.
Additionaly, I *do* have an affinity for cocks. I think they’re aesthetically very pleasing, personally, both erect and flaccid. I might not really enjoy sucking them–way too submissive an act for me, so I get slightly squicked out when I do it–I think a bound cock is one of the ultimate symbols for me of submission. A bound cock, in fact, does not have to be masochistic at all. It can be done without pain, despite the “T” in “CBT.” But giving over the family jewels to someone else to be bound….very submissive for the submissive *I* deal with, at least! :) So please, I’d love to see the picture.
maymay already said most of what I thought, and said it better. And I also say, let us see ze cock in question. As Potter Stewart said of pr0n, “I know it when I see it.” He was wrong, of course. There is enough delicious wiggle room–within freaky, kinky limits–for the beholder’s perception to make a difference here, and let something cross the line from art to porn, masochism to D/s . . . if line there be.
By the way, I think this is a beautiful shot of a bound cock that to me screams D/s: http://rootsdown.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/2556705.jpg
This man and his sex have power, but that power is restrained–literally, by the rope, but also willingly, in the respectful way he offers his body to the viewer with calm, cupping hands.
At least that’s what I see. Oh and sorry for the lyricism–it’s early.
I too would say I’m quite disinclined to the cock shots – but a bound cock on a male subimssion site sounds pretty appropriate to me. I like what SomeoneElse said about it – “an erect penis will almost always convey a sense of power, testosterone, and some would say male dominance – therefore, seeing it bound and restrained definitely exudes a sense of submission” – totally agree with that.
I’d have to actually look at the image in order to personally gague whether or not I thought it was “really” submissive, though I also very much trust *your* – Eileen – judgement about whether a shot of a guy is submissive, because it should stir some sort of dominance in you. But then again, I guess, even if it doesn’t incite that in you, it might incite it in someone else.
You could always try floating a shot or two on the site and see what the response is, and how you feel about seeing it live on the site.
[ gauge*, that is. I always spell that wrong. ]
Quick! Delete the photo I just emailed you! I should have read this post first!
I have no real opinion on the matter at all, but I had to comment to say that sentences like:
I am not a big fan of the penis, in general. I find the entire contraption a little off-putting, and wont to spit acrid goo at me.
are one reason why I’m so enormously fond of you.
I’m going to say a bound cock is not submissive in and of itself. All kinds of cocks might like to be bound, not just the submissive ones. It all has to do with context, and if no further context can be found in the image, then I’ve vote to leave the image off.
I think you should post it. Here’s why: The site is not about you. (My apologies if this sounds snarky. I don’t mean it that way)
In a way it is, of course, you run it, you created it, it is based largely on your sexual tastes. But they way you describe it is not, “Please increase our personal porn collection.” It’s, “We showcase beautiful imagery where men and other male-identified people are submissive subjects. We aim to challenge stereotypes of the “pathetic” submissive man.”
Somebody sent it in, it turns their crank, so it obviously fits in with someone’s idea of submissive males. Why not post it? All of the reasons you give for it seem to be about you. Ordinarily, I would think that’s great. I’m a huge fan of the “I” statement. In this context, though, I think it’s limiting. I don’t think the site is about narrowly defining submissive male porn. I think it’s about bringing the full range of male submission into the light. (Ok, maybe not the entire full range. I fully respect the decision to keep pathetic out of it, but the full-range of beautiful imagery.) The full range is messy. What seems to you to be more about masochism than submission, might be smack in the middle of my idea of submission. You might not get off on isolated body parts, but I might find the objectification incredibly hot. Your wariness of the cock could translate into my fetish for binding them up.
This is not to say that you should post everything that gets sent to you. Of course you should have editorial say. If you don’t think something fits with the concept of the site, or is poor quality, or isn’t as good as similar images you have, don’t post it. But if it’s clearly some people’s idea of male submission, I say put it up.
Hey all,
So, awesome responses thus far. I just wanted to address a general thing – I am not going to be posting the shot I referenced for discussion. Two reasons:
1. I had sort of intended this as a generic question and conversation. Undoubtedly, there are many, many cock shots in the world, beyond the one I’m referencing here. I get the “I’ll know it when I see it” concept, but I think it’s possible to edge toward something of a general notion on this topic.
2. One of the things I don’t *ever* want MSA participants to worry about is whether their submission will show up somewhere besides MSA. That is simply not the point of the site. I won’t be pulling images to post them here, I won’t be opening them up for commentary in a different forum. It’s just not gonna happen. And I don’t want to put it up on MSA, as that would, at this point, deviate from the style guidelines we have for the site. (Because I am still not convinced that a cock shot can be submissive, your excellent commentary notwithstanding.)
So, that said, any further thoughts?
Lockesly,
Hey! Awesome comment. I largely agree with you, but I’m a bit wary. Here’re my thoughts:
For starters, I’m not the only curator. May and I have already had some split opinions, and I can easily see us diverging in the nature of the content we each choose to post. Following from that, he could post that picture any time, and I wouldn’t object. (I feel a bit bad about making this discussion over a single photo, so I’d like to stress yet again that my questions and responses are general in nature.)
Also, you wrote:
And that, although for many personal reasons, was essentially my point with this entry. I don’t think cock shots fit the concept of the site. One of the reasons I posted this entry was because I wanted to get a wider sampling of what people thought about the topic, rather than going off a single submission. With the responses in hand, I’m definitely going to think a bit more broadly about cock shots in the future, but I’m still not convinced.
Here’s the thing – I totally get your argument, but isn’t this a bit of a slippery slope? After all, what do you get right now if you put “male submission” into Google? Mostly a whole lot of crap. But if that’s many people’s idea of male submission, should I be posting it? I think not.
Although this site is conceptually a community effort, it is in reality a show of personal taste. As such, we’re gonna drive it as best we can, but hey. We’re only 2 people. If people don’t agree with my/Maymay’s opinions on male submission, it doesn’t make sense for them to feel upset by our choices – it makes sense for them to start their own sites! After all, this is the Internet, land of infinite space and pornography. I would love to see tons of galleries spring up everywhere in response to the MSA concept. That’s going to be far more fun, far more sexy, and far more helpful to our community.
That is precisely whywe are encouraging people not only to send us suggestions of what they’d like to see, but also to start re-blogging the content we write for MaleSubmissionArt.com with a link back to it. The point of sexuality—of EVERYTHING—is to do with your own as you will.
This is called freedom and we like it. Monopoly is not freedom. Monotony is not freedom either.
I relate to you Eileen about the “amputated” feel of that particular cock-shot. I would much rather see all the delicious man who happens to have a bound cock. Also, though a bound cock in no way automatically means submission, this one did strike me as submissive simply because the way he is self-consciously cupping his balls (or so it seems to me). From that I extrapolate the rest of him full of shy body-language, and a looking up through his eyelashes and silently asking, “Is this all right? Is this pleasing?” But maybe that’s just me and my overactive imagination.
But generally, when I’m looking for submissive men, I’m looking for submissive all-of-them, not just their submissive genitals. I want their submissive expressions, and their submissive chests, and backs, and ass, and legs, and arms. All together. Cock shots make me think of the way mainstream advertising chops women up and plasters sexualized body parts beside their product to sell something.
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