Remember in high school when people were constantly drawing penises everywhere. I always chalked this up to immaturity/silliness. But I was talking to orkinson the other day and she thinks that it is a manifestation of patriarchy, and even a form of terrorism, not that different from, say, drawing swastikas everywhere. Although the people I knew who did this seemed more like goofballs than terrorists, I think it is a serious concern, after all, male dominance and machismo were both prevalent in our high school, especially in my class, which seemed dominated by boys, particularly in the honors classes. So, basically, I ask you, harmless (though tasteless) prank? Or act of sexual terrorism? After all, there are many ways to be immature, but the selected weapon is almost always the penis. Thoughts?
Penis Graffiti
June 30, 2009 by bejai
Gender Agenda 
i dunno about other ppl, but i sure agree with orkinson.
I always figured it was a manifestation of androsexual desire. Then again I haven’t seen a penis drawn on anything besides the men’s room stalls in the Vassar library since middle school.
terrorism might be a little strong, I think. But then again, I wouldn’t jump to classify nazi graffiti as terrorism either. But then AGAIN, if someone painted a swastika on a synagogue I might say that that smacks of a terrorist threat. So I think context and intent are important in deciding how to categorize this shit…and a lot of other shit. going by my definition of terrorism, “unintentional terrorism” is an oxymoron.
Another thing:
the penis is used as a status symbol in our society but it’s also used as a comedic prop. That makes it really difficult to decide where all the dicks on the wall are coming from. Like is the focus on its perceived dominance or its perceived silliness?
I feel like we have the ability to label these immature acts as acts of “terrorism” because we come from a privileged position of not actually having to deal with terrorism in a real way as much of the world does on a day to day basis. I would think that actual victims of terrorism would love to imagine a world in which the worst the world had to offer was a penis scribbled on the side of a bathroom stall.
Thanks for the comments everybody, I really appreciate them! I hope you don’t mind my responding to them at some length; I just can’t resist.
Royce: you clearly went to a different high school than I 🙂 Penises were drawn pretty much everywhere, on boards, in notebooks, textbooks, right through graduation (senior class prank: chalk penises in the parking lot, etc. etc.)
Lucie: I figure there are two kinds of people who draw swastikas, one group wants to draw attention to themselves and break the rules, this group probably consists mostly of people who don’t really understand what the symbol means. the other group wants to scare people, particularly minorities and jews, and are therefore terrorists. But it seems to me that it may not be so simple with penises, because with swastikas it’s hard to imagine someone being in both groups at the same time, but with graffiti penises, the person making the “silly” sexist jokes which pervade our culture are enabling and justifying the sexism which also pervades our culture, if their not raping and belittling themselves. It may be true that terrorism is to harsh a word, I don’t know, but i do think that its not a question of domination versus silliness. I think the problem is that our comedy is built on and enabling the domination. Context is def important, but a person may think they are just being silly, when actually, they are being threatening, after all, we live (in my opinion) in a rape culture. How much scarier would swastikas be if Nazi’s were all around us, threatening us?
Ben: I completely agree that compared to “real” terrorism, drawing a penis is fairly harmless, but then again, perhaps it is the perception that it’s harmless, that no one is getting hurt, that what makes it so worrying to me. While it is true that I speak from a position of incredible privilege, and I appreciate you pointing that out, because I hadn’t that about it and it is very important, I also think that we shouldn’t let the fact that things are so much worse elsewhere become an excuse to accept the status quo here.
Bj:
even though I agree that we live in a rape culture, I don’t really agree that penis graffiti in our rape culture is the equivalent of nazi graffiti in a nazi-dominated culture. I think the big difference in this: the groups persecuted by nazis and neonazis all recognize the swastika as meaning one thing. Most women, including myself, don’t recognize penis graffiti as a rape threat.
so I guess the question is, IS it a rape threat? Because if it is, then I should definitely start paying more attention to this stuff.
I agree that a lot of our humor (and art in general) reinforces the idea of male dominance. And that some penis jokes reinforce this idea directly. But I’m not comfortable saying all or most do. When I say a lot of penis jokes focus on the “silliness” of male genitals, I don’t mean that the silliness excuses the misogyny. When I say these jokes focus on the silliness of the penis, I mean that in these jokes the penis becomes an object of ridicule. It’s there to make people laugh with its grossness. So i those cases can’t really be reinforcing male dominance.
Also, I have a suggestion for anyone feels bad when they see a chalk penis. Since I really don’t like the idea of labeling any artwork (yes this stuff counts I think) terrorism and I think the answer to bad art is always more art. we should make an effort start decorating our neighborhoods with vaginas. huge vaginas with dangling lips and fat clits. for every sidewalk cock you see. what do you think?
Bejai:
even though I agree that we live in a rape culture, I don’t really agree that penis graffiti in our rape culture is the equivalent of nazi graffiti in a nazi-dominated culture. I think the big difference in this: the groups persecuted by nazis and neonazis all recognize the swastika as meaning one thing. Most women, including myself, don’t recognize penis graffiti as a rape threat.
so I guess the question is, IS it a rape threat? Because if it is, then I should definitely start paying more attention to this stuff.
I agree that a lot of our humor (and art in general) reinforces the idea of male dominance. And that some penis jokes reinforce this idea directly. But I’m not comfortable saying all or most do. When I say a lot of penis jokes focus on the “silliness” of male genitals, I don’t mean that the silliness excuses the misogyny. When I say these jokes focus on the silliness of the penis, I mean that in these jokes the penis becomes an object of ridicule. It’s there to make people laugh with its grossness. So i those cases can’t really be reinforcing male dominance.
Also, I have a suggestion for anyone feels bad when they see a chalk penis. Since I really don’t like the idea of labeling any artwork (yes this stuff counts I think) terrorism and I think the answer to bad art is always more art. we should make an effort start decorating our neighborhoods with vaginas. huge vaginas with dangling lips and fat clits. for every sidewalk cock you see. what do you think?
@Bj:
Penis Grafitti gets to me and creeps me out the most when it’s around children. I find unfortunately it seems to often be a thing to draw them on like children’s playgrounds or like that sort of thing. Like I’ve encountered them on field trips when I worked with camp. And kids ask oh what’s that. And some of them know and others don’t. And I dunno it’s weird how the kids register it and I worry about what sort of effect that has on kids. As lucie points out, people aren’t drawing vulvas. I guess it’s weird and probably a small problem in the grand scheme of life. But I get you in being sort of weirded out by it. It’s sort of a male label. This space is mine because hey I have a dick, look here’s a picture. Women don’t or aren’t expected or won’t generally do that (unless of course you’re on the Itty Bitty Tity Committee). I guess I generally think we have bigger fish to fry in this world, but I am bothered by it. And I remember being REALLY bothered by it when I was a young girl. Such a young prude was I.
ALSO. I think it might be important to note that male dominance wasn’t a theme in my high school experience even though we went to the same school, but I think that my year was a fluke year of dumb guys….OR SHOULD I SAY SMART GALS.
@ Ben: I agree that maybe Terrorism is a loaded word. But let’s also remember that unfortunately some of us or people we know may be victims of something which might be labled as a sort of terrorism–blatant acts of racism, sexism, to the point of violence. I feel as though we are allowed to ask these questions.
@ Royce: interesting that you bring up Vassar stalls, especially in light of the gender neutral comments on that one in the libs. lol I’m on the side that we’re probs not to take that “private shit sanctuary” statement literally though with us Vassar folk who knows.
This sort of reminds me of the whole castration anxiety thing. My mom’s friend felt it was a problem for little girls how obsessed the world is with penises because they get taught that they just have something missing… so he taught his daughters that their parts have names, too. And I think that’s pretty important, in a way.
A lot of the time female sexuality, when expressed through the body, focuses on the boobs, which don’t actually serve a sexual purpose (except as erogenous zones). People avoid talking about the vagina. But with men, it’s expressed through the penis, which actually is a sexual thing.
I don’t think that penis drawings are an act of terrorism, but I do think there is a reason we see, as mentioned before, all these penis drawings but no vulva drawings.