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Original poster

MAC Birmingham

68 replies

Madbadandusuallysad · 05/02/2022 10:50

The MAC thinks this sort of photo is appropriate for 6 year old kids to walk past on their way to their activities, the photo is part of an LGBT+ Bangladeshi artist's display.

Its really not on is it? My 8 year old was just asked me about it and I'm.stuck for words.

OP posts:
Helleofabore · 09/02/2022 10:55

The use of children in this image is really the most disturbing thing about it to me.

Helleofabore · 09/02/2022 10:54

Torunette

Oh good grief. I have been looking at it on my phone. I thought I imagined the 'vulva' on the small screen. I also wondered what the bird thing was doing in the 'neck' but really didn't want to allocate any further brain capacity to interpreting it.

Torunette · 09/02/2022 10:40

I think it is quite clear what it is.

It is a supposed to be a hermaphrodite with a penis protruding from a vulva unzipped from testicles. It is the genitalia of a man-woman. This idea is reinforced by one set of "masculine" toenails and another set of "feminine" toenails, and also maybe the head being one side masculine and the other side feminine.

This is why there is a peacock in the background because the peacock is male but has decorative "read as feminine" plumage.

I'm not sure what the whole penis throat wound is about, though. A silencing of the voice through tracheotomy? Or a representation of transgender surgery?

I presume the flowers are lotus, suggesting this is a sacred state? An enlightened state?

In short, this whole work is one big piece of genderist agit-prop.

What it definitely isn't is a "part-man, part-monster", and any artistic director that says that is being disingenuous.

PurgatoryOfPotholes · 09/02/2022 09:36

Hang on, if that's not a splitting condom, what is that on the penis?

Helleofabore · 09/02/2022 09:35

I think Loveday you encapsulated it well.

I though initially that this walking, talking horror of a dick had a broken condom with the split and the ring at the bottom. I think now that it really needs a condom for its' protection and for ours.

LovedayCL · 09/02/2022 02:34

If it looks like a dick, walks like a dick and talks like a dick - and this seems to actually depict a walking, talking dick… it’s ok though as it’s a marginalized dick.

LemonSwan · 09/02/2022 02:04

Yep, the more I look at it the more fucked up it is. Childrens faces, black eyes, bleeding noses, sliced erect peni birthing peacocks from a vag or an anus. Very weird.

DontLikeCrumpets · 09/02/2022 01:52

@Artichokeleaves You're being disingenuous. This behaviour may not be part of LGB but definitely part of T+ which I might add is why many LGB want to drop the T.

Examples abound of the behaviour you decry, such as was just posted the other day on MN: Brighton’s FETISH March & Trans Pride.

"Gendered Intelligence is crowdfunding to send children on a march alongside adult sexual fettishists, including masked pup play."

PurgatoryOfPotholes · 08/02/2022 22:18

@Helleofabore

Confused it is a penis. They are clearly reading some marketing blurb that sells it as something else. But that is a penis.
And testicles.
GuidingforDummies · 08/02/2022 22:16

The head looks like it's half a boy child, half a girl child (one side has a hair bunch like a little girl). So conflating sex and children. Also, does that face have a nose bleed one side and a black eye the other (hard to tell)? Why the peacock? The penis looks like it's giving birth to a baby peacock. I've reassessed. It's not funny, it's fucking creepy.

Info about Obscene Publications:

www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/obscene-publications

Scroll down to Obscene Publications Offences Explained

www.indexoncensorship.org/2016/02/art-law-obscene-publications/

PurgatoryOfPotholes · 08/02/2022 22:15

I see that she said I can see no safeguarding issues.

Perhaps she should have gone to Specsavers before she went to work this week.

It is indeed part man! A man's lower half, including a huge erection. I don't think adding a human face to the end of the phallus cancels that out.

Helleofabore · 08/02/2022 22:15

Confused it is a penis. They are clearly reading some marketing blurb that sells it as something else. But that is a penis.

Original poster
Madbadandusuallysad · 08/02/2022 22:08

Well, Helleofabore, I think that was her "artistic" director-esque take on things- that it isn't a penis, just a weird creature.
So pathetic and completely far removed from bloody reality.
What pissed me off was the spiel about supporting marginalised communities, I guess me as an Indian female doesn't count.

OP posts:
Helleofabore · 08/02/2022 21:54

Sorry..... is that person saying that dick's are monsters? or something really profound .....ly ridiculous or blindly entrenched in providing sexual content to children.

Original poster
Madbadandusuallysad · 08/02/2022 21:36

I'm really cross. We have used this place for years and it just feels like a big, dismissive "fuck you"! Don't think there is much else I can do apart from withdraw my custom, which won't hurt them as apparently I'm the only person who complained.

OP posts:
GuidingforDummies · 08/02/2022 21:31

Part man, part monster? It's a dickhead! Talk about pretentious. It's so bad it's funny, but should not be in a public facing space. It's an erect penis. Surely it contravenes the Obscene Publications Act?

Original poster
Madbadandusuallysad · 08/02/2022 21:15

Just an update, the artistic director of the Midlands art centre has replied, apparently there's nothing to see here!

MAC Birmingham
OP posts:
334bu · 05/02/2022 21:20

What is it with men and their dicks?

Original poster
Madbadandusuallysad · 05/02/2022 21:18

Sadly my child will no longer be participating in any activities here after this course of classes ends.
I'm done with giving my money to this place. I gave them a second chance after they decided to host an event with the word "woman" switched to "womxn", a few years ago. But what I've seen today is a step too far! I'm really upset as some of the events are great for kids, but we will just have to find elsewhere.

OP posts:
StarCourt · 05/02/2022 21:11

I used to use MAC a lot during school hols for DD, there are so many other places in the building they could put that artwork

KimikosNightmare · 05/02/2022 15:20

@BernardBlackMissesLangCleg

Same-sex relationships are illegal, and the British colonial ‘Sodomy Law’ is still intact in Bangladesh. As a result, gender and sexual diversity are still illegal under their criminal code

no

homosexuality is illegal. that statement says jack shit about 'gender diversity' what ever the fuck that is.

can everyone please stop high jacking the oppression faced by homosexual people?

also, what is it with that artist and dicks with human heads? sheesh

Was going to post similar. The oppressive state of the current law is not the fault of the British Empire.
Original poster
Madbadandusuallysad · 05/02/2022 14:49

Email sent. I will update if I receive a response.
If anyone else feels able to tweet/Facebook/email, please do.

OP posts:
thinkingaboutLangCleg · 05/02/2022 13:56

I wish to God that other LGBT+ people would stop training the general public that LGBT+ means bloody awful boundaries, emotional and sexual incontinence, a desire to involve non consenting bystanders in exposure to sexual content for personal reasons and zero respect for others.

I sympathise and wish the same, Artichoke.

PurgatoryOfPotholes · 05/02/2022 13:27

In your letter, quote and link a source explaining that exposing children to pornography is actually a form of sexual abuse of children.

Art focused on erect penises, displayed in public areas where children will encounter it, is treading perilously close to that.

YetAnotherSpartacus · 05/02/2022 13:24

It’s an actual dickhead isn’t it?