Phallic symbols; do they exist, do they bother you?

[tortoiseonthehalfshell]

I am prepared to be educated, here. But it's one of those old feminist (anti-feminist) canards, that there are hidden phallic symbols everywhere.

Are there? And if so, should I care about it?

Canard: a false or baseless, usually derogatory, story report or rumour.

But yes, ok, no-one cares about phallic symbols. I didn't really think so. It's just one of those things that people paint feminists as getting tied up in knots about: Breton's post is a good illustration. And I've never heard anyone going on about phallic symbols except in a very general, O FFS who needs a giant willy in the middle of London, sort of way.

So I wondered if my consciousness needed raising, or something. But dormice are more interesting by far.

nah, tortoise, I think us particular feminists are not so silly to get our knickers in a knot about big tall buildings'n'stuff

Agh, I would rather have a family of cocks in my hair than bloody mice! Does that make me a bad feminist?

If you have a lot of temples built round a massive cock (lots of hindu imagery for e.g.) and a male-dominated society, you can see why people have drawn a line between the two. But that's to assume that everyone means the same thing by putting a big cock in their temple, it's not about worshipping men IMHO (ignoramus). Plus in the same cultures you often get a lot of female imagery (can't for the life of me remember what the word for something vaginary is), because the interaction of the two is the important thing.

But having a problem with the big tower itself, instead of with the patriarchaal society that thinks competitive tower building is clever, is a bit odd.

no, sgb, it doesn't make you a bad feminist, but it does make you a bit cock-obsessed

Yonic, I think it's called.

So why do we all know the word phallic, but no one has ever heard the word yonic?

My DH and I have a small running gag about this based on something he claims he heard on a radio comedy years ago. Not sure of the context but a man with a strong French accent starts ranting about phallic symbols: 'The Post Office Tower?? It is the Post Office Prick! It isn't Nelson's Column, it is Nelson's Willy!'

He starts reciting it every time we go past either landmark

Oh my goodness, I've just thought about the ultimate in "secret feminist conspiracy"

how <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/images/2006/03/02/wembley_towers3_430x280.jpg&imgrefurl=www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/image_galleries/wembley_oldstadium_gallery.shtml%3F28&usg=__e0aBpDBn-YHB3xCxMxtc6xSJKA8=&h=280&w=430&sz=28&hl=en&start=0&tbnid=fcbyBEf5apmjoM:&tbnh=128&tbnw=197&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dold%2Bwembley%2Btowers%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-GB:official%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D547%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=128&vpy=196&dur=1581&hovh=181&hovw=278&tx=154&ty=102&ei=u95rTOKwEsyF4QadlczPAQ&oei=u95rTOKwEsyF4QadlczPAQ&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=12&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this (nice domed towers)

turned into <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.ichauffeur.co.uk/a/i/wembley-stadium.jpg&imgrefurl=www.ichauffeur.co.uk/events/news/2010/01/wembley-stadium-2010/&usg=__QaE-68pzjLhDGqDPLGsufpci7OU=&h=310&w=580&sz=52&hl=en&start=0&tbnid=BB_mzo_GYpEOhM:&tbnh=117&tbnw=154&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwembley%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-GB:official%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D547%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=587&vpy=251&dur=1013&hovh=164&hovw=307&tx=191&ty=71&ei=Yt5rTP6qMdeR4gb849DIAQ&oei=Yt5rTP6qMdeR4gb849DIAQ&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:10,s:0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this

I can't be bothered to hunt it up on Youtube, but your DH is right Novicemama, it's Rowan Atkinson performing a sketch from Not The Nine O Clock News (early 80s TV show full of topical comedy). And it's been running through my head since I first clicked on this OP.
BTW, I would say 'vulvic' is probably a better opposite of 'phallic' as 'yonic' is from the Eastern 'lingam and yoni'.

(FFS what a ponce I am being today.)

AF: But it wasn't me who made the initial link between dormice and flaccid willies. The others, they started it.
And I still think that in a stark choice between bukkakke and a faceful of mouseshit, I'll have the bukkake, thanks...

bloody hell, you had to wheel out the bukkake reference < vom >

AF: I hate mice! Have had infestations of the blasted things in the hous4e, mouseshit everywhere, mouse carcasses, flies once I've poisoned the little sods..

eww, that sounds horrid sgb

anyyyyyway, those dormice that dittany showed us are too cute to poo

I want some

The Romans used to eat dormice. I think they stuffed them with dates and honey.

How would you build something to resemble a vulva or uterus anyway? Maybe we could design a skyscraper like the biology diagrams with the ovaries hanging off at the top with flying buttresses. Might get problems with the flying freehold though, if it overhung the neighbouring plot.

There's a holiday complex somewhere along the coast by Garrucha, in Spain, that's crowned with breasts with huge blue erect nipples. At least that's what it looks like. Been googling for 5 mins now and still can't find a picture though.

Going off on a slight tangent, I always think that penis envy isn't/wasn't envy of the actual penis but of the rights and treatment that went with/go with having one...

I lied. The buildings at Garrucha are the ones with lego-sirens on the rooves. Still trying to remember where the breast complex is......

BDSM - Betty Friedan wrote pretty much a whole chapter about that idea in the feminine Mystique. Well worth a read if you haven't already read it.

a happy family of breasts nestling in the sunshine?

I think the phallic symbol thing is silly TBH. Especially in crowded cities - up was the only way to build and so you get a tall rectangly thing. Or if you were being really tricky, advanced and super-duper and put a dome in somewhere and voila, a cock. Now they have dfferent materials they are building all sorts of different shapes.

More distrubing was when I went to the pub with a bloke I really fancied and we were playing pool and he was sitting with the cue between his legs resting on the ground, with it rearing up between his legs proudly towards the ceiling. Now that was a phallic symbol, I don't think he even realised he was doing it. or maybe it was just me

EandM I'm ashamed to say I haven't read it...

I do think the "gherkin" is quite obviously phallic - almost offensively so - but since the City is full of wankers (speaking from personal experience) perhaps it's appropriate.

you are right there BDSM

I only read it a couple of months ago, you just get to these things as and when don't you. A friend has given me a bag of feminist books, some of which (I'm talking to you Luce Irigaray) are impossible, but some like TFM are great. I like the fact that because it is one of the earliest of the mid-century lot of feminism, it's looking back to earlier feminists from the 19th & early 20th centuries, many of whom I had never heard of.

lol @ ISNT

No nipples though. Mine have nipples - just can't remember where they are!

Many a happy hour spent in the great boob building.