First up, the burning issue on everyone’s minds. Not Ebolisis – a strange pandemic in which the deaths of a handful of Westerners has caused an entire nation to brown its whites:
No, I mean the relative absence of wing-wangs on TV and the big screen. (All links in this post are NSFW, BTW.) Despite Trey Parker’s fascination with the remarkably few swinging dicks on Game of Thrones, there’s still an obvious double-standard for men and women. Boobs have long been everywhere, as the charming Seth McFarlane once reminded us at the Oscars; vaginas much less so – but still common in indie movies; bare butts are now ubiquitous. But even Lena Dunham only shows a somewhat comically deflated dick on the bathroom floor after her parents have an accident during shower sex. And in the most famous dick-shot in movie-history – although readers are more than welcome to correct me – it’s pretty dark and vague down there.
But the pendulum seems to be swinging the other way, as this rather amusing chit-chat at TNR suggests. There’s a whole thread at Deadspin, it appears, called Athlete Dong, edited by a self-style “Dongbudsman” who features the unmissable, usually in spandex. (Yes, that was an hour down the drain this afternoon.) Then there was the great Jon Hamm package followed by the more recent jogging display by The Leftovers‘ Justin Theroux – and now some question whether Ben Affleck’s dick is in Gone Girl or not. And don’t forget the penis pioneering of Jason Segel. The Starz network is apparently in the lead, but
Showtime has also had their fair share of penises on display. One fellow in particular that comes to mind is Jody (Zach McGowan) on Shameless. Not only did we get a look, they even gave us a long close up. It was, shall we say, memorable. Overkill? Heck no! It was situational and it drove the plot, which is more than I can say for countless shots of female full-frontal nudity or breast shots.
The TNR writers have various points to make about this – is it feminism finally FTW? are dicks finally being treated as objectively as boobs? etc – but one factor seems obvious to me. The dick pic is what’s new. And the dick pic has begin to change the next generation’s views about views of wandering willies.
The Dish has long celebrated the wonderful, compassionate tumblr CritiqueMyDickPic (see here and here), as well as an art exhibit of such pics, and a YouTube called “Janet Looks At 89 Dicks“. And now the great Instagram account @thatlookslikeadick makes its Dish debut:
But the existence of all these is not (just) a function of my own curiosity, but primarily a small sign of the legion of penises marching around social media these days. Sexting has broken the taboo – for men as well as for women. Except, of course, most dick pics sent on Tinder or Grindr or whatever’r are erect, while almost all movie/TV shots are extremely flaccid, even moments after orgasm. That’s where we have yet to venture on TV. Where have you gone, Lena Dunham? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
Earlier on the Dish today, we covered the pretty unforgivable lapses in treating Ebola cases in the US (and some truly foul electioneering by the GOP); we hailed a possible breakthrough in nuclear fusion and took issue with some whiny lefties over it; I had some real due process concerns about the new sexual consent law in California and Harvard (Conor FTW); and I noted a somewhat pathetic effort by the American bishops to re-translate Monday’s Relatio from Rome on welcoming gay people into the church in order … well, for us to feel less welcome. Plus: the latest liberal interventionist proposal for mission creep in the Syrian-Turkish-Kurdish Clusterfuck that Obama so foolishly got us into.
The most popular post of the day was Yes, This Is A Pastoral Revolution; followed by Codifying Consent, Ctd. And the most popular t-shirts publicizing the Election Day vote to legalize pot in Alaska, DC, and Oregon are here:
Buy the standard “Know Dope” t-shirt (seen on the left) here. Buy the DC one (on the right) here. That same design but with “Alaska” on it available here. And all you Oregonians out there, get your version here. Each version is just $20. All purchases help us keep this blog on the road. And don’t forget to email us a pic – with or without a dick – after your shirt arrives.
See you in the morning.
The Dish 