masculinity
Stephen Frizza

masculinity

This image was created by me when i was 17. Our art class in high school was given a project to create an artwork on masculinity and femininity in modern society.
Our art teacher was a bit of a feminist so i took a very chauvinist view on the whole project. I made out as though women essentially have fucked up the role of man. To do this I called many farmers until one agreed to let me cut the balls of one of his cows. well i got the balls so the project was set. I did a 6 piece triptych
2 panels one on the top left and one on top right being a womans hands clenching a set of severed testicles with a middle panel being a woman who looks like a dyke tearing up a copy of a book called "the image of man".

below it was a second series with the left and right panels being of a mans hands crushing a beer can and blood running down his arm. the label on the beer can was Victoria bitter being symbolic of female bitterness towards men and the central panel was of a feminine man trying to tear a copy of a book called "the Female eunuch"

My teacher didn't quite know what to make of the series. sadly the series is now lost all except this panel.

I should also comment I was suprised how much resistance there is when using a sharp knife to remove testicles i thought they would come off easy. they dont.
Location
my home
Equipment Used
canon Eos and a 80mm lens
Exposure
unknown
Film & Developer
delta 400 in ID-11
Paper & Developer
scan from film
Lens Filter
none
A lot of squeemish things are done to fill our supermarkets, and we'd all feel better if we didn't know the details, but as I said, it is a commonplace and necessary function in animal husbandry:

"Castration is a management practice that should be performed on all male beef calves. Castration, the removal of the testicles of a bull by either surgical or non-surgical methods, is recommended because of consumer preference, for economic considerations and to improve the temperament of cattle."

At the very, very least, Stephen has a skill to fall back on when film dries up.
 
It's just a treat to have an image incite comments other than "great tonal range"...

:smile:
 
I think it's great , thank you for posting this Stephen, it made my day, if you have an opportunity some day to re-do the shoot , have a beautiful naked model hold them, it would emphosize the point even more , the watch and the ring just seem a bit off for the trouble you had to make this photograph,......
 
the watch and ring were purpose in the image however i agree with you now Ilya that if i were to re shoot i would leave them out, i would approach it slightly differently. i should also state that it appears this image isn't stale, its raised a lot of debate here, and as far as I can see is the only image of severed testicles in apug... stale no.
Effectiveness.....well art is meant to get you talking and thinking and this has done that. As for ethical issues about castrating an animal for a picture... well the animal would have been castrated anyway... and weather the balls were going to be thrown in a field for the birds to eat or were taken to a studio for a photo shoot......well i just don't see the problem.
 
i dont feel guilt. maybe im cold hearted but I dont have any emotion towards the means for the cause.
 
That sounds like the trait of a serial killer to me... .First torturing of animals, no guilt or remorse, delusions about animal not needing them.. Hmmm, then onto more sadistic things. All a means to an end to get your image or your jollies or whatever.. To consider this art and have an animal go through that by your hand, and all as a way of showing the demasculinization of man by women... I guess I just don't get it..... So what that this happens every day by livestock farmers. It's their trade, their business.... Why did you have to participate and do this act and harm an animal for your picture? The excuse, and poor at best, that it would have happened anyway is lame and I'm not an animal rights advocate by any strength. I routinely hunt, legally with bow and gun every year. I eat everything I harvest and consider myself ethical....I'll leave it at that.
 
stephen

why was it that the other farmers refused to
allow you to castrate their livestock?
did they feel it was unethical to have
someone perform such an act on one of their
young bulls, for the sake of "art" ?

i don't really find it shocking, i find it to be in as poor like your "masterbation-photogram".
 

Media information

Album
Member Album by Stephen Frizza
Added by
Stephen Frizza
Date added
View count
3,154
Comment count
33
Rating
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Image metadata

Filename
balls.jpg
File size
71 KB
Date taken
Mon, 04 May 2009 11:28 PM
Dimensions
453px x 567px

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