Hi ...it's room service here
Sex shops have been around since well ... sex.
You find them in any city and they look pretty much the same. Apart from a few "upmarket" exceptions they all have the same tired displays and themes. Online shopping has killed most of these shops off and the Internet has made sex in its many (some plain horrible )forms accessible to many... and unfortunately to many who shouldn't be exposed to it.
I pass the last two remaining sex shops in my part of town regularly on route to the city.I usually don't pay attention to what is in the shopfront as I am busy going somewhere to do things. Yesterday I saw one display that caught my eye as it had a sale with bright red Sale signs in it.-(talk about cheap sex!) I stopped and decided 2 take some shots of the mannequins in the store front as what I saw made me think..and it was sad. The reflections of the street in the windows are some of my favourite components of street art and give a whole extra chaotic and gritty urban dimension and feel to these shots.
My main reason for this series of shots was to express my sadness at the way women are still portrayed in these shop displays.
Hi...lucky you! Easter has come early! I'm your Easter bunny but I've got no arms so you'll have to open the Easter eggs yourself...
They perpetrate and continue the myth of submissive women as sexual toys and the cheap often headless legless and armless mannequins make the women they portray faceless and anonymous and devoid of femininity.
As for the clothing ... It sure isn't high fashion and again reinforces the stereotypes of women as subservient actors in this tawdry play the shop seems to show as being what sex between people is all about.Do these outfits really titilate???
Rarely do you see male mannequins and if you do they are pretty much macho styled with studded leather underwear and a whip or some equally distorted role as the recipient of sexual gratification and the alpha male stereotype as instigator of whatever sexual relationship they are part of.
I wonder what kids think of these displays. Maybe they think they are adults playing make believe-which in reality they are-but these are not fairy tales.
I'll just go slip into something more comfortable...and cheap!Can you put it on ..I have no arms but I am a woman of other talents...
I have purposely manipulated the photos to emphasize the lurid nature of the displays and the inner city environment they inhabit-some netherworld which plays on the deep recesses of the psyche-at the end of the day some people must buy into this-I cannot judge them as I can be judged for a whole lot of things-the whole idea portrayed just leaves me cold and sad.
I have given the images titles to add some humour-very black humor-please don't be offended as everyone has a different sense of humour.I just hope this post makes you think.
Oh dear-I might have overdressed for this kind of party...-
