'Nowadays vagina envy has been joined by pudenda power. One famous expression of it is Courbet's 1866 spread-eagle crotch shot, The Origin of the World [above], which scandalized not only because it displayed a flash of pink, but because it portrayed the female sex in its full hairy glory, rather than classicised and bare. Then there's real life: John Ruskin, who on his wedding night fled at the sight of his wife's pubic hair. This was before photography (and Courbet's painting), and the only female nudes he'd seen had been in art, and carefully tonsured. He thought his wife was grossly deformed, a freak.'
From Pudenda Agenda by Jerry Saltz (Artnet Magazine Features).
Reading:
The Sadeian Woman - Angela Carter
The History of Sexuality Vol. 1: An Introduction - Michel Foucault
The History of Sexuality Vol. 2: The Use of Pleasure - Michel Foucault
The History of Sexuality Vol. 3: Care of the Self - Michel Foucault
Viewing:
That Obscure Object of Desire (1977) - d. Luis Bunuel
