In defense of the crotch shot.

"Many women might admit—when not giving silly quotes to publications trawling for tangential Weiner stories—that content matters, too. Penises might not be the most empirically beautiful things to look at. But they are erotic implements. Some women surely welcome the sight, and a few of them have admitted as much. As for what science has to say about it: Studies have found that women self-report and actually experience arousal in reaction to a great variety of sexual images. Plus, just because a photograph does not compel a woman to have sex, using the bar set by the Austin researcher, does not mean she does not find it sexy.
Then there is the more important, more complex matter of context. A decontextualized, unsolicited phallic photograph seems unlikely to send shivers up any given woman's spine. But it would be absurd to deny the possible potency of a meaningful, contextualized shot sent to a game recipient. And Weiner's photographs, for better or worse, do seem to have been those sort of I'll-show-you-mine-if-you-show-me-yours pics. They were sent with permission and reciprocated, save for one picture mistakenly sent to the wrong person.
There is another common, absolutist line against the crotch shot: that men sending women photographs of their penises are just projecting. They want to see their lovers' bodies, so their lovers must want to see their bodies, too. Time's Joel Stein advances the thesis, polling a variety of sexually active adults and asking them whether he should be sending himself out. Playboy's Miss June provided a typical response: "Women really don't want to see a penis. Men like to look at their penises. Freud might have gotten it wrong. Men may have the penis envy." But, again, Miss June might not. Other women do, for any number of reasons.
Such subtlety is sorely missing from all the stories pooh-poohing the bulge shot, and the press is taking Weiner's photographs as emblematic of a whole very personal genre. Viewed in the light of scandal, the congressman's shots telegraph a cavalier narcissism and an unappealing, juvenile randiness. They are not sexy. They are depressing. But that's my criticism, and it is germane to Weiner, not to all wieners everywhere—they've had a bad enough week, as is."
By Annie Lowrey - Slate Magazine /read more