Truthfully, I have always been fascinated by the physics of the penis itself—a strange and delightful appendage that dangles like an enormous skin tag off the front half of a man’s body. It tickles me that men are walking around with penises just flapping around inside their pants like a half-deflated air dancer, and it baffles me that in the right moments, that appendage can be of any use. Putting a paper towel cape around a post-coital penis and calling it a superhero is my own version of penis puppetry, but it’s now clear to me that I’ve drawn inspiration for these antics from the men behind Puppetry of the Penis, the originators of penis performance art.
I don’t spend much time thinking about Puppetry of the Penis, but a recent conversation at the workplace in and around a forthcoming podcast (I’m sorry) about Chippendales (sounds good!) brought this to front of mind. Chippendales, for the record, are not masters in the art of penis sculpture like the Australian men who pioneered this art form are, but they are two sides of the same coin. Neither male exotic dancers nor performance artists who, I’ve been told, “stretch” their sacks like balloons to warm up, are particularly sexy. But both use their bait and tackle in ways that, I guess, are meant to suggest sex. The Chippendales grind up on you, thrusting their shiny pelvises into the air and the men behind Puppetry of the Penis shape their meat and veg into approximations of other objects, reminding the viewer of the penis’s remarkable ability to adapt to any situation.
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