Ironically, while some of the women I heard from expressed an interest in receiving a photo of a man's chest (or, as one woman specified, "Send me shirtless Bradley Cooper"), it seems the penis is one of the last male body parts women want to see. The response to a call I put out on Twitter for women's feelings on guys pointing a camera between their legs was one of total repulsion. Specifically, I asked whether these photos "do it" for them, and one tweeter responded, "If by 'do it' you mean 'send me to the toilet retching,' then yes, they do." Another woman responded with "ick" and the hashtag "#thankgodimnodatinganymore"; and yet another tweeted, "Not at all. The penis is ugly. End of story." In the penis' defense, I have to note that plenty of women think it can be quite the opposite. (I'll have to save the discussion of why disgust over the male member is so common for another day.) Rachel Rabbit White tweeted that junk close-up "should never be an opener," but "if you already know and love the member in question, hay!"
Asking women how they feel about, um, Peter portraits -- I'm running out of slang here -- is kind of like asking whether they like giving blow jobs or watching porn. Some love it, some hate it -- and opinions are often extreme in one direction or the other. Those that are fond of a penis shot typically prefer that it come within a sexual narrative of some sort. "It's true that erect penises have beginnings, middles and ends -- but the story they tell is all too obvious and not very romantic and rather self-absorbed," jokes Toby Miller, a social scientist who focuses on sex and gender. "Many women prefer their narratives to take a wider form that include more people -- and don't always end up in an action-adventure climax. So to speak." He says the fantasy men are entertaining by sending cock shots is one of women desiring "the 'zipless fuck' a la Erica Jong."