The exploration of fruits being used a euphemism for the female genitalia and sexuality in art and in advertisements
Joy Hsu
Abstract
My work explores the concept behind utilizing fruits as a symbol for female sexuality and genitalia in art and advertisement today. “F is for fruits” is an exhibition questioning the reason behind our society’s obsession to censor our bodies no matter in art or in advertisements. Research about the subject provided insight about the connotations and pre-established symbolism fruits already have with sex, as well as the psychological reasons behind why our brain likes to find objects or shapes found in nature to substitute for genitalia. Artworks like Frida Kahlo’s famous painting What the Water Gave Me and Lee Price’s Women & Food series inspired my erotic photoshoot with fruits and bathtubs, leading me into my exploration of ways to use fruits as the main subject of my exhibition. It is obvious to many why the censorship of genitals is mandatory, however not many of us think about how this affects us or the artwork or advertisement itself. My exhibit is a very sensual and experimental, leading us to think about just how much we are affected by censorship.
Introduction
“F is for Fruits” is an art exhibit about fruits, women, and censorship. Inspired by artist Stephanie Sarley who posts videos of her fingering fruits on social media, I began thinking about why fruits are being used as a stand-in for female genitalia, specifically in artworks and advertisements today. Especially prominent in Renaissance art, fruits and vegetables were often used as a sexual metaphor as well as a tool to cover up genitalia in paintings. Throughout history, we have been censoring genitalia using different objects born from nature, such as plants and vegetables, and this led me to wonder about our society’s obsessive tendency to censor the female body. I became curious as to why fruits are specifically and popularly used as a euphemism for sex and the female genitalia aside from them simply resembling female genitals. Not only found in art, but censorship is also heavily used in adverts and there is an undeniable parallel between the two. Found in ads advertising for feminine products, oranges and grapefruits are commonly used as a visual metaphor for vaginas. Using mediums including photography, collaging and oil painting, I aim to create 3 pieces of artwork that employs humor to raise such questions to the viewers visiting this exhibit at MoMA.
Many fruits have an undeniable resemblance to the genitalia of both man and woman. Bananas and eggplants are often viewed as phallic objects, and they are very commonly used in text messages and even ads as a euphemism for the male reproductive organ in the form of emojis. When looking at the provocative and erotic fruit fingering videos by Stephanie Sarley, it is obvious to all that the citrus fruits are a visual stand-in for vaginas. But why does that mean our brains immediately replace the images of genitals with slices of fruits the two purely because they look alike? Explained by Dr. Timothy Hill, “When it comes to taboos (or all that is revolting, filthy, dangerous, disturbing or thrilling – ultimately, anything that society deems forbidden), euphemisms and metaphors are useful tools to strip a taboo of its most explicit or obscene overtones. This can make it easier to discuss concepts typically considered off-limits.”. If the fruit slices were presented in a certain context, such as if they were used in a tampon commercial, it would make sense for us to make the connection between the female genitalia and the slice of fruit. Therefore because of this, I wanted to play around with placing fruits in contexts that simultaneously treats them as normal fruits but also suggests them as genitals. In my censored fruit collage, I played around with this idea by placing censored fruits in front of a suggestive ad on a plain background.
An interesting aspect of fruits that have always intrigued me is their long-standing symbolism of other matters. For example, grapes have connotations with lust and desire whereas lemons are a symbol of free will. During the late Renaissance period, still lifes of fruits were very popular and each painting was rich with meanings behind each fruit. Due to this, I began thinking about how much pre-existing or long-established connotations of certain objects cause us to skew our vision or opinion on things. A topic that springs to mind when discussing this is the society’s controversial view on pornography. It is viewed as “dirty”, “vulgar” and completely inappropriate and although it is understandable why porn isn’t displayed in public, the attitude that our society has ingrained to porn has also been slapped onto sex, nudity, and expression of our body. Especially in Asian countries where porn is largely banned and heavily looked down upon, sex and nudity is viewed as something embarrassing and should be kept completely personal. The taboo surrounding this topic further silences us from opening up about our insecurities regarding our body. In order to try and change this mindset through this exhibit, I included light-hearted and fun humor in my artwork to discuss sex and genitalia in a way that isn’t shameful or looked down upon.
The strange relationship between pornography, nudity, and censorship is something that contributes to the taboo of genitalia and our attitudes towards them. A large toxic stigma borne towards the vagina is largely caused by people thinking that they are “gross” or “disgusting” looking. Perhaps one of the biggest reasons why I decided to mix humor into my artwork is best described by Mikael Cho, the founder of Unsplash, who said, “you need humor and playfulness to discuss a taboo. Sexuality can be fun, and these ambiguous images, when used in the right context, are precisely that.” The reality is that our current society has a stigma against sex and genitals, so I decided that instead of trying to squash this stigma by blatantly shoving it in the audience’s faces, I should introducing the idea of accepting our reproductive organs using humor in my art would be a good place to start.
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