The Penis Politics of Progressives

A teachable moment straight from the Code of Progressives: The imaginary ‘artistic’ privates of Prime Minister Stephen Harper get no privacy, but the sale of the oil painting on canvas depicting them does.

‘Somebody’ purchased Margaret Sutherland’s (Maggie the Red’s) Emperor Haute Couture painting in which Harper--who never posed for it-- is wearing nothing but a Mona Lisa-like smile for $5Gs. But that ‘somebody’ will go off into the fog of time as anonymous as the composite-loving Barack Obama since the identity of the proud new owner is not being divulged by a Toronto Art Gallery. “The Edward Day Gallery in Toronto isn’t saying who purchased the painting for $5,000.” (Winnipeg Free Press, May 24, 2012). “Gallery owner Mary Sue Rankin said amid all the hubub the painting has created, Sutherland’s piece has a serious message about Harper not living up to his promises.

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“For Sutherland, who completed the painting last year, the point of her piece was a satirical one. “It was a sort of culmination of some general frustrations of the federal government’s policies and what they were telling us,” Sutherland had said, adding she had been peeved with the government’s elimination of the long-form census and its closure of certain prison farms. “The political message is to look for yourself and don’t necessarily believe the party line. “The painting--Emperor Haute Couture--is also part pun as it carries a reference to The Emperor’s New Clothes, a tale by Hans Christian Anderson in which a vain king parades around naked, believing his new suit is so superior that it’s invisible to those unfit for their own positions in life.” So just in case humanity didn’t get the point of the 200-year-old Hans Christian Anderson fairytale, you can always pick it up in a painting by Maggie the Red. Anthony Weiner, who last year put his junk online revealing his private parts may have been the leader of a brand new Progressive cult. But If you’re a politician from the right of the political spectrum, you don’t have to pull a Weiner, an artist will do it for you and get paid for putting your supposed genitals out there. Since Harper’s nude portrait, which according to its artist drew a “tsunami of press and offers to buy” on Facebook during the Victoria Day weekend, the focus moves to South Africa where President Jacob Zuma’s genitals have been depicted. South Africa’s ruling party African National Congress (ANC) wants the Goodman Gallery to remove a painting of Zuma called “The Spear”, which depicts the president with his genitals exposed, and another work that has a “For Sale” sign superimposed over the party logo. “The picture of Zuma is a facsimile of a famous poster of communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin. (ukzambians.co.uk, May 15, 2012) “In the red, black and yellow drawing, the president is depicted as striking Lenin’s heroic stance, except his genitals hang outside of his trousers. “The works are part of a collection called “Hail to the Thief” and are meant to question whether the century-old African National Congress has lost its moral compass. “It’s making a mockery of the highest office,” Stuff.co.nz quoted ANC Jackson Mthembu as saying. Mthembu said the artist was within his rights to express himself but said “The Spear” was “vulgar” and ridiculed President Zuma’s stature.” Now, the glossy magazine world has jumped into the ‘Penis as Politics’ movement. “The Blaze has been alerted to a fake explicit image apparently published in Hustler magazine depicting GBTV host and conservative commentator S.E. Cupp engaged in a sex act with what appears to be a penis in her mouth. “Under the headline “Celebrity Fantasy,” the text beside the picture asks, “What would S.E. Cupp look like with a [d**k] in her mouth?” “S.E. Cupp is a lovely young lady who read too much Ayn Rand in high school and ended up joining the dark side. Cupp, an author and media commentator who often shows up on Fox News programs, is undeniably cute. But her hotness is diminished when she espouses dumb ideas like defunding Planned Parenthood. Perhaps the method pictured here is Ms. Cupp’s suggestion for avoiding an unwanted pregnancy. A disclaimer follows: “No such picture of S.E. Cupp actually exists. This composite fantasy is altered from the original for our imagination, does not depict reality, and is not to be taken seriously for any purpose.” The timing of public figures branded with penis ‘art’ begs the question: Are global artists sending marijuana-laced smoke ring signals to each other, or are the touted-as-independent ‘cultural workers’ of the world following the marching orders of Progressive PACs?