Europeans are so open about sexuality and nudity. That still surprises me as an American. Nude beaches are scattered across France and Spain, where even the grannies and grandpas are free of tan lines. Mixed sexes mingle in German health spas — clad only in their birthday suits.
Iceland has a quirky penis museum in Reykjavik. My best friend’s daughter craved a postcard from it, hence a visit. And yes, it is strange. And, of course, there is the creepy British television dating show where people choose their ideal partner based solely on “naked attraction.” Six naked people stand in colored cubicles and are exposed, literally, bit by bit, as they await elimination. Oh, how heads would spin in the puritanical United States!
Do you remember when the US Justice Department, under Attorney General John Ashcroft, battened down the sexual hatches? They spent $8,000 to hide two oversized art deco statues. Heaven forbid someone should be photographed beside the Spirit of Justice, whose draped toga leaves a breast exposed. Imagine the uproar if Michelangelo’s statue of David in Florence, Italy, was on the other side of the pond!
I wasn’t surprised when I saw advertisements for a phallus exhibit in Gent. This is Europe, after all.
GUM Goes Full Frontal
Gent University Museum (GUM) is the latest to pay homage to the human form with “Phallus: Norm & Form.” The exhibition, which runs in the Belgian city through January 2023, looks at the penis from a scientific and artistic perspective. The clitoris is also featured, although not the star of the show.
GUM touts itself as a “Forum for Science, Doubt & Art.” The exhibition lives up to that slogan. There are videos with researchers in sexuality and discussions on why so much attention is placed on the male member and not female genitalia.
Art pieces featuring genitalia and exhibitions at the botanical garden’s greenhouses complement the exhibit.
Prolific Penises
“Wherever there are people, there are penises. In all cultures, in all religions,” says Marjan Doom, director of the GUM. “They are prolific in the art world and the subject of much scientific investigation. It is, therefore, typically a subject that we consider from different research disciplines.”
The GUM exhibition displays include an interactive world map of penis sizes and life-sized blue silos indicating penis sizes and girths, pictured above. In a scientific, haptic experiment, female test subjects touched the different lengths and girth “silos” to determine the ideal size of a penis. Interestingly, the ideal size was almost identical to the scientifically-determined average penis size.
Everyone Is Normal
Men want to know if they are “normal” and can become obsessed with penis length. But what is normal, the exhibition asks? Research teams are looking for patterns and have found that size is “extremely diverse.”
Scientific measurements are value-free, according to the GUM exhibition booklet. “They tell us what is common or average but do not determine who is normal and who is not. Together, many variations make up a statistical average. That being said, in a society people hold beliefs about what is good, deviant, or ideal. Who makes up those rules about what is normal? Does science impose a standard by measuring things? Or does society want to measure penises out of a need for standardization?”
Doom says it’s important for people to “reach their own conclusions after seeing the different perspectives – not only scientific perspectives, in fact, but also from artists and a number of social institutions. With art you create a feeling or experience that often sticks in the memory. Allowing you to transfer knowledge in different dimensions, and in a comprehensible language.”
Plan Your Visit
A series of lectures and events will be held in relation to the exhibition and can be found on the GUM website.
The GUM is located just around the corner from the Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art (S.M.A.K.) and the Museum of Fine Arts (MSK) on Karel Lodewijk Ledeganckstraat 35, 9000 Gent. Click here for directions on how to find it.
Tickets for the GUM exhibition are €8 or about $8.50 and can be ordered online, but the museum is closed on Wednesdays. Be sure to stop by the botanical gardens and greenhouses, where admission is free.
