I think this is a fascinating image. In my Power and Sexuality class I teach about how power asymmetry has been sexualized; that, literally, overpowering or being overpowered feels sexy to us (perhaps whether we want it to or not). This image was alongside an article about how some vegans only want to have sex with other vegans (see here):
So the image, apparently, is to illustrate sexual relationships between "fruity" types. But in order to make fruit look sexual, they positioned them asymmetrically with the pear not just standing next to the apple, but towering over it. I suppose we have to ask ourselves, would two apples, or an apple and an orange, sitting next to each other imply sex? The reason this particular image works to evoke sex is because of the way in which the pear is overpowering the apple. (I have to admit, the satin sheets help, but I don't think the image would work as well nonetheless.)
2 comments:
December 10, 2007 at 10:10 AM
Also the pear is terribly phallic.
December 14, 2007 at 5:27 AM
Umm. sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Yes it implies sexual relations, but unless I'm missing something about copulation, the male has a protrusion and the female takes that protrusion into her. This is just sexual mechanics. You know this. That is why you assumed that the pear represented the male and the apple the female. WHy not the other way around?
But, yes, sexuality has all sorts of power-meaning attributed to it. I think your interpretation tells us more about the cultural stereotypes that you (the observer) bring to this picture than anything the picture conveys in and of itself.
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