How 150 Unsolicited Dick Pics Are Bringing Women Artists Together

“When you put hundreds of dicks and the aggressive comments that accompany them up on display like this, the absurdity of it almost becomes comical,” Bell said. “I was fed up with the harassment and the threats, fed up with feeling unsafe. I was done quietly accepting harassment as my reality.” 

Her show, a version of which was previously on view in Los Angeles , opened in San Francisco on Friday. According to the artist, the exhibition is not intended to shame men, penises, or men with penises. Instead, Bell wants “to expose the normalization of misogyny especially online,” to provide a forum where people who are both shocked by or numbed to the practice of sending dick pics can talk about everyday harassment.

She does acknowledge that the “rules of dick pic sending” function differently in straight and gay communities. While she understands that abuse and harassment exist in queer spaces, her goal was not to lessen the experience of LGBTQ individuals by focusing on straight women, but to “highlight the the overwhelming issue of heterosexual harassment inflicted upon women. Most specifically I wanted to address the societally endorsed behavior of men attempting to exert their control over women through aggressive sexual advances.”

At the end of the day, Bell hopes those visiting her show will “look beyond the hundreds of penises and the threatening comments that line the walls,” and realize that the issue of sexual harassment is much larger than a few (or, in this case, 150) dick pics.

“I urge them to recognize how little respect many men have for women and that it’s high time we stop sweeping aside our daily harassment as routine.”