4) Do you believe crotch shots from men could be linked to a biological urge to indicate sexual interest to women?
Laura: Most of our sexual urges are linked to biology. Other mammals publicly display their sexual interests and we have gotten away from that with the advent of clothing and the creation of polite society. If you are a chimpanzee or a bonobo who wants to mate, you probably display your penis to get female attention and that works when females are in estrus.
Virginia: It is interesting to think about how the impulse to send a picture of your junk is linked to our caveman self, but what makes it possible is human technology. In the future, men will send a sculpture of their d*ck to your 3-d printer. You go try to print a vase or a little bear or something and you’re all “Great, whose d*ck is this?”
Laura: As I’ve told you many times, let’s get you scheduled with a therapist.
Virginia: Shut up.
6) How has modern technology ‘encouraged’ this type of behavior?
Laura: In the past, if I wanted to send a photo of my penis to a woman, I would have to take a photo with my camera that I couldn’t see beforehand, take my roll of film to the drugstore and let all the photo-lab employees see my junk (or refuse to print my photo), then find out what the woman’s mailing address is, stamp my envelope and snail mail my genital pic to her.
Virginia: Lots of legwork there.
Laura: Exactly. The digital age has taken down all of these barriers and I can now view my photo in the privacy of my own home, use the right angles, correct imperfections with Facetune, and send the same picture out to as many women as I want.
Virginia: Oh god, do you think they’re Facetuning their d*cks?
Laura: I am absolutely certain of it.
7) What would you recommend men to do to indicate sexual interest, other than sending a crotch shot?
Laura: Let’s go “old school” and tell the woman that you think that she is pretty and want to get to know her. Ask her out on a date and see where the night takes you.
Virginia: A couple of rules that seem to work well- don’t send an un-asked for d*ck pic. If you’re seeing a woman and she makes a request and you want to honor it, great. But sending an unasked for picture is at least rude and possibly upsetting. Also, your unasked for d*ck pic will be passed around at brunch, laughed at, and you’re gonna get talked about in not a good way, and word will get around and later your girlfriend will ask why you’re sending d*ck pics to other women.
8) Story Time: Do you remember your first d*ck pic? What was your reaction?
Virginia: I got one on my first smartphone, I had started working as a comic and my phone number got around on my business card. I got a very impressive-looking member from an anonymous person- It came with a message like “want to sit on this?” and I wrote back, “Hey, nice dick! Is this yours?” and after a minute they wrote back and said, uhhh. No. And I asked, why are you sending a stranger another person’s d*ck? And they didn’t write back after that.
Laura: Thankfully, I have never received a crotch shot directly. I have had a couple of scares when swiping through Tinder. I mean, honestly, you made a picture of your penis your profile photo and you think that most women will be into that?
I have a male friend who is gay and one evening he showed me an entire iphone screen chock full of genital pics. He was so happy about it and this was the moment when I realized how fundamentally different men and women feel about this subject.
Virginia: Hey! That’s a good idea. Send your d*ck pics to other men! Maybe you can form a club!