My entry in the #monomad challenge
Room service??
When I grew up there was a part of the inner city we were told not to visit...the "bad part of town"
It was a place most cities had or maybe still have where the prostitutes,drug dealers, parlours,strip joints and sex shops were.
Many years later I have a home in the city's inner suburbs and I often spend time in this part of town.It is now trendy- full of cafes,bars,night clubs,fashion stores,vape stores and tattoists.The prostitutes and drug dealers have moved on and only a couple of tired looking strip joints hang in there, and where there were ten or more sex shops only one remains.
Peaches and Cream.
The internet and the ease with which sex and related products can be accessed and bought online has killed these stores.I was passing the store whose shopfront I don't really notice in this now busy area but it caught my eye.There were bright posters and signs advertising a Super Sale.I stopped and for some reason I actually saw the shopfront- as a photographer- in all it's shabby "glory" and took a few images as it looked like this was a final closing down sale. The sky high rents had finally got the best of this store.The more I looked at the images the more I thought about what I saw.
And what I saw made me sad.
Easter Bunny??
The mannequins are cheap and often have no arms or legs or faces-they make the women they portray anonymous,faceless and lacking any individual character.The subservient items they wear perpetrate the submissive woman as an object of sexual gratification to the male protagonist in whatever sexual roleplay is being portrayed.Maybe the many kids who pass here to school think these are adults playing make believe-except this is no fairytale.
I am glad Peaches and Cream is going-in this age it seems bizarre to me that such mannequins really seem to still portray some deep rooted sexual fantasy to some people-I will not make judgements as I can be judged for many things too.
Slipping into something more comfortable??
I just hope this post makes you think-are we in a better world now??
The images involve shooting at a shopfront and contain a lot of reflection from the busy street outside-I love this kind of street photography.I think it adds to the busy and vibrant world that has overtaken the shop.
I tried to imagine what I would feel if my significant other greeted me in some of these items-maybe I would find them funny?Maybe I am being too serious about what can and should be a pleasurable and natural act that we should enjoy?I have put some titles which I hope don't make light of a sad situation.Call it my way to try to make sense of what I saw and felt.Maybe you imagine some other ones.
Meet the new babysitter
