Design and the phallus

Where do designs come from and what are designers thinking when they are in the conceptualisation phase?

This question can linger in the air while more information is gathered about designers. Unfortunately, women have not yet reached the equity bar here. There are still very few women working or ‘thinking’ in/on product design. As Southwell argues, products used by women are, in fact, designed by male. Women are reluctant to enrol in design studies because the “lecturers are predominantly male” and design is still seen as a “male profession”. http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1468-5949.00071?cookieSet=1&journalCode=jade

If one considers the fact that many [male] designers are designing products they will never use, or ever look at, from an analytical viewpoint, it is not surprising that there are many designs which are either difficult to use and difficult to clean. Or, taking design by males, with male thought patterns, to the extreme, objects often look like disembodiment of the male phallus.

It could be argued that if women designed bathroom vanities (sinks) they would be functional and easy to clean. They would have sleek lines, any water spilled would run back into the sink and down the drain hole, where it is supposed to go. These functional vanities would be easy to clean and durable, and might look like this http://www.bathroom-glass-vanities.com/ceramic-vanity-dlvrb-117.html . If one were to speculate on a vanity designed by a woman - and grossly extend the sexualisation metaphor - it might be oval and folding in upon itself, similar to the folds of the vagina. But that would be taking it too far.

Most likely a man designed the vanity basin that sits above the bench; has potential for water spillage and would be difficult to clean under. The physical characteristics of this vanity http://www.homesite.com.au/indoors/bathroom/sinks-and-basins/vanity-basins/leda-vasque-above-counter-vanity-basin are also a closer approximation of the shape of the phallus, rising above the bench, than the smooth flat top vanity.

Moving from bathrooms and things ceramic, solid and hard, it’s easy to see that these principles of “phallic design” are also transferred onto items of food.

One only has to drive past a billboard advertising a Nestle Peters ® “Choc Top” Drumstick ® to be able to exclaim, “oh what a choc top phallus”. With its hard cone supporting an oval head of ice cream, coated in chocolate, and with just a nibble taken out of the top exposing vanilla ice cream and some “spooflicious” liquid caramel filling just dribbling from the newly created “eye” - just in case you weren’t quite sure what you were seeing!

There are no images of this “Choc Top” Drumstick ® on-line but they are waiting in the freezer cabinets of shops and will, no doubt, give many males a thrill as they see them being consumed by luscious lips, or as they press them to their own lips and experience the imagined fulfilment of the ultimate male fantasy………..

But, the women think, why can’t things be designed for functionality, comfort, efficiency and beauty. Maybe women need to seek out the electronic drawing boards and redress this gender inequity.