{"id":84390,"date":"2015-04-06T13:12:04","date_gmt":"2015-04-06T17:12:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=84390"},"modified":"2015-04-06T15:24:01","modified_gmt":"2015-04-06T19:24:01","slug":"dont-hide-your-shame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/06\/dont-hide-your-shame\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Hide Your Shame"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Photo: Steve Mays<\/p><\/div>\n

You can learn a lot about modern mores and attitudes toward sexuality just by hanging out in the lobby of the Time Warner Center, the upscale mall at New York\u2019s Columbus Circle. Watch how many passersby touch the tiny penis of Adam<\/em>, the twelve-foot Botero sculpture who, with his distaff counterpart, greets visiting shoppers. Of course they touch it, and grab it, until it\u2019s as golden as Saint Peter\u2019s foot; it\u2019s human instinct. Periodically the management needs to reapply the patina<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not long ago, I was at the Metropolitan Museum, walking behind a family. We came upon a naked kouros. While her parents were talking, a little girl of maybe three extended a small arm toward the statue\u2019s penis, a look almost of hypnosis on her face. Her hand moved slowly, inexorably, and then\u2014she grasped it. At that point her mother noticed and batted her hand away from the antiquity. \u201cStop that,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When it comes to touching the Botero, though, the lines aren\u2019t as clearly drawn. Perhaps it\u2019s the cynical mishmash of art and commerce in the Time Warner building\u2014note the proximity of the\u00a0giant H&M\u2014but the frank Boterismo on display seems to bring out the snickering puerility in everyone. Kids dart between his legs. Schoolgirls go in for a quick, hysterical photo op while their friends chortle. Touch by furtive touch, his nether region begins to shine.<\/p>\n

The thing about Botero\u2019s Adam<\/em> is that he seems so \u2026 unembarrassed. By his girth, by his nudity, by his lack of endowment. I think it\u2019s this shamelessness, in part, that inspires such snickering. People fear what they do not understand, and they move to hide this fear; there is no reaction without an audience. They have none of that little girl\u2019s honest engagement.<\/p>\n

Or do they? The other evening, I passed through the lobby and saw a mentally ill man thrashing that statue\u2019s little penis with an umbrella. He was whaling on it, and with real anger. None of the security guards did anything\u2014it was as if he were merely a red-faced tourist taking a souvenir picture. His, at least, was an honest experience of art.<\/p>\n

Sadie Stein is contributing editor of\u00a0<\/em>The Paris Review, and the\u00a0<\/em>Daily\u2019s correspondent.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You can learn a lot about modern mores and attitudes toward sexuality just by hanging out in the lobby of the Time Warner Center, the upscale mall at New York\u2019s Columbus Circle. Watch how many passersby touch the tiny penis of Adam, the twelve-foot Botero sculpture who, with his distaff counterpart, greets visiting shoppers. Of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[17673,17674,35,12511,14360,17672,125,13985,14034,6674,17675],"class_list":["post-84390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-adam","tag-adam-and-eve","tag-art","tag-city-life","tag-commerce","tag-fernando-botero","tag-new-york-city","tag-penises","tag-sculptures","tag-the-metropolitan-museum","tag-time-warner-building"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBotero\u2019s \u201cAdam,\u201d the Sculpture New Yorkers Love to Touch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It seems no one can pass through the Time Warner Building without laying a hand on Adam\u2019s shiny penis.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" 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