Queynte

Cunts – cunts, art and old rope.

This page contains close up images of cunts. If that isn’t what you want to see, now is the time to navigate away.

Queynte – I wanted to call the page Cunt but I thought that would be problematic in the URL. So I’ve used the word queynte. I’d never heard the word before today, apparently it was used to mean cunt in Middle English and commonly in Sussex, which seems appropriate. Queynte is a quaint word for cunt.

Like most of us, I’ve seen a lot of cunts. But I’m not sure that I’ve really looked at many properly. I assume those of us humans who have a cunt, have looked pretty closely, having first explored with fingers. Then, mirror in hand – bend forward, parting lips, gently probing, finding the sensitive tip of the clit, urethra, inserting fingers, seeing what has only previously been felt; the pinks and reds, the soft, smooth, crinkles, the warmth and slippery wetness increasing with the attention … seeing and feeling.

There are endless discussions about the words we use; cunt, vulva, fanny, vag etc. and whether or not it’s best to use the biological terms – I use a mix as feels appropriate. I’m of the view that women’s bodies are subject to far too much fussing, cutesification and (what Dr Victoria Bateman refers to as) the modesty cult. Cunt is a good, strong, word that has been hijacked by misogynists – I use it proudly, with joy. 

But often cunts, those absolutely essential and amazing areas of the body, are considered to be obscene and to need to be hidden away. And hiding any body part is usually an invitation for the sight of it to be monetised and regulated – cunts cannot be seen in polite society; millions of cunts are just one click away.

I’m not sure how often those of us without a cunt ever take the time to just look closely at one. Perhaps we just don’t get the opportunity; it’s unusual for someone to let us just look closely.

When we do have easy access to a cunt, we’re likely to be busy with rubbing, lapping, deep licks, quick flicking – with – the – tip – of – the – tongue. Face, mouth, nose snuggled in deep, breathing and drinking it in, too close to see much in the soft fleshy blur.

How often do we sit back a little and just look close-up at the textures, wrinkles, crinkles and folds. Any suggestion, a request, just to observe and examine someone’s cunt out of genuine curiosity, feels likely to be rejected.

We either see them during sex, when careful visual observation isn’t likely to feel right, or not at all other than in porn. I think that is a shame as, why can’t we know what cunts look like as well as we know hands or faces – each similar but also very different. And, when we know them, as an artist, I want to feel free to represent them; and I want to pose questions through my work.

I know my partner’s cunt extremely well in many ways – I know it deeply, its flavours, the softest skins, the moisture – fingers and tongue sliding inside .. mostly it’s a knowing of touch and taste rather than of seeing. It’s a knowing that is more an awareness of my finger tips, tongue and nose more than my eyes.

I love to look at bodies carefully, curiously – everything about them, the curves, lines, creases, folds, wrinkles, flab, bones, scars, spots – all of it. I’m a naturist and I photograph people who are naked; so it is quite odd really that I’ve almost never just looked at a cunt, not a partner’s, not anyone’s for more than a moment. On the naturist beach, looking closely just isn’t the done thing.

While making the Mucin Garden with Jan, I took photos that included close-up shots of her labia with snails all around. Once the photos were taken I spent many hours over several days, adjusting the clarity, cropping, reducing shadows etc. with Jan’s cunt magnificently larger than life, full-screen, on my computer monitor.

At times I was wholly focussed on the work. At others I was drawn into observation of the complexity of those soft structures – so unusually revealed. There’s so much variation in the texture and colours of the skin, and the crinkles on the edges of the lips are incredible.

Close up, I could also observe from the small amount of moisture pooling in her inner lips, that the process, my close observation, the feel of the snails, something, had been turning Jan on. On the day I’d been far too busy snail herding and messing about with my camera to notice those milky drops.

I was aware afterwards that I felt awkward about the images. It was obvious that I’d been close up to Jan’s vulva taking photos, and that I’d arranged and adjusted snails on her lips. I wondered how people might react, how might they judge us. I was stuck with my own question – why is it appropriate to judge me for taking photos of Jan’s cunt, or appropriate to judge Jan for letting me do it?

As far as we were concerned, we were making weird art – but obviously it is weird art pushing the boundaries of conventional behaviour. We didn’t set out to create images that might turn people on – it’s not for us to say what is, and what is not, a turn on. I was, however, intrigued to be told that the combination of my words and our photos had been arousing. I seem to spend my time saying that the images are not intended to arouse and yet wondering what is wrong with making arousing art?

Somehow though that intention goes beyond what art seems to allow.. that’s crap isn’t it. I’m reminded of my partner’s MA essay that touches on humour in art and how the art establishment might be sniffy about it – and that has led some artists to intentionally subvert the stuffy norm by adding humour. My temptation is to sneak some sauce into the images that I am saying are not saucy – my temptation is to wonder if, while nodding sagely at the wonderful form and complexity of a vulva, the process of looking is leading to arousal. 

If art can swell the heart as the sublime dances with our soul, and make us laugh out loud (not always for the intended reasons – I’m dreadful in a gallery), can’t it also swell our passions too – body and brain are wholly connected, fingers trace lines, shivers of sensation, electric, tingling sparkles.. 

Mostly when I take photos of people who have cunts, the cunts are not really seen – they peep out occasionally. Largely they are between the legs and mostly out of sight. And, oddly I think, (concerningly really) unlike cocks n’ balls, when a vulva is clearly on show in an image there is a strong implication that it is a sexual shot so that Cunt = Porn.. that is happening in a way that isn’t the case for a penis.

I think that’s pretty crap, it’s more of the patriarchal, modesty-cult, based, double standard, exploitational, nastiness. When clothed, women naturally sit how they like, cross-legged, legs apart, etc. and they do the splits, bend over from the waist, do yoga, all legs wide, sometimes in the tiniest of thongs. But as soon as they are fully naked, if their legs are open, the image is treated as being porn – this doesn’t happen with penis owners. It’s interesting too that there is pretty much no issue with a cunt that is covered in the most minute piece of bikini material – unless, gawd forbid, a wee bit of flap is showing.

We penis owners can’t really hide them and it’s obvious when one’s one-eyed, trouser snake (Johnson, John Thomas, dick, schlong, cock, prick, chopper, whopper, nob etc) is, or isn’t, turned on – flaccid is okay (no unsolicited disk pics, ever!), erect is porn. Perhaps that’s another part of it – open legged, there’s an implied possibility of an invitation for sex and no obvious way of observing whether or not the owner of the cunt is turned on. So any shot showing a cunt tends to be taken as being a porn style shot – it’s an assumption about women’s bodies that isn’t applied to men.

As usual, I can’t stop picking at thoughts and questions – why and how can we just look at a cunt in close-up, curious, detail – can we do that? And can I create images with cunts as the fabulous subjects, without an expectation that it’s done to cause other people to be aroused.

I have recently taken some naked photos of Jan on some rocks with rope. These were slightly saucy, the rope intentionally implied bondage, I’ve no issue with creating a sense of the erotic, but it’s far from porn.

I took one shot as Jan was higher up and it showed her vulva from behind. I was struck by seeing that her lips and curves were so symmetrical and similar to those curves and those of the twisted strands of the thick rope.

Sadly though, I’d taken the shot from a way off and, enlarged, the image was poor quality. I wanted to be able to see better and take more shots of that rope and Jan’s vulva.

At this point, I need to pause and reflect on my good fortune to have Jan as my most regular subject and good friend. It’s hard to imagine being able to take such intimate shots, and to have such a simple, fun, time, creating art with any other friend – with my partner, I’d immediately be distracted by becoming aroused myself.

Trust is one of the most valuable qualities – trust, love, care… It takes a lot of trust to lay naked, legs wide open, while a friend arranges a thick, rough, rope around your fanny lips and then tells you to keep still while photographing very close up.

And that’s what we did – I tried several times to recreate the shot of the rope and Jan’s cunt by the rocks. I’m unsure now though if I actually managed that. I’d been trying to create a close up photo of a cunt to be observed in detail in contrast to the rope. But far from being wholly non-sexual, the rope retains the bondage connotations and adds an erotic element to the images. 

Is it the rope that makes it porn or the cunt? If I remove the rope, can they just be photographic studies of a cunt, or does the saucy (or porn – if you feel its that) aspect remain? How about if I remove the cunt and just leave the rope, does it cease to imply bondage seeing a rope on its own? does an old rope still arouse without the cunt in shot? Do you have a fancy for old rope?

But turned-on wasn’t the intention – I don’t mind much if that is the outcome. I know that Jan is perfectly happy if an intimate photo of her causes a bit of a swelling or some drops of moisture to form.

So my suggestion and request is get in close – to look carefully and in curious detail at the rope and Jan’s cunt. 

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