When local DJ Caitlin Pascal composed her mix entitled “Rock Out With Your Cock Out,” she had no idea of the project’s impending grandeur.
The 57-track mix, a themed musical attempt at the female re-appropriation of the penis, took seven months to complete (the mix is available for free download at www.thetastates.com/rowyco/). Pascal wanted to arrange a mix in honour of the intense sexual energy that characterizes the Divergence parties that she throws every few months, which are a real-cross section of different Ottawa scenesters. Pascal then decided that a visual representation would perfectly accompany the mix.
“I wanted to do a visual representation of the mix. And people started saying that they wanted to do something to go along with it. I started contacting women I knew to see if they would pose with strap-ons. Everything just grew organically from there when no one that
I asked said no,” Pascal recalls.
Pascal’s friends, photographers Kenji Tayooka and Phil Steiner, agreed to take pictures of the ballsy Ottawa-area women. So far, they have done 10 separate photo shoots, and still more models are on their waiting list. Pascal posted the strap-on clad ladies’ photos on her website, and the project took root internationally. So far, Pascal has received 28 international submissions with 10 other shoots pending.
We didn’t necessarily want to make people think when we started the project. It’s certainly a topic that is taboo in society. We wanted to bring the idea of strap-ons and penises into a broader dialogue,” says Tayooka.
Says Pascal: “For everyone in this project, it’s okay to bring it up now. For heterosexual couples, too. We photographed skinny models, plus sized models, people from every nationality. When you look at the series, you can’t make any assumptions because there are straight and queer models,” says Pascal.
Adds Steiner: “It was a fascinatingly equal spectrum.”
Adding to the community-like feel of the project, the store Venus Envy took a shine to Pascal’s project. Venus Envy offered to showcase Tayooka and Steiner’s photos for two months, and even host a gala evening where the models and photographers could intermingle with others interested in their project.
Pascal hopes the list of submissions for her site will continue to grow. She stresses that the project will never be over, and she hopes that people will continue to see and be inspired by her site.
Prints by Tayooka and Steiner will be for sale at the Oct 5 gala at Venus Envy. A portion of the sales will go to help fund the Venus Envy Bursary Fund and Trans-Youth Ottawa.
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