Northampton student turns the table on men who send unsolicited picture of their genitals - by turning their X-rated snaps into art

A 21-year-old Northampton woman came up with an usual idea for her final year university project featuring a range of explicit photos.
Northampton student Francesca Harris, 21, with her art project which the Chron has chosen to pixalate for publication.Northampton student Francesca Harris, 21, with her art project which the Chron has chosen to pixalate for publication.
Northampton student Francesca Harris, 21, with her art project which the Chron has chosen to pixalate for publication.

Francesca Harris, 21, spent her teenage years deleting and blocking countless explicit pics from men on online dating apps.

Fed up with the crass nature, the fine art student from Northampton decided to buck the trend by brazenly approaching men for an X-rated snaps for her final year project.

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She set up a Tinder profile in October 2018 and explained in her dating app bio that she was on the hunt for X-rated snaps for her project, The Modern Man.

After finding a match, Francesca would start the conversation by simply asking them for a picture of their genitals but says the reaction she received varied.

The third-year student matched with 600 men but found almost a third of men asked what they would get in return while ten per cent responded with a picture request back to her.

Another 43 quipped their body parts would be suitable to feature on the 6ft canvas.

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She was sent a total of 300 snaps and whittled them down to 140 before she began painting them onto the canvas last month.

Francesca said: "It's such a prominent thing in the world of modern dating.

"I can't remember a time when people weren't sending me these sort of pictures.

"It must have started in my early teens - it happens to everyone I know.

"It's become the norm.

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"Sometimes you can be having a conversation with somebody and wham, they get it in their head that you're after a picture of their private parts and they send it through.

"Because people are protected by technology they think there will be no repercussions.

"I'm completely against men who send unsolicited pics. There's absolutely no need for that whatsoever.

"I have no problems if pictures are sent between two people who both consent to it, do what you do.

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"I personally find no enjoyment unless I have a connection with that person.

"But pretty much every woman that I've spoken about it to have agreed these kind of pics do very little for us.

"They're really not that great or attraction bar the odd few.

"When I got going quite a lot treated it with good humour.

"Others seemed desperate.

"There were a few who sent professional looking shots and one of them even went to the trouble of sending 25 to me.

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"Some people were not interested and that gave me a little bit of hope.

"I was relieved that there were some pretty normal people out there.

"But some were pretty bad.

"I was still shocked by the number of guys who did it though, even though I was expecting it.

"I had to turn my notifications as it kept crashing my phone."

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Francesca started her search for X-rated snaps in October 2018 for her final year project at the University of Northampton.

After whittling down the final 140 snaps, she begun painting her collage of dick pics on the 6ft canvases, which took six hours to complete.

Her project was shown at the University of Northampton's Degree Show last month, and received a mix of reactions.

Francesca said: "It took me about eight months to source all the material and complete the paintings.

"Some people would take one peek and walk off.

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"Others would be in there for a long time, while some found it hilarious.

"The most enjoyable thing has been the reactions.

"I think the most interesting reactions are from middle-aged women, who have all experienced similar behaviour when on dating apps.

"Men have definitely been a lot more uncomfortable with it than the women though..

"I want people to reflect and understand why they are so uncomfortable with seeing male genitalia.

"If men could think twice about sending unsolicited pics that would be great."

The Modern Male has also been on display The Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London over the weekebnd.