LOS ANGELES — Popular weekly podcast Shameless Sex says its Masturbation May-inspired Self-Pleasure 30-Day Challenge is receiving a significant amount of listener feedback — including a flood of unwelcome dick pics.
April Lampert and Amy Baldwin, hosts of the Shameless Sex weekly podcast that celebrates sexuality in all its forms, say they were not prepared for what they’ve seen over the past two weeks — “an unusual amount of dick pics” on their Instagram feed.
“We don’t want to be hard on our male audience, pardon the pun, but apparently we underestimated that a number of folks would interpret this Self-Pleasure Challenge as an opportunity to send us photos of them touching their genitals,” says Baldwin. “It's interesting to note that they are all from penis owners.”
While the contest has been receiving positive participant feedback as well, Baldwin says “our instructions clearly ask for an anonymous photo holding a sign in front of the face, and in no way did we ask for actual action shots or videos … we've received both.”
Baldwin and Lampert have discussed the “dick pic” phenomenon during their Shameless Sex podcasts, and refer to Dr. Justin Lehmiller’s theory that most guys use the strategy hoping it leads to sex while some do it to shock and offend for their own pleasure and excitement. In any case, the hosts are asking fans to refrain from sharing such photos with them.
“We are lovingly reminding people that we are not asking for pictures of genitals,” Baldwin said, “we are neither shaming nor validating (and obviously not having sex) with anyone who sends us a dick pic. Instead, they are instantly blocked.”
With two more weeks of the challenge to go, Baldwin is also “lovingly reminding our Instagram followers to respect our boundaries and relearn what consent means by keeping their genitals to themselves … non-solicited dick pics are the Internet's version of a flasher, and flashing without permission is a consent issue.”
To join the “Self-Pleasure 30-Day Challenge” visit the Shameless Sex Instagram page @shamelesssexpodcast.
To learn more, visit ShamelessSex.com.
