Church In Illinois Looks Exactly Like A Penis (Oops?)

[wayout]

Made me smile this morning so thought I would share. According to one of the articles referenced below "The church, located just south of the Rock River, even has a curious slogan we swear we're not making up: "Rising up." I can't help but think the architect had a wicked sense of humor.....

http://gawker.com/christian-science-church-looks-like-a-giant-dick-from-s-1454084292

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/29/christian-science-church-_n_4174870.html

[AdamSmith]

That it is a Christian Science church adds to the good-natured hilarity in some way that I cannot quite pin down.

[AdamSmith]

Update...

No plans to change shape of Illinois church that looks like penis from the sky, officials say

Officials at Christian Science Dixon say the church was designed to preserve a tree, and hope the Internet chatter dies down. However, they did make light of the controversy on the church's Facebook page: 'Giant fig leaf coming soon.'

By David Boroff / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Tuesday, November 12, 2013, 9:04 AM

A Google Earth view of Christian Science Dixon church in Dixon, Ill.

An Illinois church that looks like a penis from the sky will stay that way.

Officials at Christian Science Dixon are standing firm about the new structure, saying the church was designed to preserve a tree.

“We didn’t design it to be seen as what they’re seeing,” church officer Scott Shepherd told Sauk Valley Media. “And we didn’t design it to be seen from above.”

According to the Dixon church's Facebook page, the new structure was "intentionally designed around a beautiful oak tree." However, the shape of the church, as viewed on Google Earth, looks to many like a giant phallus.

The social media ribbing has been relentless.

"Check out this 'God's eye view' of a church in Dixon, Ill. Yeah, that's right, I said Dixon," read one Twitter post.

"A church in Dixon, Illinois looks like a penis from up here. Of course, the church motto is 'Rising Up,'" tweeted user almightygod, who has more than 50,000 followers.

An aerial photo of the church with a water main leak, which turned out to be photoshopped, was widely circulated online.

With the building expected to be completed next month, officials hope the toilet humor will subside.

“The Internet has great capability for good,” church officer Scott Shepherd told Sauk Valley Media, “and great capability for gossip and destruction.”

But even the church made light of the controversy on its Facebook page, joking, "Giant fig leaf coming soon."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/plans-change-shape-church-penis-article-1.1513939#ixzz2kSdPNmaO

[AdamSmith]

...And here is its bride?!

Qatar's accidental vagina stadium is most gratifying

The resemblance of the Al-Wakrah World Cup stadium to the female genitalia can only be a good thing – sport and vaginas are not always such public bedfellows

Holly Baxter

theguardian.com,

The Al-Wakrah stadium in Qatar: 'With its shiny, pinkish tinge and labia-like side appendages, the supposedly innocent building was just asking for trouble.' Photograph: AECOM

Have you ever heard of the Vagina Building? If you're not from Chicago, it's unlikely – but if you are, it's a precious part of local folklore and a celebrated shape on the skyline. Towering amid the clustered phallic skyscrapers, the Crain Communications Building (its slightly more official name) was completed in 1983 with a prominent vertical slit in the front. Urban legend – for sadly, that is all it is – states that the building was designed by a woman sick to her back teeth of phallic architecture as a big feminist middle finger to the men who had made her live in the shadow of their huge metal penis replacements for decades. The truth is that the vaginal resemblance is accidental, and the architect behind it very much male. But the story persists, and is still told with a sense of pride.

Luckily for all of us who enjoy a good story involving construction and genitalia, this week has proven that Chicago's Vagina Building will soon be rubbing, er, shoulders with another case of "accidental vagina representation". The design for Qatar's new Al-Wakrah sports stadium has quickly gone viral: with its shiny, pinkish tinge, its labia-like side appendages and its large opening in the middle, the supposedly innocent building ("based upon the design of a traditional Qatari dhow boat") was just asking for trouble. And trouble came, in the form of Buzzfeed and thousands of Twitter fans. Surely a well-populated Facebook group is only hours away.

As those who have tried to keep alive the tale of the Chicago tale of the Vagina Building know, there is something quite pleasing about a building shaped like a fanny. Look out on to the London skyline and penises are everywhere: the Gherkin, for instance, might even be visible from your office window right now, thrusting itself into the grey autumn sky among wisps of cloud, a proud red light shining at its very tip. And that's without even going into the phallic implications of Big Ben. The world even has an ode to the wonky boner, that lopsided erection that is the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Penile structures were just as abundant in the ancient world, of course – and while the humble yoni once had its heyday in certain parts of Asia, it still usually took a backseat wherever ornamental penises were involved.

The Qatari stadium's resemblance to a woman's private parts may be unintentional, but I for one applaud it. Perhaps the bigwigs behind the design (no doubt all male) should embrace this so-called faux pas and rebrand it as a deliberate nod towards the increasingly liberal Qatari policies concerning women in sport. In a world where sport and vaginas very rarely come together with such prominence (see: every UK female footballer's salary versus every UK male footballer's salary), this can only be a good thing. And after all, why not have 45,000 people crammed inside a woman's reproductive system? It's not like they haven't been there before.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/18/qatar-accidental-vagina-stadium-al-wakrah-world-cup-stadium