Those attempting to navigate the world of online dating know that for every polite and banal pick-up line sent through the ether of digital flirting, there's a raunchy, NSFW chat hanging out in the wings.
Phrases like "I can let you play with my tiger" and "your boobs are even nicer than my mom's" are -- rather unfortunately -- fairly commonplace forms of introductions. And there's not much a modern dater can do but block the online creeps from continuing their quixotic exchanges. And just. Keep. Swiping.
That is, unless you're Anna Gensler, the artist who's taken to Instagram to exact her revenge on the misguided lotharios of Tinder and OkCupid.
In her clever public shaming project, she turns unsavory opening lines into nude (and equally NSFW) drawn portraits of the crass men she's encountered on online dating platforms. Paired with screenshots of the original text conversations, she uploads her inspired imagery to Instagram, amounting to a collection of artfully put together PSAs rallying against digital objectification.
"Objectifying men who objectify women in 3 easy steps," Anna writes on her Instagram account. "Man sends crude line via internet. Draw him naked. Send portrait to lucky man, enjoy results."
Besides posting the drawings on Instagram, Genser also sends the portraits to the men they're based upon. It doesn't take them -- or us -- long to notice a reoccurring theme in her renderings: tiny penises.
"I didn’t want to draw them in a way that would make them happy," the artist explained to Slate. "So I just started doodling how I would imagine them naked… except sad-naked. It was the most immature thing I could think of, because their pickup lines are the most juvenile, basic things, but also still oddly offensive."
The act of turning the male gaze back on its perpetrators has garnered some interesting responses. "You're the creepiest of all," one man wrote to Gensler. "Men wanting women is the whole reason your [sic] alive and it's nature. It's pretty weird spending your time drawing d*cks on cartoons."
Sure, the act of visually defaming menacing trolls is like fighting fire with fire, but Gensler is upfront about her desire to combat harassment through art. “I’m going to draw you naked if you send me rude messages,” she writes on her OkCupid.
Check out some of the artwork from Gensler's project below and let us know your thoughts on the series in the comments.
Update: Some of the original photos posted in this article have been removed from Instagram, likely due to the platform's policy on nudity. From the artist: "Instagram, don't you think there might be a difference between nudity and art? Tumblr doesn't censor."