I’ve recently had three submissions removed from the Men’s POTD because “image is now considered too much emphasis on the genitals”. This new rule is being applied very inconsistently and should be scrapped!

Here’s the three rejections (with too much emphasis on my genitals:
https://photos.modelmayhem.com/contest/ … 1698965705

https://photos.modelmayhem.com/contest/ … 1698965705

https://photos.modelmayhem.com/contest/ … 1698965705

Yet, one of the photos submitted for voting today features a guy holding his cock and balls on a leash!  Yes, it’s a great pic, but WTF? Who determined mine were too much?
https://www.modelmayhem.com/contests/po … iew/384144

Yes, the open legs jumped right out at me.
Hey, Bill, I want to see you get a leash!

I don’t necessarily agree that the rule should be scrapped, but I do agree that it’s applied horribly inconsistently. One of my submissions was denied for focusing on the genitals because even though the focal point was the model’s eyes, he was seated and part of his genitals were blurry but visible. They claimed that the focus was the genitals because they were closer to the camera, even though they were obscured and out of focus.

Meanwhile we’ve had an obese old man posting naked iPhone pics of himself in every contest for months with absolutely no artistic quality or integrity and it’s just allowed for some reason.

When the rules say focusing on the genitals, they do not mean that that is the part in focus- focus meaning sharp and clear.  If I am focused on my work or the task at hand, I am talking about concentration without being distracted by other things.  I can be focused on a problem or idea.  Focus doesn't always mean where the lens was sharp and clear.  How about we substitute the word emphasis for focus in this rule?

We all know to compose photographs to direct a person's concentration to a part of the photo or to use an eye at the intersection of the grid in the rule of thirds to increase the appeal of the photo.  The pose, the body position and items in the photo can lead the viewers eye to a place in the photo even if that place is not in focus.   In the linked examples, don't the open legs direct a viewer's eyes to the genitalia?

Using other people in a photo, the direction of their gaze, leads to items that cannot be seen. In the painting "The Swing" by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, we do not have to see the part of the woman's body that is the point of interest.  Not only does the man in front of her, but the statue in front, the statue beneath, even the shoe that has flown off her foot tells us what the image was concentrated on. and eluding too.  While no one on this site would disqualify this painting as focused on the genital, it would be easy enough to conclude that is what is the principle point of interest, and in its day, the painting was considered filth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Swing_(Fragonard)

Rest assured that great works of art through the centuries would not be permitted in the MM contest, such as "The Origins of the World," (L'Origine du monde) by Gustave Courbet.  Your masterpieces that are denied are in good company!