Ceramic sex aid-making workshop shocks New Zealand: Potters association president – who won an award for her ‘Vagina Teapot’ – quits amid furore over raunchy class
- Ceramicist Nicole Gaston, 41, quit after facing a backlash and online abuse
- The planned event would have been held with visiting Mexican artist Iza Lozano
- But Gaston said the backlash had been so extreme she has instead resigned
- She felt the workshop would promote sex-positivity, rather than be polarising
The president of New Zealand’s pottery association has resigned after plans for a ceramic sex-aid making workshop sparked a furious backlash in the country.
Ceramicist Nicole Gaston – who previously won an award for her ‘Vagina Teapot’ – resigned from her post, sparking allegations of bullying and online abuse.
Gaston said she wanted the Wellington Potters’ Association to hold the event with Iza Lozano, a visiting Mexican artist who has conducted similar workshops in her homeland.
But rather than promote sex-positivity and empower women like she had hoped, the proposed workshop shocked the genteel world of New Zealand pottery, but also many others in the country outside of the community.
The 41-year-old public servant said the backlash against the proposal had been so extreme that she quit her voluntary role as Wellington Potters’ Association president.
Ceramicist Nicole Gaston – who won an award for her ‘Vagina Teapot’ – has resigned from her post as president of New Zealand’s pottery association after facing backlash for planning for hosting a ceramic sex-said making workshop (file photo)
‘Some committee members said it was needlessly provocative, someone else said it wasn’t appropriate,’ she said.
‘There was this very reactionary, pearl-clutching response, like “how can we talk about sex, we should be ashamed of it”.’
Gaston said many men appeared to find the idea of women making dildos emasculating and she resigned when opposition to the workshop began to include personal attacks.
‘It’s not like we would have forced anyone to take part in the workshop,’ she said. ‘If you’re not interested, stay at home.’
Gaston said she had also been attacked online.
‘I saw on Reddit that someone called me a nutcase and I thought “I may be a little outspoken, but I don’t think I’m crazy,”‘ she said.
Gaston noted that pottery dildos were easily sterilised, could be warmed, and unlike latex versions did not pose the risk of leeching chemicals into the body.
‘Some of the oldest ceramic works ever found are of phalluses,’ she told AFP news agency. ‘This isn’t exactly brand new, people have been doing this for thousands of years.’
The dildo furore is not Gaston’s first experience with spicy ceramics – she won an award in 2018 for her work entitled ‘Vagina Teapot’.
She was surprised at how polarising the dildo workshop plan became, saying she envisaged it as an empowering project that was positive about sex.
There has been support from some Wellington Potters’ Association members, including Vivian Rodriguez, who acknowledged the workshop would challenge the moral ideas of some people.
‘At the same time it will provide an excellent avenue for those wanting to explore different types of creative expression, gender identity, and sexual empowering through art,’ she wrote in a letter to the association’s governing committee.
The Wellington Potters’ Association did not respond to requests for comment.
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