Dogging (verb): having sex with more than one person in a public place, often with at least one stranger, and usually with others watching.
The term actually derives from the phrase ‘walking the dog’. It is a pastime that has evolved from men taking their dogs for walks and stumbling across couples having sex in bushes. However, the ‘sport’ has now become much more organised – with regular meeting places, and more or less a free-for-all spirit.
This month sees iconic fashion photographer Steven Meisel present a dogging inspired shoot in V magazine. Featuring models Anna Selezneva, Daul Kim, Iris Strubegger, and Naty Chabanenko, Italian Vogue reportedly turned down the explicit images, but interestingly the American mag snatched them up.
Personally I find the shoot both eerily beautiful and intensely disturbing. Beautiful because it captures that otherworldly feeling of ‘this is not happening’ that actually hits you if you ever stumble across sex in public. Disturbing because presenting these kinds of images in a high-brow fashion rag means people (read: young girls) sub-consciously begin to assume this stuff is normal. Spooky.
