The combined rise of digital photography and social media has expanded
what might be considered photo worthy. Among the pouting selfies and
food stuffs of the day exists the ubiquitous dick pic. The mainstream
media generally focuses on dick pics of the unsolicited kind, which,
negatively positioned, are commonly associated with heterosexual
harassment. Considering the ubiquity of dick pics across apps and
platforms, research on the topic nevertheless remains scarce. In this
article, we examine the dick pic as an online communicative form, first
considering how it manifests the ability to harass and then moving
beyond this dominant framing to analysis of contexts where such images
are collated, expected, and sought after. Through this analysis of dick
pics as figures and actors of harassment, curation, and desire, we
demonstrate the simultaneous tenacity and flexibility of their meanings
in connection with the dynamics of consent and non-consent, intimacy and
distance, and complex circuits of desire. We further address the role
of platforms, apps, and app stores, via their community standards and
terms of use, in shaping the nature, and presence, of dick pics, and
discuss the affective and communicative functions that these affordances
serve (or fail to serve). Our analysis of three key modes of engagement
with dick pics demonstrates the ambiguity and multiple valences of the
phenomenon addressed.