In her biography: Mapplethorpe, Patricia Morrisroe comments extensively on Man in Polyester Suit. "Robert Mapplethorpe found "god" in a gay bar called Sneakers one drizzly September evening in 1980 after leaving Keller's [a former S& M bar that was now a gathering place for men interested in biracial sex]." Robert saw Milton Moore pacing up and down West Street, and was instantly transfixed by his beautiful face and forlorn stare. Mapplethorpe invited Moore to his apartment. Upon learning of his ambition to become a model, Mapplethorpe agreed to create a portfolio. Mapplethorpe's motives were mixed -- he was smitten. Morrisroe continues: "Mapplethorpe's love / obsession for Moore reached its fullest expression in the photograph some consider his masterpiece -- Man in Polyester Suit. . . He cropped the photograph at Moore's neck according to his agreement [with Moore], but by isolating the genitals he seemed to to be pandering to the notion that blacks existed only as sex objects."   Reviews were highly charged and visceral. "Allen Ellenzweig, in Art in America, wrote: 'Mapplethorpe signals unambiguously that we are here to inspect: the body is its own unapologetic event. Accordingly, we have no sense of an attempted mediation between Sex and Art -- the esthetic object is the sexual object, and vice versa. Without any pretense of a sociological pose, this exhibition [of which Polyester Suit was a part] accurately taps into prevailing cultural values: sex is beautifully packaged and objectified: you can even take it home and put it on your walls.' However, Fred McDarrah of the Village Voice used blunter language: 'Main picture here is a big black dude seen in an expensive suit with is fly open and his cock sticking out. The picture is ugly, degrading, obscene -- typical of the artist's work, which appeals largely to drooling, lascivious collectors who buy them, and return to their furnished rooms to jerk off.'" Morrisroe, Patricia. Mapplethorpe. New York: Random House (1995). Could the same words be spoken -- by both Ellenzweig and McDarrah -- of Gustave Courbet's painting, The Origin of the World?  Of course. The images are nearly identical -- including truncated head and legs -- and only the medium (and social context) have changed.