I think you're missing the point of an art, especially art where the audience participates. Art is meant to invoke societal concepts, like gender. It makes sense to bring gender into a context such as an art piece where the audience are active participants.
Who said anything about a war between genders? Can't we talk about real issues raised by art without it being framed as a culture war? I'm a man and I don't feel in any way attacked by this discussion existing.
If the artist was a black man and the audience was 50/50 black and white but all of the violence committed against him was by white people, often was explicitly race based overtones, would you not find that notable?
