Inspired by Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, activists are putting together a #NudePhotoRevolutionaries Calendar to protest repressive policies around the world. They are seeking submissions from you. Are you willing to shed some clothes to make a statement against oppression?
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Yes, but I don’t want to hurt their sales.
I offered, sent in samples even, and happily it has worked out well.
They are paying me quite a handsome sum to never, ever do that again and to stay well away from submitting such materials in the future.
I am currently trying this tactic with Playgirl, Vogue, and several other pornographic/fashion publications of note.
My income has increase tenfold in the last month.
Louis
Now is your big chance PZ. You know you want to.
You could tie 7 condoms around your wast and pretend you’re an octopus!
I would do this if I went so far as to consider myself a revolutionary.
(And if I was still not entirely cool with other people seeing me naked. Even if it’s just a photo. Heck, I still kick my mother out of the bathroom if I’m having a shower and it’s not like it’s anything she hasn’t seen a million times.)
Or octodick.
While I am all for nudity, I am not so sure this would be good for my career.
Finally, a campaign that a naturist like me can get behind, and don’t have enough of a career to worry about the damage.
Don’t know about the rest of you, but when I click on the link, I get a blank page and this at the top of my browser: “This domain has been seized by ICE – Homeland Security Investigations”
I’m in. Its a two-fold win: I get to use the body I have worked so extremely hard to achieve over the last two years for revolutionary purposes. Double win.
Wish me luck!
I’m all for campaigns that challenge the ridiculous attitudes that seem to prevail about nudity. I wonder whether the cultural restrictions on the naked body a product of human society, or are they driven by the shame that religion creates about anything to do with reproduction and sexuality?
Why all the immature, jerkish comments? This woman has done something very brave and the calendar is a show of solidarity for her cause. It’s not a solicitation for participants in porn. Grow up.
I would if two things were different:
a) I didn’t work for a company that might frown on it.
b) My body was the right gender :\
Dear Mr Ibis3 grumpy bum. We’re just having fun with the idea. No one here dismisses her guts and resolve. She is very brave.
I’m with Illuminata on this one…
I will consult with the partner to see if she’ll want to as well…
This is something I support- because I feel that the originals made a profound statement.
@9: I’m not getting that…but I’m accessing it from Australia. Might be different. Have you tried a proxy?
(double post D8)
@11: I don’t wonder if it isn’t sometimes. I can understand nudity being a bit taboo in cultures centered on colder climate – nudity is practically inviting death in somewhere like, for example, northern Russia where it’s almost permanently winter.
And I am surprised in some cases where it’s not taboo in hotter climates too – nudity here in Australia on a 40 degree day is inviting sunburns in some very uncomfortable places.
Otherwise, while I can see why some people would choose not to display their bodies in public, I don’t see why some people have such ridiculous complexes over nudity in the privacy of someone’s own home.
(Sometimes I don’t wonder if they’re jealous that Aliaa has such good self-esteem that she is okay with being seen naked and being naked. And given the amount of people with body-image issues, I wouldn’t be surprised by it either.)
@ Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
What sort of company do you work for that would/could object? Are you customer facing?
@Drawing Business:
I work for the government.
@17
I do wonder if the reason that so many people have such a poor body image is precisely because the only bodies that we see naked (other than our own and our partners), are the really good ones shown in the media. If more of us could see just how bloody average the average person’s body is, it might reduce some of the pressure to be perfect.
I’m pretty comfortable with my body (I’ve done some life modelling for art classes), but even I have some serious hangups about certain areas, mainly due to the influence of the male bodies that are most prevalent in porn.
@ Katherine Lorraine
That would do it.
Even though I wouldn’t associate my photo with my official name, the chance remains. Regardless, the gender issue stands.
Katherine, I can’t give you a link to the pictures because searching for it would be NSFW, but there is a Dutch transsexual woman named Kelly, who posed for the Dutch Playboy.
I’ve modeled nude before, so I would…but at 54, I’ll leave this project to younger peoples.
And then there is Patricia Paay, who became the oldest Playboy model at 60.
Drawing Business: I don’t think there’s a person on earth who is 100% happy with their body. What’s that old saying? Something like “in the land of self-loathing, the barbie doll reigns supreme”
I’ve lost approximately 130 lbs, and I was morbidly obese since junior high (I’m 33 now). That equals loose skin. And, I’ve still got more weight I want to lose. I’m no media-perfected body by any means.
That said, I’m damn proud of this body, regardless of what other people would call flaws. Its an achievement no one thought I could manage, and I consider it a testament to how far I’ve come, despite all that’s happened.
And, if I can then use it to fight back against misogynistic/sex-shaming/wingnut religious nonsense, all the better.
@SQB:
As a transsexual, though – did she have breasts? Cause I don’t have those. I’ve got a fully male body.
@Katherine Lorraine: Let me first make it clear that I’m in no way attempting to coax or convince you to do anything – especially in light of your employer – but, I think it needs to be said: your participation in such a venture would make it truly revolutionary, especially in light of what is the aim of this project.
@Illuminata:
Hence my desire to do it. I just have issues stemming from an often disgust of my physical body. I said to someone yesterday that I’ve got the legs, and my face isn’t ridiculously masculine – it’s just I lack the arse, hips, and breasts to be happy with myself.
Hold on there, #24: there is an expiration date on our bodies, and it’s 54? I have just been dissed.
If the only bodies portrayed in this calendar are young and conventionally attractive, I don’t think it will be revolutionary any more.
Octopriapus (see def. 3).
PZ:
Nah, no expiration date. Honestly, if I hadn’t recently chopped all my hair off due to the PPD reaction, I’d consider sending in some submissions.
Are you going to show off your 54, PZ?
I’m 56, female, flat-chested, flat-bummed, wrinkly and spotty.
I get nude for no-one!
The Shape of a Mother
The Century Project
Adipositivity
None of the above are SFW.
Disclaimer: I just saw the century project site while trying to find the shape of a mother site and didn’t fully explore it; I’m not comfortable with some of the photography that’s included. It is photographs of people of all ages, and I don’t feel good about the issues involved with informed consent around the ages of, say 7 through about 18 for said pictures.
…are they even remotely sexual?
Azkyroth – no, I don’t think so (I only saw one). But still, people of that age group aren’t expected to be able to have informed consent for most things in general, and the potential repercussions of nude photos later on is something that they wouldn’t be thinking of or understand the extent of. Regardless that they aren’t sexual, society treats it that way anyhow.
Haven’t I contributed enough, with all of the incidents now whimsically called “indecent exposures”?
I told everybody I was a revolutionary, but no one seems to understand…
Glen Davidson
I am frightened for this brave woman and for the others in or from those dangerous places who are joining them.
I am moved by their courage.
I grieve for their suffering.
I hope that they awaken courage rather than vengeance in others.
I find the #NudePhotoRevolutionaries idea brave and inspiring. But I would never, ever do it in a billion years myself.
My body is wrong because of dysphoria issues that mean that for an unpleasant amount of the time, the only part of me I’m willing to see are my hands. *offers fistbump of solidarity to Katherine Lorraine*
Well, that and the fact that cameras were involved in my sexual assault, which to this day means that a camera near me can lead to PTSD flashbacks. So there’s that.
Also, I agree with PZ at @#30.
Iluminata @#10: AWESOME. Good luck!
More I think about this the more I think my only problem is the gender issue. What do I have to fear from this? It won’t be associated with my real name. It’s not against any rules (maybe ethics issues, but…)
I risk the tiny off-chance someone will recognize my naked body – which I’m pondering some artistic ways of photographing anyway – and complain to my work about it. I’m risking perhaps a minor reprimand to which I can merely respond “I’m making a political statement as a stand against oppression” and there’s jack all they can do except perhaps a stern warning.
There are people who do this who risk their life over this sort of an act.
Indeed. In places where the sight of a naked human is actually shocking, enabling said sight actually is a statement against oppression. I don’t really understand what the point is of Westerners participating.
[Sorta-OT]
Pakistani actress sues over nude photo
Would love to, but as a teacher, it would immediately cost me my job. We just had a staff member fired for stripping in a club 3 hours north of here.
Of course, no consequences were given to the male teachers who were frequenting that club…
Like Caine, I am 54 (I think I’m about three weeks older than you!), have a crew-cut (I cut my waist-length hair off for charity three years ago and kept it short because it is easier for my arthritic hands to manage) and feel I am well past my prime. Not that I ever felt I had a prime, mind you. It isn’t the short hair that bothers me. Just a terror of being photographed nude. I don’t even like being photographed fully clothed (although it has got better in the last few years). No idea why.
I’d consider posing even if my body isn’t in the somewhat “Sarah Connor in Terminator 2” condition I’d like it to be. But, you know, Catholic school for one. And being a teacher’s aide.
I think I’d show my body.
I’d rather leave my face out of it.
While I wholeheartedly support the idea of having more average bodies depicted, I’d rather not lower the mean quality that much by contributing my own pudgy, Playstation-tanned corpus
All the best to ’em, tho. ‘Bout time some autocrats got a face full of naked attitude.
Like you PZ, I’m afraid I’d be scaring people off by doing so….
Still I might give it a shot, but how explicit are the photos expected to be? Full frontal nekkedness or nude-style conveniently covering the naughty bits?
crys, if you have a look at the links provided in the OP, you should get a good idea.
As a naturist (I use the tag Naked Athiest on Twitter.) I’m bewildered by the responses of people who claim to be rational thinkers, so many have put nudity in the Playboy category, or eliminated themselves or others based on age.
Nudity as a form of protest has nothing to do with sexism or ageism, lets get that straight from the start, there are no rules declaring older people unfit to participate in nude protest OR nude recreation.