Will you be among the #NudePhotoRevolutionaries?


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?

Comments

  1. Louis says

    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

  2. dartigen... says

    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.)

  3. pierregoguen says

    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”

  4. Illuminata, Genie of the Beer Bottle says

    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!

  5. says

    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?

  6. AussieMike says

    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.

  7. says

    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.

  8. dartigen... says

    @9: I’m not getting that…but I’m accessing it from Australia. Might be different. Have you tried a proxy?

  9. dartigen... says

    (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.)

  10. says

    @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.

  11. says

    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.

  12. Illuminata, Genie of the Beer Bottle says

    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.

  13. Illuminata, Genie of the Beer Bottle says

    @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.

  14. says

    @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.

  15. says

    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.

  16. says

    PZ:

    Hold on there, #24: there is an expiration date on our bodies, and it’s 54? I have just been dissed.

    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?

  17. chigau (違う) says

    I’m 56, female, flat-chested, flat-bummed, wrinkly and spotty.
    I get nude for no-one!

  18. carlie says

    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.

  19. Azkyroth says

    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?

  20. carlie says

    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.

  21. Chris Booth says

    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.

  22. Happiestsadist says

    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!

  23. says

    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.

  24. David Marjanović says

    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.

  25. John Morales says

    [Sorta-OT]

    Pakistani actress sues over nude photo

    Pakistani actress Veena Malik has filed a defamation suit against an Indian magazine for a “morphed” cover photo of her posing nude with the initials of Pakistan’s intelligence agency on her arm.

    Malik’s spokesman, Sohail Rasheed, said the actress was seeking 100 million rupees ($1.9 million) in damages from FHM India, which insists the nude cover shoot was genuine and consensual.

    While Malik’s pose on the cover preserves a scant degree of modesty, any nudity is still very much frowned upon in conservative India – and indeed in Muslim-majority Pakistan.

    Weeping, her retired 56-year-old soldier father Malik Mohammad Aslam said: “I have disowned her, I have severed all ties with her and I don’t want her to have any share in whatever meagre assets I have until she is cleared of the controversy and pledges not to visit India again.”

  26. says

    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…

  27. Tigger_the_Wing says

    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.

  28. Part-Time Insomniac, Zombie Porcupine Nox Arcana Fan says

    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.

  29. Agent Smith says

    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.

  30. crys says

    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?

  31. John Morales says

    crys, if you have a look at the links provided in the OP, you should get a good idea.

  32. Illuminata, Genie of the Beer Bottle says

    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.

    LOl whut? Have we already forgotten Nipplegate? Are you seriously trying to suggest that West has no issues with nakedness, or non-photoshopped bodies?

  33. peteknight says

    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.