Modest Muse (a poem)

Oh, sorrow indeed,
to be chided for praising beauty
where one finds it:
no celebrating a sun slipped out on dark days;
no noting a shy girl’s sweet smile;
no citing the elegance of the slender swan’s neck
nor the peacock’s plume.

To be left with unmade music
And silent songs
for a modest muse:
oh, sorrow indeed.

30 March, 2012 

Take a seat 2

So, I’ve noticed the past month or so the way I’ve been sitting. I wrote about this a while back. But I’ve noticed more and more that I’m sitting with my legs more open. I know that partly I’ve been sitting at my keyboard, and the stand it sits on it’s not really conducive to sitting with my legs together. And also the way my computer is set up at home isn’t so conducive either. Although I still feel like I’m not the guy with my legs aggressively spread apart, I wonder if my seated attitude has changed.

(I may’ve written about this more as well, or at least mentioned it to people when discussing the blog.) I’m absolutely certain that this blog has contributed to an increase in my confidence about my body. It’s not that I felt unconfident before or had any significant issues about my body. But having all these pictures online, and having people compliment how the pictures look and how I look—these things have maybe built up my ego a little. I hope that’s a good thing.

Perhaps I’ve also developed a little more awareness of my penis while I’m dressed.

Not long ago I met a young woman who knows several people I know, some of whom are aware of my blog. Well, in chatting with her, she made some reference about hearing how I am. I don’t remember the exact context, but I thought she might be referring to my blog. I didn’t ask, ‘cause I didn’t want to bring up any awkwardness if that’s not what she was referring to.

Also, I feel like there are a few other acquaintances—again, who know people who are aware of the blog—that I’ve noticed looking at me more or differently. And I’m not sure if they’re looking at me differently now because they’ve heard about, or seen, the blog, or if it’s something else. If I feel more confident about my body, that probably comes off somehow. And confidence is attractive.

Well, this has become a bit of a ramble. My point was...sitting.

So...am I sitting differently? Or am I just more aware?

Also, do people I’m only sort of acquainted with know about the blog? Is that a good or bad thing?

Do I come off any differently now, and does that actually affect how people respond to me?

Or is it all just my imagination?

Naked Branches

It’s spring. Things are blooming. I’m sneezing.

There are still a lot of naked trees.

I was put in mind this past week of a poem I wrote in college.

By the way, this is a “po-um”. Not a “pome” nor a “po-eem”. I’m Just sayin’.

Anyway, here’s the poem.

“ANTICIPATION”

Soft-falling leaves outside my window,

while I sit and think of nothing,

suggest an autumn breeze—

the cycle of seasons closing,

preparing for a new death.

I expect dark days,

the gloomy outlook of another beginning,

But the sun shines a little too bright,

the trees show a little too green.

Spring growth, it seems,

pushes away

the old discolored remnants

that held on through a mild winter—

no howling blasts to strip them away.

I prefer the blasts,

violently shaking off all that’s used up,

than a gentle spring breeze

and the persistent pressure

of new growth waiting to show through.

Yes, I think I prefer the blasts.

(March 1992)

March 18th (a poem)

The sky is a solid grey,
can’t even find the sun.
No hint of where
it should be.
I know it’s there,
I think so anyway,
floating out in space
...somewhere. 

Meanwhile, back on earth,
back here in my town,
my balcony,
such a dreary day:
cold, damp, melancholy;
a day for coffee and blankets;
a day for lovers, or loneliness. 

Even yesterday’s spring buds,
new, pretty pale green,
seem weary today,
or perhaps they’re just
unfocused
in this grey-ish light.

Blathering

The past two days I’ve found myself walking behind two lumbering idiots. Well four, actually: two pairs. It was along the same stretch of about 4 blocks near school.

In both cases it was a pair of white guys who, it seems, were babbling some English-like conversation. But for some reason I couldn’t understand most of what they were saying. And I was pretty-much right behind them—close enough to hear their conversation. I understood occasional words or phrases, and the speed and rhythms sounded like English. But the placement of the sound was odd. Maybe pre-nasal, or post-nasal—not sure.

I thought it was really odd that I’d have two such similar experiences in two days. And I’ve had no unusual trouble understanding anyone else lately.

All four of these guys did look like big, dumb guys. The second pair, this afternoon’s pair, were giants. Both were I’d say well over 6 feet tall. And they seemed to have stupidity just beaming from their faces.

Actually, that’s true of a lot of guys I’ve noticed the past few days. They look really stupid. Or really arrogant. Or both. The ladies don’t look stupid or arrogant—well, some do, of course. Mostly I’ve been noticing in women how many different ways of being beautiful there are: an interesting jawline or nose or shoulders...so many ways. 

Xena

So, I’ve been watching Xena: Warrior Princess on the netflix for a little while now. 

I just saw an episode that had a disclaimer at the beginning: “The producers of the following episode took liberties with Hindu deities and historical timelines, but their sole intent was to illustrate the beauty and power of the Hindu religion.”

Well, first of all...bullshit. Their intent was to make an episode full of action and adventure and all that stuff they do in every episode, and that they did in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. 

After taking tons of liberties with Greek mythology and history, plus a bit of Egyptian, Roman, Britain, even a smattering of Chinese, they sent Xena and Gabriel to India, where they took the exact same kind of liberties. No big surprise there.

So, why not add a similar disclaimer to every episode?

Oh, I know. Because there are still tons of people who practice Hinduism. Not many folks around worshipping Zeus or Ares, not a lot of Celts around.

So the producers have no qualms about sweeping historical/mythological inaccuracies on a regular basis. But somebody, somewhere in the chain of command, decided they might not want to offend the Hindus. After all, they’re still around. And they have nukes. 

Naked Revolution

“To dare: that is the whole secret of revolutions.”

—Antoine Saint-Just

Okay, so there are a lot of links I could post to all this. There are a lot of places I might start. Maybe I’ll just wander around the topic a bit. Hope that’s okay.

Calendar

I saw this article a few days ago:

"My body, my choice" Exiled Iranian women pose nude...

It’s about this video: 

which is in support of/PR for this calendar: Nude Photo Revolutionary Calendar

The video was released on International Women’s Day (8 March).

The intention of the calendar is to support free speech and against Islamic restrictions on women. Also it is meant to recognize pay homage to the effort of Aliaa Maghda El-Mahdy. 

Egypt’s Naked Blogger

I thought I might post something on this back when it happened (November 2011), but I never got around to it.

Aliaa Maghda El-Mahdy is a young Egyptian woman and an activist-type blogger.

Last fall she posted a nude picture of herself online.

I’m not completely sure of the timeline, but I believe she first posted it on facebook. It was removed by the facebook people. Then a friend suggested she put it on twitter, which is likely where the uproar started. And then she posted it in a blog.

Her twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/aliaaelmahdy

Her blog (one of her blogs): arebelsdiary.blogspot.com

The blog post: فن عاري Nude Art

Aliaa said in a CNN interview: “... I am not shy of being a woman in a society where women are nothing but sex objects harassed on a daily basis by men who know nothing about sex or the importance of a woman. The photo is an expression of my being and I see the human body as the best artistic representation of that.” 

She has a Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliaa_Magda_Elmahdy

Of course, a lot of conservative types were outraged and called her horrible names. But even many reformers, activists, etc., came down pretty harshly on her, saying that this doesn’t represent what they’re doing, that she’s just a stripper...that sort of thing.

But I agree with actress/dancer Amanda Azim: "If you have a problem with nudity, you have a problem with humanity."

Golshifteh Farahani

Another Middle Eastern woman who caused some uproar by posing nude is Golshifteh Farahani. 

She is an Iranian actress living in Paris. She was exiled from Iran recently for posing nude in a French magazine and video.

Farahani’s posing nude was also a protest of Islamic restrictions.

She said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph: “I was told by a ministry of culture and Islamic guide official that Iran does not need any actors or artists. You may offer your artistic services somewhere else.”

That an official from the ministry of CULTURE would say this is mind-boggling.

Here’s the video: 

And here’s an English translation of the spoken text: Revelation 2012, Corps et Ames

The woman behind the Nude Photo Revolutionary Calendar, Maryam Namazie, says in support of Farahani: “We need nudity now more than ever to break the hold of Islam and Islamism in our lives particularly since Islam hates a woman’s body like nothing else…”

Me

So, I was chatting with an old friend last night on the facebook. She said: “One thing I always hated was that men always thought I was trying to be sexual... How come they couldn't understand that I just wanted to be nude?”

So I mentioned this topic of Egypt’s Naked Blogger and this calendar/video.  And then I said this:

It's a sort of political statement that would have little impact if done here because nudity tends to be either simply sexualized or marginalized.
That coupled with the idea that sexuality is naughty &/or ought to be hidden, means that nudity often becomes this adolescent, funny, arousing, or whatever thing instead of just being nudity.
It's a sort of political statement that would have little impact if done here because nudity tends to be either simply sexualized or marginalized.
That coupled with the idea that sexuality is naughty &/or ought to be hidden, means that nudity often becomes this adolescent, funny, arousing, or whatever thing instead of just being nudity.
But it's not just men. I was chatting with a woman I know a few days ago about being naked, and she couldn't seem to separate it from sex. She was all “I like to hug people, so that would be awkward.”
Well, only if you made it awkward.
“And you could totally see it if a guy was turned on.”
Well, okay, I suppose so. But once you get over the initial shock of nudity, once you get used to seeing people naked, it becomes less of a thing.
I have found, since I've been doing the blog, that I feel even better about being naked. And that, although I recognize that my body isn't perfect, I like it even more. 

To clarify, being naked doesn’t have to be a sexual thing. Sure, it can be. There’s a HUGE industry based on just that idea: that a naked person is sexual, and we all want sex so much that we’ll pay (or some advertiser will) to see it.

But it isn’t always. Just look at some art sometime.

Anyway... And once you get used to seeing people naked, you start to get that. It becomes less weird, or awkward, or whatever. And if being naked leads to being okay with being naked, that will lead to less hang-ups about our bodies, and that’s a better way to be. It’s healthier.

While appearing naked just does not have the same impact here in the U.S. or the secular Western world that it does in the Islamic world, I think it’s still something that should be done. Because there are still way too many folks like my friend who equate nakedness with sex. And who think that both are things that ought to be hidden. But I tell you, the hiding and shaming and guilt-ladden-ing of sex and of our bodies has caused so many people so much pain—in the guilt some people have in dealing with their own sexuality and/or in the horrible things that have been perpetrated upon some people by others who’ve developed some ugly, violent sexual needs or outlets as  result of so much guilt and hiding.

Well, that’s it. I say the whole world should get naked in support of freedom and against misogynistic laws and mindsets and against the repression and shaming of sexuality. So feel free to join me. Start your own naked blog. Or appear on mine. Make a calendar or video or both.

“Those who suppress freedom always do so in the name of law and order.”

—John V. Lindsay

“An oppressed people are authorized whenever they can to rise and break their fetters.”

—Henry Clay

“Those who are inclined to compromise can never make a revolution.”

—Kemal Ataturk