“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:
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
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