Submissions?

I got my first emailed submission today. My little heart is fluttering. I have been hesitant to have volunteers mail in their photos...but it's not like I was going to say no! I think that's the absolute bravest thing. And it's got me thinking.

So...should I take photo submissions? It would allow me to do a kind of Post-Secret style blog...which would be neat, and it would also allow me to get photos of people from all around the country (and the world!) instead of just Atlanta. However I'm worried about the legal stuff -- making sure everyone's over 18, etc. Maybe I could get a real (non-blog) website...but those cost money...hmmm...


Tell me guys...WHAT DO YOU THINK?

"Why I Stripped" #45

1) Did you strip for political or personal reasons? Explain.

I stripped more for political reasons. Everywhere I go I am surrounded by genuinely gorgeous people of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Only a minute fraction of those people are embraced as being attractive and I want that to change. I know that my body is lovely but I did not always think that. I want everyone to know how empowering it is to show off their natural beauty and embrace it.

2) Did you strip to learn something about yourself or to show something about yourself? Explain.

To show that a body with loose skin, scars and stretch marks is not a freak abnormality, nor disgusting. Instead it is often a natural part of life and truly awesome. 

3) Put into words the message that your body communicated by the act of stripping.

I will not conform, I will stand tall and proud for this is who I am, and I love it.

Stripped #45

Link Roundup -11/14/10

• Tell me, guys, would you take a Fat Studies class?

• So, apparently there's a computer program called MovieReshape, which is basically the movie version of Photoshop. The program allows you to thin out, bulk up, and basically mold an actor's body to the desired form. Is this horrible, or what? What do you think?

• Here's something fun from the NY Times: Model-Morphoses, which allows you to play with shots of models before and after they've been made up.

Stripped #44

Stripped #43

Stripped #42

Survey

I've tried a lot of methods in trying to get my models' opinons, and very few of them have generated a response (which is probably my fault). So, since I'm trying to streamline this opinon-sharing process, I've made a survey for my volunteers. If you've participated, please please PLEASE take this survey:

Click here to take the survey.

Oh my goodness!

Apparently there's a feature on Blogger called "Stats" that allows you to see who's been checking out your blog .  . . lots of people have found Stripped! Wow!

So . . . all you mysterious people . . . one tiny request: 

PLEASE COMMENT!

I want to hear what you think: about the photos, about the articles, about everything. Because I love you.

Stripped #40 and #41

This is true friendship.

Slouch Conspiracy

Go here. That's right. Go to UrbanOutfitters.com. Now, download their "Late Fall" Catalog.

I promise I'm not selling anything. Look through the pictures. Look at the women. What's wrong here?

They're all hunched over or slouching, like ragdolls. Look at those vacant faces. They look really uncomfortable. Or maybe dead. Now turn to page 15. *GASP!* You can see a hiiiint of  breast-curve on the girl in the pink shirt!

Why are these girls posed so awkwardly? And why don't we see curves anywhere else in the ENTIRE CATALOG? Because the models are posed to disguise their curves.

So, for your reading pleasure, I've compiled my very own How To Model for Urban Outfitters guide:

• Hunch. Posture is for confident people. You need to take up as little space as possible.
• Dip your clavicles forward so that you look extra frail and bony.
• Layers, layers, layers. Giant scarves, oversized shirts, big collars = absolute musts. We want the clothes to wear you.
• Think like Eve and cover your lascivious, sinful female body with your hair. 
• Strategically place your hands near your face so your arms cover your chest. This move has the added bonus of communicating insecurity because it looks like nervous fidgeting.
• "Artful" poses and awkward action shots are essential to help hide those disgusting fleshbags dangling from your chest.

Once you start to look for it, you'll see it everywhere. I call it the "slouch conspiracy."

Women and Other Endangered Animals

This photo is disgusting. It confronts you, like good art should. It's not a new concept, but is is done quite well here. It's awfully significant that Gaga's "bits" are covered by meat. Her nudity is a consumable product. The meat is just a symbol for what's underneath it. But of course, that concept somehow escaped the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals:

"No matter how beautifully it is presented, flesh from a tortured animal is flesh from a tortured animal," PETA president Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement. "Meat represents bloody violence and suffering, so if that's the look they were going for, they achieved it." 

Look kids, I have a serious beef with PETA (No pun intended. Okay, well, maybe). I have my reasons, but my primary issues are that they lay women out like slabs of meat, exploit their sexuality, romanticize violence against women, and butcher their images... you know, to help the animals.

(They also make bad puns and suck at Photoshop.)

 

There are literally hundreds of examples of PETA's sexist and objectifying advertising. One of their major spokespeople is Pamela Anderson who is, of course, best known for her massive tits intellect. I'm just saying, it wasn't witty remarks that were bouncing on the intro to Baywatch. Amiright?

Don't get me wrong. I love animals. I am deeply considering becoming a vegetarian, because I think the meat industry is cruel and evil. But between the whole "I'd rather go naked" shtick (and by "naked" apparently they mean Photoshopped to hell...) and the "Vegetarians have better sex" video, I think enough is enough. It's cheap and stupid to advance the agenda of one oppressed group at the expense of another. Says (my new bestie) Carol J. Adams in her introduction to The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory: "Honoring animals but not women is like separating theory from practice, the word from the flesh." Pot, meet kettle. 

So please, PETA, let's talk. Put down the airbrush. Stop using shock tactics that undermine the legitimacy of your message.  

(And if still don't see what I'm talking about, guys, just watch this.)

Stripped #39

Stripped #38

Stripped #37

Men's Sizing Sham!

Ho ho! Designers are biased in menswear too...

Ways of Seeing -- The Female Nude

Link Roundup

• This Hierarchy of Food Needs really helps explain why some of us make the choices in diet we do (HINT: It's because there is no other choice.)
• Is there such thing as gender-neutral clothing? This has been on my mind ever since I read an article in the NY Times about how androgyny is "in." And its true, companies like American Apparel and I Don't Like Mondays are selling more and more unisex clothes. It's a neat idea -- blurring the lines of the gender binary and all that.
  

Can I get an "amen?"

This is shallow, pathetic, and angering.

Well look at these elitist so-and-sos. They're apparently the spawn of of a message board called Get Thin or Die Trying and related to the "End Discrimination Against Thin People" group, which crows "Most (girl) members in this group are US 0-4." Cos Goodness knows it's so damned hard being deemed attractive and acceptable by society.

Some choice bits to seethe over: "This group is not just for skinny jeans, but for people who agree that fashion including skinny jeans are meant for thin, fit, and healthy people. No more of this "overweight is healthy" mentality that America has developed. It's for people against the new rule in Spain that models have to be a certain weight (NOTE: You mean the one that was made to keep anorexic models from dropping dead on the runway? That one?!).We do NOT want to see fat asses walking the catwalk in clothing meant for thin people. We see enough of that in the streets. ALL clothing looks better on people who are thin, and healthy. "

This is how that makes me feel:























So, you bet your furry ass I reported this group to Facebook for hate speech. That kind of bullshit is not acceptable. Remember kids, skinny won't keep you from being having ugly insides. Being an awesome, nice person will.

Very sexy.

Sweet Jeezus, that woman is attractive. Seriously, guys. She has an actual form. . .like, places where her body interacts with itself (beneath her armpit, her sides) instead of looking like some kind of sexless crystalline structure.

























Sorry I've been gone so long, darlings. Summer school has been eating my soul a little bit. Also, I've had to take a bit of a break. I've just been feeling a little scared about this project...I mean, what happens if this doesn't go anywhere? Or what if it does? Also, it was getting to the point that every time I saw an example of lookism, I wanted to kill someone. So, you know. . . needed to cool down some. Much better now.

So, here's some good news: it looks like Marc Jacobs might at a size 18 to the label. Fabulous, no?

I've got to get back to comparing the ways that Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Sylvia Plath subvert the patriarchy in their narratives (for an American Lit final), but I'll be posting some more nudie photos soon!

via FabSugar.

Just so you know...

I'm not dead. I'm just thinking. Good stuff, don't worry.

(If you really want to know:
I'm writing a book proposal for the Project. Yay!)

- G

That F***ing Looks Like Comedy!

Chelsea Peretti at the Laugh Factory from the Axe Twisted Humor Tour - watch more funny videos

I thought this was hilarious.

Oh Snap!

The Stripped Project is featured over at The Shape of a Mother! Go check it out!

Celeb-Bodies: You Decide

Over at Elle you can vote on which one of these ladies has the "most inspiring" body. I don't know if that squicks me out or if it's a positive thing. What do you think? And why is Heidi Montag on this list?

A letter

I just started summer school and I've been soooo busy! It's so hard trying to juggle all the aspects of school, home life, and art! Poor me, being privileged enough to get an education! (That was sarcasm.) I finally checked me email and I received this wonderful letter:

"I came across your site today, and it was thrilling. I've always been kind of fascinated by the beauty of the human body, and for a long time, that's all I would draw. Despite that, I've had an eating disorder for the past 12 years. For some reason my own body was never good enough. Seeing your site really gave me a boost. To be endlessly hounded with Victoria's Secret models, plastic celebs (many of which are only that skinny because of drugs), and airbrushed EVERYTHING.... it's wearing to look a yourself and see the circles under your eyes, the scars on your skin, the cellulite on your thighs. In our society we have somehow made everything that is physically feminine the ENEMY and we embrace bones. We hate and attempt to discard everything that makes us look like women. I've found that when I needed inspiration to diet or workout or even just stay healthy-- looking at the GQ or Maxim models was so depressing it was like, "Why even bother? I'll never look like that." Starving myself for so long never made me look like that. My body got bony on top and my lower half stubbornly clung to the last lingering vestiges of feminine trait. I found a picture of Aphrodite/Venus, sculptures/paintings/etc and I just felt the beauty of the woman shining through. I want to look like that, now.
I know men don't have it much easier. I honestly find the uber-muscled male models to be kind of sickening. They're just as plastic as the female models.

Thank you for starting this project."

This kind of feedback is why I do this project.

Help Your Kids

A WebMD article on boosting girl's body image. And something to make you smile:



Let's keep our daughters this full of life forever, okay?

"Why I Stripped" #1

(I created a wee survey to make it easier for my volunteers.)

1) Did you strip for political or personal reasons? Explain.

I stripped for personal reasons. I have had a history of eating disorders and low self-esteem, and only recently have I realized that I am, in fact, beautiful.

2) Did you strip to learn something about yourself or to show something about yourself? Explain.

I wanted to prove that I could! To show the world and myself that I could confidently have nude photographs taken.

3) Put into words the message that your body communicated by the act of stripping.

I am a strong, attractive woman with self-confidence and sex appeal.

Irony. (Thanks Dale!)

Stripped #36

Stripped #35

Demystifying "Fat"

I use the word "fat." I use that word because that's what people are: they're fat. They're not bulky; they're not large, chunky, hefty or plump. And they're not big-boned. Dinosaurs were big-boned. These people are not overweight: this term somehow implies there is some correct weight. There is no correct weight. Heavy is also a misleading term. An aircraft carrier is heavy; it's not fat. Only people are fat, and that's what fat people are! They're fat!
--George Carlin

Stripped #34 : (I like that the cat turned around too)

Stripped #33

Stripped #32

Stripped #31

"Stripping is kind of fun and seems more fun when it's with others that aren't naked, so I don't mind doing it. Lots of people make the mistake that it's all about sex and that's not true at all. Gone to nude beach many times and that's very relaxing, so guess this was as close as we could get here...even though was just a few seconds.

I guess part of the reason I did this was to see others' reactions, if any. Since this was an art project, people often comment on "the art" so I was curious to see any comments on my "art". Of course I'm always ready to do it again!"

Fatshion For Everybody!

For my lovely fat lady readers, here's some links to some fab plus-sized fashion sites*:

• Fatshionable
• Young, Fat, and Fabulous
• Saks in the City
• Big Girl in a Skinny World
  
• Madison Plus

*(I'll add more to the list as I come across them. Links originally from Refinery29.)

And here's a really awesome inspiring quote from Marilyn Wann of Fat!So? Zine:

















"FAT!SO? invites YOU to be a fabulous fatso! Everybody: Size 6 to 16. Size 26 to 56. Because fat or thin, straight or gay, male or female, we have all at some point wasted our precious moments on the planet worrying about how we look. Fuck that! Just say the magic words: "Yes, I am a fatso!" With these words, you create revolution. You turn fat hatred back on itself. As a fatso, you possess the ultimate weapon against fatphobia, body prejudice, and size oppression: fat pride!"

What a Doll

via.

Check it Out: Girldrive

Oh boy! You can see my post here.

The Body Is the Place Where Society Writes Its Messages

"At a time when increasing numbers of women were demanding the right to take up more space in the world, it is no surprise that they'd be hit with the opposite message from a culture that was (and still is) deeply committed to its traditional power structures. Women get psychically larger, and they're told to grow physically smaller. Women begin to play active roles in realms once dominated by men (schools, universities, athletic fields, the workplace, the bedroom), and they're countered with images of femininity that infantilize them, render them passive and frail and non-threatening.


'The female body is the place where this society writes its messages,' writes Rosalind Coward in Female Desires, and its response to feminism was etched with increasing clarity on the whittled-down silhouette of the average American model : Don't get too hungry, don't overstep your bounds."

- Appetites by the late Caroline Knapp, pg 31

Image via.

Stripped #29

Flyer #2

Stripped #28

Stripped #27