Well done and well said between the two of you. The idea of keeping the subject model pure and natural is very important in both the purpose of the art session as well as the clean strokes of the artist. Explaining to and giving an option to the parents is best. Keep well, Dan. Nice hearing from you. Jan&Gary 😊
Yes! Well done! The one aspect that I didn't notice was the body shaming that occurs when you hide a specific body part(s). This points to a conclusion that there is something bad or wrong about those parts.
Your explanation was spot on, that the session should be in costume or not. You would never pose in a semi-costume, well except that you did. Once. 😏
Hooray for a positive response. I really wish more art instutions would stand up to parents that have no right deciding what their children should be learning in regards to anatomy and figure drawing. In a semi-related but parallel anecdote, I was in a used book shop one day snatching up a couple of very hard to find figure drawing books when a mom with a young daughter (vetweeb 11 and 13 I'd say) came in looking for exactly what I had just procured. Apparently we'd both been scouring the city for books like these and we got to talking. The girl was fascinated by anatomy and had been taking figure drawing classes with a special parental permission form since she was 8. Full nudes. She was absolutely non-plussed and discussed the subject line it was what was for dinner that night.
That... My friends... Is what all kids should be taught in regards to the body, and that we still have parents that hide it and shame it and regard it with disgust and vitriol is horrifying to me.
Our art college has life drawings sessions, sent via email to all the models on the list and it's first come first serve. Any sessions requiring clothing I just give q
a pass on. Good for you on standing your ground on that matter.
I doubt that I'd ever pose nude for an art class I thought might have minors in it. Even if the parents were there and there was 30 feet of separation between the students and the model, someone, somewhere, might freak out. I don't need the heartburn. The Madison WNBR has left me spooked.
Many colleges stopped offering nude figure drawing for first years. Some US colleges have even stopped offering nude figure drawing entirely. Nobody wants the potential harassment. G-strings are often required in supposedly nude figure drawing.
The country has swung to the social conservative corner of the spectrum. Even the fairly nude-tolerant West Coast of the US had threats of violence raised against a nude family swim at a proposed INF meeting. So it didn't happen.
Some day it will swing back but probably not for a few years.
Actually, IMHO the swing back is inevitable. The story of American politics is a story of regular swings between the left and the right. Trump himself is just a symptom of this. He didn't "cause" anything, he just stepped into a power vacuum. The MAGA voters were already there looking for a leader. There are social and economic factors making the current swing more violent than previous ones.
Right now, Trump looks like he will be president but November is still a long ways away. The balance of voting power is held by people who hate both candidates - that's probably a large majority of the vote. How Congress goes will be definitive. State and local elections are the ones that affect nudists the most. . And then we'll have the mid-terms.
No. This line of thinking is backwards and unacceptable to me. Inevitable? Maybe 50 - 80 years from now, but are we really going to sit back and lose all the hard work from decades of dedicated people simply because 'politics have shifted'? Really? That's your answer? No. That's infuriating. There's never been a more important time to stand up and fight back. More than ever... Now is ABSOLUTELY not the time to go into hiding and act like nudism is shameful and wrong and deserving of being ashamed OF or refusing to do what is right because it's a 'headache' to do so. Doing what's right is often very dangerous, but we do it anyway. Period.
As someone who also models, I applaud what you wrote. There can be a double standard. In fact, I hear how it can be difficult to get male models and artists want more than the same body type of a female. When I talk with artists they lament that there is still a stigma of a male nude model posing. This is not political it is the fact that it is not always easy finding male models willing to pose nude. I am of the viewpoint that if a parent is informed a head of time and they are ok with a male nude model posing in front of their child who is under 18, then this should never be an issue.
I am a life model who has experienced this double standard in similar situations. My feelings about it have been similar to yours, but I'm sorry to say I've never spoken out about it. You articulated your point of view clearly and convincingly, and effected a change for the better. Bravo and thank you.
I ran across the exact thing a few years ago. I went to a session to draw and pose. Everyone in attendance were older adults except for a mouthy 13 yo girl who was accompanied by her mother. This girl refused to draw the male model (there were no female models that day) if he posed nude. The owner of the studio was trying to accommodate the mother and daughter at everyone’s expense. When asked why she would not draw the nude male, she parroted that the nude male figure in general is offense and ugly. I picked up my art things and left. Later I let the owner have it. He is a dye in the wool nudist who should had known better to bow to that kid
Well done and well said between the two of you. The idea of keeping the subject model pure and natural is very important in both the purpose of the art session as well as the clean strokes of the artist. Explaining to and giving an option to the parents is best. Keep well, Dan. Nice hearing from you. Jan&Gary 😊
Yes! Well done! The one aspect that I didn't notice was the body shaming that occurs when you hide a specific body part(s). This points to a conclusion that there is something bad or wrong about those parts.
Your explanation was spot on, that the session should be in costume or not. You would never pose in a semi-costume, well except that you did. Once. 😏
~Safebare
Hooray for a positive response. I really wish more art instutions would stand up to parents that have no right deciding what their children should be learning in regards to anatomy and figure drawing. In a semi-related but parallel anecdote, I was in a used book shop one day snatching up a couple of very hard to find figure drawing books when a mom with a young daughter (vetweeb 11 and 13 I'd say) came in looking for exactly what I had just procured. Apparently we'd both been scouring the city for books like these and we got to talking. The girl was fascinated by anatomy and had been taking figure drawing classes with a special parental permission form since she was 8. Full nudes. She was absolutely non-plussed and discussed the subject line it was what was for dinner that night.
That... My friends... Is what all kids should be taught in regards to the body, and that we still have parents that hide it and shame it and regard it with disgust and vitriol is horrifying to me.
*between. 'vetweeb' iPhone? Really?
Our art college has life drawings sessions, sent via email to all the models on the list and it's first come first serve. Any sessions requiring clothing I just give q
a pass on. Good for you on standing your ground on that matter.
I doubt that I'd ever pose nude for an art class I thought might have minors in it. Even if the parents were there and there was 30 feet of separation between the students and the model, someone, somewhere, might freak out. I don't need the heartburn. The Madison WNBR has left me spooked.
Many colleges stopped offering nude figure drawing for first years. Some US colleges have even stopped offering nude figure drawing entirely. Nobody wants the potential harassment. G-strings are often required in supposedly nude figure drawing.
The country has swung to the social conservative corner of the spectrum. Even the fairly nude-tolerant West Coast of the US had threats of violence raised against a nude family swim at a proposed INF meeting. So it didn't happen.
Some day it will swing back but probably not for a few years.
It won't ever 'swing vack' if we don't stop being scared and go into hiding instead of fighting back.
Actually, IMHO the swing back is inevitable. The story of American politics is a story of regular swings between the left and the right. Trump himself is just a symptom of this. He didn't "cause" anything, he just stepped into a power vacuum. The MAGA voters were already there looking for a leader. There are social and economic factors making the current swing more violent than previous ones.
Right now, Trump looks like he will be president but November is still a long ways away. The balance of voting power is held by people who hate both candidates - that's probably a large majority of the vote. How Congress goes will be definitive. State and local elections are the ones that affect nudists the most. . And then we'll have the mid-terms.
No. This line of thinking is backwards and unacceptable to me. Inevitable? Maybe 50 - 80 years from now, but are we really going to sit back and lose all the hard work from decades of dedicated people simply because 'politics have shifted'? Really? That's your answer? No. That's infuriating. There's never been a more important time to stand up and fight back. More than ever... Now is ABSOLUTELY not the time to go into hiding and act like nudism is shameful and wrong and deserving of being ashamed OF or refusing to do what is right because it's a 'headache' to do so. Doing what's right is often very dangerous, but we do it anyway. Period.
As someone who also models, I applaud what you wrote. There can be a double standard. In fact, I hear how it can be difficult to get male models and artists want more than the same body type of a female. When I talk with artists they lament that there is still a stigma of a male nude model posing. This is not political it is the fact that it is not always easy finding male models willing to pose nude. I am of the viewpoint that if a parent is informed a head of time and they are ok with a male nude model posing in front of their child who is under 18, then this should never be an issue.
I am a life model who has experienced this double standard in similar situations. My feelings about it have been similar to yours, but I'm sorry to say I've never spoken out about it. You articulated your point of view clearly and convincingly, and effected a change for the better. Bravo and thank you.
I ran across the exact thing a few years ago. I went to a session to draw and pose. Everyone in attendance were older adults except for a mouthy 13 yo girl who was accompanied by her mother. This girl refused to draw the male model (there were no female models that day) if he posed nude. The owner of the studio was trying to accommodate the mother and daughter at everyone’s expense. When asked why she would not draw the nude male, she parroted that the nude male figure in general is offense and ugly. I picked up my art things and left. Later I let the owner have it. He is a dye in the wool nudist who should had known better to bow to that kid