During a discussion last week with a few members a digression started, discussing seeing nudity on the site. While we had a variety of opinions it seems most of us came up with the same end result. I would be interested in hearing what your views are.
Oh, for me I respect it as an art form but would like to see much more subtle artistic interpretation and a whole lot less of the floppin and jaloppin in your face type of photo
I pretty much agree with your view. I love artistically done nude work. I've seen some fantastic one's on this site. I've also seen some nude shots that leave one needing eye and brain bleach. I think some of the best done nude shots leave somethings to the imagination.
@brumbe I think @luvthyclassics, also known as Jesse the Awesome, has done some of the best nudes I've seen on this site. So artistic and subtle - she is my hero. :)
I don't like nude for the sake of nude. But as you all have already said, artistic nude can be really beautiful. I don't really like the overt, in your face nudes - more subtle which cool lighting is my speed.
Besides "The Incident", has there been a lot of jubblies in your face -shots ? I think the nudes here are mostly done with good taste and artistic sense, like Jesse's pics. I loved @amyhughes Body Movement -series too...
I guess I don't understand why you ask if you already had this discussion just last week. It's been discussed quite a bit on this site at other times as well. All you need do is search on 'nudes' There are 8 pages of discussions on this search alone.
I understand posing and photographing, drawing, painting, etc nudes can be done tastefuly but keep in mind beauty is in the eye of the beholder. You may think something is obscene whereas I might not. Who will be judge and jury on what is acceptable? The 365 community as a whole.
I doubt anyone will complain about a few people posting but if it becomes the norm people will take notice and complain. I personally have no intention of following anyone who posts only nude pictures of themselves or other people even if it is done well. There are plenty of other sources for that kind of photography.
@dmortega If you actually read what @brumbe wrote, she had a discussion with a few members, something that branched off from another conversation, and she is now asking the opinions of 365 at large. We get repetitive threads here all the time (Pinterest and street photography come to recent memory). No one is obligated to participate in any of them.
@brumbe and now we get to the endless point that is:
• what one consider subtle and fine, artistic, erotic and so on is not the same thing other might.
There's no escape on this discussion, believe me.
The solution is:
I believe if there's nude, users should tag it as nude. It should have a warning first. "Nude content warning. To see this click ok."
And then from this moment on, all nudes are available immediately.
Simple and efficient. Like flickr does.
I don't like it. To me, nudity in a photograph almost always comes off as desperate and cheap. It just reeks of, 'I couldn't come up with anything so I took off my/had someone take off their clothes so that people would have to say how artistic and brave we are.'
I can only think of two I've seen (not here) in my life that I didn't just roll my eyes at the cheesiness of.
@echoia Interesting. I agree that I have only seen a few that I have found worth while for my taste. I usually check my site while I am procrastinating in the morning, so somedays I just see too much too early on in the day.
@gabrielklee almost wondering if there should be a heads up on nudes so that people can look if they want, or be warned away if they do not want. So not censoring, but I like the warning system idea
@gabrielklee I agree - Flickr has a good system. I like how, if you look at someone's favorites, it has little snowy TV screens, covering up the nudes. Quick way to tell if someone is a little pervy. :D
I agree with @mcdougall . I personally had no problems with "the barnette incident" (but really folks, if you were so disgusted with it, why bring him up again...He's gone, let it go) because from what I was told of the photo, there was a story behind it, which I believed was explained in the caption of said photo. As long as there is a purpose behind it, I don't mind.
That being said, there was recently a semi-nude shot in my news feed that seemed to be there for no other purpose than "I needed a shot for today". I unfollowed that person.
I guess I should add that I love the mystery of a leg, back, stomach, but I really do not need to see all the details of where the bathing suit covers. It just is not my cup of tea, so seeing the back of a person in interesting lighting is fine for me. Seeing a nip is not so much how i want to start my day.
@janmaki They're several years old, neither photographer is even working in photography anymore and they were friends- one was both photographer & model, the other was a photo of a pregnant woman. Again, usually I find pregnant nudity almost the tackiest thing : P But there was something about the one photo she shared that stood out above all the rest.
When you're like, 'No thanks, nudity in photos is totally lame!' your photographer friends are always thrusting it in your face trying to change your mind : P
@mej2011 The story that accompanied the Barnette photo was a pathetic attempt to manipulate people into feeling sorry for the poster and, in my opinion, intended to intimidate and humiliate certain individuals. It was full of lies and ridiculous fabrications. The photo was hideously ugly on many levels.
Most of the nudes I have seen here have been experiments with the art form (including political statements). Photographing a nude, particularly self, is very little from still life in a sense but the tool is camera rather the pen and pencil or paints. It is an interesting exercise to try drawing or painting one self nude in mirror.
Not sure of the so called incident, but it is always possible to unfollow a person or if nudity features in a discussion feed to ignore. Much of rare nudity I have seen on this site is tasteful and not much more explicit than would be seen on TV or elsewhere in mainstream media. I occasionally come across it here and don't see why it needs to be made controversial.
it depends on the presentation, the rare ones I have seen on 365 have mostly been partial nudity presented artistically or for a particular message, like a breast cancer exam. We all have a choice of who we follow, just like we have a choice of what magazines to purchase.
Nudes can be great or laughably awful. I appreciate well-done artistic nudes and I know several places to find them. If any show up on 365, that is cool with me. If someone manages to create a well-done, artistic nude selfie, then I believe that would be a nice accomplishment whether they wish to share it or not. The problem is in the interpretation of well-done and artistic vs. tacky and cheesy. So, as a service to all my friends at 365, before publishing, you can feel free to send your nudes to me for screening and critique. :-)
I have no problem with nudity if it's done tastefully (although the interpretation of tasteful can vary from person to person) but if it's a case of "look at me being all artsy" where it's obvious the person is crying out for attention, then I have a problem with it.
I'd like to know where all these people who are flopping their business all over the place work...I mean, you're putting your junk on the public internet for all to see, including your boss, your mother, your father, the children in your family, etc. I have a hard time doing a selfie, and you'll certainly never see any part of my body bare on this site except maybe my shoulders. I don't wanna see anyone's hotdog or potato sacks, and I do unfollow people who post them because my kids like to look at 365 with me...it's hard enough to keep my teenager out of the internet porn arena, I don't need him seeing some chick's baby feeders on 365. I seriously don't even care if it's artistic....I think there are better arenas for it than here.
i personally don't have a problem with it if it is done tastefully like most of the rest of you, my only concern is that my 12 year old daughter and other children do use this site on occasion and there isn't any way of sensoring what photos children see
@sdpace I so agree with you Stacy - there is a time and a place, and I don't think it's on here...don't mind the odd bare shoulder or back...but anything else I think is showing off a bit...and I just love your expression "flopping their business all over the place"...so funny !
@sdpace - well put!!! there are quite a few forums where that kind of artistic photography is welcomed(500pix) is one...this tends to be a more family oriented site:))
@hamptanner I think I might agree with that "rule of thumb" of course that might apply to my aging body in more places than I would like to admit. If the site was for 18 or older it might be different, but it is a place for all to learn and share.
i have no problem with it as long as its tasteful, lying there floppin out is just not pretty, however i believe there is a place for it and 365 is not the place personally - too many kids use the site.
@sdpace Well said. I completely agree. And nude doesn’t always equal “art”. I was kind of surprised at the number of supportive comments on the photos from the aforementioned "Barnette Incident”.
I have a friend who does shadow nudity photography and it is very beautiful if its done right you see a totally naked person with out seeing there junk. I myself dont have the right body for it but if I did I would definetly do it but like alot of you I have teenage children that do this project and I wouldnt want them seeing someones junk but wouldnt mind the shadowing because you dont actually see the "junk"
I like nudity. The other folks on the bus look at me funny though.
Seriously though...It is an art form. I've done a couple, and they didn't quite come out the way I wanted them to but it was fun nevertheless. Overall, there is the aesthetic of the human body that when captured thoughtfully, artfully, creatively can be very reflective. The very fact it can make someone like me go "ahhhhh" and others on this thread go "ewwww" is the very point of it.
As long as it's somewhat tasteful, I think it's fine. The human form is beautiful (female especially.. sorry guys!). I did life drawing at university for a year, so I might be slightly desensitised though haha!
But seriously..... the problem with nudity isn't the nudity. Its the attitudes of those that see it. We came into this world with no clothes on. We pass shame on to the newer generations by teaching them the naked body is shameful and dirty and obscene. The more taboo and "forbidden" we make nudity, the more likely they are to end up sneaking peaks at pornography in solitude, and since they haven't been taught a healthy view of the nude form, they get a sexual thrill from the pornography, and then there is the risk of pornography addiction. The difference between art and porn is *context* If someone were to post a photo of a woman, full nude, well lit to make sure nothing is hidden from view, and she's in a provocative pose that is intended to sexually arouse, then I would agree that has no place on 365... they should submit that stuff to Playboy or Penthouse. I decided to do a search for nude photos on 365 just to see if anyone was posting inappropriate stuff. I did see a handful of shots (almost all from the same person) that I felt should only be on an adult site. But mostly I saw a lot of stuff that made me wonder what all the hoopla is about.
and about the Barnette Incident... I only ever saw the edited versions. I don't see how the non-censored versions could have been so offensive in light of a lot of the female nudity I've seen on 365, but having NOT seen the originals, I can't really comment on that.
@meisen325@brumbe@jsw0109 As a kid growing up in 60's-70's in conservative Australia there was a gift shop across the road that sold objets d'art including copies of statues of Michelangelo's David. I remember it was a source of much hilarity when a small minded person called the vice squad to make a complaint and the shop was raided. The police of course were terribly embarrassed.
In Melbourne where I grew up one of the most famous tourist attraction is a celebrated nude painting in a pub, Young & Jackson's called Chloe. What would the Louvre be without the Venus de Milo, or painting be without the nude. In fact many celebrated art photographers have taken nudes. And let's not forget Hollywood. I thought much of the issue of nudity had been settled with Woodstock, but who can forget Richard Hatch on that popular TV show Survivor. Or who would not rather forget one of the most watched series of all times.
I must have missed something somewhere on the road from Eden, which is incidentally on the lovely south coast of New South Wales in Eastern Australia. Just saying...
I agree with the comment from @httpgeffed on the over 18 thing as kids really don't need to see anything 'floppy' hanging out there. But it's a fine line to draw as I have a gorgeous pic of my three year old grandson with his back to me, he's wearing nothing but a smile and he's got the cutest wee bare bum. So - would a blanket ban include the under 5's? Or ESPECIALLY the under 5's? At what age does it stop becoming cute and start to to become a no-no?
a subject wide open to interpretation I think.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and with many differing opinions and views on what is acceptable (or not) amongst us all, this is a huge can of worms to open. Personally I see nothing wrong with babies and toddlers prancing about in the buff but the older the subject is, the less exposed they should be on a site as public as this.
IMHO.
I have posted some Boobs recently... I apologise to no one, and I haven't posted them because the shots are "artistic", they are simply a cultural reference to the way some people still live in a world that hasn't changed for them for the past few thousand years. Nudity is their culture and their day to day existence. The nearest Target or Walmart to these people is in a different country, they are more blessed for it.
A bit off topic maybe but I'm interested in knowing why many of you feel that it's wrong for your children to see pictures of nude people. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with my 11yo son seeing the human body in all it's forms but I understand that others have different opinions.
@lanina Nina, its because, for whatever reason, American culture is all about shame and taboo and the absolute avoidance of anything that isn't politically correct. I can say this because I live here.
@bobfoto I have seen the photos you refer to. Nothing at all wrong with them. I agree with the Target and Walmart remark in that context, particularly.
@lanina I think the concern of some parents who have children looking at this site would be that, among the tasteful, artistic, worthy-of-the-Louvre nudes, there might appear some of the kind that would be more at home in a different kind of Internet site. I don't have children but I know that my preference would be that they stick to the Louvre until they are mature enough to understand the difference between what's art, or just plain beauty, and exploitative images.
I've noticed in this thread that the general consensus is that nudity is ok as long as it's done "artistically." While that sounds all good in theory, I was at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art a few months back and there was an exhibit of photos of nudity that I found to be a little past my comfort zone. The same can be said for some of the "art" there that portrayed gore or violence. Because it's in a public museum does that automatically make it "art"? Who gets to decide if the photo is "artistic" nudity? They were the exhibits that I steered my kids away from....
@oblique I agree that it is harder to artistically photograph the male nude, but there are some really good examples out there. Greg Gorman is one name; I'm sure others can name a few more.
@lanina I don't have a problem with the anatomical aspect, and I don't have a problem with nudity in general....BUT....my son is 14, and it is hard enough to keep him on the straight and narrow so I can teach him about body image, for himself and as it concerns others. That is my job and no one else's, so I have to be careful about what he sees. He's a horny teenager....yours will be someday as well, and the tables turn a little bit when you realize it. My kids aren't sheltered by any means, but as a parent, I have to teach them "this is real, this isn't" or "this is art, this is smut" before they run off into the wild blue yonder. I have 4 more years with this one, and I plan to keep it under control as much as possible. I don't want him to have unrealistic expectations as far as women and women's bodies go.
@cassabear Some time back a politician in the US famously said, "I don't know what the definition of pornography is, but I know it when I see it." I think it is a fine line between artistic and pornographic. Some artistic photos aren't really, and some porn is really very beautiful to look at.
Having said that, I am not for having a ton of nudes here, similar to the reason that others @brumbe have mentioned - children having access. But I also disagree with others who would not want to have any nudes here. It is but one form of art, and I get creative ideas off of them, just like I do with other photos.
I don't have a problem with nudity in photography. Whether it's gross or artistic is a matter of taste. I don't know why people would come to this site for titillation when there's so much straight-up porn that's easily accessible elsewhere on the web. So I've heard. :)
@shouldbequiltin I am a teacher and feel the same way! We are looked at quite closely and I'd probaby quit if there was very much on here. Nothing wrong with the naked body, yes. Walk down the street nekked as the day you were born and you should sit in jail and think about why you do such things.
Fine Art does not exist in Australia, for us to see Renaissance Art or Imppressionism, one has to travel to Europe, so when 150 works of Art from Pablo Picasso went on display in this country, millions of Australians went (some purely to tick it off their bucket lists) and they dragged their children along. By Room 4 there were already some kids moaning "Awwww 6 rooms to go!!!!"
Now Picasso was pretty generous and not so accurate when he came to the physique and he also did a series of etchings where he drew himself as a well endowed mythical Minotaur and was in positions suggestive amongst naked women.
The Adult in me dismissed the whole fairytale fanciful daydreams of a young Picasso and his sexual urges as just being another one of his phases, and I am sure other Adults in the room would have taken these images in a similar vain. Many of the kids however were like oh here's another painting, and there's a big wooly headed man doing what to the lady?
No uproar of course because it was Picasso.
I recall Gustav Klimt and a series of very explicit female nudes which one could view in a book at the local library or bookshop or Art Gallery for that manner that would even make the few hairs left on Hugh Hefner's head stand up on end!
In regards to my recent Boobs shots, they are proudly part of my project in the same educational way I have a photo of a Frog eating a Dragonfly. Its all part of the beautiful thing we call life. Enjoy!
I don't understand problem with nudity. Aren't we all... Nude? Human body is work of art. Of course if nudity is showed in some kind of sexual manner, then it is different story.
@cassabear I think that when people say they don't mind a nude image if it's done "artistically" they don't mean that they will accept an image just because it's been deemed to have artistic value by somebody else and it's being exhibited in a gallery or museum because, clearly, there are lots of things hanging - no pun intended, in museums that some people would find offensive and this is not limited to nudes. What they mean, please allow me to interpret, is that they want the images to be in zinc with their own sensitivity, their own sense of esthetics, their own level of tolerance or prudishness, their own prejudices or lack of them. What's acceptable ("artistic") to you might be someone else's abomination. As for me, I can tell you that I like to think of myself as quite tolerant, liberal and open minded but when it comes to nudity I prefer it when the subject is not someone I know personally. Yes, I would not want the man in my life to send me photos of his privates and I don't want to go visit my cousin, who is an artist, and find that she has in her living room a painting of her boyfriend's flopping jalopy staring me in the face - while he's sitting on the couch!! Likewise, and altough I haven't had the pleasure of meeting any of them personally yet, I really would prefer not to see naked photos of the people I follow on 365. That said, I did post a picture of my abdomen once but it was totally artistic and there was a story behind it (isn't there always?) so that's ok ;) @peterdegraaff
If a shot features nudity then it's usually obvious but there are loads of other websites for sharing naked and the one is hardly overflowing them as far as I can tell. It's a none issue for me, very few people on here wish to share pictures with nudity. As with any picture, you only click on the ones you want to see.
If people don't want to see nudity on 365 then don't follow or look at people who post them.
Why is the female body ok yet the male body not? Both sexes can be really beautifully shot. I find it offensive that the male body is somehow disgusting yet the female isn't. If a female body is ok then so is the male body. Our culture has made the body into a sexualised icon, nudity isn't sex.
@darrenburch what i find funny is it's usually the men who don't want to see other nude men... like they are grossed out by their own bodies or something.
I admire the human form (particularly the female, I think due to the curvier nature of it), but I don't want to see it left, right and centre all the time. Personally, I don't have a problem with it on the site, providing it's tasteful and not in your face. i.e. I don't want to see genitals, I don't particularly want to see breasts (@bobfoto - your photos don't, in my eyes, class as nudity in the context I read this discussion. Yes, they involve naked people, but the setting is such that it's normal and culturally acceptable, whereas in the Western world it isn't.)
I consider it to be a shame that nakedness is such a taboo in general, but I appreciate that people don't want to see it. Personally, I won't be posting any, as I prefer not to have the whole internet able to see me like that.
@brumbe "the floppin and jaloppin in your face type of photo" I simply MUST remember these terms. They paint such a picture (tastefully so) in my mind. lol lol
@jennverr Oh, not at all. Men (heteros) are not grossed out by their own bodies - it's the bodies of other men that make them uncomfortable. If it's the way they feel I have no problem with that.
@bobfoto Australian's like everyone else have to buy art and sadly we just have had less time to collect or rob other civilisations for our museums during an imperial phase. Tend think of the Louvre and British museum as warehouses. Sad but true. The history of the museum in itself is a fascinating study in its popularisation of the classificatory empiricism of the aristocracy in the 19th century. So is ethnography and love yours.
BTW saw the Picassos sketches at the National Gallery years ago and was always amused that the NGV had lovely samples of his postcards and other nudes for sale and distribution in the gift shop. @meisen325 I don't know. The statue of David has always been a source of much admiration amongst men. Don't think I want to go down the path yet of raising the issue of Lacan, the phallic signifier and the oppression of women in literature and art. @brumbe I am still looking for @meisen325's abdomen, but seriously, you must raise whatever you want as a discussion. I must go and remember to pose for myself in a cubist nude in the style of the guitar to see what the fuss for others is about.
@sdpace I agree that as a parent it is important that a parent is able to discuss these issues with children, and art sometimes provides that mechanism to engage in a conversation, rather than worrying whether son is searching surreptitiously internet. Been there done that. But boys will be boys and it is hopefully our guidance as adults which encourages them to grow up to be mature young men. My son who is nineteen has never lost his love of scouts, is a rover now and volunteers fo the State Emergency Service. He is studying music and Friday nights works at the local pub where seemingly the local cougars try sometimes fro his stories to pick him up. He politely says no.
I might start a thread now on show me your birds...
@peterdegraaff You've seeen that picture, Peter! I took it the day I had my gallbladder taken out. Stunningly artistic. I can't even say the pain killers made me do it as I didn't have any!
I think as others have suggested that it's fine as long as there's a warning either in the titles or the description if it's someone you follow. I like what someone said about another website having a snow scene to obscure toe thumbnail image - if the website creators could do something similar that would be good.
But lets face it, nudity on this site is hardly common place as the vast majority just don't consider it. It never occurred to me that anyone posted nudity on this website until everyone kept questioning it. If someone wanted to post loads of photos of nudity, there are better places to do it. But the few nude pictures I've seen have been tasteful. I can understand the embarrassment complaint but only if the shot comes out of the blue after a year of shots of the person's garden or whatever.:)
But yeah a warning for those who don't want to see it is the best way rather than censorship - that way it's fair on everyone.
@janmaki :)) Thank you Jani!
I tried really hard to show the body without being shown nude...I guess that's my opinion on the nudity thing right there .:)
@amyhughes Your shot ( i just looked) are nothing short of artistic and stunning.
Also the recent Breast Cancer one posted is a photo with a very strong message and i applaud it.
I have no problen with tasteful nudity but then i haven't got young children like @sdpace using this site...Everything she said is true and well done to her for protecting her child...
I DO have a problem with attention seeking people who just flop things out and label it as a cause saving photo and then blast anyone that puts up an opinion..., having seen a couple of these recently and without sounding like a total bitch am 100% sure it is just for attention seeking purposes.......
@gabrielklee but that would make nudity on the same level as pornography. It's frequently used in all forms of art. Or are you the sort of person that requests statues be clothed and pictures be covered over?
I haven't seen very much nudity on this site at all, in fact for my Day 33 photo (Feb 2), which is just my bare back done in an art trade n deviantART, I was immensely wary of getting negative feedback from here because I have not seen it at all and thought it really wasn't welcomed (luckily, I received several wonderful comments and no apprehension whatsoever).
I personally think as long as it as done tastefully, properly tagged with both words and the optional Warning, and is very obviously artistic in its intent, I wouldn't mind it at all. I'm not particularly a fan of nude photography, however, there are exceptions every now on then where I see a work that's very beautiful and elegant, especially on deviantART. If someone's just displaying their selves for attention, however, and there's no emotion or passion or artistic intent behind it whatsoever, I really would not welcome it to the site and would hope that any material of a pornographic or inartistic caliber be removed.
So many opinions here, wow. I do understand parents with kiddos wanting to keep things simple. Easy enough to do--Unfollow. I guess it becomes more complicated if the photo makes it onto the Popular Page of if your kiddos are on 365. Not sure of a solution to that. Maybe a 365 for Kids Only(?)
As @jsw0109 stated so eloquently, it's all in how our culture views nudity. While there may be only a handful of comments, there's a bit of a disconnect here because nude photos on 365 easily top over 100 views on the average. Go figure.
And I have to support @emsabh in that the male form is beautiful. I like the nude male form. Much rather my first photo of the day be a nude male than a nude female. I can see that any day of the week, lol @maceugenio posted some really beautiful male nudes as a series (don't click on the link if you don't like nudes. But...Pandora's box and all. 515 views, 20 or so comments, FYI.) http://365project.org/maceugenio/365/2011-03-08
I don't care to see them - nudes or simply naked photos. Most of them are not artistic in nature it's done for simple shock factor. There are, of course, exceptions to this and I have seen them as well.
Simply put, it's just not my cup of tea and I personally wish there was some type of thumbnail sashing or even a warning/identifying mark of some sort on such a photo. Having lived the scene of my child wander in the room when I click on a shadowed thumbnail only to learn it's of someone sans clothing is rather disturbing... for all involved.
I think I've said this before in a similar discussion, but I'll put my two cents in again:)
I have no problem, whatsoever, with both the male and female nude forms expressed artistically. BUT, as a mother to a young girl, I'm not sure that randomly puttin that shit out there on the Internet is the way I want to go. Actually nevermind not sure, I'm positive that's not the way I want to go.
As a parent, I'm pretty new, so I'm still learning as I go. But if I were to decide that putting my nekkid self on the internet is the way I wanted to express myself, then that's not a decision I can take back, sayyy, 10 years down the road when one of my daughters little friends horrifyingly embarrassingly comes across a shot of Pickle's Mom NUDE (gasp) on the Internet! I can't say at this point in time how that could adversely affect my daughter, and I have a responsibility as a parent to think about that. So no. No nude selfies for me. But you go right ahead:)
I haven't read all the posts in this thread, but I read a lot of "when it's tasteful "
Who decides what's tasteful and what's not? Does soft lighting make something tasteful?
Apologies if this point has already been made.
@karlo57 There is no clear cut definition of tasteful, it's all in the eye of the beholder. "Soft lighting" lol
You could say that tasteful doesn't mean sexual, but again, you run into the problem of the definition of sexual (which runs the gamut according to what culture you've grown up in).
Your right to ask what is tasteful. Nudity in photography is an art. Its an artist, expressing his or her view . Its a message and evokes feeling.
Once a photo leaves the hands of the artist , it lends itself to be judged and sometimes harshly. I have seen feelings hurt on 365 by artist who have tried to express themselves through art. Someone viewed it and found it disgusting. If you put a pic on 365 that is a nude self portrait or not a self portrait and just nude , you must be willing to hear objections. I myself don't care either way, but if there are nudes I always look and so does everybody else, even if they say they don't look. Thats why nudes are alot of times on popular page. We all got to get along. p.s. Kids look too, so ..........tasteful to me isnt xxx
I have 4 kids, ranging in age from 13 down to 4.
Would I take them to an art museum...well apart from the fact that the 4 yo might run rampage, yes I would. Would I hurry past the nudes? No, I wouldn't.
Why not?
because I grew up believing my body was sinful and disgusting. I've been molested and I've been raped and if I'd had any sort of self esteem before, I sure as heck wouldn't have done afterwards.
That has had one heck of a knock on effect on my entire life.
I have done some nude shots to prove to myself that people won't turn to stone or throw up simply after seeing me. If people view them as posted for shock factor or for viewer numbers, you can think that. I know what my reasons were.
I would rather my kids grew up seeing a variety of naked bodies so they knew that we do not all look alike, that we do all have lumps, bumps and saggy bits. That the human body is a masterpiece whatever state it is in so that they , hopefully, will have less self loathing to undo by the time they reach their 40's.
Seeing a naked male/female body will not turn a child into a rampant sex addict, cause them to be precocious or give them nightmares. It does open the way for discussion about all sorts of things. To me, that's a good thing.
@voodoochild Well said, Genevieve. And you are quite brave for posting that. Kudos. I'm quite open with my kids on the subject and I must say, nudity doesn't send them into a fit of the giggles (as it does some of their peers) and they are both more mature for it.
@voodoochild very well said! As long as the nudity isn't vulgar, I have no issues.... in our home ... the kids see all and always have... hell, you get no privacy in the bathroom lol. I actually find that they ask questions as they grow but once answered, they don't care anymore... it's not hidden, it's not passed over....
@clarissajohal exactly why your kids don't go into a fit of giggles... being open in my opinion is best.... I have a lot of friends who use names for "private parts"... we call them by their real names... I found that so hard at first cos it was never done that way to me, but I think it's extremely important.
I don't believe in censorship, but I don't want to see nude bodies for the sake of being nude bodies.... I have more to say, but I am certain it has been said.
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@lolanae You must be referring to what shall henceforth be know to all of 365 as "The Barnette Incident."
Seriously though, it can be done and done well. No one really wants to have jubblies in their face...leave something to the imagination.
http://365project.org/luvthyclassics/365/2012-01
@luvthyclassics Please continueeee!
I understand posing and photographing, drawing, painting, etc nudes can be done tastefuly but keep in mind beauty is in the eye of the beholder. You may think something is obscene whereas I might not. Who will be judge and jury on what is acceptable? The 365 community as a whole.
I doubt anyone will complain about a few people posting but if it becomes the norm people will take notice and complain. I personally have no intention of following anyone who posts only nude pictures of themselves or other people even if it is done well. There are plenty of other sources for that kind of photography.
@brumbe --- Please disregard the first paragraph. I misunderstood what you were asking. My mistake. ;-)
• what one consider subtle and fine, artistic, erotic and so on is not the same thing other might.
There's no escape on this discussion, believe me.
The solution is:
I believe if there's nude, users should tag it as nude. It should have a warning first. "Nude content warning. To see this click ok."
And then from this moment on, all nudes are available immediately.
Simple and efficient. Like flickr does.
I can only think of two I've seen (not here) in my life that I didn't just roll my eyes at the cheesiness of.
@gabrielklee almost wondering if there should be a heads up on nudes so that people can look if they want, or be warned away if they do not want. So not censoring, but I like the warning system idea
That being said, there was recently a semi-nude shot in my news feed that seemed to be there for no other purpose than "I needed a shot for today". I unfollowed that person.
And I was not referring to you in saying that he should not be brought up. Sorry for the confusion.
When you're like, 'No thanks, nudity in photos is totally lame!' your photographer friends are always thrusting it in your face trying to change your mind : P
BUT... I also like the idea of this being a family friendly site. I guess you can't have both
Not sure of the so called incident, but it is always possible to unfollow a person or if nudity features in a discussion feed to ignore. Much of rare nudity I have seen on this site is tasteful and not much more explicit than would be seen on TV or elsewhere in mainstream media. I occasionally come across it here and don't see why it needs to be made controversial.
@hamptanner What a trooper...way to take one for the team! ;)
@sdpace @sharonaddison So a good rule of thumb is, "If it is floppable, don't show it." :-)
To each their own. I guess I have more of a "give a person the benefit of the doubt" type attitude.
I only know what I was told.
@beautifulthing aw you are the sweetest!! you didn't have to mention me AND post a link to my page :) thank youuuu
@gurry thank you for your kind words! I most certainly plan on continuing to be a part of this site :)
@janmaki thank you Jani :)
Seriously though...It is an art form. I've done a couple, and they didn't quite come out the way I wanted them to but it was fun nevertheless. Overall, there is the aesthetic of the human body that when captured thoughtfully, artfully, creatively can be very reflective. The very fact it can make someone like me go "ahhhhh" and others on this thread go "ewwww" is the very point of it.
On the other hand @chasingwishes, "ewwww." ;-P
Some of my favourite artworks are nudes though... Man Ray's "Le Violon d'Ingres", for example. http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=61240&handle=li
Damn my newness!
In Melbourne where I grew up one of the most famous tourist attraction is a celebrated nude painting in a pub, Young & Jackson's called Chloe. What would the Louvre be without the Venus de Milo, or painting be without the nude. In fact many celebrated art photographers have taken nudes. And let's not forget Hollywood. I thought much of the issue of nudity had been settled with Woodstock, but who can forget Richard Hatch on that popular TV show Survivor. Or who would not rather forget one of the most watched series of all times.
I must have missed something somewhere on the road from Eden, which is incidentally on the lovely south coast of New South Wales in Eastern Australia. Just saying...
a subject wide open to interpretation I think.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and with many differing opinions and views on what is acceptable (or not) amongst us all, this is a huge can of worms to open. Personally I see nothing wrong with babies and toddlers prancing about in the buff but the older the subject is, the less exposed they should be on a site as public as this.
IMHO.
Having said that, I am not for having a ton of nudes here, similar to the reason that others @brumbe have mentioned - children having access. But I also disagree with others who would not want to have any nudes here. It is but one form of art, and I get creative ideas off of them, just like I do with other photos.
Now Picasso was pretty generous and not so accurate when he came to the physique and he also did a series of etchings where he drew himself as a well endowed mythical Minotaur and was in positions suggestive amongst naked women.
The Adult in me dismissed the whole fairytale fanciful daydreams of a young Picasso and his sexual urges as just being another one of his phases, and I am sure other Adults in the room would have taken these images in a similar vain. Many of the kids however were like oh here's another painting, and there's a big wooly headed man doing what to the lady?
No uproar of course because it was Picasso.
I recall Gustav Klimt and a series of very explicit female nudes which one could view in a book at the local library or bookshop or Art Gallery for that manner that would even make the few hairs left on Hugh Hefner's head stand up on end!
In regards to my recent Boobs shots, they are proudly part of my project in the same educational way I have a photo of a Frog eating a Dragonfly. Its all part of the beautiful thing we call life. Enjoy!
If people don't want to see nudity on 365 then don't follow or look at people who post them.
Why is the female body ok yet the male body not? Both sexes can be really beautifully shot. I find it offensive that the male body is somehow disgusting yet the female isn't. If a female body is ok then so is the male body. Our culture has made the body into a sexualised icon, nudity isn't sex.
I consider it to be a shame that nakedness is such a taboo in general, but I appreciate that people don't want to see it. Personally, I won't be posting any, as I prefer not to have the whole internet able to see me like that.
But I think @meisen325 summed it up perfectly. While I am fine being naked, I prefer not to see people I am friendly with naked on my computer screen.
Also while I may not follow a person, photos can pop up in a discussion. Am I no longer to open any discussion on here just in case?
BTW saw the Picassos sketches at the National Gallery years ago and was always amused that the NGV had lovely samples of his postcards and other nudes for sale and distribution in the gift shop. @meisen325 I don't know. The statue of David has always been a source of much admiration amongst men. Don't think I want to go down the path yet of raising the issue of Lacan, the phallic signifier and the oppression of women in literature and art. @brumbe I am still looking for @meisen325's abdomen, but seriously, you must raise whatever you want as a discussion. I must go and remember to pose for myself in a cubist nude in the style of the guitar to see what the fuss for others is about.
@sdpace I agree that as a parent it is important that a parent is able to discuss these issues with children, and art sometimes provides that mechanism to engage in a conversation, rather than worrying whether son is searching surreptitiously internet. Been there done that. But boys will be boys and it is hopefully our guidance as adults which encourages them to grow up to be mature young men. My son who is nineteen has never lost his love of scouts, is a rover now and volunteers fo the State Emergency Service. He is studying music and Friday nights works at the local pub where seemingly the local cougars try sometimes fro his stories to pick him up. He politely says no.
I might start a thread now on show me your birds...
But lets face it, nudity on this site is hardly common place as the vast majority just don't consider it. It never occurred to me that anyone posted nudity on this website until everyone kept questioning it. If someone wanted to post loads of photos of nudity, there are better places to do it. But the few nude pictures I've seen have been tasteful. I can understand the embarrassment complaint but only if the shot comes out of the blue after a year of shots of the person's garden or whatever.:)
But yeah a warning for those who don't want to see it is the best way rather than censorship - that way it's fair on everyone.
I tried really hard to show the body without being shown nude...I guess that's my opinion on the nudity thing right there .:)
Also the recent Breast Cancer one posted is a photo with a very strong message and i applaud it.
I have no problen with tasteful nudity but then i haven't got young children like @sdpace using this site...Everything she said is true and well done to her for protecting her child...
I DO have a problem with attention seeking people who just flop things out and label it as a cause saving photo and then blast anyone that puts up an opinion..., having seen a couple of these recently and without sounding like a total bitch am 100% sure it is just for attention seeking purposes.......
genuine question.
@Scrivna - spamalert spamalert spamalert about three posts back ^^^
like the martini glass.
I personally think as long as it as done tastefully, properly tagged with both words and the optional Warning, and is very obviously artistic in its intent, I wouldn't mind it at all. I'm not particularly a fan of nude photography, however, there are exceptions every now on then where I see a work that's very beautiful and elegant, especially on deviantART. If someone's just displaying their selves for attention, however, and there's no emotion or passion or artistic intent behind it whatsoever, I really would not welcome it to the site and would hope that any material of a pornographic or inartistic caliber be removed.
As @jsw0109 stated so eloquently, it's all in how our culture views nudity. While there may be only a handful of comments, there's a bit of a disconnect here because nude photos on 365 easily top over 100 views on the average. Go figure.
And I have to support @emsabh in that the male form is beautiful. I like the nude male form. Much rather my first photo of the day be a nude male than a nude female. I can see that any day of the week, lol
@maceugenio posted some really beautiful male nudes as a series (don't click on the link if you don't like nudes. But...Pandora's box and all. 515 views, 20 or so comments, FYI.)
http://365project.org/maceugenio/365/2011-03-08
Simply put, it's just not my cup of tea and I personally wish there was some type of thumbnail sashing or even a warning/identifying mark of some sort on such a photo. Having lived the scene of my child wander in the room when I click on a shadowed thumbnail only to learn it's of someone sans clothing is rather disturbing... for all involved.
I have no problem, whatsoever, with both the male and female nude forms expressed artistically. BUT, as a mother to a young girl, I'm not sure that randomly puttin that shit out there on the Internet is the way I want to go. Actually nevermind not sure, I'm positive that's not the way I want to go.
As a parent, I'm pretty new, so I'm still learning as I go. But if I were to decide that putting my nekkid self on the internet is the way I wanted to express myself, then that's not a decision I can take back, sayyy, 10 years down the road when one of my daughters little friends horrifyingly embarrassingly comes across a shot of Pickle's Mom NUDE (gasp) on the Internet! I can't say at this point in time how that could adversely affect my daughter, and I have a responsibility as a parent to think about that. So no. No nude selfies for me. But you go right ahead:)
Who decides what's tasteful and what's not? Does soft lighting make something tasteful?
Apologies if this point has already been made.
You could say that tasteful doesn't mean sexual, but again, you run into the problem of the definition of sexual (which runs the gamut according to what culture you've grown up in).
Once a photo leaves the hands of the artist , it lends itself to be judged and sometimes harshly. I have seen feelings hurt on 365 by artist who have tried to express themselves through art. Someone viewed it and found it disgusting. If you put a pic on 365 that is a nude self portrait or not a self portrait and just nude , you must be willing to hear objections. I myself don't care either way, but if there are nudes I always look and so does everybody else, even if they say they don't look. Thats why nudes are alot of times on popular page. We all got to get along. p.s. Kids look too, so ..........tasteful to me isnt xxx
Would I take them to an art museum...well apart from the fact that the 4 yo might run rampage, yes I would. Would I hurry past the nudes? No, I wouldn't.
Why not?
because I grew up believing my body was sinful and disgusting. I've been molested and I've been raped and if I'd had any sort of self esteem before, I sure as heck wouldn't have done afterwards.
That has had one heck of a knock on effect on my entire life.
I have done some nude shots to prove to myself that people won't turn to stone or throw up simply after seeing me. If people view them as posted for shock factor or for viewer numbers, you can think that. I know what my reasons were.
I would rather my kids grew up seeing a variety of naked bodies so they knew that we do not all look alike, that we do all have lumps, bumps and saggy bits. That the human body is a masterpiece whatever state it is in so that they , hopefully, will have less self loathing to undo by the time they reach their 40's.
Seeing a naked male/female body will not turn a child into a rampant sex addict, cause them to be precocious or give them nightmares. It does open the way for discussion about all sorts of things. To me, that's a good thing.
@clarissajohal exactly why your kids don't go into a fit of giggles... being open in my opinion is best.... I have a lot of friends who use names for "private parts"... we call them by their real names... I found that so hard at first cos it was never done that way to me, but I think it's extremely important.