I Was a Nude Model for a Day

As a journalist I looked at the assignment board and written across the card was "art school model" and I asked what that story was. "He is looking for the viewpoint of a nude model," he said. "Boss wants to find someone who will pose nude to get the perspective of a nude artist's model. See just how they feel about doing it. How it feels? If they get embarrassed, excited, humiliated, whatever?"

"I'll take that," I said.

"You have to get naked," he warned, stating the obvious.

"I'd guess," I said. "You'd have be naked to be a nude model. I get that. I'll do it," I said, taking the card off the board. I took the assignment card in to the city desk and told the man sitting there I'd take the assignment.

"You sure you want to do this?" he asked me.

"I'll take it, yes," I said.

"You have to get naked," he said.

"Why does everybody think I am not smart enough to know a nude model needs to be naked? I'll take it, Lew," I said. "Make the arrangements. I'll do the assignments," I said, signing the work sheet on the wall behind his desk.

I gathered my things, checked back to get the details of who I would report to, and took my car keys out of my purse and headed for the parking lot. I'd once done a story on nudists, so it was not my first time out of my clothes for an article assignment, although I only spent about an hour naked, most my time was in research.

When I got to the college art department, I checked in, was given a robe, signed the payroll sheet, and was shown to the dressing room. I was more nervous than I expected to be, but was treated well, and I followed the secretary to the locker room. "My name is Claire Watson, and I am from the Portland Register," I said. "I am doing a story on nude modeling.

"Are most of your models prostitutes?" I asked, revealing my biggest misconception.

"Most of our models are housewives and mothers," the secretary said. "Most are just regular women who are comfortable with their bodies and need to earn some extra money," she added. When the secretary left me in the dressing room I hung up my clothes in the locker and put on the robe. I thought about how silly my question sounded, even to me.

I went through the door of the dressing room directly into the classroom. Twenty or so people sat behind easels, waiting for me to arrive. The instructor, Dr. Kraft, greeted me with a warm smile and led me to the platform where a chair was covered by a large red piece of silk material. He told me the poses would be fifteen minutes long, with five minutes rest period for bathroom and stretch breaks. Dr. Kraft showed me some poses he was interested in, then let me pick one to start off with. At the first break I put on the robe and walked around the room to look at the sketches. I put the robe on, but I didn't close it in front. It seemed ridiculous to sit naked for ten minutes in front of these people, then put on a robe to walk among the same folks.

I looked at the sketches and an idea came to me about my article. It occurred to me how natural and relaxed I now felt with these people and how being naked in front of them was not a big thing, not hard at all, and I felt very natural and at peace. Being naked was really not difficult at all. I realized the housewives and PTA mothers who posed for these classes made me understand just how natural they thought the body is, and how very pure their feelings are.

The body is not obscene, I thought to myself. These women who pose nude for this art class have shown me that the body is natural, not lewd, pure, not vulgar. Doing it myself convinces me they know what they are talking about. I had asked about prostitutes as if the body was unclean and deprave. It occurred to me that our art museums and galleries and parks are filled with statues of naked people.

Nude models are no different than the secretaries and office workers in this college art department. Why is nude in art okay but not in the flesh? When the next break came I walked around and asked the art students how they felt about the nude models, about the people who posed for them.

"I think they're cool," one student said. "Like you today. You didn't close your robe, like it was okay to be nude up there and down here." He pointed at the platform. "But if you dressed for down here, but were nude up there it wouldn't make any sense. I think it was great you didn't close your robe and didn't act like nakedness is okay on the platform but not down here with us people."

"I am thinking about not even putting it on now," I said, slipping out of the robe and tossing it aside.

"That's great," he said. "It shows that the body really is okay." Then two students came up to me and asked me if I knew what Kraft had gotten in trouble for. It surprised me that such a nice man would have gotten in any trouble at all, ever.

"Last semester he had a male nude model cover himself with white alabaster paint," one student said.

"A bunch of us helped him," another added.

"Dr. Kraft had the fellow come in before the class started and stand completely stil, as if he was a statue and not a living person," said someone else.

"Class started and people thought he was a sculpture, and he held the pose for ten minutes," said the first young woman.

"Then after ten minutes or so, he walked off the pedestal and left the room. This was in an art history class. They were used to seeing slides of nude statues and paintings all semester."

"But some people were really pissed that they were fooled," the young woman said.

"But that was the point," another added. "It was to show that indecency is an illusion," he said. "To show that we think nude statues are fine, but naked people are obscene, are shocking."

"And some people complained about Dr. Kraft doing that, like they were exposed to real naked people without their knowing it. He was going to use it as a discussion starter, but those who complained went to the college president. Eventually, the college decided he hadn't done anything wrong," the first woman explained.

"They weren't outraged until they found he was a live person, then they were embarrassed," a student went on. "It was like they were fooled into not being uncomfortable," she said. "Like a naked statue was okay but a naked person wasn't."

After class the students gathered around me to talk about nude models, nudity, and obscenity. Most thought it was crazy we have laws against people being nude in public. I was getting a whole new perspective on nudity and obscenity and the law. Why we celebrate nudity in parks and museums, but outlaw it in the flesh. If one is bad, why not both?

After talking to the students, I could not wait to start my article. The article I wrote for the paper follows:

I WAS A NUDE MODEL FOR A DAY

"Every day people appear naked in classrooms on campus all around the country for other people to draw pictures of. I wondered what kinds of people get naked for other people to study, so I volunteered to be a nude model for a day. Was I harmed emotionally because I let other people see my naked body. I don't think so, but I guess we'll find out. After all, I let people see my naked breasts, my bare bottom, even the hair over my vagina. I find even writing the word vagina has somewhat of a stigma to it.

What I found about the nude models, they were housewives, PTA mothers, and everyday people just like me who took off their clothes for others to draw pictures of naked human beings.

The question occurred to me as I sat naked in front of the artists: why is it legal for people to be naked in classes, but not in the flesh in parks, museums, and galleries where nudity is celebrated with paintings, statues, and photographs?

The answer is complicated. For centuries religions have taught that exposure of the human body is obscene and depraved and the body should not be viewed, but we make an exception for art. We have celebrated nakedness in humans artistically, while adamantly outlawing it in the flesh.

The assumption seemed to be, if people see other people naked, they will lose all control and fornicate indiscriminately, without any moral discretion or restraint. That is completely discredited in the art classes where nude people pose for artists, or at any park or art museum where realistic reproductions are displayed openly. Nudist camps have strict rules against open sexuality and are not colonies of wildly fornicating humans. It seems the worries are unfounded.

While I sat naked for other people to study and observe and draw, I asked myself what is wrong with posing naked for artists? It seems nothing since it is perfectly legal, but do it outside in pubic and it would be a crime and you will be arrested. What about the argument that some people may not want to see others naked, but then what is wrong with not looking. It seems if someone is nude where other people can see them, the nude people are offending the viewer, rather than the viewer is not thwarting the person's right to be without clothing.

So the nude person is compelling us to look? Looking away is not a choice? I said it was a complicated issue, and it certainly is. Many argue it is for the sake of the children, because children could be sexual before they are mature enough or ready for sexuality, and we place that mark at eighteen in the Western world. We know some people are "ready" before others. A few adults may never be. At seventeen years and 364 days they are children, but in one more day they are adults. Of course we must have a line of demarcation, but is there any evidence that a young person seeing a naked, uncovered breast, or a nude bottom, they will be more inclined to engage in sexual activity than one who doesn't? There seems to be some evidence that restricting them can have an "attraction of the forbidden" affect on some. The forbidden fruit seems to have some attraction.

Many argue a bikini is more sensual than a naked body. Showing small bits may have more seductive affects than revealing the entire individual. Nude models in art classes are not sexually unrestrained and depraved individuals who behave without self-control. I know. I was one for a day. I wasn't corrupted, turned into a harlot, or morally destroyed. I sat naked in front of twenty-three men and women who drew pictures of me and I felt relaxed and without guilt, like I was offering a worthwhile service. Nude is simply not lewd."

My article was certainly controversial. Some thought I was nuts, some praised my arguments. A few thought I should be locked up. A couple of folks thought I should be fired at least, incarcerated at best. All for saying sitting nude in front of other folks was not all that bad. I let other people see me naked and got paid for doing so. Whether or not I am now a fallen woman remains to be seen, but if you want my opinion, I am no different than I was before and not scarred by letting people see my body parts without covering.