Shots of Kim Kardashian's ample derriere in Paper magazine have ensured all round opprobrium for what many are calling an attention-deficit act. Apart from ensuring she remains the most talked about ("I want to break the internet," she'd said), commented and shared across both mainstream and social media, particularly given the racist overtones of the shoot, it has also opened the floodgates on debates around nudity. Is it art or porn? Obscene or beautiful? Sexy or sensual? Empowering or objectifying?
The forbidden
Even as the debates rage, the question begging to be asked is why are we so fascinated with the nude body? "The fact that nudity's forbidden in most cultures, makes it that much more alluring," explains socio-cultural historian Mukul Joshi. "It also feeds into the primeval desire to uncover and unclothe. History shows us how this unfortunately manifests in an agenda to disempower and subjugate.
Unlike communities in the world that some like to call 'backward' - where nudity is the norm - it is the 'developed' world which often gives this uncovering and unclothing the exploitative edge."
Psychiatrist Rajendra Barve agrees that the forbidden drives the attraction for nudity. "From early childhood, even at a tender non-sexualised age, children are told off for being nanga-punga.
That plays out in conflict with raging hormones in adolescence when the first stirrings of sexual attraction begin. While we all battle it at varying levels, exhibitionists and people addicted to nudity often carry excessive leftover baggage from this conflict." According to him, ads, films and even porn only feed off such desire.
Nudity & glamour
Perhaps the reason revenue collections of the glamour industry are often directly proportional to the show of skin. Well-known photographer Andrea Fernandes, who's worked extensively on nudes of women, brushes that off as name-calling. "On the contrary, I feel it is important to add images of women that challenge stereotypes in their visual representation," she says.
"Kardashian showing off her already exoticised behind just adds to the millions of images that perpetuate the notion that women's bodies are passive and for us to look at and judge. Yet, a recent Natalie Portman photoshoot did the opposite. By agreeing to go topless for a shoot on the condition of not being photoshopped to make her breasts bigger (as is often the case) she regained control of her body."
In her body of work, Fernandes stresses, she reflects on her experiences, combining cultural taboos that treat women's sexuality as acts of transgression with a religious heritage that regards the body as innately impure and unworthy. "Images and texts in my work explore ways in which women individually reclaim sex for their own pleasure. In spite of insecurities of their collective psyche, from seeing themselves as perverse to struggling with image issues, these women recognise their sexuality as unique and independent of the presence of a partner."
Over 7,000 km away, Dylan Rosser who's been exclusively shooting "beautiful" male nudes from around the globe for more than a decade sees it differently. This Londoner, now an Ibiza resident, feels nudity itself is a non-issue. "The subject is only difficult because it is harder to find models and locations to shoot nudes."
While admitting to different moral compasses and rules on what is right and wrong based on location, upbringing and religion, he refuses to classify his work as even remotely pornographic. "I don't even think shots of the erect penis constitute porn. There is nothing provocative or shocking in the male body by itself unless you show an explicit sexual act. I'm trying to just make/capture a nice image that is well lit, with good composition , to make the model look his best."
Fernandes also insists that "the fair amount of nudity" in her work is not unwarranted. "As an artist, who often photographs nudes, I constantly ensure I respect the autonomy of those I photograph. While I celebrate thier sexuality, I also ensure it is not their only defining characteristic. They have personalities, histories and voices."
First timers
Both photographers have different takes on first-timers. Rosser says its his favourite type of shoot. "It makes me feel special that they've chosen me to take their photographic virginity, if that makes sense," he laughs and adds, "I'm extra sensitive to their comfort. Generally I don't show models pictures while shooting. In this case I often do. It gets them more confident and lets them go."
Fernandes says it is tough convincing first-timers who come to shoot assuming nudes are necessarily sexual. "I once photographed a woman who wanted to gift her boyfriend sexy pictures of herself. She brought high-heels, fish-nets, negligee and red lipstick along. Since she was nervous we took a break when she decided to drink half a bottle of wine. I began photographing her drinking wine and smoking. When she saw the photographs, she was so pleased she wanted to be shot without the heels and fishnets and even got rid of the negligee and red lipstick." A month later, when Fernandes wrote asking if her boyfriend liked the pictures, she replied, "I kept them. For the first time I felt sexy without trying to be sexy for someone else."
Gender divide
But do men and women react differently to being clicked in their skin? Milind Soman -- who posed nude along with Madhu Sapre with just a python covering the bare minimum for a print ad for Tuff Shoes in June 1995, leading to a 14-year long obscenity case -- should know. "I think women always face a lot more flak than men when it comes to nudity. Nobody approached me but I know several Mumbai-based photographers who do a lot of aesthetic work with male nudes. Though this is well-known and out on the net, you don't see any outrage over that."
Across the city, Virendra Balhara preens in the mirror in a Lokhandwala gym as he laughs. "I came to Mumbai to act and see what I'm doing." After trying his hand at serials and modelling, he began first stripping and then working as an escort. "An artiste in Juhu calls me to pose for him at times. In the beginning I thought he's homosexually interested but now I know that's not the case. I only sit in awkward positions for a really long time, make Rs 2,500 an hour and it's far more respectable than what I usually do."
Fernandes, who has photographed nude men in porn auditions in London, says, "Men are used to autonomy of their bodies. Initially they found it exciting to be shot nude by a woman. But they didn't feel as comfortable when they realised that nothing about them mattered except their sexually availabality.
"This is exactly like what women face in most representations. They need to seem sexually available irrespective of whether they're in an ad selling chocolate or cell phones or films."
According to her, women don't always assert themselves. "They're used to being zoomed into, flaws pointed out and their bodies used to sell every possible product and message there is. So, they often ask me to direct them, asking what they can do and how, they will ask me their better side and apologise for their 'cankles'."
Mariette Valsan, who has modelled for top brands, shot nude for a cover for Maxim India 2013 with a group of six other models. "For me, it was extremely important to trust the person behind the camera while shooting nude as that's where the thin line between it being art and not comes into play," she says. "Luckily for me I had six other girls who shared varying degrees of the same experience to put me at ease."
"I'd shoot with very, very limited people in minimal clothing or in the nude. Once I know and have experienced their attitudes towards art and work and especially towards women, in general," she adds.
Sexual overtones
Nudity can be sexual but isn't always. There seems to be an increasing notion that nudity is necessarily sexual and hence, immoral. And even women breastfeeding in public is seen by the same standards. "Filmmakers like late showman Raj Kapoor took this obsession with the mammaries to ridiculous heights as was obvious in Ram Teri Ganga Maili where the camera stayed at Mandakini's breasts irrespective of whether she was under a waterfall in white sari or breast-feeding," says Joshi. "We live in warped times. Instead of the child who needs feeding we sexualise breasts."
Fernandes agrees and says, "Just like men, women can decide when they want to be sexual. We simply can't assume a revealing dress means sexually availability. Once we understand that, we can go back to looking at nudes for what they are - natural and not always sexual vehicles," she adds.
Rosser, of course, feels that human beings are always attracted to certain physical attributes. "Nudity offers us all this. The sculpted male physique is the epitome of masculinity and the viewer is drawn to that sexually sometimes I suppose." That's where Dr Barve differs. He insists contextualising nudity and its socio-cultural ecosystem can change perception. "Unless one is looking for that kind of kink, not many may find the sight of Naga sadhus sexual.
In fact, it can be scary, repulsive or put people off. There is little innately beautiful about human genitalia. Much attraction is created with the mounting of the shoot, the lights, camera-angles and the way the remaining body frames those genitals." He quickly underlines though that in the end that too amounts to "objectification with a purpose".
Obscenity's changing face
Pronouncing his judgment on the Tuff shoes advertisement case then additional chief metropolitan magistrate M.J. Mirza had said, "What may be obscene for a group of society may not be obscene for another."
The court had said the main criteria in determining obscenity are "reasonable tolerance" for the disputed matter in society. In an age where educationists are advocating sex education in schools and colleges, the court was of the view that "too conservative an approach cannot stand the test of time".
The magistrate also relied on the decision of the Bombay High Court in the obscenity row over actor Mamta Kulkarni's topless picture that had appeared on a magazine cover. The high court had in its decision of 2005 held that obscenity is a "relative term".
Valsan disagrees most Indians think nudity is obscene. "The loudest hail themselves as the majority. Usually open-minded liberals are less likely to be violent in their expression and given the treatment liberals have been receiving in our country of late, it's not surprising that they choose to be mild in voicing their opinion."
Says Dipesh Mehta, Soman and Sapre's lawyer in the 1995 case, "Though the IPC clearly defines what constitutes obscenity, we are living in changing times. The way society chooses to operationally define the obscene has changed drastically."
Mehta, often hired to comb through film contracts by Bollywood's leading ladies, cited an actress ruling the box office these days. "I was getting into the minutiae of whether there were any kissing scenes or semi-nude shots with the filmmaker when this leading lady butted in saying, 'itna sab khayal rakhenge toh ghar mein baithna padega (if I get so careful I'll have to sit at home without work)."
Kardashian would have totally approved of her. From the heart of her bottom.
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