Ah yes - more from the hate mail inbox ..

[lbitsofpaper]

I applied for membership to what I thought was a fairly anti-establishment-beauty group. I made a little introductory post included my website etc. Moderated group - here was my response ...

Hello. I'm the primary mod of XXXX. I just wanted to let

Comments

[drkelso]

ohhh kay. If anything, your stuff is not ordinary "taking pictures of naked women." Good, but not always ordinary.

She's just jealous her husband won't let her pose for you.

[darklittleangel]

my thoughts is that she's jealous at how we're expressing ourselves in a way that she never thought was imaginable.... *nods* at least thats my view of this pigheaded woman's responce.... but whoknows.... *shrugs*

[lbitsofpaper]

Well I'm sure to her it's well out of bounds - she's still stuck in that whole naked = porn thing.

[darklittleangel]

people get stuck up over the strangest things....

[ex_cirocco891]

Well, of course every time women reveal their bodies it's solely because they're mere tools of the patriarchy. In an ideal feminist state, women would wear long, draping, body-concealing garments with veiled holes only for the eyes, so that they would not be sullied by the "male gaze." Oh, wait, except a state like that exists, and it's run by the Taliban, and last I heard it wasn't exactly the best place to be female.

Andrea Dworkin is dead and the corpse is starting to stink.

It would be interesting if the mod's perspective were to change if you worked under the name "Brianne Kirk" or something similarly feminine. I wish there were a way to run the experiment.

[lbitsofpaper]

I luv u ...

One of the funny things is that so few males get my work. These women aren't perfect therefore they can't really be models. Women buy 80 - 90% of my work - for themselves.

Now on Brianne - I'm in touch with my feminine side to be sure. I think I'm a male lesbian to an extent. But let's get real - I would make a really ugly woman. You cannot surgically narrow my shoulders, I don't think that dunking my body in Nair every day is an option, I don't have the walk either - just bad times overall. I'm about as straight as you'll find but flaunting massive doses of testoserone just isn't my style. I would hate to think that she would be accepting of a woman with the same work - saying that all men are the enemy. I don't think I've been opressive to women - hell I'd be much happier in a matriarchal society.

[ex_cirocco891]

Oh, I'm not saying you should work as a woman, but people do respond differently to figure studies based on whether the artist is male or female. I'll wager that if you had applied to the community with a feminine name, your work would have been construed as striking a blow for sexual empowerment, a rebellion against the infamous "fascist beauty standard." I did a piece on body image a few years ago for Blue Stocking, a feminist magazine, where I interviewed five women of wildly varying shapes and also photographed them nude. It never seemed to cross the mind of either the readers or editors that I might be exploiting my subjects. Women objectifying women? That's unpossible!

[lbitsofpaper]

Well if you want to know where to apply let me know. Yeah women could never objectify women - wait - Suze Randall, Dani Ashe ... the list goes on.

[xxmisschiefxx]

that's quite a full on response. I would hazzard a guess at a few underlying issues

[lbitsofpaper]

Yeha just a few ...

I have taken pictues of fat men's asses too - just look at my self portrait.

[xxmisschiefxx]

I like your self portarit :)

[lbitsofpaper]

Thanks - for a fat old guy I think it's OK.

[justwalker]

Man. I could understand a letter like that if you were asking to put your photos in a church newsletter, but that's pretty surprising from an art community. She sounds like such a pleasant individual. Would photos of nude women be okay with her if another woman had taken them? It sounds like her problem is more with the fact that you're a man than anything else. Of course it's just that - her problem.

[zancro]

Control issues. The second sentance says it all.

[ex_cirocco891]

Hey, I've seen you in the Moonday community, local dude. Small world!

[zancro]

Hi. Local to where exactly? That's odd... I've never posted anything in that community.

[ex_cirocco891]

I'm in Seattle. Perhaps I recognize your icon not from moonday, but from Kevin Hundschnurder's journal (spikyme)? I know I've seen you around, it's just coincidental that you're an LJ friend of Brian's as well.