F'd Ad Fridays: Poorly Photoshopped naked older women for charity

The women's auxiliary of the Lake Helen American Legion Post 127 in North Florida needs to renovate their kitchen. They saw the movie Calendar Girls. One of them has a nephew who knows Photoshop.

Voilà!

Ladies, I salute you.

Another nude photo revolutionary for the Muslim world?

Maybe not. Pakistani model Veena Malik has filed suit against FHM India for using this cover photo, which she claims has been "morphed". The magazine says it has proof that the session was consensual and authentic.

And it's not just the nudity that's controversial, both in conservative India and Ms. Malik's home country. "ISI" is a reference to the Pakistani intelligence service.

According to The National Post:

[FHM India editor Kabeer] Sharma said the idea had been to take an ironic swipe at India’s obsession with the ISI. 

A tag line on the cover that points to the initials, reads: “Hand in the end of the world too?”
“People, especially young people in both countries, want to move past this kind of thinking,” the editor said. 

“It’s a very powerful picture — it took a lot of guts for her to do that. It shows a powerful, sexy woman not afraid to speak her mind.”

Speaking her mind, but then taking it back. Is this fear of backlash, or just a publicity stunt?

Either way, it's hard to compare it to Egyptian feminist blogger Aliaa Magda Elmahdy's not-for-profit and potentially deadly one woman online nude protest. (And note, with irony, the cover headline :Why naked protests are just amateur porn"!)

Putting nude models on the cover of a lad mag is hardly a step forward for feminism in Pakistan. But it does show that the global normalization of sexuality and nudity is affecting even very conservative cultures.

Lest we forget, Hugh Hefner started out not to pornify women, but to sexually liberate the repressed adults of the 1950s. Things went awry as Playboy outlasted the male-dominated society it grew out of, and today it is no better than its grandchildren publications such as FHM.

It's a dangerous road, to be sure, trying to sexually liberate women by sexualizing them. But will the end result mean a more sex-positive world? We'll see...

Tip and pics via Buzzfeed

F'd Ad Fridays: Ballbarians at the gates (partial nudity)

FEMEN are ramping up the protest about Ukraine's co-hosting of the Euro 2012 soccer tournament.

Via Mizozo

Femenista Inna Shevchenko told media that UEFA, the international football organisation, is "trying to influence our government" to legalize prostitution in advance of the June, 2012, kickoff to accommodate the legions of randy fans pouring in from across Europe.

In their usual modest and retiring style, the protestors went to the venue and stripped off their tops, spread their legs, and put tiny soccer balls on their crotches with the slogan "UEFA Attacked Our Gates".

They were later dragged away by Kiev police.

Nude activism continues to take over the internet

First PETA. Then FEMEN. Then, last month, Egyptian blogger Aliaa Magda Elmahdy posted naked pictures of herself online to protest sexist oppression.

Now it's Chinese supporters of dissident artist Ai Weiwei who are dropping trou for a cause.

According to Shanghaiist,  Ai Weiwei announced Friday that Beijing police were now investigating his assistant Zhao Zhao for "spreading pornography online" for posting a picture of the artist with four female models, all nude. (Link)

The site, "Listen, Chinese Government： Nudity is not Pornography" is packed with homemade nudes from both well-known outspoken Chinese cewebrities and well-wishers.

What I really love are the group shots censored with AWW faces:

There is no doubt that this will get attention. Naked people always seem to, no matter how many billions of artistic, scientific and erotic nude pictures are available at the stroke of a Google. But as the shock value diminishes with the increasing ordinariness of seeing other humans in their altogether, will the efficacy of the tactic also fade?

I guess we'll just have to see. But as long as places like Egypt and China (not to mention many Western democracies) continue to harshly fight the normalization of naked displays of the human body, there will still be someone to scandalize.

(Thanks to FEMEN for the tip)

F'd Ad Fridays: Nude Modelling Camp (sounds totally legit)

Photographer Beau Picasso is keeping the dream alive for short, creepy men everywhere. He has apparently found a way to convince women to pay him to take them to isolated locations where they strip naked and pose for his camera.

And it's not even a professional camera.

"Models are whisked from the airport to a reception at the roof top pool of the five-star Elysée Palace hotel, where they meet the other models from around the world. They are assigned to shared apartments (three models fit quite comfortably) and they start to get excited about the next morning’s shoot at Coco Beach. 

A relaxed photo shoot with Beau and his female assistants (who are also photographers) is sometimes interrupted by swims in the Mediterranean and sun tanning. Then, perhaps, a sunset picnic on the beach and an excited conversation about the next day’s shoot. 

Our camps provide shared apartment style accommodations with complete kitchen, wifi access and 24-hour security. We are only steps away from the beach, food, culture, and shopping. A 50% deposit is required upon registration and the balance is due before camp begins."

Here's one of Beau's softcore porn infomercials. It contains nudity and sleaze:


Beau Picasso Models: On the French Riviera from James Anthony on Vimeo.

Egyptian blogger exposes herself for freedom (nudity)

We are used to seeing all kinds of nudity in the West. But in the Muslim world, it is much different. Even fairly secular countries censor nudes in art as well as advertising.

20-year-old Egyptian blogger Aliaa Magda Elmahdy wants to change that. Last month, she started a new Google blog, called "Nude Art" which features full-frontal nudes of herself and an unidentified male, as well as a cat and some artsy underwear and embrace shots.

They're not great art shots. They look like 1940s amateur pornography. But like that, what they do have is a certain authentic and defiant naïveté from someone who wants to own her own body in a culture than denies that freedom.  The most political of the pictures features self-censorship: “The yellow rectangles on my eyes, mouth and sex organ resemble the censoring of our knowledge, expression and sexuality,” she explained.

“I have the right to live freely in any place… I feel happy and self satisfied when I feel that I’m really free,” she said.

Nothing particularly shocking to jaded Western internet eyes. But in Egypt, where the post-Tahir atmosphere is one of increasingly conservative religious influence, this is practically treason.

The responses on the blog on Twitter (#nudephotorevolutionary) are in both English and Arabic. One negative comment is translated as “a desperate act of social political suicide by a young woman”. And another: “We are defending secularism from innuendos & then we get this #NudePhotoRevolutionary Stop shocking people to the point of repulsion.”

But the comments also show that there is a new generation, globally informed, who want more than an end to political oppression. They want total freedom. Said one English commenter:

"I'm very impressed and inspired by your courage. The revolution in Egypt needs to be a catalyst for greater freedom of expression. If somebody wants to wear a hijab they should be free to do so without facing discrimination but you must also be able to express yourself any way you choose without fear. It's your body and it's entirely up to you how you choose to express yourself."

Is this how a sexual revolution begins?

Link and Arabic translations via Almasri Ayoum
Tip via FEMEN

FEMEN take on the Pope (nudity)

Not quite as outrageous as Sinead's attack, but still newsworthy.



According to their Livejournal (via Google Translate):

"Alexandra Shevchenko, past the police and security services, made ​​her way into the center of the Vatican in St. Peter's Square and staged topless just share during Sunday Mass under the balcony of the Pope, deploying a banner reading 'Freedom for women.'

In this way, activists protested the papal patriarchal propaganda manipulated by the medieval idea of a woman's social and cultural mission. Condemnation of the use of contraceptives, the international ban on the abortion lobby, the correction of clothing and appearance of women, the ban on women in the ordained - a fetid belch a witch hunt. Sexist policies Vatican has its downside in the form of a wave of sexual crimes committed by clergy against children and women. The women's movement FEMEN favor of a free woman, devoid of prejudice, despising all forms of patriarchal slavery, blatant of which was and remains a church!  

FEMEN  caused panic among Vatican intelligence. Journalists were brutally dispersed, the Italian journalists dutifully adopted a ban on shooting, and were not only arrested the activist movement FEMEN, but also a journalist from Australia. The promoters of the movement had more than four hours in the Roman police, and only under pressure from the media escaped deportation."

 Originally from Ukraine, FEMEN are on a tour of Europe to promote women's rights and stick it to the man.

F'd Ad Fridays: A very scary FEMEN Halloween protest (nudity)

Wasn't this a scene in Heavy Metal?

What's scarier than having FEMEN show up bare-chested and screaming to protest your mistreatment of animals? How about FEMEN showing up bare-chested and screaming, wearing animal masks, covered in blood and flinging raw meat at you?


ZooMorgue from FEMEN Video on Vimeo.


That's what happened to the keepers at Kiev’s ZooPark, where Animal NY reports the animals have been dying from inadequate feeding, shelter from the cold, and vet care.

It's in Ukrainian, as usual, but I'm sure you'll still get their points.

F'd Ad Fridays: Team France bringing back the original Olympic uniforms

As an antidote to the chauvinist one-sidedness to that last post, here is nudity done right (IMHO).

It's an online video for Athena, a popular men's underwear brand. It's a fake "making of" for EURO RSCG 360's upcoming Athena campaign for the Olympics, featuring members of Team France in very traditional Olympic uniforms. To make the subjects more comfortable, the entire crew and agency staff are compelled to join in.



See? Playful nudity can be fun for everyone. (And hilarious, when you see the doughy CDs standing beside the Olympians.)

And then there's this line...

Via Ads of The World

The most beautiful, nastiest, campaign nudes you will see today

These unsettling portraits are by by UK photog Rankin, known for his sexy and disturbing images. (As well as the most sexily disturbing PSA I have seen in quite some time—posted earlier on Osocio.)

For this job, conceived by Beta, London for the British Skin Foundation, the shock is toned down. The pictures are almost too beautiful for the message.

Heh heh heh... "bum crack"

Nice work, though. I hope it gets through.

Find out more about the campaign here.