If you haven't heard about this yet, there's a fund raising push within the secular community for Light The Night. The Foundation Beyond Belief is aiming to raise $1,000,000 to help win the fight against blood cancers. There are very few things that everyone agrees on, but finding cures for cancer and improving access to existing treatments and counseling for patients and their families is one of them. Please click the picture below if you want to learn more or donate to our team.
So what, you may ask, does walking a few miles with fellow humanitarians have to do with nudity or goodness? Well, the goodness part should be obvious. It's a good and worthy cause to support. But doing that nude or partially nude? October in the Windy City is a time for layers and hoodies, not bare skin!
No, my thoughts on nudity have to to do with a project that Secular Woman has in the works. Atheists Breaking Through: The Reveal 2013 Nude Calendar will be sold to raise money for our women's travel fund and for the Foundation Beyond Belief's contribution to Light the Night (see, I told you there was a connection). Actually, this is the second nude calendar project I've seen promoted this year. The first was a direct critique of patriarchal repression and outright oppression of women, inspired by Egyptian blogger *NSFW*Aliaa Magda Elmahdy. You can read more about that project and download or buy the Nude Photo Revolutionary calendar *NSFW*here. It's worth a look. Just not at work.
This calendar is a little different, though. (Although I still wouldn't bring it to work.) For one thing, women and men are participating. The scope is wider, and the intent to include a broad cross-section of humanity is more, well, explicit. Also, whereas the first project was very much an exercise in solidarity with a very brave woman that made perfect sense to me, this one got me thinking a bit more deeply about marketing, target audiences, and overall messaging. What does a nude calendar have to do with the fight against cancer or helping women who couldn't otherwise meet with other activists in their community come together at conferences? Does the content need to be connected to the causes it supports?
First and foremost, there's the question of why all the nekkidness? If you have kids school aged or above, it's not like you're going to hang that on your wall without killing your child's inclination to have anyone over for the next year or so. The same thing holds true for the coffee table or the end tables. While it certainly wouldn't scar your child anymore than having a tasteful piece of sculpture on the liquor cabinet, you're probably going to hear about it. So, it's a calendar, and it needs to hide in a drawer if you're a parent and don't like it when your kids nag you. Not exactly practical. Then again, I remember being all about the National Geographic magazines as a grade school kid, so that argument is probably erring on the side of forgetting just how naturally curious kids are. Keep it with the other artsy books, and let the kids look if they want to. Let them know it's there so they don't freak out if they run across it, and let them know that you're open to any questions they might have. Surely, that's a lot healthier than letting their only exposure to nudity be through the wonders of cable television and other media outlets less focused on dignity and more focused on making a buck. As a parent, I can see the value in a calendar that presents nudity in an artistic and meaningful context. Sold.
As a feminist and a humanist, I can see the value, too. While I don't actually think a fundraising item needs to be connected to the cause it supports, it helps when it is. In this case, one of the reasons women have trouble getting to events is that we are paid less than men for the same skills in many fields. (For anyone who disagrees, please get back to me after you've read this.) Regardless of your gender, you have to trust your community to help you find your place in society, and to make sure that the deck isn't stacked against you. By including pictures of women and men in the calendar, it underscores the fact that we are all vulnerable, even when empowered. We need each other to thrive, for practical matters like survival and for emotional connections that make survival meaningful and joyful. This is true in general, but it's particularly obvious when someone falls deathly ill and the cure hasn't been found yet, or is financially out of reach. There is nothing quite so naked as raw need, and nothing quite so fulfilling as being able to help.
So this is why I'm going for a walk in the park next month, and why I'll have some tasteful art in my home that isn't buried in a desk drawer to shelter my daughter from nudity.
Although, from a practical standpoint, I'd also like to ask, "Will there be an app for that?"
This calendar is a little different, though. (Although I still wouldn't bring it to work.) For one thing, women and men are participating. The scope is wider, and the intent to include a broad cross-section of humanity is more, well, explicit. Also, whereas the first project was very much an exercise in solidarity with a very brave woman that made perfect sense to me, this one got me thinking a bit more deeply about marketing, target audiences, and overall messaging. What does a nude calendar have to do with the fight against cancer or helping women who couldn't otherwise meet with other activists in their community come together at conferences? Does the content need to be connected to the causes it supports?
First and foremost, there's the question of why all the nekkidness? If you have kids school aged or above, it's not like you're going to hang that on your wall without killing your child's inclination to have anyone over for the next year or so. The same thing holds true for the coffee table or the end tables. While it certainly wouldn't scar your child anymore than having a tasteful piece of sculpture on the liquor cabinet, you're probably going to hear about it. So, it's a calendar, and it needs to hide in a drawer if you're a parent and don't like it when your kids nag you. Not exactly practical. Then again, I remember being all about the National Geographic magazines as a grade school kid, so that argument is probably erring on the side of forgetting just how naturally curious kids are. Keep it with the other artsy books, and let the kids look if they want to. Let them know it's there so they don't freak out if they run across it, and let them know that you're open to any questions they might have. Surely, that's a lot healthier than letting their only exposure to nudity be through the wonders of cable television and other media outlets less focused on dignity and more focused on making a buck. As a parent, I can see the value in a calendar that presents nudity in an artistic and meaningful context. Sold.
As a feminist and a humanist, I can see the value, too. While I don't actually think a fundraising item needs to be connected to the cause it supports, it helps when it is. In this case, one of the reasons women have trouble getting to events is that we are paid less than men for the same skills in many fields. (For anyone who disagrees, please get back to me after you've read this.) Regardless of your gender, you have to trust your community to help you find your place in society, and to make sure that the deck isn't stacked against you. By including pictures of women and men in the calendar, it underscores the fact that we are all vulnerable, even when empowered. We need each other to thrive, for practical matters like survival and for emotional connections that make survival meaningful and joyful. This is true in general, but it's particularly obvious when someone falls deathly ill and the cure hasn't been found yet, or is financially out of reach. There is nothing quite so naked as raw need, and nothing quite so fulfilling as being able to help.
So this is why I'm going for a walk in the park next month, and why I'll have some tasteful art in my home that isn't buried in a desk drawer to shelter my daughter from nudity.
Although, from a practical standpoint, I'd also like to ask, "Will there be an app for that?"
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