I like this essay for its humor and its relatively casual attitude towards nudity, even if Emily isn’t altogether sold on the idea…
Naked and the Dread – I pose nude for students. Will the art world ever be the same? By Emily Yoffe [Link still valid!]
Here is the distinction between naked and nude. Naked is when you step out of the shower before you’ve put on your bathrobe. Nude is when you drop your bathrobe in front of a roomful of art students. As I undid the sash to my bathrobe, I had the fleeting thought that I could say, “I don’t know what I was thinking,” then grab my clothes and run. But I opened the sash, took off my robe, and stepped up on the platform.
I stood there, suppressing a strong desire to giggle (fortunately, the students suppressed their giggles, too) as I tried to think of appropriate poses—something neither sultry nor stiff. I began doing yogalike twists, but with my being undressed and all, I was afraid it had the feeling of yoga porn.
Originally published December 20, 2005