Which is ruder?

[Ed]

Quick test of the water on this subject:

[Anonymous]

I’m struggling to think of any offensive examples at all. I’m struggling the most with (c) so I’ll vote for that one. I suppose (a) carries the greatest risk. It’s an essential part of Salome’s seven veils scene, which has to be shocking to work, but I could imagine howls of protest if (a) was used in a fairy tale performance for a family audience, far more than the others.

Could this be woven into an experiment somehow?

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[Martin]

Life models are encouraged to remove clothing and wear a gown, then appear in front of their artists, and then remove the gown. That’s standard.

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[Ed]

Is it considered inappropriate to undress in front of the artists?

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[Martin]

More that it is expected you will quickly get unclothed and into pose. It’s also frowned upon to walk around naked during any breaks but that you would cover up.

 

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[Ed]

I’ve spoken to a few life models who are also nudists (I guess the two go together well). I’ve never thought ask about what happens before/after posing and during breaks, but I’ll raise that next time.

 

Our social norms around nudity are bizarre.

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[Anonymous]

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[Ed]

It’s very funny, but it makes a genuinely good point.

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[Ed]

I have no idea why a sudden reveal is the least shocking.

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[Anonymous]

I can’t get past the idea that the first one resembles a striptease which is entertaining partly because it is shocking. The Salome example I mentioned before is definitely designed to be shocking. At the opposite end of the literary spectrum, we watched on old St Trinian’s film on telly last night which included a striptease which – again – was entirely about shocking the audience (but this time the target was the fictional audience, not the television viewer). In scenes where clothing is gradually removed but not as a striptease, the situation is different. If it’s about a model gradually trusting her artist or a lover gradually opening up to her partner, the gradual undressing is necessary and would be a bit in-yer-face if done too quickly.

The other two are far less likely to be shocking, although either could be used that way if the plot demanded it. If a character needs to be naked, the fewer distractions the better. The least shocking option is to arrive on stage naked or wearing a dressing gown to be subtly removed when required.

Of course, there are many examples that would prove the opposite!

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[Martin]

I’m reminded of one of my films where my character is fully body painted as a clown and laying, as though dead, on the beach, a jogger jogs along the beach and sees me, the jogger comes in closer. It’s at that point that we see, quite literally, all of me. Did we need to do that? No. We did it to see if the audience are unsettled / shocked by it. We could have  blocked me so you don’t get the full impact on screen but… well, where’s the fun in that?

 

• This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by Martin.

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[Anonymous]

I think it needs the full impact. There’s a difference between intellectually knowing that a naked body has been found (because, shot from a careful angle, that’s how it looked) and the shock of seeing a fully exposed naked body in front of you. I assume that’s why Silent Witness never pulled any punches when it showed bodies waiting for a postmortem to start – the change from life to death was very well shown by having the corpse blatantly naked and shouldn’t be sanitised. I’ve read a few (very few) interviews with cast members and surprisingly they tended to use the actual actor/actress, not a dummy. Silent Witness has moved away from those kinds of plot in recent series though.

This isn’t a very cheerful topic!

At a nude beach, with sunshine and deckchairs and an icecream van, would an accidental visitor be more shocked by seeing people naked or by seeing them slowly undressing? (And that reminds me of a story of some friends playing strip poker in public on a naked beach – most people either glanced across or ignored them but apparently one guy did tell them off for inappropriate behaviour! His kind of nakedness was ok but theirs wasn’t.)

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[Author]

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