Now, this:
http://www.naked-people.de
That's the link that got me started on this thought process, sorta. It's a photographer who has taken twenty regular folks models and photographed them with their clothes on and then naked, in the same pose. You click on them and the clothes fade away. The project has more than a few cute girls in it, but it's still pretty neat.
The other inspiration for this post is the Watchmen (because that's all I've thought about for the past three months or so). I was thinking about the Hiroshima Lovers scene in the film- where Dan Dreiberg dreams of him and Laurie naked and then in costume and then getting blown up.
Pretend they are naked. I couldn't find a naked picture.When they showed Dan and Laurie both full-body and naked, it completely took my breath away. In part, it's because I had a crush on Dan Dreiberg in the comic book, and Patrick Wilson's embodiment of him was absolutely everything I wanted it to be. But another part of it was that I was seeing sort of non-Hollywood-standard naked people. Okay, Malin Akerman is pretty hot- granted. And Patrick Wilson is hardly your average dude.
Patrick Wilson cordially invites you to the gun show.But in the film, there's maybe an inch or so of pudge over those six pack abs. And that's enough to drive me nuts. It made him look like a real live naked man to me. And that's awesome. Hollywood nudity- like everything else Hollywood does -is cookie cutter. It completely anesthesizes sex. Sex is between a woman that looks a certain way and a man that looks a certain other way, and no one else. Fat people don't have sex. Flat chested people don't have sex. Hairy people don't have sex. Ugly people don't have sex. Unless it's some weird, depraved scene that is meant to disgust you. I think it sort of makes you feel like you're doing sex wrong, because you don't look like that, and you're not having sex with someone that looks like that. And maybe it causes you to lose appreciation for what you have, or feel like you don't have the right to be doing it.
The first scene in Watchmen when Laurie kisses Dan was fantastic- it's awkward, Dan is self-conscious, Laurie has to guide him -it felt so honest and realistic. It allowed me to relate to the characters in another way. A friend sent me a way better article about comics and sex that I think makes the very good point that "maybe you've never been a glowing blue master of quantum reality, but perhaps you know what it's like to be mystified by your girlfriend's reactions to your advances. Or maybe your boyfriend can't shift matter but he's definitely been more preoccupied with his job than getting you off."
http://chud.com/articles/
And I guess what I'm saying is that I don't feel like Hollywood wants to let you relate to characters that way. Sex is always a way to define a character (evil, lacivious, kinky) instead of a way to enhance a character. Do you know Nite Owl without seeing him have sex with Laurie? Yes. Do you know him better afterwards? Yes. Sex is key part of their relationship. Among the six main characters in Watchmen, Dan and Laurie are the most human and the most pathetic. They're kids playing with giants. And when things are too big and too frightening and too beyond their control, they know they have this very human way of relating to each other. And there's nothing lacivious about it. Sure, the sex scene in Archie is hot, but it's also about Dan feeling alive and powerful for the first time in several years, and I think you feel that way with him.
And that is my nudity/sex rant. For now.
