Freeing.

You have undoubtedly heard that Carrie Prejean, the Miss California USA 2009 titleholder that rocked the gay rights discussions here in the U.S. by sharing her beliefs that “opposite marriage” should be upheld recently dropped a lawsuit against the producers of Miss California USA when a sex video she had made was brought to the public spotlight. Last night she appeared on Larry King and brought the interview to a screeching halt because Larry took a call from a gay caller. She’s a little uptight.

Up until the release of the sex-act video she was the media darling of the right-wing anti-gay marriage folks.

She apparently dropped her lawsuit based on the release of this video where she performs “solo sex act”, in which she is easily identified as the solo performer. Those that considered her a media darling are shocked at her behaviour, for they believe that acts like that are violating the Lord’s Temple aka the human body. They are a little uptight.

Here’s the thing. I am going to preface this by saying that I believe Ms. Prejean is a hypocrite to the Nth degree and those casting stones shouldn’t live in glass houses and all that. But honestly, if Ms. Prejean wanted to make that video for her boyfriend or whatever, she shouldn’t be scorned for making a sex video. She should be scorned for being a hypocrite. Sex is a healthy, natural biological function of the human body and one that happens to be very much enjoyed by 99.5% of the people that engage in it. If it was wrong, it wouldn’t feel so good. Good is not evil. Oh, I will state right here and now that I have no desire to see Ms. Prejean’s video. No siree. But the human body, no matter what it’s doing or what position it’s in, is a pretty incredible thing. Not only is it incredible, but it’s beautiful. It’s a piece of art.

One of the many things that I think my mom did right in raising my sister and me is teach us to be comfortable with our bodies. Fat, short, tall, thin and in any variety of colours, we have what we have and if we’re not happy with it, we should strive to improve it; but we should never be ashamed of who we are, what we look like or how we present ourselves. I’m not a nudist. There are no nudists in my family. But I enjoy being naked and have been to places where I could be naked in public and quite frankly, it’s a liberating experience. Perhaps Ms. Prejean felt liberated by making this video. I don’t think that’s the bad part of this whole scandal, it’s the hypocritical attitude that was brought to light by this video that I think is the bad part of this whole drawn out saga.

Last night I was up rather late. Earl had gone to bed early in preparation for a 6 a.m. flight this morning and Jamie was busying himself elsewhere in the house. As I sat in my studio I realised that one corner of the room might make a good backdrop for a couple of photos. I thought the white cinder blocks with contrasting shadows in the corner would look great. So I set up that camera and readied myself for a couple of self portraits. After a few shots I decided to take one of the photos completely nude. The experience was liberating and I felt more grounded, yet free, than I have in front of a camera in a while. I posted the bare-chested, waist up version on my Flickr account, with no restrictions on visibility. I then posted the full-length nude version on the same account¹ but with some search and content restrictions (it can’t be found through a random search nor will it appear in my Flickr badge) and restricted viewing access to only the people that I have friended. This wasn’t the first time² that I have been nude in front of a camera and shared it with the world. It won’t be the last.

And you know what? I’m kind of proud of that.

¹ I won’t post the photo on my blog so that people have a choice as to whether they want to see it or not. Just ask through e-mail and I’ll give you access.

² The first time was actually back in 1993 when I did a photo shoot with my friend Kevin. The creatively cropped/rated PG version is available here.