Final Project - NUDE Zine

For my final project I picked a topic that has always intrigued me.  The acceptance of nudity in our society (or lack thereof) is inconsistent and really quite confusing to me.  In some instances people are okay with seeing the naked body of a female, but in other instances they are not.  For example, if you go to an art museum that holds classic art, you will see a naked woman.  And this is totally acceptable!  However, if Kim Kardashian choses to upload a picture of her naked body (even with censors on it) the country loses its mind.  Now I know many people have issues with Kim Kardashian, but that isn't the point here.  This very debate is what triggered my interest in looking into this topic further.

Reclining Nude by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Oil on Canvas 1892

Nudity can be used in so many different ways.  You can find the naked human body in various art forms.  You can also find it in other places like out in public, or on the internet being shamed.  It is also something that every single one of us lives inside.  So why can we accept it in the form of art but not just for what it is?  Part of the reason is because our society has done too much damage to the image of a naked body by sexualizing it.  The only reason showing too much skin is frowned upon is because we all made it sexual to begin with.  If we could look at the human body as a beautiful and natural work of art ALWAYS, then most of these petty issues would be gone.

@kimkardashian Instagram March 2016

The point of my zine is to bring together many times that we are faced with nudity.  Some of them are accepted and some are not.  By putting all of them together in one place, I am trying to prove that the body in all of these forms is exactly the same.  The body that Kim Kardashian shares on her social media really isn't all that different from the body that Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted in the 18th century.  I chose to make this project into a zine (and a Tumblr) because they are both image-based mediums.  I think this issue is really about imagery and how we see this particular subject.  

http://nude-zine.tumblr.com/