I was 16, 17, and 18 years old at the end of the 1970s. Because of my age and because of the way I had been brought up (i.e., in suburban-whitebread-conformist-acquisition-land, aka upper-middle class Calgary) my experience of going dancing in gay bars in the late 70s led to expectations and understandings that I never really got over until recently (at age 50).
Brainwashed by moving through grades in school and by a constant barrage of achievement-based messages, I think I understood the stuff that happened to me as a teenager--like getting my period and getting thighs and hips and having to go to school and working in my dad's restaurant and applying to university--as a progression. One does such and such to become such and such, which is better than not doing such and such and not becoming such and such.
So in high school, when I started to go out disco dancing in the gay bars, my experience felt like part of that "natural" progression. What a beautiful experience it was for me!
I didn't have any of these words for it then, I just wanted to be there every weekend: I loved dancing. I loved the freedom to move and let movement happen spontaneously. I loved communing with other people as we danced in a trancey state. I loved the experimentation with style and self-expression. I loved the feeling of safety among gay men; I didn't have to be or look a certain way that would please them.
The hyper-sexualization of young women and girls did not exist then the way it does today, but it existed enough to fuck up my ideas about my self-image for life. In gay bars I found a refuge. I was (am) an intense, deep, feeling person. "Freak" is embedded in my DNA coding. I was with the other freaks and we had a place and it was a scene.
I felt connected. I felt free. I felt like I belonged somewhere.
So because this happened to me at my age and stage in life, it felt like part of that progression I had been led to believe was awaiting me. I felt like this feeling, connection with myself and my fellow humans in a free safe non-judgmental way, was part of what life was. Ha ha. I went off into the world, first university, then travel and jobs, and, never ever ever did that "place" await me in the world. I'm just lucky to have my kids and a husband who supports me.
I have often expressed that I can't believe that I lived through the 70s and the world still looks like this: i.e., nothing has changed, ego and greed still rule. That beautiful emerging energy of openness and connection that I was fortunate to experience didn't go very far or very wide.
Sure, gay people have more civil rights. But that's not what I'm talking about. And, yes, that scene that fed my teenage self certainly included hyper-sexualized image judgment, just not directed toward the likes of me! Not to mention addiction and the sad future of AIDS.
I've been seeing a therapist who has made me promise to do a practice every day. I've started disco dancing every morning. Through my dancing practice, I have finally realized that my youthful experience of that energy was personal, not actually part of the progression I believed I was promised. The energy of connection and optimism, for me anyway, only exists in the dancing itself.
For me this is a sad story: letting go of my attachment to what I experienced and the hope of finding it again in the world. And a kind of happy story: at least I, personally, can feel connection and optimism just by dancing.
My current favourite dance songs:
You Make Me Feel Mighty Real by Sylvester (an early AIDS victim), in my opinion the best disco song ever:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG2ixYJ79iE
Hey Ya! by Outkast:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWgvGjAhvIw&ob=av2e
Ecofeminist, inconvenient prophet, artist, activist, cancer survivor, mother. Radical vulnerability on behalf of the collective. Using nakedness—literal+figurative. Processing my pain.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Naked Truth Award! Plus a Press Release from the Naked Therapist
The Naked Therapist gave me a Naked Truth Award because: "This project is the embodiment of a Naked Truth Award: pushing outside your comfort zone to prove the positive power of the naked body, and distancing it from stigma, fear or contempt."
http://nakedtherapy.org/2012/04/30/naked-truth-award-tasha-diamants-human-body-project/
And she had this to say below about a recent case of censorship and blacklisting against her. I can relate to many of the hypocrisies she discusses:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Censored from the West Chelsea Artists Open Studios, Sarah White, The Naked Therapist, Announces Her Own Open Studio in Protest of the Blacklisting for May 13, 2012.
The art world, long the object of censorship, is now censoring artists. In a clear case of anti-woman, anti-naked, and anti-artist prejudice, West Chelsea Artists Open Studios (WCAOS), perhaps one of the world's most important open studio events, initially accepted Sarah White as a photographer/performance artist on April 19, but then censored and banned her on May 1. The censoring came when Ms. White tried to identify herself as The Naked Therapist and submitted a feature image. She was then removed from the event via email because she was a "commercial entity" and "not an artist" and the image was an "ad," not "art." The censored image, and her response, can be found at http://sarahwhiteart.com.
To protest the blacklisting, Ms. White will hold her own Open Studio at The Hôtel Americano in Chelsea from 4-8pm on May 13, 2012 (the last day of the WCAOS) to show her work and let the public decide if it's art and to take part in an open dialogue on censorship, commercialism vs. art, and the professional segregation of women who utilize the performative body to engage arousal.
According to Ms. White, "I have been creating photographic art about sexuality, Americana, and the forbidden for over a decade, for the last two years I've been making art influenced by my Naked Therapy practice, and I've recently begun investigating performance art therapy. So I'm an artist and I'm The Naked Therapist. But when I tried to identify myself as such, the Open Studios became not so 'open,' and I was censored and banned. Apparently if a woman uses her body in any way other than what the art world considers 'acceptable' she is ostracized. Given my established artistic portfolio, I find it insulting and quite troubling that an event that is 'open to all West Chelsea artists' feels it has the right to say that I am not an artist."
Ms. White also feels that "this raises some very interesting questions about contradictions in the art world when it comes to how commercialism, the Internet and performance are involved in art and what one has to do to have the 'right' to call oneself an artist. If Damien Hirst put TheRichestArtist.org on an orange field it would sell AS ART for millions at Sotheby's because it would be taken as a profound comment on the money-obsessed art culture, yet when I place a url on my image I'm told I've made an ad and not art. Further, my art is very informed by the Internet, by performance art, and by commerce-based models of artistic identity, and the established art world often has a big problem with these elements. If you do not take the traditional route to gaining the 'right to call yourself an artist - an MFA, lots of Gallery climbing, and an almost nun-like devotion to keeping your 'art' pure from the evils of 'commerce' (while also doing your best to sell your works for as high a price as they'll command) - then you're not considered an 'artist.' I find that a ridiculous and completely outdated position to be taking in the 21st century when the Internet has given everyone the most democratic, flexible artistic arena ever invented and so many people are simply trying to take advantage of this new opportunity."
This is not the first time Ms. White has been hypocritically banished from assumed bastions of freedom. Facebook deleted her profile and fan page (which contained no nudity) without explanation, yet Playboy has a Facebook page that links to naked images. She's been told by various psychology professionals that she cannot be admitted to a Masters program or obtain licensing because her methods potentially breach the American Counseling Association's Code of Ethics (even though Naked Therapy involves no sexual contact). And HuffPost has said it won't publish her articles until she has a graduate degree, yet publishes others without that qualification.
Despite this, many professionals have shown support. For example, in March 2012 she headlined a SXSW panel hosted by Dr. John Grohol (PsychCentral.com) called "Online Therapy...Naked?". And this recent act of censorship has only emboldened Ms. White: "I practice Naked Therapy to help my clients and to investigate arousal in the therapeutic context. I make art to express my creative voice. And I'll continue to do these things, accepted or not, because I think they're vital to freedom and wellness in our world."
Contact: Sarah White
Email: contact@sarahwhiteart.com
Website: http://www.sarahwhiteart.com/
http://nakedtherapy.org/2012/04/30/naked-truth-award-tasha-diamants-human-body-project/
And she had this to say below about a recent case of censorship and blacklisting against her. I can relate to many of the hypocrisies she discusses:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Censored from the West Chelsea Artists Open Studios, Sarah White, The Naked Therapist, Announces Her Own Open Studio in Protest of the Blacklisting for May 13, 2012.
The art world, long the object of censorship, is now censoring artists. In a clear case of anti-woman, anti-naked, and anti-artist prejudice, West Chelsea Artists Open Studios (WCAOS), perhaps one of the world's most important open studio events, initially accepted Sarah White as a photographer/performance artist on April 19, but then censored and banned her on May 1. The censoring came when Ms. White tried to identify herself as The Naked Therapist and submitted a feature image. She was then removed from the event via email because she was a "commercial entity" and "not an artist" and the image was an "ad," not "art." The censored image, and her response, can be found at http://sarahwhiteart.com.
To protest the blacklisting, Ms. White will hold her own Open Studio at The Hôtel Americano in Chelsea from 4-8pm on May 13, 2012 (the last day of the WCAOS) to show her work and let the public decide if it's art and to take part in an open dialogue on censorship, commercialism vs. art, and the professional segregation of women who utilize the performative body to engage arousal.
According to Ms. White, "I have been creating photographic art about sexuality, Americana, and the forbidden for over a decade, for the last two years I've been making art influenced by my Naked Therapy practice, and I've recently begun investigating performance art therapy. So I'm an artist and I'm The Naked Therapist. But when I tried to identify myself as such, the Open Studios became not so 'open,' and I was censored and banned. Apparently if a woman uses her body in any way other than what the art world considers 'acceptable' she is ostracized. Given my established artistic portfolio, I find it insulting and quite troubling that an event that is 'open to all West Chelsea artists' feels it has the right to say that I am not an artist."
Ms. White also feels that "this raises some very interesting questions about contradictions in the art world when it comes to how commercialism, the Internet and performance are involved in art and what one has to do to have the 'right' to call oneself an artist. If Damien Hirst put TheRichestArtist.org on an orange field it would sell AS ART for millions at Sotheby's because it would be taken as a profound comment on the money-obsessed art culture, yet when I place a url on my image I'm told I've made an ad and not art. Further, my art is very informed by the Internet, by performance art, and by commerce-based models of artistic identity, and the established art world often has a big problem with these elements. If you do not take the traditional route to gaining the 'right to call yourself an artist - an MFA, lots of Gallery climbing, and an almost nun-like devotion to keeping your 'art' pure from the evils of 'commerce' (while also doing your best to sell your works for as high a price as they'll command) - then you're not considered an 'artist.' I find that a ridiculous and completely outdated position to be taking in the 21st century when the Internet has given everyone the most democratic, flexible artistic arena ever invented and so many people are simply trying to take advantage of this new opportunity."
This is not the first time Ms. White has been hypocritically banished from assumed bastions of freedom. Facebook deleted her profile and fan page (which contained no nudity) without explanation, yet Playboy has a Facebook page that links to naked images. She's been told by various psychology professionals that she cannot be admitted to a Masters program or obtain licensing because her methods potentially breach the American Counseling Association's Code of Ethics (even though Naked Therapy involves no sexual contact). And HuffPost has said it won't publish her articles until she has a graduate degree, yet publishes others without that qualification.
Despite this, many professionals have shown support. For example, in March 2012 she headlined a SXSW panel hosted by Dr. John Grohol (PsychCentral.com) called "Online Therapy...Naked?". And this recent act of censorship has only emboldened Ms. White: "I practice Naked Therapy to help my clients and to investigate arousal in the therapeutic context. I make art to express my creative voice. And I'll continue to do these things, accepted or not, because I think they're vital to freedom and wellness in our world."
Contact: Sarah White
Email: contact@sarahwhiteart.com
Website: http://www.sarahwhiteart.com/
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