Grace Jones In Your Face

Recently, Grace Jones got a bit peeved that the father of her child, photographer Jean-Paul Goude, recreated her infamous champagne glass on booty photo with Kim Kardashian.

Well, to show the world that she's still the original, the almost 70 year-old flashed what her Mama gave her at a book event for her new autobiography, I'll Never Write My Memoirs.

Jones has been vocal about being the original rabble-rouser and that most current pop female artists are mere copycats of her outrageousness.

I suppose the magazine cover of Kardashian really does illustrate how she is being copied, but when the art in question is as apparent a copy as this, does it not then become a sort of tribute to the original?

Perhaps Jones could see her imitators as carrying the torch that she first carried?

And come to think of it, was Jones actually the original bearer of the exhibitionist flame? Perhaps she, too, had inspiration of those who shed before her?

 Isn't much art or creative expression a reflection or an amping up of what came before?

A Much Needed Public Apology for Vanessa Williams

A sign of the times for the Miss America pageant.

Miss America CEO Sam Haskell made a public apology to Vanessa Williams at this year's Miss America pageant.

I want to apologize for anything that was said or done that made you feel any less than the Miss America you are and the Miss America you always will be.

This public apology goes to show that the times they are changing.

A positive step forward that an organization like Miss America can clear the name of Williams for the record.

Let's see if the good vibes spread through other organizations and people that have judged women for their past actions having to do with their own bodies.

A Three Baby Belly Looks Like This

Lena Dunham, actress, writer and director extraordinaire, has created a hashtag for people to share their “beautiful lonesome photos”: #beautifullylonesome.

I know that I should celebrate my motherhood belly "stripes," but it is an ongoing process. #beautifullylonesome #strippingdown #nofilter @lennyletter @lenadunham

A photo posted by Sheila Hageman (@sheilamhageman) on Aug 20, 2015 at 7:09pm PDT

She has long been a positive body image supporter and has no fear of exposing herself through her art.

Dunham is also beginning a newsletter called Lenny, which will include stories from a feminist slant.

Tag @lennyletter & me in YOUR beautifully lonesome pics please and we'll share some standouts on @lennyletter's insta...#beautifullylonesome

What does #beautifullylonesome mean exactly?

It could be so many different things—even for those of us surrounded by loving family and friends, we all feel lonely sometimes.

@LenaDunham

To be able to find the beauty within that loneliness, within a sadness that can strip us away from the things we love, can be a challenge on most days. But we need to keep trying.

To be able to look at ourselves boldly, naked and without regrets or apologies, is freedom.

We can strip down, see others’ beauty, and hopefully, eventually, see ours as well.

I’m still trying to come to terms with my three-baby belly. I feel ashamed of its wonkiness on my bad days, guilty for not loving myself more completely on my better days.

I know that I should celebrate my “stripes” that I have earned, and I know that my body brought three little humans into this world, but I still can’t help feeling the way I do.

I can simply keep trying, everyday, to accept and love myself a little more.

Pregnant and Naked? How About Pregnant and Dressed in Walmart Clothes?

I’m Pregnant…See?

No, I’m not pregnant, but these celebrities are. Guess how I know? Yeah, because they’re naked.

Naya Rivera, of Glee fame, posed for Yahoo! Style according to Celebrity Baby Scoop.

And Kim Kardashian took a selfie to quiet her naysayers who said she was faking her pregnancy.

Vogue writer Patricia Garcia thinks Kardashian is now a “Role Model for Pregnant Women Everywhere.”

Although from the comments section, I would say that most readers disagree heartily with that term being applied to a naked pregnant woman.

Look, I’m all for women posing nude, pregnant or not, if it makes them feel good and empowered. I’ve been known to do it myself (although not while pregnant, which I actually kind of regret).

But at this point, when it’s been done to death, and we’ve already seen the aforementioned celebrities nude or all glammed up, it’s not like it’s really such a shock anymore.

I’d really actually rather see a pregnant celebrity pose in some clothes from Walmart or something along those lines.

Photo of pregnant Sheila Hageman wearing cheap maternity clothes

Now that would be different! We would see them in a different light. They would be taking a risk.

As viewers, we would have the opportunity to feel like they were really trying to relate to the “real” woman (and by that, I don’t mean that they aren’t real, I just mean it in the terms of them having different photographic experiences possible to them than the majority of pregnant women).

Photography Projects Embrace Diverse Bodies and Truths

Bodies have always been seen as artful and beautiful. They have also been seen as canvasses for the stories we have to tell. And now, with such amazing technology available to many, we are seeing and hearing stories that we didn’t hear before.

For example, I am loving the abundance of photographers taking photographs of mothers pre and post baby.

There will never be too many.

Let these photos of moms celebrating their bodies become as commonplace as models in bikinis on magazine covers in supermarkets.

The latest project I learned about is Divine Mothering by photographer Liliana Taboas Cruz.

Cruz’s photos of mothers on her blog also include interviews with her models, which allow the viewer to put a personality and story to the images.

Two other photographers, Paula Akpan and Harriet Evans, use models of differing body types, genders and race to express the different ideas and stereotypes that people are tired of hearing in the "I'm Tired" project.

The mission of this project is “to highlight the significance and lasting impact of everyday micro-aggressions and stereotypes.”

Art is all around us now. Images and stories flood our virtual lives.

Artists are taking advantage of the possibilities to address social issues and reach audiences all over the world.

Each project spawns the artist in others. Each celebration of diversity allows the next generation to feel more vocal and capable of telling their own truths and stories.

Fat is just a word

I guess I have more work to do.

My six-year-old son just walked up behind me writing this post and when he saw these photos he said, “Oh my gosh! That woman is so fat, her fat is coming out of her shirt.”

“That’s not nice to say, that someone is so fat,” I said.

And he looked at me quizzically.

I’m sitting here wondering what is correct.

I don’t want my children to just be politically correct and feel like they can’t speak of what they see and use words that they know.

Fat isn’t inherently a bad word.

And that seems to be partly what Brazilian photographer Miarana Godoy is saying with her photos of large-sized women in lingerie.

Women reclaim the word 'fat' in Empowering Me body positive photo series details Godoy’s project: “The photographer went on to explain that she wanted to highlight that being fat doesn't mean a person is unhealthy, and pointed out that thinner people also experience health problems.”

You can't tell if someone is healthy by looking at them. Regardless of whether they are fat or thin. You cannot tell just by looking at them.

Photos can tell any story. The real story lies behind the images. In our lives. And whether we are healthy or not should not become some new standard to self-acceptance either.

We don't want to lose one way to judge ourselves simply to be replaced by another.

We need to love ourselves no matter what. Fat. Skinny. Healthy. Unhealthy.

And while I know my son would never say something to someone’s face about being “fat,” I want to make sure he knows that a person’s size has nothing to do with his or her worth.

What Makes Us Different, Makes Us Beautiful

Rachelle Friedman Chapman, 29, who was paralyzed at her bridal shower when she was playfully pushed into a pool, has stripped down for the cameras: Bride who was paralyzed at her bachelorette party strips down to just her lingerie and her catheter for powerful photoshoot she hopes will 'put a different face to disability.' 

What makes this photoshoot even more powerful besides the fact that she stripped down to lingerie is that she also showed her catheter.

I'm hoping it will inspire others to just focus on the things they love about themselves and not be so critical. I'm encouraging everyone to get on social media and mention something they love about themselves with the hashtag #WhatMakesMeSexy.

We all have something we want to hide or have just accepted as what we need to hide in order to appear “normal” in our society.

We all really want to be accepted and loved just as we are. It is totally human nature to want to receive that validation from others.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to accept what we see as our flaws, but we just need to keep working at it. 

I want to put a different face to disability. We all have flaws [and] we all have things going for us, and for the first time I'm not hiding my catheter. I'm not hiding anymore.

 To not have to hide ever again—what a blessing that would be.

If You Are a Stripper, Then You Must Also Be...

I remember being so frustrated as a young woman who stripped and posed nude because of what people assumed about me.

Since I was a stripper, I must also be a whore. I must also be a slut. I must also want to be talked to like an object.

This was probably the most infuriating aspect of my adult entertainment experience. I didn’t know how to put into words what I felt.

The actress and feminist Caitlin Stasey says it so well in Jezebel’s When a Magazine Only Wants You If You're Willing to Pose Nude.

But I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Nudity in the abstract is not the issue, and my body is not the issue either. What is the issue is the way that many men like Ben Naparstek-your-head-in-the-oven believe they have an inherent right to both because of my recent projects and my candor. It’s the same logic we apply to a woman’s sexuality. Just because she’s fucked one guy she must be available to all of them, right? Just because she’s wearing a short skirt, just because her shirt is sheer, just because she is a woman, she must be available to me.

Men were surprised when I didn’t want to be paid to have sex.

Men were pissed when I didn’t show them everything they wanted.

Men were enraged when I told them the truth.

Why was I making trouble? Why was I fucking with their view of women? Why was I insisting on being a person with my own ideas and feelings?

The sad thing was that often I listened to what they said. It’s not that I didn’t know I could say differently and stand up for myself, but that I was not properly equipped to do it.

I was young. I was scared.  I was vulnerable.

Today I am still trying to impress completely upon myself that I have agency and that I make the decisions about my body and it doesn’t matter what others think.

I have a right to be who I am just as I am. Clothed or naked.

I do not need to explain my choices to anyone if I don’t want to.

It’s been a long journey to get to where I am today and I am grateful for who I have become even as I acknowledge I still have a long way to go to truly understand and forgive myself.

Eat Right and Exercise for a Bounce Back Body--Or Maybe Not

The uptick in celebrities sharing after-birth photos of their bodies looks like it’s here to stay.

At first, we were mostly treated to photos of the women who snapped back into shape in what seemed like overnight.

People magazine had a photo segment called Body After Baby: Star Moms Who Bounced Right Back. The piece is introduced like this:

Check out Blake Lively, Zoë Saldana, Mila Kunis and more stars flaunting their post-pregnancy figures. There's even one famous mama who hit a red carpet 11 (!) days after giving birth.

 

Credit: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP; Stephen Lovekin/Getty

I felt buoyed up by Hilaria Baldwin’s after photo, which shows what many mothers probably recognize—the after-baby-but-still-there-bump.

@HilariaBaldwin/Instagram

Revolutionary! Show your still-there-bump loud and proud!

Yes, there are some women who definitely do return right back to their original figure, but a larger percentage of women never look the same after birth.

After three children, my body has definitely changed.

I photographed my belly after my last birth; I knew it would get better eventually and I’d be able to look back and say, thank goodness.

Hmm, why would I want to save photos of my poor, wrinkly flesh after having been stretched to the limit for nine months and then suddenly deflated? Perhaps as evidence of the  sacrifice I made for my children.

Then today I saw a quote from Baldwin, which made me feel a bit uncomfortable.

The yoga teacher told the DailyMail: “Giving birth to Carmen made me realize the body does go back to what it was before…If you eat healthy and treat your body well, it will go back to its original state.”

Sorry to burst any bubbles, but—Yes, your body may go back to its original state, but…it probably won’t.

Eating healthy and exercising will obviously give you the best shot at having your body look the way it did before baby, but trust me when I say, that is not necessarily true.

I have still not come to terms with how my belly looks.

I have tried to love it and celebrate it and be proud of it.

I could lie and say I love my belly wrinkles, but I do not.

I don’t know whether to hide it so as to not scare small children or display it as a feminist badge.

All I do know is that I want to love my body just as it is. And I am trying my hardest to get there.

My butt: The beauty of the before and after

Goodness, there has been an awful lot of stripping down going on lately by mothers. From the Dutch model Lara Stone, who posed nude post-baby for System Magazine, to Kim Kardashian’s greased up Paper cover, there is definitely no longer a need to pay for a Playboy subscription.

The Daily Mail UK says Kardashian explains, “As a role model I'm not saying anyone else should do that, but for me it was an art project and it taught me to do what you want to do.”

You can’t argue that point; it is good to feel empowered enough to act on your own desires and to not be shamed by others’ morals.

I used to do just that.

Before: Back in my modeling days

Then I got older and--wiser? I hid my body away. I covered up. I got more conservative as befits a mother, or so I thought.

And I lost some of my sense of self. I lost some sense of myself as a beautiful, sexual woman. I lost connection to a certain part of myself.

I've watched with interest as celebrities and everyday women claim empowerment through posing nude; it's made me ponder my stance and realize where I stand.

This past week, I've seen the expected parodies and responses to Kim Kardashian's butt: Chelsea Handler has been doing her own selfie-versions as part of the conversation and there’s even a Princess Jasmine version of the butt shot.

This whole posing-in-the-nude-to-make-some-point just might be getting oversaturated.

Of course, maybe that could be part of some kind of solution to how women are portrayed in media. If we see everybody and their mother (literally) in the nude, maybe we’ll get to the point as a culture where we’ll say, who cares?

Maybe we’ll get to the point where nobody will say, “Oh! But you’re a mother! You shouldn’t pose nude!”

After: 23 years and three children later

Maybe we’ll get to the point where we really will get to see the diversity and beauty in all different shapes and sizes and ages of bodies.

Maybe we’ll get to the point where every nude image of a woman doesn’t have to be sexualized and presented for a male gaze, but can just be a photo of a female celebrating her body.

Maybe we’ll get to the point where what we choose to do or not do with our bodies will be our decisions to make alone and no one will judge us for those decisions.

And hey, maybe the fathers will get in on the act, too. And we can all live in a happy-ever-after world with lots of different naked people all getting along and loving each other regardless of how perfect (or not) our bodies are.

Get Naked in Seattle

Yanhong Ma’s “Venice Hotel,” 2012.

I wish I was in Seattle to see this exhibit called "Get Naked," as reviewed in the Seattle Times.

“Get Naked,” at Bryan Ohno Gallery in Seattle, comprises works by eight women who depict their own and others’ bodies in ways that are honest, graphic and elusive, writes reviewer Gayle Clemans.

I go back and forth in my mind about how and what I feel the need to express about the way women's bodies are represented.

I feel like there's something inside of myself. Something to be expressed.

I'm glad there are other women out there actually doing it--exploring female imagery in relation to sexuality and power.

I'm getting a creative itch that I don't yet know how to scratch.

Sexual Objectification in American Apparel Must Be the Biggest Joke Played On Us EVER!

American Apparel Unisex Flannels...Hey, it's a flannel...button up!

American Apparel likes to push the envelope in their advertising.

And by "push the envelope" I mean they like to see just how much they can sexually objectify women in their advertising to get attention for their brand, but not push it so far as to lose their female customers.

But what I find so interesting is that it feels like they're mocking their customers with some sick joke to see just how glaring they can make their scheme before someone says--What the @#$%?!

Well, Business Insider's "American Apparel's 'Unisex' Ads Portray Men And Women Very Differently," was just enough to push my envelope into the--You're joking, right, American Apparel?!

The blatant sexual objectification of women wearing flannel shirts in all sorts of sexy, come-hither poses is absurd and demeaning next to the shots of male models wearing the same types of shirts all buttoned up and shown in normal day-to-day human activities.

Hey...What did I do with my pants?

They may argue it's "Art," but to me it just seems ridiculous.

Let's smoke and wear pants with our flannels! You know, because we're men!

I can't be the only one like--what are they trying to prove? Why would women buy from a company that thinks it's fine to let men have personalities and women only have sexuality?

You know you want to buy this jacket, ladies...

I mean, come on. Enough already.

Hey dudes, like my keen jacket?

It's got to be a joke, right?

Right?!

Should We All Drop Our Tops When We Want To Be Heard?

The Montserrat Moms Seated Together For A Publicity Photo (AP)

Two stories in the news have me questioning and really wondering what people think about stripping down as an act of defiance and attention-getting.

Inna Shevchenko, leader of women's movement Femen and “sextremist” discusses her organization’s latest stunt at Notre Dame in Femen's Blasphemy in Notre Dame. Femen is a group of women who strip topless to protest when they see injustices. Their latest performance was supposed to be a celebration of the resignation of the Pope and a rallying cry against the church.

I am one of the first to have issues with the Catholic church and its treatment of women, but at the same time it is a religion and I wouldn’t do something in a place that others hold sacred just to get my own agenda across. Their whole stunt feels tacky and self-serving.

Meanwhile, from Spain, comes another story with women stripping down in the name of something they believe in—Spanish moms strip down to save school bus: Skin to Win! by George Mallet.

“In Montserrat, Spain, 10 mothers are showing some serious skin in a sexy calendar being sold to raise money in the face of Spain's austerity measures. The proceeds are being used to restore a reduction in bus service for 600 elementary school students.”

So a bunch of moms weren’t about to stand around while their kids’ school bus was taken away and they did what they thought would raise the most funds—pose for a sexy calendar.

As all the attention both of these stories are receiving shows, sometimes just doing something in the buff can get you the publicity you want to get your side of things out there or save something you need.

So the questions remain…should nudity be used to get attention? Are there some cases where it’s more acceptable and some that are just too risqué and “morally” questionable? Or should we all just strip down when we want to be heard?

A Modest Proposal for the Page 3 Debate

For Preventing the Feminists of the World from Being a Burden to Men or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public

For those not familiar with the UK’s tabloid the Sun, the Page 3 Girls are topless women whose photos appear in the daily paper. There have been numerous attempts made by women to rid the Sun of these women most famously by the campaign No More Page 3. 

With the latest headline news coverage of a tweet and its response I feel it is time to put an end to this matter of the Sun’s Page 3 Girls. I am referring to the article on The Huffington Post The Sun'sPage 3 Girls: Has Rupert Murdoch Hinted The End To Topless Feature? by Jessica Elgot.

In a Twitter response to Karen Mason, @Kazipooh, who said “@rupertmurdoch #nomorepage3 Seriously, we are all so over page 3 - it is so last century!”, Rupert Murdoch, @rupertmurdoch, said: “You maybe (sic) right, don't know but considering. Perhaps halfway house with glamorous fashionistas.”

With apologies to Jonathon Swift, who is so three centuries ago, I believe I may have an answer to the problem.

It is quite tiresome to turn on the news and listen to all the bedraggled, overweight feminists raging on about how photos of topless women in the media lead to the degradation of women and even possibly domestic violence.

I think we can all agree that the aging and let’s be frank, shall we, ugly women who think women should not expose themselves in newspapers are tedious and so out-of-touch with what young, beautiful women want. It is not even just these so-called “feminists” that I have a proposal for, but in fact, all women of the beauty ideal age that society deems pleasing to look at.

I have thought long and hard on this subject and believe that for women to truly learn their correct position in our society that not only should the Page 3 Girls not be removed from the Sun, but that they should, in fact, be added to every print publication in existence.

The number of women deemed attractive enough for print will dictate the number of pages needed to be added to publications, hence possibly causing the need for Page 4, 5 and 6 Girls at times.

I am assured by the number of tits-and-ass-loving gentlemen of our current society that there will be ample space for all women of the correct age to be photographed, which I will go out on a limb and suggest to be between the ages of 18 and 24.

I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection.

Every woman who comes of age in our society shall have to pass through a screening process of pre-selected men who will choose which women will be deemed attractive enough to be photographed topless and shared with popular culture for the betterment of male-kind and also for helping to concretize women’s proper place on the totem pole of gender hierarchy.

Many other advantages for our society will include: the reordering of our gender identities back into their rightful places, the reminder to women that men are the ones in charge of deciding who and what is considered beautiful, the monetary reward for the models who might go unemployed otherwise, the reassurance to men everywhere that their urge to see women half naked at their convenience is not only a right but a necessity.

I can think of no objection that could be raised to this proposal other than some incessant Twitter chats begun by uppity and uncooperative womyn who may argue that this proposal is sexist and degrading and that they cannot be made to strip for others’ enjoyment. To them I would say that any other recipes for redressing women’s complaints about sexism and female degradation have failed, often at the hands of women themselves: women cannot agree even that they themselves are beautiful, but rather write endless blogs of how to boost body image and self-esteem; feminists fight amongst themselves as to what is actually “feminist” or not; women wish to be seen as equal to men, but still insist on being the ones to bear children; the beauty industry is a multi-billion dollar industry that proves women are concerned about one thing and one thing only—becoming a Page 3 Girl.

I confess that I have no personal gain to be made from this proposal as I am way past the age of ideal beauty and would most definitely not pass muster with a pre-selected male committee deciding the value of my beauty.

From Porn Star to Teacher to Unemployed

PHOTO BY ANTHONY PLASCENCIA, STAR PHOTO, FILE

A teacher, Stacie Halas, has been let go from her job in California because of her porn past. This has been an ongoing story for the past year.

“An eighth-grade teacher in Oxnard who appeared in adult films for the money before she became a teacher was deemed unfit to teach, a three-member panel of California state administrative judges has ruled,” reported NBC News.

In this day of the Internet how do say our past is past when our “past” can still be purchased on the web? Is it fair to judge people for what they did in the past when what they want to do in the present is teach?

I guess it’s not about fair, but about what people perceive about our pasts.

Being a porn actress is not illegal, so why should it take away the opportunity to do good in the present?

I obviously can see how it could be distracting for students to know they can see photos of their teacher naked, but these are middle-school students. They shouldn't be surfing the web for porn at this age.

And if they do happen to see their teacher naked, so what? If Ms. Halas is willing to deal with this added burden as she teaches, why should it be a matter to fire her for?

If it’s true that she lied about her past, I can’t say that I blame her. She was probably just trying to avoid this situation.

For all I know, I may not have received certain teaching jobs because of my past and my vocal-ness of discussing it.

Do you think ex-porn actors and models should be allowed to teach?

Ban on Public Nudity Needed?

As a woman who has posed nude in public places and gone close to nude on public beaches, I understand people’s desire to be free of clothing. And I also understand the whole freedom of expression angle.

CNN reports on San Francisco’s ban on public nudity: San Francisco approves public nudity ban; protesters strip down.

“Supervisor Scott Wiener, who introduced the ordinance, disputed claims that the measure violates freedom of expression.

 "We're a city that believes in freedom, and we've always believed in freedom and free expression," Wiener told CNN affilite KGO. "But taking your pants off at Castro and Market and displaying your genitals to everyone, that's not free expression."

 But some nudists have filed a lawsuit claiming the ban violates their First Amendment rights.”

I can understand why public nudity could be a problem when there are kids around or when people are abusing the right, but overall I don’t have a problem with it.

If a person really just feels more comfortable nude and they’re not out there swinging things around or anything, what’s the big deal? Nude is our natural state after all.

I don’t think there are too many people who really want to go around naked in public anyway.

Do you think there needs to be a ban on public nudity?

Stripping Down for the Camera

Cameron Diaz from STV

 According to STV, Cameron Diaz enjoys stripping down and posing for the camera.

She told The Sunday Times newspaper: ''It's empowering. I'm not some young girl with the photographer going, 'Will you take your clothes off?' I'm like [mimes stripping], 'How does this look?'

That is an interesting difference to point out. As a former model, I do know that I felt more comfortable posing in the nude for some photographers than I did fully dressed for others. The sense of empowerment comes from doing what I felt comfortable with and what I felt empowered to do.

Do most women think it’s okay for other women or themselves to pose nude or in a provocative way as long as the woman feels empowered by it?

Diaz went on to explain ''I think every woman does want to be objectified. There's a little part of you at all times that hopes to be somewhat objectified, and I think it’s healthy.''

What do you think about what Diaz says? I’m not sure that I would agree that “every woman” wants to be objectified. I think I understand what she is trying to say though—that many women want to be seen as beautiful, which might be different than wanting to be objectified.

Is there a way for women to have it all when it comes to feeling beautiful for themselves and being objectified by men?

Can these two desires actually work together? Or are those two different ends that cannot meet?

The Sun's Page 3 Topless Women Issue

Can you imagine the outrage if an American daily newspaper decided to start publishing photos of topless women inside their pages?

The UK's Sun has something called Page 3 Women, which is just that. Every day. Every page 3. A topless woman.

It seems like such a sad representation of our society that in this day and age topless women would adorn a news daily.

And I'm not a man-hater or anti-topless women. I think the nude body is a beautiful thing.

But I think there's a place for everything. And a daily newspaper that little girls might pick up and glance at is not the place for representing women as simply objects.

Check out my blog for the UK's Huffington Post on this issue: Former Topless Model Advocates Highlighting Women's Talents and Abilities in the Sun.

Can Anything Be Art?

Painting by Richard Phillips from The Huffington Post

There's a Zen saying that goes something like this: How you do anything is how you do everything.

If that is true, is it not possible for just about anything to be done as "Art"?

After my latest Huffington Post blog The Art of the Lap Dance: As Told by a Former Strip Tease Artist, I’ve been thinking about this whole idea of art.

I mean, really—who gets to decide what art is or not?

Then I ran into this piece today: Lindsay Lohan, Adriana Lima Paintings By Richard Phillips: Are They Really Art?

The writer Michael Hogan asks some great questions about how we determine what is art or not in relation to Richard Phillips’ huge painting of celebrity women:

“You can call it a sad commentary on the way we live now, but is that on him or on us? If Phillips is holding up a mirror to our environment and all we want to do is smash it, whose fault, really, is that?”

Do you think it’s possible for anyone to do anything and have a grand “arty” explanation for it and that makes it art?

Or do you think Art (notice the capital “A”) must meet certain other standards?

Time Magazine Provokes Conversation with Breastfeeding Mom Cover

Here’s mom, 26-year-old Jamie Lynne Grumet, breastfeeding her son on Time magazine’s cover.

It certainly got the attention of moms everywhere. The article accompanying the somewhat controversial photo is all about attachment parenting and has a profile of Dr. William Sears.

While I think the cover was designed precisely to stir up strong emotions from both camps, I don’t have a problem with the cover photo.

I think the headline: Are You Mom Enough? is more controversial, but once again, controversy is where it’s at if you want to get noticed today.

The big question becomes what kind of conversation this photo will open.

Hopefully, there won’t just be lots of attacks and silly comments from people, but maybe there will be some setting aside of preconceived notions and judgments from moms on both sides of the issue so we can examine how our ideas of attachment parenting versus “modern” parenting are just that—ideas.

Can we finally set aside what “method” of parenting is right or wrong and simply find a way to support all parents in raising their children in the best way each family sees right for them?