I would have to say, conditionally, no. Obviously, the conditions are simply that the photos are taken voluntarily and that the subject (model) was not coerced, pressured, manipulated into being in them.
The reason that I have started in on THIS subject is that I have a friend of mine that poses for some pretty sexy pictures, and she is a damned sexy woman. Unfortunately, she has received some messages from people that have a rather negative opinion of her. Personally, I feel that she is doing a lot for herself, and that she is overcoming a lot of personal issues. Her modeling is simply a way for her to express her self confidence.
My question is, who determines whether nude or sexy photos objectify (make an object instead of a person out of) somebody? If the person being photographed does not feel that way, then how can somebody that isn’t there and doesn’t know anything about the model justify getting upset that she posed like that?
I have the feeling that there are a lot of people out there that feel threatened by confident people, and they use anything that they can to talk somebody with that kind of confidence down. Maybe it’s because they want to feel big by putting someone down, maybe it’s that they enjoy being mean, maybe it’s that their own insecurities make them lash out, I couldn’t begin to tell you. What I can tell you is that being rude, mean, and cruel to someone that you don’t know, simply because he or she took pictures that you don’t like is simply childish.
In the big scheme of things, your opinion really doesn’t count, unless it’s your opinion of yourself. So, to those that feel the need to grab a megaphone and rant about non-issues, I say that YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT, EXERCISE IT!
