“If i can’t dance, i don’t want to be a part of your revolution.” -emma goldman

I wanna dance naked with myself. I wanna take strides and leaps and feel the pieces of flesh that cannot define me but are always there to consume me. I wanna feel the joy of brushing up against myself and knowing that its someone i love. I wanna feel at ease with my body and feel pleasure from its every movement.

I wanna dance naked, hand-in-hand, with those that are told we shouldn’t cuz are bodies remind those around us of their fragility. I wanna show the world the beauty in dancing naked when its demanded that we stay clothed. I wanna remind the world that its not about, but not without, our bodies.

So when i close my eyes and stroke my thigh you know that i’m dancing naked for myself. And when i’m ready, and you’re ready, i’ll reach for your hand and we’ll dance together - laughing at nothing in particular.

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When i first saw this picture taken by Leonard Nimoy, this is what i wrote. I was elated to see such a sight of beauty - joy dancing naked. But my elation was soon grounded as i looked at the title of the photo set, “Full Body Project”. I was quick to look and see what the other sets were like. Sure enough, the others consisted of shots of thin nude wimmin mostly in contorted or statue-esque poses. The other sets had names like “The Dance Nudes”, “The Borghese Series”, and “The Shekhina Project”. These sets were about beauty, individuals, settings, and movement, not about the bodies.

In the dominant culture, conventionally beautiful, temporarily able-bodied, White assigned-wimmin are denied their bodies. Partly because their bodies are normalized and partly because their bodies are no longer bodies, but objects. However, the rest of us are never allowed to forget our bodies. Not only are we taught to hate our bodies, but we are constantly reminded of how much others hate our bodies. Even when someone seemingly tries to highlight the beauty of a group of people dancing naked regardless of their size, it becomes another exercise in reminding us how much our bodies are despised when we label the photo series “Full Body Project”. Once again, it ceases to be about pure beauty, because those outside the standards of conventional beauty can never reach pure beauty. Instead, we are a tainted beauty - a beauty of pity. The body is not a means for persynal love and beauty, it is a measuring stick. Are you a (real) beauty or a full body beauty?

Real beauty is not reminded of its body because the body no longer exists - it is simply beauty. For fat people, the body always exists. For differently-ablied people, the body always exists. For people of color, the body always exists. For trans people, the body always exists. But we are not allowed to exist in harmony with our bodies. To love our bodies as beauty. For to love our bodies as beauty means to accept a body as beautiful.

[tags]Big Fat Carnival[/tags]