To download the Nude Photo Revolutionary Calendar, click here.
On 8 March 2012 International Women’s Day, the Nude Photo Revolutionaries Calendar was launched in homage to Egyptian atheist, student and blogger Aliaa Magda Elmahdy who posted a nude photo of herself, announcing the post on Twitter under the hashtag, #NudePhotoRevolutionary.
The calendar is the idea of campaigner Maryam Namazie to support Aliaa Magda Elmahdy and join her ‘screams against a society of violence, racism, sexism, sexual harassment and hypocrisy’.
Namazie says: ‘What with Islamism and the religious right being obsessed with women’s bodies and demanding that we be veiled, bound, and gagged, nudity breaks taboos and is an important form of resistance.’
The calendar is designed by SlutWalk Co-founder Toronto, Sonya JF Barnett who says: ‘I felt that women needed to stand in solidarity with Aliaa. It takes a lot of guts to do what she did, and the backlash is always expected and can quite hurtful. She needed to know that there are others like her, willing to push the envelope to express outrage.’
Others who join the ‘scream’ include mother and daughter Anne Baker and Poppy Wilson St James, teacher Luisa Batista, We are Atheism Founder Amanda Brown, atheist blogger Greta Christina, FEMEN activist Alena Magelat, photographer Mallorie Nasrallah, actress Cleo Powell, freethinker Nina Sankari , writer Saskia Vogel, and mother Maja Wolna. The women are photographed by Julian Baker, Adam Brown, Grzegorz Brzezicki, Lucy Fox-Bohan, Agnieszka Hodowana, Ben Hopper, N. Maxwell Lander, Mallorie Nasrallah, Mark Neurdenburg, Vitaliy Pavlenko, and Michael Rosen.
On nudity and the calendar, Mallorie Nasrallah says: ‘When a tool of oppression can be turned in to an assertion of power, it is a beautiful thing. Nudity when celebrated harms no one, and when made shameful and barbaric harms everyone.’ Nina Sankari says: ‘In solidarity with Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, I would like to stress that our bodies (and thoughts) belong to us and to nobody else.’ Anne Baker says ‘Men in frocks constrain, control and intimidate women the world over in the name of God … it has to stop.’ Greta Christina says: ‘Sexual freedom is an important freedom — but it’s one that commonly gets ignored or trivialized.’ Maja Wolna says: ‘Irrespective of sex, sexual orientation, religion or culture we are equal. Personal dignity is a foundation of human civilization.’ Amanda Brown says: ‘Dogma will never determine where I sit, what I wear, or how I live’ and Poppy Wilson St. James says: ‘I find it strange that it is more acceptable to see on screen violence and guns than even a nipple. There is something wrong with our mindset if that is what we accept as the norm and shy away from nudity which is a completely natural state’.
Saskia Vogel says: ‘This calendar hopefully will reach people who are uncomfortable with empowered female nudity, and encourage them to reconsider their feelings about the nude figure.’ Luisa Batista says: ‘I think the calendar is important, because it may help to open people’s eyes and hearts. Women – and men – who are afraid, may find courage and feel supported by the quotes and faces and bodies of the people in the calendar.’
According to one of the participants, ‘If it weren’t for people who took a strong stand against misogyny and for free-expression, we’d still be in an age where showing your ankles was taboo.’ Alena Magelat says: ‘Our naked body is our challenge to patriarchy, dictatorship and violence. Smart people we inspire; dictators are horrified’.
The women in the calendar stand firm in solidarity with Aliaa Magda Elmahdy and the countless women across the world who are denied basic rights, freedoms and dignity.
Join the ‘Scream’ on Facebook and on Twitter under the hashtag #NudePhotoRevolutionary.
To Download the Calendar, click here.
Here is another act of solidarity from a group of women and men in Iran and one from two women in Iran.
To read Maryam Namazie’s interview with NOW Lebanon on ‘stripping for Iran’, click here.
To see extensive media coverage on the Nude Calendar, click here.
To leave comments on this, click here.
For more information, contact:
Maryam Namazie
BM Box 1919
London WC1N 3XX, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 7719166731
Email: maryamnamazie@gmail.com
Blog
Website
Stay safe and strong, Ladies! Thank you for your beautiful minds, strength, and courage!
Just bought my copy! Cant wait for it to get here, so that I can hang it on my wall and explain to EVERYONE that comes to my house exactly what it is about and where they can get a copy of their own. I’ve reblogged about it too so I hope to send a couple extra customers your way:)
It would be really nice if, once the proceeds are spent on something or donated to a certain organization, if you could let us know?
Thank you so much!
That’s great!! Religion is a massive headache and should be scrapped. Or failing that people that twist it to suit their subjective ideals should be ignored.
Maryam Namazie, please answer once question:
Why do you hate Iranians so much?
I’m just curious.
Well done all of you. You are so brave. Congrats.
I think shes more like a pre-Islam Egyptian type. Maybe her real calling is to help revive an Egyptian Pharoanate than pose nude. It’s all that uncollected energy that has no where else to go so Maryam poses nude.
In another day and age Maryam Namazie might well have been a High Priestess of some sort. Maybe if the old Egyptian religion is revived, Maryam would not feel so overtly sexual as her energy would be in the calandaric Rites of Old Egypt. Maryam would have somewhere to place all that energy instead. How about starting a movement for a Pharoanate instead Maryam? Theres only so much one can do with nudity and free expression!
This is honestly dumb but I will reply to it anyway. Why would any secular atheist want the return of the pharaohs?
This is a complete non sequiter out of left field that I really wonder if there’s something wrong with you or if you are just denser then diamonds.
Pose naked as a form of protest and solidarity and I guess you’re into sex magic and reviving ancient egyptian theocracy/monarchy. If you could fill in the middle part where you connect the 2 I’d be very interested to see what kind of mental gymnastics went into it.
This is honestly INGENUOUS but I will reply to @michaeld anyway. Any secular atheist want the return of the pharaohs, but any ethnic blood Egyptian who does know that a Pharoah is effectively the head of all FREEMASONS worldwide (even England) by occult and historical boorrowings by FREEMASONRY, as well as Israel (Israelites were the deposed remnants of the Egyptian Priesthood of the last Pharoanate . . . ) and by extension all the NGOs and apparati of Israel worldwide. Is that so stupid?
This is a complete reverse of non sequiter out of right field that I really wonder if there’s something wrong with you or if you are just lighter then lead.
Pose naked as a form of protest and solidarity is the EXTERNAL aspect of what Maryam is, and no I’m not into sex magic outside of my caste but into reviving ancient Egyptian theocracy/monarchy FOR the good of the world. There’s your middle part where I connect the 2, but not the 2 of that you mention. No mental gymnastics went into this, I still do not have access as you consider ‘access’ yet – in full unity at any rate.
Monotheism is based on Amon-Ra who was rewritten into the Talmud and turned into the YHVH deity. Israel is the successful colony of Egypt that has a hold on Fremasonry of Engkland and USA, the Illumiti and all regions not beholden to egregores Christ and Jibril who directly draw from Amon-Ra’s legacy who in turn was derived from the Elder Pantheons of Egypt. The Nile culture is set to rise again and PROPER FORMS in worship will be the future of all who have dared derive or invoke anything in the Pharoanate’s name. Think deeper before you speak and be HONEST knowing how far the torture of 1 single man, the locve of another, and love of millions can go as compared to something as old as civilisation . . .
The river Nile may rise but I doubt greatly that we shall see the rise of a new Pharoanate. Pharoahs drew their wealth and power by enslaving and oppressing their people and their enemies. Eventually the Pharoahs became so delusional as to declare themselves gods!
Gods exist only in the mind of mankind. When the people cease to believe, the gods disappear and with them the so called civilisations that created them. How many gods have come and gone? How many civilisations have disappeared. None have risen again to their former glory.
Maryam and her colleagues posing in the Nude Photo Revolutionary Calendar are surely standing for their rights as women; as human beings to oppose the religious and political oppression and enslavement of their gender. May they be successful!
I salute and congratulate you. Nudity is an honest statement of humanity — for all sexes and genders.
Great design on the calendar, too. Aside from the August typo, my only caveat is that small all-caps type on the dates is hard to read.
I don’t see a typo?
Nudity is not sexual. However, repressive and controlling ‘authorities’ prefer us to believe that it is. The more they can provoke our desire for freedom of sexual expression, the more they can control us by denying us such freedoms. It’s a ‘make them hungry then withhold food until they are compliant’ tactic. Sex doesn’t just sell things, it is also a tool of government.
If we – as a society – found nudity unremarkable and unarousing, there’d be less sexualised reaction to nakedness. In a nudist camp the only time people get excited about nudity is when people fail to protect themselves from burns at barbecues. People don’t dress in order to prevent sexual activity, nor do they undress only when they intend to engage in sex.
We are conditioned to look at images of naked people in a sexualised context. Seeing images of people of the gender for which we have a sexual preference prompts judgements in sexually repressed viewers of whether they would envisage wanting a sexual relationship with the person depicted, if the image is of someone of their own gender they tend to judge whether or not they themselves would be more desirable if they resembled the person in the image. Images have that superficial quality, as the personality of the person depicted is not completely or reliably shown in a photograph.
Even though it’s not the intention of the sitter or the photographer to eroticise the image, the response of the viewer is unreliable. So there are problems of ambiguity in presenting posed images of nudity (rather than ‘matter of fact’ images) as a declaration of unwillingness to be objectified. The audience is not controlled by the participants.
Sexuality is a ‘private’ matter but it is of public concern, because authority seeks to manipulate our private freedoms. There is a danger of this being interpreted as ‘fighting for peace’. Self-objectification is not the greatest way to campaign to be seen as people.
Thanks for your support! It really means a lot to us. I’ll give an update on the the finances around the calendar and what the money raised will be used for on Monday next week as I am leaving for the QED conference in Manchester tomorrow and won’t be online for very long for the next few days. By the way we have had some good media coverage too, which I will post tomorrow before I leave.
Maryam, a wonderful thing, full of truth, beauty, intelligence and wit.
The last time I saw you speak was at the London Rally in February, I recall you were wearing many layers, a hat, scarf and gloves but that day and this calendar share your usual dignity, self-assurance, dignity and authority.
Congratulations to everyone involved for carrying this off with such elan.
Much respect and congratulations to all the women that put this together. This is a very powerful message.
Thank you all for your bravery!
Plus, kudos to Maryam for going with a cape. The world needs more capes. Particularly for Caped Crusaders!
But not if they cover the face!
By the way, it’s not a cape but a chador (or the black all encompassing veil preferred by the Islamic regime of Iran)
Hi there,
I wired the money ob July 15 to order the Calander but they haven`t sent it yet!!! What`s wring?
Thanks.
Typo: On July
What`s Wrong
I love it. Well done to everyone involved. I’ll buy it later on tonight.
It can’t be porn because it got through the firewall at work!
Gorgeous, and I have ordered a copy. To those who think nudity is inherently sexual or pornographic, thank you for proving why this needed to be made.
It’s beautiful!
Wonderful! Beautiful! Liberating!
Your courage reminds women like me that I am free and beautiful as I am.
Thanks, ladies.
Aerik, you are so right! This calendar will be nothing more than a toy for men who want to jerk off. It does NOTHING to further the cause of freeing muslim women or anything like it. It makes me ill to think that there are men who will see my daughter in this calendar and have foul thoughts. I cry and then I get upset and then I cry more. I have not, nor will I look upon her pic other than her face just to verify that she has put herself out there so that men can comment like the following: Donald Morton – “I’ll be in my bunk.” This is NEVER what I wanted for my child and I am deeply hurt and disturbed that she would participate in such a LIE.
These nude pictures are a statement, not a titillating porn magazine. Some people might jerk off at pictures of Mahatma Gandhi, and I’m sure there must be somebody who jerks off at pictures of electronic circuits.
A nude person is just a human being in his/her natural state. Do you think nudist are permanently aroused? As other commenters have said, nakedness and eroticism are quite different things: a fully clothed man or woman can project eroticism, a totally naked man or woman can be just a naked human being.
I fully agree with Piero’s sentiments.
As for the calendar, WOW! It is beautiful. I will purchase a copy.
Congratulations all.
Hi, Amy. I’m male, and this calendar is not a “toy” for me. I found it to be emotionally moving with a very powerful message. Of course there are men out there who will look at this and, as you say, have “foul thoughts” but guess what? Some men can and do have those thoughts about women who are actually fully clothed, so covering from head to toe does not somehow prevent that, and even if it did it should not be required. I think that’s one of the points here: that women should not be forced to cover themselves out of fear that men might have sexual thoughts about them. How and why have men’s thoughts become a woman’s responsibility? If a man has sexual thoughts about a woman, clothed or otherwise, how he acts on those thoughts is NOT the woman’s fault, regardless of attire. A woman’s nude body is her own, and I think that’s what this is about.
You must have read my book, “Let’s Git Nakid”, which I published last year. Just kidding, our thoughts are the same regarding men’s responsibility to women. In short I wrote that men are responsible for themselves and their actions all the time even when it comes to responding a woman, seductive or not. It is the same as how we men respond to other men, fight or flight or friends or passersby. The sex should not enter into it. Everyone is to be respected and treated the same.
Oh wait she’s in there, my bad 😀
Oh darn…I was expecting Maryam to be in it 🙁
Wow! Brilliant calendar, really inspiring. I hope you manage to do this every single freakin year. Well done!
You are all so brave!!!! I salute you!
where are the black lasses?
Suggestion for project 2: Building a UAV to drop 10,000 of these over the Grand Mosque at the beginning of Ramadan. That should get some attention.
It isn’t that hard to separate nudity from sexuality. Even if you must make it sexual then sex is still natural and a normal part of the human experience.
If you can’t look at pictures of these naked women without making it vulgar or nasty in your mind you are part of the problem this very action addresses.
BRAVO!!!This is great! Really, what a joy! The photos are beautiful and the calendar is so well designed. And the fact is, all of thsse women chose to be here and they have a message. I know for some it’s still so uncomfortable to see and deal with women leading their own life and having their own opinion and deciding over their bodies (clothed and naked) themselves. Then they will come up with all those excuses, lame discussions, rationalisations and threats…
But you know what – get over it…
and TBH, I am somewhat uncomfortable with the skepchic calender; but this is different, and it’s blatantly obvious that it is so. In fact, this reminds me of the pictures that for a long time ran in the German BRAVO when I was a teen, which were part of a series that helped me greatly to not come away with a distorted idea of what people’s bodies really look like. It wasn’t “sexy” nudity, it was just nakedness (though, the pictures in this calendar are more artsy than the BRAVO ones, obviously).
though, here’s a thought:
nakedness is a protest against the demand to cover, and rightly so. but as Aerik so ineptly is trying to say, it’s not the only demand on women, and in the West the demand is actually often to be as little and as sexily dressed as possible (and not display any personality or personal preferences).
So I wonder if there would be a good, clever way to subvert the sexualization demands of the West, as well? I mean, here we have women who wanted to protest sexism by showing their body, and that’s great. But, how would one visualize the choice of some other women not do do so?
*ponder*
Hmm… post nude but non-sexual pictures presenting realistic, non-photoshopped, diverse bodies as a way of mocking this culture’s demand to be uniformly sexualized?
well, that’s my point. nude should be one accepted mode of protesting this, but it’s a one-dimensional approach to a multi-dimensional problem: I have the right to cover as much as I have the right to uncover. So, how does one visualize that? I think it would be an interesting project, but I don’t have the artistic chops or resources to make that happen.
something like recreating typical commercial photoshoots, but with women dressed in everyday clothes, for example… sort of like a real-life version of the “Women Fighters In Reasonable Armor” tumblr
*more pondering*
I like this idea.
I must say this is exactly why I love the calendar. Old women! A lactating woman! Real women, not airbrushed and photoshopped into imaginary porn-perfection. Not even the young and conventionally pretty ones.
More naked men.
Aerik, the idea that women can’t be naked without it being for the purpose of arousing someone else is the reason this calendar exists.
If the name of this calendar was “HOT SEXY XXX SKEPTIC BOOBVAGINAPARTY” or something then you’d have a point. But it’s not. Every naked picture is accompanied by a quote that clearly illustrates the purpose of the calendar. Not creating this calendar because people would immediately think “SEX AND PORN” would be incredibly silly, considering that that kneejerk reaction is the whole reason this calendar was ever made.
Many thanks again, Maryam for the opportunity to participate in such a superb calendar, and to the people involved in putting this together!
Here is a link to my blog post about my participation in the calendar, with full interview: http://emilyhasbooks.com/press-release-nudephotorevolutionary
It is my hope that this calendar will reach out to those who most need to hear our message, and that other viewers will find this to be an artistic and powerful display, and will unite with us in support of free expression and civil liberties.
Sincerely, put yourself in the place of a woman who just discovered the skeptic movement. You might be thinking, “what the hell? I worked to separate myself from these other ideologies that always demanded I bow to their sexual whims, but when I get here, I’m [still] expected to share my nude body once I’m popular?! Or get popular by being publically sexual? WTF”
That is the message of a company calendar, of any nude calendar put forth by an organization. and it’s dumb to think otherwise. And we shouldn’t be doing it as skeptics. We shouldn’t be doing it as feminists or humanists in general. We shouldn’t be doing that as decent human beings.
If Greta and the others want to do erotic/nude things on their own individual time, more power to them. But to directly associate it with the skeptic movement is to demand a public display of sexual performance on the part of women, and that’s wrong.
Seriously, where do you see anything sexual going on in these pictures?
On another note, it’s not like pictures were ever demanded from anyone. It’s pretty clear that these are all volunteers who wanted this calendar to happen, not people who were forced into it.
Seriously, where do you see anything sexual going on in these pictures?seconded. as I said above, as long as female skin continues to be seen as inherently sexual, we will continue living in a patriarchy. “sexy” pictures are sexual; nude pictures are just naked.
I agree that there’s nothing inherently sexual about this calendar. That said, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with photos or whatever that are inherently sexual or just potentially sexy. My impression is that part of the message here, not the only part or the largest necessarily, is that sexuality is not an inherently bad thing. Sexuality, particularly feminine for the case at hand, isn’t a dirty, shameful thing that has to be controlled and purefied within the constraints of religion.
I completely agree. While there’s nothing sexual happening in the images, I think a very important message from this calendar is about being comfortable with your body. And it hopefully follows, once you’re comfortable with your body, you will begin to be comfortable with your sexuality, which is a wonderful thing.
Demanded? I wasn’t aware that anyone was getting demands for posting nude photography.
Where on Earth are you getting the idea that women are expected or demanded to participate in this?
I am a woman who is pretty new to the skeptic movement as a movement, and when I see this I think, “Oh, hey, awesome, it’s women choosing to take a stand in a provocative way.” I don’t think “Oh, no! Now I must take a nude photo of myself and also be part of a nude calendar, whether I want to or not!” – the idea is profoundly bizarre to me.
It seems to me that you’re simply deciding that women can’t possibly choose on their own accord to be nude, so if women are nude it must be because somebody is demanding they be nude, in some outside sexual interest. That isn’t the case. Women are not incapable of choosing to be nude of their own free will.
How dare these women chose their own way to make a statement!
They should show they are free by making statements in the way I want them to and no other!
Ok, that sounded smarter in my head.
Let’s try again…
I think that these women are doing the freethought movement harm by thinking that they are free enough to do what they want with…
Hmmm, best start over…
Look, if we just let these women do what they want, pretty soon we’ll have to let them…
Drat, doesn’t work either…
Tell you what, when I can object to this in a way that’s neither puritanical nor oppressive, I’ll come back, K?
Don’t worry – I’m sure I’ll figure out a way to tell these women how they really should be making the points they are trying to make about people telling them how to do what they do!
Aerik, you’re so CLOSE to understanding! This quote is exactly right. It is their choice IF and WHEN they want to be sexual, regardless of their choice of clothing, or lack of it. Your problem (and it’s not only yours) is that you see the naked human body as an advertisement for sexuality. It’s not! These women aren’t flaunting their sexuality, but their humanity! They are saying, “I have the right to CHOOSE! No one should tell me what I must wear.”
Only someone who is ashamed of the human form can look at these women and say they are wrong to display themselves. This is art. This is feminism. And this is RIGHT!
Sorry about the borderline spamming, but I keep having better thoughts.
How come when some internet douchenozzle posts a pic of a skeptic woman online and says “this is why I love women in skepticism!” you recognize that it’s sexist and demeaning.
But then YOU do it, and you expect better results?!
WTF is wrong with y’all.
Fuck you.
It’s one thing to fight for individual women’s rights to do things like nude photography and erotic projects. But you have to let that be in the realm of the individual.
But the freethought and skepchick calendars? That’s not individuals’ realms. That’s **branding skepticism with naked women**. That’s not freeing. That’s not celebrating shit. That’s encouraging people to sexualize women any time they think of skepicism.
// long, slow, sarcastic applause.
Thanks for the original ‘thought’.
I do not think that means what you think it means.
Lol! Thank you!
um. do you really need to have the difference between a choice made by a woman about herself, and a choice made for that woman by some dude explained to you? Also, do we need to explain consent again?
I missed the part where participation was mandatory or even just peer-forced.
“expected”? again, no.
followup:
I mean really. When was the last time you ever heard somebody say the skepchick nude calendars did women good in the movement. HMM?
Can’t you learn from history?
you know, after complaining and recognizing that part of patriarchal sexism is that women are always demanded to be sexual on command…. nude calendars are NOT fighting against sexism. They are acquiescing to it. This is the equivalent of going down fighting. But why even go down?
Seriously this is bullshit. Rebecca watson did the skepchick calendar thing, and it was only after all the rape letters and shit she got for it that she began to understand sexism in the freethought community. Know what’s going to happen with this calendar? Same fucking thing.
If what the sexists demand is sexualization, then more sex is not fighting sexism. PERIOD.
Feminism is fighting for women’s rights to be sexual when and if they want to be sexual, not before. By linking freethinking’s women with their sexuality as something to be considered *whenever* women in skepticism is a topic, is to go against that. It is to do sexists’ job for them. It is to sexualize women in the movement even when they’re not into being sexual at the moment. And that’s bullshit.
Massive failure.
The world needs more nudism, I see.
as long as the female body is seen as, by it’s very existence, as something that titillates (and thus needs to be covered up to not be seen as a sex-thing), the patriarchy is winning. nudity is not sex. patriarchy isn’t going to die until we stop considering female skin as inherently sexual.
Superbly put Jadehawk.
The calendar makes this statement.
Sad that some folks cannot see this.
Maryam and all others pictured had my respect before this calendar. They have my respect now. Nothing has changed. They are all fine human beings making a great point.
As a long term nudist I couldn’t agree more, it is the clothes and religiously obsessed who see sex in nudity, when being at one with nature is what we nudists feel. Nudism isn’t about seeing or being seen, it’s about what you feel, the sun and air on you body, every whisper of air is felt by the tiny hairs that we all have, a truly wonderful feeling, once you get over any self guilt you may have due to societal indoctrination that naked equals sex!
Get naked in the sun!
Pete
People who equate nudity with sex have a very limited experience with their naked body. I swam for many years in a suit. It was not until I removed my suit that I felt the full joy of swimming. It was surprising and instructive. I had not known what I was missing. I understood in a different way (with my whole body) what I could not with my intellect alone, the meaning of freedom.
So, the lesson we are supposed to have learned is “shut up and be frightened”?
I strongly disagree with tons of things a number of comrades in the calendar say, and often, and vocally, but that does not mean we should stop talking, it doesn’t mean we should stop being defiant, and it does not mean that we cant stand together on an issue, or in solidarity with women like Aliaa Magda Elmahdy.
Nudity = Sexuality only in the mind of the observer, not in the state itself. Any erotic dancer will tell you that.
As near as I can tell this piece was designed to outrage people who find nudity offensive, not to entice. I posit that it will be successful on both counts.
Nice work ladies.
@Aerik
Nudity is not “sexualization”.
The kind of “sexualization” feminists find problematic is a phony kind that has very little to do with real, ordinary women with sexual needs and desires of their own. It’s a sexual objectification that actually denies women’s sexual agency, and promotes a perfect (and often literally unnatural) style of “beauty” that includes very few of us (and then only for a few years during our youth and young adulthood).
This ain’t that. Have you even looked at the images in this calendar?
And–re your quote at #13–somehow associating this calendar with our movement “is to demand a public display of sexual performance”?
Whut? Nudity is a “performance”?
The massive failure is yours, and it’s a failure of understanding.
Aerik,
You totally missed the point or, worse still, you have big, big problems that you desperately need to resolve.
This calendar was designed to tell everyone that a woman’s life is her own and a woman’s body is her own. Learn to respect that and learn to respect women as fellow, equal human beings and then you will be a long way along the road to being a real human being yourself.
Beautiful idea, wonderfully realized. Congrats!
absolutely, mind-blowingly beautiful… All the participants deserve a lot of respect for their courage, the quotes are great, and the overall design makes me a very happy art geek. 🙂
I was seriously thinking about submitting my own photo, but alas I can’t afford a professional photo session at the moment. Oh well, at least Poland is well represented and Mallorie Nasrallah “stole” my idea anyway 🙂
It is a kind of obvious bit of symbolism isn’t it, still hope you think I did the idea justice. 😀
Well done. I may be able to profile this sometime soon.
I’m at work so the purchase will have to wait a bit, but I do want to say that this effort fills me with such pride for the people to are taking a stand. I want to voice my support here now, and my money later. I can’t imagine it not having a social impact.
I fully agree! Such grace and such courage, it is inspiring.
They are all butt ugly
I notice you have no picture – could it be that you are a lot uglier? I shouldn’t think anyone here would like to see your questionable form with no clothes on. But this is all speculation – what I can tell, however, is that you are uglier in spirit by far…
A huge congratulations to Maryam for organising this and to all the contributors. The calendar is wonderful, such a strong statement in support of women’s rights.
I just bought a copy!
This is awesome I love it. It reminds me of when I was breaking out of fundamentalist Christianity and I was with some friends in a park at night and feeling suddenly free, I took of my clothes and ran around in the moonlight. It really is a liberating act. The images and words are beautiful and inspiring. Thank you.
That could’ve been the answer of some atheist’s prayer for a proof of God 😀
“atheist’s prayer”? Surly you joke. That is a contradiction. Also, one cannot “prove” what one can’t define. I have yet to see a non-contradictory definition of “god”.
Non contradictory definition of God:
God
The Great I AM
God cannot be defined just as infinity cannot be defined.
In fact, even if I don’t know you, I do know you cannot be defined. Many of your characteristics and attributes may be named, described and talked about but the YOU is far more than what we see and know. Even YOU don’t know YOU and can’t define yourself. But you ARE.
Infinity indeed is defined. The simplest definition is: an uncountable quantity. That doesn’t mean something is endless or omnipresent, just that it can’t be counted.
To this extent, deities are infinite, for AFAIK they can’t be counted. How would you count deities? Would the count be negative, zero, positive? Is the count integral or fractional? Assuming the count is positive, is it 1 or 2 or 3.14159… or 666 or 999 or… is it infinite? How can you tell?
Yes, before deities can be counted, they must be defined. But do theological definitions have any real-world meaning? How can any definition be tested to ensure it’s correct? How can we tell if any deities exist in the real world?
What we *do* know (cf. numerous studies) is that deities exist inside human consciousness, and are damn difficult to detect elsewhere. This should be a strong hint that deities are imaginary. Not mathematically imaginary, with the square root of -1 as a factor; but fictive imaginary, like we make them up to suit our purposes.
I do not say that deities don’t exist in the real world, that their count is a positive number. I *do* say that I doubt any definition of a deity would withstand critical scrutiny, and that any definitive count of deities can be made that would be accepted by skeptics. You have a god? Prove it. Have fun.