Thursday, December 18, 2008

Only in Paris - Nude Models March for Respect

The only place on the planet where a group of people can protest in the nude amidst Christmas trees, menorahs, and nativity scenes outside City Hall and not get arrested is Paris.

Today, nude models have taken to the streets of Paris in their work uniforms protesting what they believe is the lack of respect, monetary rewards, and recognition of their craft.

Trust me, it’s not easy marching all goose-bumped to demand compensation for this time-honored aspect of art, but these life models have done it. Currently, models are earning the paltry sum of $10 Euros an hour to pose nude. Most of them are college students and part-time workers trying to make ends meet. The only thing they carry is a fanny pouch of DayQuil, nasal spray, aspirin, and Perrier.

One of the models, Christophe Lemée, told reporters “I will often do nine-hour days you have to be very athletic to do that. Each session is three hours long, divided into 45-minute poses followed by 15 minutes of rest. It’s no easier holding a sitting pose than a standing pose. The weight will always be concentrated on some part of your body. I call it dancing without moving. You need a lot of psychological concentration to cope. You have to learn what your body can and can’t do. I try to swim for an hour in the mornings to keep my body in condition for the poses.”

My reaction to that is digital cameras are more efficient, but then people have a right to work, right? Nude modeling is respectable, Benji did it in “Off the Leash” for a few months and even did a sequel.

None of the folks in the mainstream media were at liberty to photograph the parade. However, in a few days, you will be able to find it on YouTube.

A news reporter met up with one of them to find out that the day job is over in Disneyland, Paris. Like I said, only in Paris can you have the best of both worlds:

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