October 13, 2006

A bright shining nude woman

In 1990 the world looked up to a new breed of heroes. They were not soldiers or firemen, sports or rock stars, they were not even men. They were supermodels. Fresh off a decade (the 80s) that had demanded the best in everything - the biggest, the richest, the most glamorous, the most beautiful - it was inevitable that the most gorgoeus women on earth would become the most admired, the most desired, and the most powerful. They became household names. For the very first time, women were very publicly calling the shots in their careers, their love lives, and their destinies.

More elegantly and elloquently than feminists ever could, supermodels showed the world that women were a force to be reckoned with; that women could attain and wield real power; that power didn't have to be based on domination or brute force or imitating men, but could be based on admiration and desire; and that beauty was not the threat to their freedom that feminists had been telling women it was.

In fact, the opposite was true. The beauty of the supermodels promised us a world ruled by women. They made us more aware than ever of the patriarchal society in which we lived, and made us realize that it was neither inevitable nor invincible. They showed us that women could pose nude, wear lingerie, be sexual, without the world condemning them for it. They made us admire women, and they inspired us to be as good - as free, powerful, sexual, and successful - as they were.

Then came the anti-beauty revolution: anti-supermodel ads, the grunge movement, heroine chic fashion, the 'real women' crusade. We all know that art of the female form is necessary for the survival of any human civilization. Unfortunately, mankind's enemies know it too.

Now we don't see supermodels much. We don't see women using the world as their playground. And we are not inspired to make the world a better place for women. There are still beautiful models, but we no longer want to know their names. For a brief shining moment, the most beautiful women in the world could make art by posing nude without negative repercussions, but no more.

Today super beauty is considered a bad thing. And the women who possess it are falling all over themselves to hide it. We see the likes of Cіndy Crаwfоrd, Hеіdі Klυm, and Tyrа Bаnks, 3 of the most beautiful women who have ever existed, making their livings in other fields. Cindy has come out with a line of furniture, Heidi is TV producer and 'personality', and Tyra hosts her own talk show.

Let's let this sink in for a moment. Imagine if professional athletes all decided to leave their sports to push jock straps or a line of designer baseball caps? Or if rock stars all retired from recording or performing to design guitar picks or hock their line of torn clothing? Or if all doctors stopped practicing medicine to front companies that sell designer medical equipment? A world without sports or music is unthinkable to most people. But a world without superlative beauty is our reality. None of the world's greatest beauties are using their unprecedented good looks openly, proudly, and admirably to make art.

Instead of super beauties, movies are now full of the latest disposable teen starlets. Magazine covers feature only the current crop of less-than-stunning actresses. Television spends as much time denouncing female beauty as it does relying on it for ratings. And art photography has been reduced to 'nudes of young girls'.

It's a tragedy of historic proportions. Each generation of humans beings requires images of greatness and glory to inspire them to live life to the fullest. We need images of people perfect in body and soul to give us something to look up to, to remake ourselves into, to uplift our views of ourselves and each other, to tell us that we are capable of being fully human and that mankind is worth preserving. Without female beauty in art, no civilization can survive for long, and none ever has.

Take for example ours. Without images of female beauty to look up to and admire, the men of our civilization has been reduced to an obscene obsession with the sexuality of younger and younger girls. And women themselves are insisting that the beauty of the supermodels was only an aberation and that in fact they are all equally beautiful. Half of the world is not quite sure whether to believe them or not but the half that does believe it is forcing women to wear bags over their heads, lest their great beauty corrupt us all. Such societies are no longer civilized. Without female beauty they have not survived.

Yet there is one super beauty who is resisting the modern trend towards beauty hatred, hatred of women, and the destruction of civilization, a model who can't - and won't - live without making art of the female form. Her name is Muse. (Yes, that's her real name, given by a prophetic mother.) Since childhood, Muse has resisted clothing, somehow sensing that only fully and freely nude she could be all the she really is. Growing up in a world of beauty haters where nudity was a sin, Muse managed to twist away from the cold hands of hateful mediocrity and 'morality', refusing the demands from agents and employers to give up her nude art. As a young woman, when any other beauty would have done the opposite, she bravely gave up a successful career as a fashion model in order to dedicate herself to her artful nudes.

Not the kind of uninspired erotic trash that mostly litters the internet today, Muse's images are meant to inspire, provoke, challenge, and reward, to take us to the farthest inner and outer reaches of our souls, to shatter to dust the bars of any ancient, rusty cage that tries to hold the female body, to show us what a world of female beauty unleashed might look like. Together with her photographer and friend Dаvіd Chаrlеs, Muse is making the only nude images that we would not hesitate to call art.

This at a time when of the modern crop of famous super beauties, Gіsеllе Bυndchеn is still playing Babe #1 in the movies she appears in, Adrіаnа Lіmа is stuck in Vіctоrіа's Sеcrеt/Cоvеr Gіrl limbo, and Kаtе Mоss is making regular appearances as the fashionable alleged substance abuser on the covers of popular magazines.

When all of the greatest beauties in the world are afraid to use their looks to make beauty; when the sexual interests of the world's men seem to lie with girls instead of women; when 'real' women are all pretending they are all supermodels; and when feminists are telling us that being inspired by beauty is worse than forcing women into bags; Muse blasts bravely onto the scene, without a trace of shame or doubt, a bright shining nude woman, illuminating a brand new world, lighting the way to the future with her art.

If our civilization survives, it will be because we are not concerned with the equality of bags, or the sexual attractiveness of youth, but with the beauty of women, like Muse.

As a brilliantly glowing contrast to the drab dreariness of today's art and media, we hope Muse will be an inspiration to everyone, but most especially to other models. If the supermodels of the world dedicate themselves to creating beauty, the art of the world could turn into something that not only frees women and inspires more greatness and goodness in us all, but in generations of mankind for millenia to come as well.

For daring to make nude art in this day and age, when she's beautiful enough not to have to, Muse is more than a muse; she's a supermodel, a prophet, and a hero.

© Copyright Body in Mind | Photos by Dаvіd Chаrlеs

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