What is it About the Body that gets To These People? You know, photography is about a lot of things, and not just film and processing. It encompasses so many psychological elements, that when you get down to it a degree in Psychology isn’t a bad idea! In fact, I’ve come to think I could probably do pretty well in Psyche 101 should I ever get the urge to try my hand at it someday. And the reason I say this is because it never fails to amaze me at how so many people have such turbulent and even irrational feelings about the human body being exposed in a photograph. And of course I’m talking about sensually provocative images such as a page from a Victoria’s Secret catalog, FHM magazine to what else, Playboy. What is it about the human body, and especially the female that seems to provoke this feeling that it’s dirty, naughty, or just wrong? This has haunted me since my foray into photographing women for Playboy starting in the early ‘80’s. I can remember going from college to college all over the U.S. searching for potential models for that year’s “Girls of the Whatever Conference” and discovering on the very first day of interviews a flock of folks protesting my very existence! It was unnerving to say the least. But, after a few years of it, I finally began to see through some of their propaganda for what it really was. And that it was just that, propaganda. It was what they thought the world should be like, and that was without any sort of imagery depicting women as desirable, in no way, shape or form. But as I continued to delve deeper into why some of these people did what they did, I made a fairly startling discovery. A lot of it was due to the sexual preferences of the leaders of the protests and their insecurity that their young followers might stray over to the hetero way of life after leaving their guidance! That was an absolute revelation the day I found that one out! Though my discovery came toward the end of the era of the whole protesting Playboy-thing. I guess we were somehow “waking up” to our Puritan ideals a bit and finally trying to relax. Well, I thought. Now, let’s jump forward to our current time line here in our “new millennium”. A time of forward thinking, leading whole countries down the path to democracy by removing maniacal dictators from power, and where it’s almost been made commonplace for college girls to bare their boobs to videographers in any city in America. What happened? When did I fall asleep and miss this sort of sexual awakening with young people? Or was it simply an enigma that came to be during a time of transition between centuries? All I know is that now there are some magazines out there, Maxim and FHM to name a couple who have taken up a fairly interesting new slant on the visualization of the young female form. And they’ve hit big while doing it. Sexy, graphic, bold colors, and playing to every young man’s fantasies by making the models the hot new thing they see every week on their TV or the big screen. I like it. But now, suddenly, I’m hearing about a rather large company out there taking it upon themselves to become a sort of censure to the masses by not selling these magazines on their store shelves. What is that about? Do they think they’re 7-11 or something? And we know how that turned out. They capitulated and started selling Playboy again almost immediately after saying they were pulling it from the shelves. Though it was handled quietly unlike the “announcement”. Whatever! Yes, these pictures are sexy, edgy, and very enticing, but they’re certainly nothing at all when compared to some of the alternative crap you see everywhere on the Web these days! Just look at the spam crap that hits your email box every day! If this company wants to do something positive for its customers then they should go after these spammers! But don’t get me started on the spam nightmare or I’ll be here all night! What a joke that’s now become. Absolute nonsense crap being sent to every human being with a web address I think. From the best buy on Viagra to the latest web site dealing with the love life of animals as it relates to humans! Can someone please pull the plug on this stuff? Anyway, I digress. But you see what I’m saying here. These spammers of absolute filth and crap are hiding under the guise of free speech. That what they are selling should be shielded from any legal controls based on our founding father’s wisdom of creating an incredible document called The Bill of Rights. Give me a freaking break! But here’s the rub. If these scoundrels are allowed to continue their abuse of our rights to send that stuff to us without our permission (while hiding behind free speech), then where does a store get off telling us we should not see one of these magazines even though we WANT to? Well, if I remember my grade school social studies correctly, I believe we as citizens of this land have the right to make up our own minds as to what we look at or not. And if this store chain takes it upon itself to NOT allow me that right, well, maybe I should sue them for such a travesty to my rights! Just like the saying which most of you won’t remember from the ‘80’s, but it’s meaning is perfect for this situation. “I want my MTV!” Or rather, I want my laddie magazines, my Playboy, and my Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue and on and on. So load the shelves and allow me my right to choose. That’s what all those college girls did when we ran our ads for recruiting models for Playboy. They had the right to choose to model with or without their clothes. And I’m so happy so many chose to do that very thing! See you at the newsstands! DJM Previous / Expose U Index / Next Read more about David at www.davidmecey.com Read more about David's FotoFantasy Camp

All Photos by David Mecey