The Nude Normal

What you need to do:

• Read and understand the instructions below, then click here to submit. • Attach one photo that depicts yourself in the nude. – You don’t need to censor your body. – If you want to stay anonymous you should censor the regions of your picture that might identify you. • Include a written manifesto. – Tell us roughly who you are and why you think nudity should not be discriminated against.

What I will do with your submission:

• I will post the image as you provided it to me. • I may attach an image which declares your picture to be part of a political statement (see my own post here). • I may format the manifesto to make it look like this. • I may edit obvious spelling mistakes. • I may edit/add hashtags.

My name is Christian.

I am 47 years old and I am an artist from Northern Germany.

This is my manifesto:

I like to be nude at times, because being nude feels good to me.

I want to live in a world where it is as inacceptable to discriminate against nudity as it is to discriminate against color of skin, origin, gender or religion (only to name a few).

This world wouldn't require the label "nudist" for anybody, because being nude would be as accepted as wearing clothes.

Being nude is not sexual.

If being nude is considered illegal, the law needs to be changed.

My name ist Christian. I am 47 years old and live in Northern Germany. Working in artistic nude photography I get in contact with a lot of people who love the human form and are not afraid of having their photo taken. If it comes to publishing these images though, a lot of them fear for being judged or even loosing their job.

Being nude makes so many people feel good, yet so few of them dare to be nude when they feel like it. Society makes us feel ashamed of our naked bodies. So we hide them away. When we forget our swimsuit on a hot day we’d rather stay fully clothed on the beach than skinny-dip the hell out of our overheated bodies.

I strongly believe that everybody should be able to do whatever they love (unless it harms others) without being ostracised.

I want to live in a world where it is as inacceptable to discriminate against nudity as it is to discriminate against color of skin, origin, gender or religion (only to name a few).

When Tumblr announced they’d ban all NSFW (not safe for work) content a few days ago, I realised that society is headed the wrong direction.

Nudity should not be considered NSWF nor should any other of our private affairs that we choose to discuss on social media or in the real world. This is about freedom of speech, this is about the right to express ourselves as human beings.

Consider Tumblr may have been forced to change their community guidelines by economic pressure and legislation. If this is true we can hardly blame them they complied. The problem is not Tumblr, the change of their guidelines is only a symptom.

But who is to blame if legislation and economic pressure dictate our ability to express ourselves?

I’m afraid the answer is: It’s us!

We’ve been silent for too long. We haven’t lived up to our responsibilities as being the sovereign of our governments. We have to make ourselves heard! Otherwise other people will decide what’s best for us.

I have created this blog to make myself heard.