Commentary: Nancy Lang, Nudity, and That Damn Cat

I'm sure many of you have seen that Nancy Lang has posed nude for Arena Homme Plus, well, I'm going to give you my two cents about her nudity. 

First of all, I know I should be focused on her sexy body, but is that a dead cat in the corner?! 

In all seriousness, I don't really have an issue with the skin in this picture; I can't say I understand the styling, though. I mean, a fake tattoo saying, "JFK with Marilyn Monroe" seems a bit iffy.  Lang said the purpose of the nudity in the shoot was to show that First Ladies "are also human beings, same as everyone else." Yet, her tattoo is of a rumored mistress of a president of the United States, not a First Lady, and it doesn't seem very relevant to S. Korean politics. Why wouldn't she pick a tattoo of a Korean First Lady or even a Korean president?

I think her Performance '앙(Ang)' in a bikini to encourage voting in the S. Korean general election (4. 9. 2012) was a bit more legitimate(?). 

P.S. There's the cat again.

Her possibly thought-inducing intentions come off as attention-whore-ish and a little juvenile. I think her birthday suit was better shown in her July 20th quasi-feminist selca:

That cat really freaks me out. It's like taxidermy + beanie babies gone wrong.

 Is it her thing?

The Vagina Monologues, for all who are unaware, is an "episodic play written by Eve Ensler" (wikipedia). It features many monologues with topics like masturbation, genitalia mutilation, orgasm, menstration, and love. The main theme is the female experience, and specifically, using the vagina as a "tool of female empowerment" (wikipedia). So Lang's nudity is the above picture when coupled with The Vagina Monologues script can be taken as a statement of anti-patriarchal feminine strength. 

I personally think this anti-slut-shaming-message selca is a much more effective use of nudity than her attempts to conquer class differences in her naked First lady cosplay. I applaud her artistic mind, but I think the Arena Homme Plus (note the Homme) shoot was more a gimmick to sell copies of the magazine to horny men rather than social commentary on the unfairness of socio-economic class interactions and the restraints of power. In the future, I do hope to see the female body used as more than a selling point, but even in the US there is much change to be had.

What are your thoughts on Nancy Lang and her nude shoots? I think that cat needs to go!

--Lauren

Im cr. as linked