Preface: As my experience and confidence as a nude photographer grows, I am experimenting with gradually expanding the accessibility of my work. I have prepared this statement in anticipation of potentially having to defend my decision to share images that may ultimately be removed due to violating often ambiguous community guidelines, hoping to never have to use it. But, as is usually the case, whenever I write something that articulates my thoughts particularly well, I feel like I ought to share it, on the off chance that it might inspire others to communicate better in their own lives.
I've been studying nude photography for over ten years. Anywhere I post photos, I make it my business to learn the rules about what sorts of materials are permitted, and what sorts are prohibited. I want to advertise my work, so on the one hand, I need to know what I can post. But I can't advertise my work if it gets removed, and even less so if I get banned from the site, so I need to know what I can't post, as well. However, there is always a subjective element to interpreting the rules (however explicit they try to make them) - especially when an inscrutable AI is employed to enforce them - so I can't be 100% sure that I will never make a mistake (none of us is perfect). But I always endeavor to use my best judgment.
As an additional note, it is always the hosting site's rules, and not any individual or group of individuals' feelings, that I use to gauge what to post. It is the site's responsibility to interpret and encode its community's standards. As a member of that community, my own subjective feelings about what ought to be permitted are as valuable as anyone else's. Succumbing to every layman's complaint is a fast track to fostering a more and more conservative environment. Thus I can in good conscience only respond to the requests of deputized officials.
I do try to be sensitive to other people's beliefs and comfort zones (within reason), but there comes a point in a free society where deferring to other's wishes ceases to represent an exchange of equality. And it is my firm belief as a nudist of many years that there is nothing intrinsically harmful about the sight of the human body in its unclothed state. Indeed, it is an unhealthy aversion to it that is a perversion of the natural order. You don't have to like it, and you are free to use your eyes and legs and even your voice to try to separate yourself from it as much as possible. But what you do not have is the right to compel me to cover up.
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