The feelings that bubble and rise over when sending or receiving nudes must be a response to something much more than just… I just saw a naked body that is not my own…
For our next anthology, Sending Nudes, we want to find out what everyone's feelings and thoughts are with nudes, either in the form of experiences or complete fantasy! For unpublished writers, this is the perfect space to get your juices flowing and share your stories. Closing date for submissions is 1 October 2020.
So, let me question nude for nude’s sake.
How I envision taking a nude: I would take a photo of my naked body to indulge in the opulence of it all. In a warmly lit room with a film camera, a glass of red wine, smoking a cigarette and of course naked. This is the only time in which I hark back to the past, envisioning luxurious, beautiful women gliding from one pose to another.
But this isn’t how nudes are now (are they :/ ).
The digital presence of technology has filtered into every single one of our pores. Instead, I send a quick nude in the toilet of my university library to a random person on tinder and get a heart emoji in response. Where is the posted letter in response, signed with a kiss, describing how you long and pine for me? Am I just like zeros and ones to you?
The nude is more than just sexually charged now. There is so much to explore.
Is sending nudes really for the other person, or is it narcissistic (which isn’t a bad thing)?
Even worse, is it just to prove existence in the digital space as detachment from the real world/reality (whatever that is) increases?
In what ways can nudes empower? Can nudes be used as a tool for resistance?
Where does my physical body begin and my digital body end? Can sending a nude disrupt the binary?
Do nudes have currency? What makes a nude sexy, smutty?
We want to know about searching for nudes, selling nudes, sharing nudes, sending nudes, slipping into nudes, seducing nudes, (sanitising nudes to be safe).
Collectively, through writing, we can rethink methods and models for ‘looking’ and ‘being’ by looking at the feelings arising from sending nudes and the performance we undertake when we send a nude.
So, please send your submissions whether that be poetry, short stories, nonfiction or experimental writing in art! We love it all x
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I am a new intern at Guts Publishing, my name is Katy Dadacz (she/they). I am doing an MA in Gender Studies, with a focus on contemporary feminist fiction!
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