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[NSFW] Body Painter & Nude Models Hit Times Square To Protest "Ridiculous" Crackdown
By
Marie Solis
Published Aug 28, 2015
Modified Aug 28, 2015
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Christian Hansen / Gothamist
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By
Marie Solis
Published Aug 28, 2015
Modified Aug 28, 2015
Share
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It was pretty much business as usual in Times Square yesterday, where the usual cast of characters, costumed and otherwise, worked the possibly-doomed pedestrian plazas. Spiderman and The Hulk posed for photos, a man carrying a sign reading "Fuck you! Pay me!" wove in and out of crowds, and myriad tourists sported infinite selfie sticks. But at the center of the circus was something you don't see in Times Square every day: artist Andy Golub, back in action, painting three fully nude women. Notably absent? Times Square's topless desnudas.
If Mayor de Blasio—who last week launched a quality-of-life task force to evaluate the threat topless women and Elmo pose to Times Square and beyond—thought those topless women were pushing the limit, his sensitive soul wouldn't have been able to handle the sight of Koy Penguina, 33, hopping out of her shorts and shrugging as Golub painted her lower half lime green.
While they may have shocked and amused passersby, this was familiar and hard-won territory for Golub, who has been painting Penguina since 2013. Two years earlier, Golub and other models had been arrested for their fully nude body painting and charged with public lewdness. But with the help of the NYCLU, Golub successfully established that full nudity was legal when it was for the sake of artistic expression. Women have been legally allowed to go topless in New York since 1992. Ever since, he's taken to the streets with the mission of desexualizing the naked body.
"We've always been getting attention, but now it's a different kind of attention," said Golub. "I think most people are totally cool with it, because they get what it's about. But a lot of other people feel a little riled up over the whole idea of nudity, which is one of the reasons I made sure to get out here."
Golub said that many people think he's seeking out controversy, especially in light of the media attention surrounding the desnudas. What he's after, Golub and his models maintained, is something more subversive.
"The human body is the most beautiful work of art ever. It's a perfect machine and to shame that and say it's not suitable for public view, when we're surrounded by mostly advertisements of naked women, is ridiculous," echoed model Stacey Lunin, 22. She and Penguina agreed that there's a sexist double standard in the treatment of female toplessness and nudity. Even Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, who hopped on de Blasio's task-force bandwagon, stated on Wednesday that if topless women have to go, so does the Naked Cowboy.
"There's a quote that's going around," Lunin began. "You can buy breasts, but you can't wear breasts," finished Penguina.
In this sense, they're on the same page as the desnudas, many of whom can be seen with the words "equality" and "freedom" painted down their backs. Still, Lunin and Penguina emphasized that they're not just trying to one-up the topless women; their intentions are distinct.
"I have nothing against them," said Penguina. "But I feel like all of the commotion about them cheapens the message: They're sexualizing nudity for money; we're desexualizing it for art."
Golub believes that, in a sense, the desnudas followed his lead, but distorted his message. "They saw what I was doing and then the city acknowledged it was legal and that's when they came out and saw it as an opportunity to make money." Golub says he treats every body as a potential canvas for his art, while the desnudas are capitalizing on a conventionally attractive female form.
"In that way it's clear that they're using the body—the beautiful, stereotypical female body—to get cash and photos and they're perpetuating certain stereotypes. I paint young women, old women, men, people in wheelchairs, people with cancer," he said. But Golub also stressed that it's not the desnudas' responsibility to publicize that message, and praised them for combating norms that condone the toplessness of men and forbid it for women. And after all, he admitted, everyone's gotta make a dollar.
Golub said, "If we criticize the desnudas for trying to make a buck—look around! Everyone's trying to make money."
Tagged
andy golub
Desnudas
nudity
painted women
Times Square
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Marie Solis
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