Casey Lorne

Author of quality erotica (i.e. smut-peddler) published by HarperCollins. Aloof of the gender binary. Creator of Naked History Lessons. Canadian. Introvert striving to be kind and respectful. Overly fond of orange things. This is a blog with adult content and if you are legally a child, please visit scarleteen.com.

[caseylorne]

Tumblr has decided it no longer wants me to be part of its world. To stay would require I accept service terms that deem female-presenting nipples as obscene and queer art as offensive. I will not be complicit in Verizon’s “full-frontal” attack on women’s bodies, sex workers and the LGBT+ community.

This blog consisted of historic tales related to works of art along with images of diverse people (perhaps naked or partly so) and contemporary photography that emphasized feminist and queer perspectives. Sometimes I tried to offer a clever pun and once came up with a slightly-successful meme about the Pythagorean theorem.

That which seemed innocuous enough a year ago has now been transformed by Verizon into something dangerous. Tumblr originated with a promise to welcome people seeking companionship as they traveled paths previously unexplored. Yes, some of what these adventurers found was not safe for work, but that wasn’t the problem, not really. The ideas they encountered, and the ways they found of expressing those ideas, turned out not to be safe for corporate and socially conservative elements of the American state. That is why they are being suppressed.

I have sought shelter from the storm, taken my pen and gone home. Perhaps someday a refuge will emerge where I can reestablish this blog, but on the whole I am pessimistic. In the meantime, if you wish to find me, I sometimes check email at caseylorne [at] hush [dot] com.

[caseylorne]

Sending this out one more time for the evening crowd.

Just to put facts on the record, here is the list of painters whose paintings (not photographs, as if that should matter), once featured on my blog, have been judged to be unpublishable on Tumblr.

- Henri Matisse

- Priscilla Warren Roberts

- Leo Putz

- Paul Cadmus

- Bartholomeus van der Heist

- John Koch (2)

- Eleanor Davis

- John Singer Sargent

- Otto Mueller

- Betty Dodson

- Archibald John Motley

- Lawton Parker

- Paul Avril

- Ricardo Mannelli

- Lilli Hill

- Joyce Polance (2)

- Margarita Sikorskaia

- Lucien Freud

- Paul Peel

- Aleah Chapin

- Shakespeare Jones

Perhaps some of these works would be spared from the bonfire if submitted to Tumblr for review. I believe the process is known as shoot first, ask questions later.

[caseylorne]

Tumblr has decided it no longer wants me to be part of its world. To stay would require I accept service terms that deem female-presenting nipples as obscene and queer art as offensive. I will not be complicit in Verizon’s “full-frontal” attack on women’s bodies, sex workers and the LGBT+ community.

This blog consisted of historic tales related to works of art along with images of diverse people (perhaps naked or partly so) and contemporary photography that emphasized feminist and queer perspectives. Sometimes I tried to offer a clever pun and once came up with a slightly-successful meme about the Pythagorean theorem.

That which seemed innocuous enough a year ago has now been transformed by Verizon into something dangerous. Tumblr originated with a promise to welcome people seeking companionship as they traveled paths previously unexplored. Yes, some of what these adventurers found was not safe for work, but that wasn’t the problem, not really. The ideas they encountered, and the ways they found of expressing those ideas, turned out not to be safe for corporate and socially conservative elements of the American state. That is why they are being suppressed.

I have sought shelter from the storm, taken my pen and gone home. Perhaps someday a refuge will emerge where I can reestablish this blog, but on the whole I am pessimistic. In the meantime, if you wish to find me, I sometimes check email at caseylorne [at] hush [dot] com.

[caseylorne]

Upside Down #4 by Leah Emery, 2014.

(Embroidery thread on Aida cloth.)

Perhaps not the most comfortable position to receive oral sex, but mainstream pornography skimps on cunnilingus and depictions of women’s pleasure in general, so we should be grateful for what we have, right?

Emery’s needlework reconstructs spam images she received while working as a video game developer.

I sought to utilize this predominantly phallocentric imagery through a medium that had its roots in feminine tradition to juxtapose the confrontational world of sex and smut with the graceful qualities of laborious and beautiful craft work. Topics of a sexual nature are still socially taboo, despite being a necessary component of human existence, particularly thanks to increasing internet censorship of seemingly benign material. To view my work is an invitation to voyeurism as the viewer is confronted with the unsettling experience of publicly looking at imagery that on face value should be consumed privately and secretly.

(Source)

If ever there’s a smutty remake of Bonnie and Clyde, I suspect the aesthetic will match Emery’s 2013 piece, Green Car.

[caseylorne]

Military recruitment parody posters by Masturbate For Peace, 2002.

Though it didn’t enter World War I until 1917, the United States produced more posters in support of mobilization and civilian service than any other country. The government established a Department of Pictorial Publicity with 300 artists who were ordered to “draw until it hurts.”

The backlash fifty years later against the Vietnam War included the co-opting by activists of propaganda posters. They substituted anti-military themes, often featuring the slogan, “Make Love, Not War.”

Joan Baez and her sisters Mimi and Pauline posed for a poster challenging the popular notion that refusing to serve was cowardly or unmanly. Their message, that liberated women would have sex with draft dodgers, perhaps recalls the heroine Lysistrata, who organized a chastity movement among Greek wives to force peace negotiations.

[caseylorne]

Scott from Toronto Men (series) by David Gray, 2006.

What David [displays] in his work are very tastefully mastered, erotic visions of your average, everyday man. There are beards, tattoos, hairy guys, smooth chests, piercings, beautiful long-haired manes--and the black and white photos are fantastic to say the least.

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[caseylorne]

The Morning by Leo Putz, 1909.

[caseylorne]

Nude by Christian Peter, undated.

La photographie n’est pas un métier, c’est une passion, qui vous traite avec plus ou moins de bienveillance, cela sans regard des frais engagés ou du temps passé, c’est injuste aussi bien que salvateur.

Photography is not a profession--it’s a passion that treats you more or less benevolently, but without regard for the expenses incurred or the time spent. It is an injustice yet also a salvation.

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Errors in the nuance of translation are mine.

[caseylorne]

After Henri Matisse by students at the Visual School of Arts, New York, 2015.

Of plagiarism I once wrote, “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Mere copying, in other words, also my words, had no value.

Three years ago, a photography instructor decided to challenge my unique perspective, arguing that within his medium true plagiarism was not possible. An inherent originality, he said, would transform the imitator into a creator.

His students were told to mimic as best they could a famous image containing nudity.

When I was in art school I remember becoming discouraged, believing any worthwhile image had already been made. The goal of this assignment was to teach that even if you try very hard to remake someone else's work, your photographs can only be your own.

I must admit that the ensuing product, prepared by the students, looks nothing like Matisse’s Blue Nude.

[caseylorne]

From Pheromone Hotbox (series) by Amanda Charchian, 2012-2016.

What happens when a woman photographs another woman in the nude? Photographer Amanda Charchian calls it the “Pheromone Hotbox”: an elevated, erotic state of tension that seesaws from sexuality to creativity.

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It's often the moments before photographing someone, their shy gestures, the way they prepare, the way they react to imminent danger or threat of being caught nude in public, that shows me the most about them...

In the case that a woman willingly takes a nude portrait, it becomes a letter to the world; broadcasted message of here-ness. You cannot exploit the empowered.

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The model is Alysha Colangeli posing at White Sands, New Mexico.

[caseylorne]

The Tempest by Aleah Chapin, 2013.

I feel strongly that things should be real. I wanted to show a different way of seeing and to get at something universally human. A woman’s body is a map of her journey through life.

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Photograph of Chapin by Maria Teicher.

[caseylorne]

Reclining Nude by Priscilla Warren Roberts, 1916-2001.

[caseylorne]

(tw: allegations of incest and sexual abuse)

Crouching female nude with bended head by Egon Schiele, 1918.

On June 18th, 1915, three days after his wedding, Schiele was conscripted into the Austrian army. Due to his excellence in handwriting, he spent most of the war working as a clerk in a POW camp. He continued to draw, encouraged by his commanding officer.

Despite avoiding action on the front lines, Schiele did not survive to see the Armistice. His wife, six months pregnant, fell victim to the Spanish Influenza pandemic on Oct. 28th, 1918. Schiele, who had also contracted the disease, capitulated three days later. He was 28.

One hundred years after his death, Schiele is categorized with a group of erotic artists that includes one of his mentors, Gustav Klimt. I’m not sure that’s the right place for Schiele, as although his major works have sexual themes, they are often grotesque.

In 1912, Schiele was arrested for seducing a girl under the age of consent. He was ultimately convicted on a lesser charge of showing pornography to a child. He may also have initiated an incestuous relationship with his sister, Gerti, when she was 12. On at least one occasion, he was forced to move out of town due to suspicions he had molested teenage girls posing for him.

Whereas Klimt unabashedly celebrated eroticism, I think Schiele had a much darker perspective on sexuality. Although there can be beauty in brutality, Schiele’s work is tinged by a sense of repulsion, perhaps self-directed.

The gap of time does not allow for confirmation or rejection of the rumours surrounding Schiele, The art he left behind, however, has a distorted and delinquent quality (for example, the portrayal of the genitals of the redheaded model, above) which--and mine is a minority opinion--isn’t so sexy.

[caseylorne]

Male and female nudes by Paul Cadmus, 1904-1999.

I remember the only sexual advice my mother ever gave me. She said, "Don't ever accept a ride if anybody offers you a ride because they'll take you home and strap you to a bed and abuse you."...I thought it sounded rather interesting, I guess.

(Source)

[caseylorne]

This may or may not be a picture of my butt.

As for the ruby slippers, I clicked the heels three times and they took me to Roatan, affectionately known as the Kansas of Honduras.

Like Kansas, Roatan is an island in the Caribbean Sea, about 70 km long but only 7 km at its widest point. The land is an outgrowth of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef and the waters which surround it contain rare species of turtles, mollusks and fish--along with world’s largest population of manatees.

Anyway, back to the bum, which, as I noted earlier, is not necessarily mine. It was on display last week with about a dozen others at the Paya Bay Resort, a large property toward the eastern end of Roatan. Despite the long coastline and an extensive network of rain forest trails, only a smattering of people visit at a time, as lodging facilities are limited to about 15 small bungalows. (Some units were vacant during my stay.) For people who prefer to wear swimming outfits, there’s a (suit)able beach, but the rest of Paya Bay encourages or requires naturism.

So that’s the update, the reason for my Tumblr lapse: I officially took out a card-carrying membership in the sorority of fraternal nudists (which, frankly, can be a bit aggravating when you don’t have any pockets).

Evangelical naturism, I think, backfires when it tries to persuade people they must undress to find some sort of mystical joy. That wasn’t my experience. Forsaking clothes while on vacation was not such a big deal. It helped me connect to the luscious environment but, unlike yogic flying, I knew I wasn’t changing the world.

Well, maybe there was a small sense of liberation in letting go of the fear of being seen as imperfect. Sometimes achieving peace can be as easy as deciding to stop fighting.

Whether I was napping under the sun or swimming in sea, nakedness allowed me to feel completely immersed in nature. So, yes, I would do it again--and seek out opportunities, not just wait for them.

[caseylorne]

Anna du Pire as Granida (with detail) by Bartholomeus van der Heist, 1660.

In Holland during the 17th century, the fashion among the nobility was to be painted as characters from pastoral plays.

Grandia is the heroine of a platonic love story named for her and rewritten for the stage by Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft in 1605. A princess from Persia, she is rescued by a kindly shepherd after she loses her way during a hunt.

The excuse that the model was not herself but instead the embodiment of a literary fiction allowed for costumes that were otherwise too racy in a society shaped by puritan influences.

The exposed nipple may still have been intolerable for some viewers but van der Heist had another advantage to help sway public opinion: Anna du Pire’s husband approved of the picture. Indeed, he had painted it.

[caseylorne]

From Happy in my Skin (series) by Leah Crossley (in collaboration with Hazel Anderson), 2014.

The series taglines are:

An all female naked dip in the ocean.

A collection of inspiring and empowering images of women.

An opportunity to be part of something special.

We are building a collection of Images that will exist online and as part of a touring exhibition. The images readdress the balance, to inspire and empower. We want to create beautiful images of real women feeling free and fully expressed in all their glorious forms.

- Crossley and Anderson

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[caseylorne]

The misogyny that shapes every aspect of our civilization is the institutionalized form of male fear and hatred of what they have denied and therefore cannot know, cannot share: that wild country, the being of women.

- Ursula Le Guin, 1929-2018

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(Photograph by Justine Kurland)