Mitcz.com : Official blog of Rev. Mitcz, the demented devilish comedian from Hollywood, CA.

A few weeks ago, while perusing one of my favorite artistic blogs, I came across a poignant series of paragraphs that summed up feelings I’ve long had and I just had to share. While I’ve wanted to say something similar to this myself, I sincerely doubt I’d be able to put it quite as eloquently and trying to do so would just be a cheap rip-off. Like painting white plastic and saying “look! an iPod!”.

The following quoted piece comes from The Daily Siege on Nerve, written by photographer Clayton James Cubitt.

OK, here’s the deal, ladies. At the risk of creeping you all the fuck out, I’m going to explain something to you so in case we ever meet you can understand why I may seem distracted. It’s not because you’re boring (you? never), and it’s not because I’d rather be somewhere else (I long only to be in your orbit), and it’s not because you’re not unique (surely not you, my little snowflake.)

It’s because I have a serious condition. I have a driving biological need to see you naked.

It’s not a sexual need. It’s not even an artistic need. This need serves no useful purpose, other than to drive me mad. When I meet you I will be forced to furtively examine your exposed parts in order to infer what your maddeningly covered parts might possibly look like, underneath all that obstruction. I will look at the curve of your lips, the shape of your eyes, the coloring of your eyelids, and a dozen other parameters, and my puny brain will begin its pattern recognition, drawing on its (vast) stored database of previously peeped nudity, hoping to decipher what your bits might look like.

What’s the shape of your breast? Is your cleavage genuine, or are you heroicly augmented? What color nipples do you have? Are they puffy? Pencil-erasers? What’s the breast-to-nipple ratio, and in turn, the nipple-to-areola relationship? Surely these questions are just as important as what color eyes you have, so why should I be denied?

Do you have an innie or an outtie? Is your butt a bubble, flat, or athletic? Do you wax your pubes bald, just trim, or grow wild, and what color is it? Is it curly or wavy? Christ, I’m not even going to to start on the labial options.

I’ve done this for as long as I can remember, certainly since I was in grade school. I do it with women of all shapes and sizes, all ages and ethnicities.

I can withstand the curiosity at first, but the longer I know you, the more distracting this becomes when left unrequited. We can’t even talk about being friends if I haven’t at least seen you topless. My mind just won’t be quiet enough to handle the workload of conversation if it’s constantly trying to figure out what’s going on under your blouse, so just show me, let’s get this over with so we can go see a movie, OK? It’s not that I want to pass judgment in any way, I just want to see, accept, and move forward.

In reading that, I can remember many a conversation I’ve had with a friend of mine, Jim, about just such a thing. He’s an amateur photographer himself, so we’ve often waxed intellectual about the prospects of seeing certain people in the nude. To some, it may come off as borderline-perverted. But it really isn’t. Sure, there’s a sexual excitement to it, I cannot deny that. But there’s also just that human curiosity factor. As humans, we are the only species that covers our natural form, so it only makes sense that one might wonder from time to time “whatcha got under there?”.

Funny enough, in the comment section of the blog that was pulled from (you may need to have a Nerve.com account to read it – but it’s free, don’t worry), there was one person who took offense to the posting and stated..

I agree that he is objectifying, but whats more he claims its his primary mode of interacting since childhood! In general his photos are best enjoyed without reading his words where he cums off as an insecure phony.

It’s funny, much in the way that white people are the most offended by racial humor, that this quote was from a man taking offense at the supposed “objectification”. I call bullshit. Objectifying would be saying “look, all I care about is your ass and titties – show ‘em off and get on your way”. That isn’t in the very least what is going on here. Cubitt is hoping to delve into an intellectually-stimulating friendship with these girls, and in reading his other blogs you’ll see that he treats women as much more than just mere objects. He’ll post photos he’s taken and give a long-running background on how the girl was reacting, how she talked, what she said, little insights into her psyche. It is these tiny little details that give the photos posted on the blog another dimension, more substance. It takes the women out of just being a figure in a photo and puts her into the realm of realism. I think that’s the polar opposite of objectification – and believe me, I know, I’ve worked in porn for 5 years.

I feel fortunate in that I’ve seen most of my female friends in the nude, or at least topless, at one point or another during our friendship. Some of them are ex-lovers, some are former “flings” that I’ve later developed a purely platonic relationship with, some are nude models, some are pornstars, some are strippers, and at least a few others have just been kind enough to show me their breasts, et al. for no particular reason (except maybe to brighten my day).

Like Cubitt, my curiosity and subsequent quelling of said curiosity comes without judgment. I don’t say “well, thanks for showing me honey but you could really use a tuck” or “how ’bout a boob-job, eh?”. It’s not my place to judge. The human body is as it is presented – not as one or another person would ideally like it to be. It’s upsetting that some men and women aren’t particularly proud of their bodies – and I wouldn’t begrudge them surgical enhancement (or, preferably old-fashioned exercise) if it truly made them feel more comfortable in their own skin. I also think a little self-loathing is good for the spirit, as it keeps us grounded and modest. I certainly don’t walk around pretending I’m “all that” and I’d hardly consider my body any kind of ideal image, but I’m also too lazy most times to do much about it (something I’m hoping to remedy when tapping into my geek-lovin’ ways as described in an earlier post).

To put it simply, this is kinda how I see the world : http://www.incident.net/works/miseanu/nues.html (mouse over the people)

As I’ve mentioned back when I was doing Aural Salvation, I have a private little archive hidden in the deep rubble of one of my drives that holds several 100 pictures of women who have been goodly enough to share with me their undressed form. It’s my own little paradise. A veritable treasure trove of beauty, untainted by advertising, corporations, catchy adult-oriented programming, or greedy motives. It’s simply women who have, for one reason or another, said to themselves “I’d like Mitcz to see what’s under these clothes” and have decided to show me. That’s deeply personal, in the way that I can’t get from looking at pornsites – and it’s why porn in general does very little for me. It’s just not personalized. There’s no “me” in there. These images (and even a few videos) have never left my drives. They’re never shared with friends. They’re never posted online (unless they’ve got my name written on part of their nude form – and the female in question specifically asks to be added to the public archive on RevMitcz.com), and I certainly don’t hit them up all the time to beg for more, more, more. It’s just not my way. I take them as gifts, and thank them kindly. Often times, these are people whom I’ve talked to online (or off) for quite some time and while my intentions in talking to them were not prurient – it’s nice to have shared that moment with near-strangers.

So what was the point of all this rambling? I guess I just wanted to share my feelings on the matter, and maybe elicit commentary from readers about their feelings on these issues. Men and women, really. I think if we shared more of ourselves from time to time, we’d take a higher appreciation of what we’ve got to work with, and maybe the world would be a happier place. I can understand people’s cold feet about sharing said imagery with strangers, especially in this “things come back to haunt you” world – and it’s why I don’t run around sending pics of The Marzoni to random passers-by or anything. Though, in person, I’m quite a bit more lenient when properly motivated.

Still.. it’s food for thought.
And you probably just thought about me nude.
Don’t worry, I’ve probably pictured you nude, too. We’re all in this together.

(oh, and if you’re feeling adventurous – me@revmitcz.com is my e-mail addy)

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