Feature.

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@ Photo by Adrian Lam / Times Colonist

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The Human Body Project opens minds and hearts

By Jacey Gibb

dmittedly, my Friday
afternoons usually
don’t contain an

incredible amount of nudity.

If | have nowhere to be and

my roommate isn’t around, I
might seize the opportunity to
become a temporary nudist and
frolic around the apartment,
but those liberating moments
are a rarity. Some people feel
strongly about the right to be
naked, though there seems

to be a mix of motivations:
freedom of expression, hatred
for 100 per cent cotton confines.
But it wasn’t until I attended
The Human Body Project

at a journalism convention

in Victoria last month that I
understood the true power that
going au naturale has.

I found myself in a room
with about 40 people, almost
every seat filled. I asked
the girl next to me what the
seminar was about and she just
shrugged, stating “All I know
is someone’s getting naked.”

little bit about herself. She has
a master’s in Education; she’s
currently teaching in Victoria;
she has two kids. Finally, a girl
in the back who was clearly
uncomfortable inquired, “So...
why are you naked?”

It was a question clearly
still on everyone’s mind, but
Diamant avoided giving a direct
answer. It took her two years
before she was comfortable
enough to do what she does
now. While she continued
regaling the room with stories of
Human Body Projects past, cue
cards made their way around
the room. Some were blank;
some had inspirational quotes
from people like Gandhi; others
simply had a positive message
like “You look good today.”

After a while, a girl sitting
in the front seemed to have an
intellectual breakthrough. She
began to share with everyone
how she used to be an actress,
but that she fad to get out of
the industry because of the
way they objectify women. She
wondered aloud where women

“The room felt like the Fort Knox of humanity.’

I must’ve read the seminar’s
description at least twice, but
its true agenda still evaded me.
Even the delegate introducing
the speaker, Tasha Diamant,
had trouble explaining what

it was we were in for. Terms
like “performance art” were
thrown around without much
meaning. Then, without future
interruption, Diamant removed
her coat, revealing that she was
naked underneath.

Everyone went silent, as if
an instructor had just handed
out a final exam. Nervous,
confused glances darted around
the room and shared brief stints
of eye contact, all with the same
“oh my god” stare. Diamant
then began to walk up and
down the middle aisle, making
sure no part of her body was left
to the audience’s imagination.
She informed us that she
doesn’t have a script that she
goes off of and that she never
plans the sessions out, save
for a PowerPoint presentation
that wasn’t cooperating at the
moment.

As if going full frontal in
front of a room of strangers
wasn’t revealing enough,
Diamant began to tell us a

like her mother fit in, in a world
that’s so beauty-orientated—
despite motherhood being a
huge component of being a
woman. Diamant listened with
a quiet contentment and the
girl ended her speech by telling
Diamant that she was beautiful.
At that moment, the room
started to shift.

Another girl began to
talk about how when she was
studying in Barcelona, there was
a topless beach by her school.
It took several visits before
she was able to join the naked
masses, but once she did, she
noticed that all the local men
who would previously whistle
and call after her suddenly
stopped, to the point where she
was almost offended. When she
was on the beach, guys never
broke eye contact or let their
gaze gander south, despite her
chest being completely exposed.
Her story led into a discussion
about how nudity is viewed in
our society and how it doesn’t
have to be such a taboo subject.

By this point, the once
awkward room full of strangers
began to emerge from the safety
of their respective silences. A
verbal melee began to emerge,