PAPEN UP ALL OVER

I have mentioned on several occasions that I am drawn to people who are sexually and sensually open. People who are comfortable in their own skin and enjoy the pleasures of the bodies we have been given.

If you're not familiar with the name Marisa Papen, allow me to make introductions. Ms. Papen is a Belgian model who, to put it mildly, is an uninhibited provocateur of the highest caliber.

Her personal website goes more into the whys and wherefores, but - having never met her - my impression is of a woman who doesn't suffer fools, and is willing to go to extremes to make sociological and political points.

Not simply content to protest the social restrictions and institutional hypocrisies of largely immovable monoliths like the government of Turkey or the Catholic Church, Ms Papen (and her partner photographers) uses her own sensuality and nudity to make important statements on social issues.

Being a beautiful woman with - let's face it - a rockin' body doesn't hurt, and yet she doesn't take the easy way out. She's done a lot of the more traditional nude posing, for images which can only be described as artistic and erotic, possessing an almost innocent charm yet completely uninhibited.

But in her more provocative images she quite literally puts herself out there to shock and provoke, while at the same time effectively challenging those social institutions who try to restrict the rights and lives of their citizens/followers.

Ms. Papen's dedication has landed her in jail literally hundreds of times over the years, but, as this essay demonstrates, she's invigorated by it all and has no intention of slowing down. She's not merely a model who poses nude, she's a participant in the image's narrative and often a driver of social change.

In her own words:

It's my goal to take you with me to my own world, the 'Island' as I'm labeling it.
It is a place where people are part of Nature itself,
Where they shouldn't be afraid to express who they really are,
Where they stay true to their own instinct,
Where you can be authentic pure, and uncorrupted by society.

Basically a naked form of freedom where masks are torn off and thrown in the ocean.

And it's people like her who make this world a little bit better, a little bit brighter...and certainly a lot more enjoyable.