Embracing Your Body: Trying Out Nude Modelling

As you age, you will tend to feel more aware of your ageing body compared to when you were younger. You might experience anxiety in accepting your body’s physique and imperfections through hair loss, balding, and wrinkling, etc.Maintaining a positive body image is crucial as a part of your personal life.  How we perceive ourselves affects our emotional and personal growth as a person.

Modelling can be seen as an activity reserved for the magazine-worthy bodies of ridiculously slim waistlines and an almost perfect skin complexion. Many people are advocating to counteract the Instagram culture of slender and toned bodies to use modelling as an avenue for the imperfections of people to be embraced, whatever body type they have.

Body perception and the media

There’s an unnerving spike in the attention received by plastic surgery, especially to minors. Bodily ‘imperfections’ are often looked at as impurities that have to be surgically corrected for individuals to feel better about themselves. Having that narrow nose bridge, higher cheekbones or a thicker set of lips. This generation’s fascination with cosmetic surgery as a solution towards self-acceptance and self-esteem seems to be rootedin the idea of being attractive just like models in magazines are.

Teens and even adults who are unaware of the unrealistic beauty standards imposed by magazine covers are heavily photoshopped and are a stark contrast to the real models, which leads to a movement of body positivity encouraged by this generation to counteract the culture of normalising plastic surgery.

Rising against the stigma

When it comes to body positivity, the modelling industry has also taken an interest in giving the opposite side of the spectrum representation. Plus size models are commended for keeping their body as it is, away from the traditional notions of modelling sizes.

Artists have gone through a different route by endorsing life drawing classes. Nude modelling is nothing new for artists, but the effect that it could bring to the models is an experience that can be developed to help promote body positivity. Studies show that seeking out a nude modelling agency that’s willing to take you up on your first step to embracing your body could do wonders for your self-esteem and perception of your self.

A research study in Anglia Ruskin University revealed that participants, over 138 men and women, who engaged in being models in life drawing classes found themselves more approving of their physical appearance by over 25 per cent.

The verdict

Modern industries are quick to go against the old traditions by highlighting less the idealised body images endorsed in advertisements and going branching out to a more wholesome and realistic interpretation of their brands and service. The studies show that the contrast in the media representation of bodies by providing a safe space where one’s physique can be enjoyed and expressed in a personal environment compared to the media’s consumer-centric vision of selling ‘idealised’ bodies is beneficial to alleviate the toxic stigma of cosmetic surgery.