This entry exists, because I wanted to know where a picture came from. It’s not a super sexy titillating picture. But, it is an artsy, naked picture.
The Nature of the Lonely, 2011. Click-through to flickr.
It turned out to be a self-portrait of Alex Stoddard over on flickr.
It can be sort of near-impossible to track some of these photos down. The flickr account was buried several pages back on google. Then I checked out the profile, which said he was 17, but I didn’t know if he was 17 now or two years ago when he opened the account. So, I go looking for the facebook. I do my homework. Or, at least, I try.
The man/boy on the log in this photo is 17 and 2 months. It was taken last February, in his backyard, and he took the photo himself. He’s got pictures of his mom up on the account. No illegal types of nudity. His patron on the FlickrPro account is 25, female, and unrelated.
Then I am all, “What do you do with a picture like that?” There’s less flesh showing there than in a lot of fashion photography, and the kid took it himself, so I’m posting it. They’re beautiful photos. He’s talented. I pretty sure it’s okay. It’s okay on it’s own. Maybe it’s weird for me to be putting on this site. Does the context matter?
Does this kid know where his pictures are going?
Same with this one.
Morning Routine, 2011
And, this one.
The People's Ascent, 2011. Those are all him.
There are a lot of kids out there, like this one, putting these self-portraits that skirt the line out on the internet. Not all of them are as talented as Stoddard. Sometimes it’s just high schoolers in their underwear on tumblr.
Occasionally, someone posts a picture that makes me flinch. And, then I have to wonder if I am fliching because I think it’s harmful and wrong, whatever it is I’m looking at, or if I am just worried that it’s illegal to have transferred over the wires? That I don’t want to get in trouble. That I don’t want to be contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Every so often, the personal squick happens, because I can’t tell. I can’t tell if I’m looking at someone that’s 16 or 22. And, if it’s 22, it’s hot, in a remote way that doesn’t have much to do with my being-a-real-lumpy-wrinkling-grown-up reality. James Deen is too young for me to lust after. He’s 25. With 16? I get all maternal. Oh, honey, put some clothes on, and I’ll get you a sandwich and milk.
I don’t really want my hot mixed with my maternal.
This is a conversation that is somewhat more interesting when it’s boys, if only because it’s less common. I remember my thirty someodd year old friends reactions to Taylor Lautner’s debut. Some of them were really shocked they thought he was hot. They were conflicted. Same thing happened with promotional stills of the kid who plays Harry Potter doing Equus.
Here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson.
There are so many sources out there that sexualize teen-aged girls. Back when the Twilight movie memes were generating a lot of traffic, random internet men kept commenting on how disgusting and wrong it was that middle aged women were lusting for a 17 year old werewolf–that they’d get called out for it. But they wouldn’t. That is bullshit. Barely Legal magazine has been around since 1974.
He’s 18 in this one. But, it’s just not substantially different, right?
Stillborn, 2012
