I sat down with Aimee Le ’12, nude model extraordinaire, to discuss the politics of nakedness, the difficulty of holding poses and the possibility of starting a naked crusade on campus.
Did you have any prior experience nude modeling before you came to Dartmouth?
Yeah, I actually modeled in my high school. We couldn’t get completely nude because it was a high school so that was not allowed—you’d wear a form-fitting garment. So I was pretty familiar with it, plus I had worked with models before—I went to this summer program at the Rhode Island School of Design because I was originally thinking about going to art school. I’ve always been really fascinated by models. I found the job on JobNet actually because I’m on financial aid so I was trying to find a work-study job. I sent a bunch of emails and at first everybody was like, “Nah, we’re full”, so I kept sending emails and then finally there was an opening. I’ve done this since freshman fall actually.
Were you initially nervous about modeling?
I was nervous about it the first time partially just because I wasn’t sure what the models thought, because they’re standing there for like two hours. So I had no idea. What do you think about? What do you do? Where do you look? How do you figure out what the next pose is? It seemed like the models I had worked with previously would keep the time in their heads. So I actually had to start figuring that stuff out for myself. That was the hardest part, trying to figure that out. Plus obviously questions like, “Am I going to get cold?” [and] stuff like that.
Is it difficult to hold poses?
It’s really, really hard. It’s hard to know whether you’re going to be able to hold something immediately—you’re not going to know after the first few seconds, and you’re not going to know after the first five minutes, you’re pretty much going to start to know five minutes before you’re supposed to [come out of the pose], and then you’re just going to be like, “[O]h no, I really want to break out of this pose.” Sadly, I like to count or sing a song in my head. Sometimes if I’m really having trouble holding a pose I’ll let my eyes move as a substitute for letting my body move, because usually I’ll fix my eyes in one spot so I don’t move my head. I’ll try to move as little as I can, but I’ll try to move things that aren’t a big issue for the pose, so, I’ll compromise. Sometimes it’s really, really painful and I have to break the pose. One time I actually stepped off a platform because I was getting really dizzy. And that can be a really vulnerable moment. [Nudity] is not a problem when you’re doing your job but suddenly if you fall over—which I did once, I fell off a platform—it’s like, you’re naked, and now people don’t necessarily feel as comfortably helping you. They can’t come over and be like, “Hey, you’re dizzy, can I bring you some water, can I lift you up?” because they don’t feel comfortable touching you.
How does the art department at Dartmouth differ from the Rhode Island School of Design in terms of nude models?
I think in terms some of the practices I’ve seen within the department, I guess it is kind of—I wouldn’t say puritanical—but more conservative. In Rhode Island, we would work with multiple models but I think that’s a price issue.
Do you think Dartmouth kids have a more conservative attitude towards nakedness?
In terms of nudity on campus, I think the attitude among the student body is that nakedness is a joke. There are people flashing and streaking, and I feel like [nakedness] used as a joke underscores the fact that it’s taboo. Because I do lingerie at Tabard and stuff, I feel like the consensus around campus isn’t “Don’t be naked” but “Only be naked if you have the perfect body”. And that’s not what people impose on each other—I feel it’s what people are imposing on themselves. I’ve heard so many people be like, “Will the modeling department take me, I don’t know if I’m that attractive?” But actually, the art department wants people whose bodies are interesting to draw, and so that means sometimes having people that have a ton of wrinkles or a lot of body hair, or something that wouldn’t be considered conventionally attractive. You can sit anyone down and say, “Draw the ideal of beauty” and people don’t need a visual reference anymore, they can just actually draw it. But when you sit them down and say, “draw a ninety-year-old woman naked who’s given birth four times”, they have no idea. That’s part of the reason why I think the art department strives for a range of bodies in terms of every demographic: young, old, fat, skinny, etc. That’s what you’re trying to break the students out of— that ideal. But I feel like people on this campus think, “If I don’t look a certain way, maybe I shouldn’t take my clothes off.”
Do you think this attitude toward nudity is unique to Dartmouth or rather something widespread across our generation?
I think it’s a larger issue as a whole, but I mean, I feel like at Dartmouth there’s more pressure because you’re among people your own age. Sometimes people skimp on expressing themselves in high school because they feel when they get to college they will become the people they’ve always wanted to be. But people are so concerned with status. It becomes this big thing that fucks them up.
Do you have any advice to someone who has never modeled before but is interested?
I would say don’t do it because you’re interested in being naked in front of other people, because there are so many opportunities to be naked with other people that don’t require a having a job. If you want to express yourself and show off your body, do it immediately. Don’t wait for someone to hire you in the art department. Part of the issue is that there is this taboo against nudity—people are trying to find a way to sanction it. “I just want to get naked” is not an acceptable reason.
As a model, I’m just as comfortable working in clothes—a lot of the poses I take aren’t “Tyra-Banks-smiling-with-your-eyes” poses. I’ll be down on all fours or something because the point is to show people something that they don’t see, something that they don’t have access to. Also, being persistent is the biggest thing because I was really persistent, but if you want to be a model because you want to start learning your own body, you could set it up yourself. Be in lingerie. I guess you probably can’t be naked all the time because there’s public nudity shit, but there’s always people running around basements naked. Be that person [and] join them. Have a big naked crusade.
