The areola of a female breast has long been considered taboo but ladies, did you know it’s not a crime to walk around the streets of New York City topless?
Well one Australian model did and she took full advantage of the law when she swanned around the streets of NYC sans shirt to be the subject of a risqué art project.
Abby Valdes, a self-described “nudist” and “pioneer of plus-size modelling”, spoke exclusively to The Weekly about the eye-catching semi-naked shoot and it’s curious setting in New York’s bustling Chinatown district.
“People around the streets were, as you could expect, screeching to a halt in their cars and saying ‘Is she naked?'” says Abby from her apartment in Brooklyn.
Of course the busy backdrop meant the glares and stares from rubbernecking residents at the models uncovered girl curves were totally understandable but when asked if anyone seemed overtly offended by her display of womanhood the model says “not a single one”.
The portraits, snapped by New York based photographer JD Forte, depict the size 14 model in various states of undress from topless to fully nude.
The former Melbournian says the project is intended to be a comment on gender inequality which Valdes says is still rampant in New York City – even though it is commonly considered the epicentre of modern civilization.
“A man can walk down the street with his chest seen and you wouldn’t blink an eye and say to your friends ‘Well that’s sacred and he should cover up his chest for his partner’. You don’t say that,” she says emphatically.
“Women have been objectified and banned, shamed or made to feel like its taboo to show themselves because we are an item to be sexually desired and nothing more.”
Passionate about her right to bare her bod in the same manner as any man, Valdes says she wanted create something that would challenge the idea that a woman’s body has been sexualised to the point of perversion.
“Men of course have been objectified in their own way but they are still allowed to present themselves. Even if you watch movies or magazines, you can’t show a woman’s breast, even Instagram will delete your photos for showing nipples, no matter how tasteful.”
Abby Valdes takes advantage of her right to roam topless in New York. PHOTO: Abby Valdes/JD Forte.
Abby Valdes takes advantage of her right to roam topless in New York. PHOTO: Abby Valdes/JD Forte.
Abby Valdes takes advantage of her right to roam topless in New York. PHOTO: Abby Valdes/JD Forte.
As the creative director of the project, the international model says it was while she was working in Europe that she began to be inspired to do a shoot that addressed western society’s concept of women.
“In Europe you’ll see a whole family of women naked. So you’ll see a little girl and her mother, her grandmother and once I saw one family with an older lady, which I assumed was a great grandmother, and they were all naked happily.”
According to Abby, the relaxed European display staged in the heart of New York City was not about size or shape or any exhibitionist motivation.
“The older ladies were quite large, they were all big ladies you know, all the different body types, and I was just touched because they were just having a normal day at the beach. No one was looking at them. Nobody was making a fuss. No one trying to get off on it. It was normal and beautiful… what’s wrong with that you know?”
When the notion of nudity and child safety is brought up the mother-of-one suggests that it’s forcing people to covering up that perpetuates a negative cycle.
“There are perverts and paedophiles out there but at the end of the day when you oppress or repress any emotions that are natural, even sexual curiosity, you create perversion,” she says.
“You are literally creating a perverse society. If we were just more cavalier about it, it wouldn’t be such a big deal.”
Abby knows the pictures, nipples and all, are going to be out there for the world to see but the unabashedly confident model, who describes her current state of dress as “absolutely freaking starkers”, says she doesn’t care and admits in the same breath that she’d live her entire life in the nuddy if she could.
“I am literally, by philosophy, by belief, a nudist, I was raised that way,” she says.
The model, who is in her 30s, says her liberal sentiments aren’t meant to offend anyone but she’s happy to start a dialogue.
“I love this conversation, I love to sit there and share with people and even religious people I’m like ‘Jesus was born naked!'”
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