Friday, February 23, 2007
The images in the Kansas Anarchists Exposed 2007 calendar are beautiful, ugly, fat, skinny, political, pale, provocative, revealing and real.
The calendar, which has been produced in part by the Solidarity! Revolutionary Center and Radical Library, is a collaboration of skin and speaking out.
Most of the models are totally nude or are at least baring some forbidden flesh. Some of the pictured models are involved with anti-war movements, women’s health groups or radical politics.
They are photographed wherever and in whatever poses they feel comfortable.
Vanessa Hays, a 2005 graduate and one of the organizers of the calendar, said the calendar started four years ago for fundraising and as a response to the Women of KU calendar. She said the anarchists calendar celebrates natural outward appearances.
“It has all body types, races and genders,” she said. “We wanted to make something more representative of what people actually look like.”
Hays said the calendar is not for or about sexuality and it’s actually meant to desexualize the human form.
“We recognize that sex does sell, but we wanted to work within that context,” Hays said.
The anarchists’ calendars show real people, not airbrushed photos of supposed ideal bodies like in the Women of KU calendar, Hays said. She said the Women of KU calendar doesn’t represent people in the flesh.
Kelly Pierce, manager of the Women of KU Calendar, said the 13 featured models in this year’s Women of KU calendar, now in its eighth year, were selected based on academics, activity involvement and outward appearance.
“Our motto is we want them to be both inwardly and outwardly beautiful,” she said.
She said the models were shown the poses selected for the calendar before the calendar was produced.
“We want them to be completely comfortable in the swimsuits they model,” Pierce said.
The 13 models were also chosen out of a pool of more than 200 applicants because of the diversity of their majors, races and body types.
“Our goal and our intention is to portray coeds from the University of Kansas in a beautiful and classy way,” Pierce said.
One Women of KU model, Bryn Maughmer, Garden City senior, said her calendar has a quality to uphold.
“We’re all celebrating our youth, our beauty, our intelligence, and we’re doing something we’ll never be able to do again,” she said.
Featured in three different calendars, Maughmer now assists in the interview process for selecting models. She said after application photos are seen, women are called for interviews to learn more about the candidates’ inner beauty.
Maughmer said the anarchists can’t be selected for the Women of KU calendar if they don’t apply, and therefore the anarchists’ complaints are not justified.
“I think it’s great what they’re doing and I’m sure they’re proud of their photos and it’s too bad they’re not supportive of us,” Maughmer said.
The money raised from the calendars, which cost $8, help raise funds for community groups and radical organizations including the Solidarity! center. The 2007 calendars cost slightly more than $500 to produce 300 copies, which were printed in Denver by a friend of the Solidarity! center.
The calendars are available at the Solidarity! center, 1109 Massachusetts St.
Kansan staff writer Tyler Harbert can be contacted at tharbert@kansan.com.
— Edited by Will McCullough
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