While this editorial is a departure from the usual. I include it as it is relevant to our work as well as the work of many artists in Canada.
Oleanna and I share many European values. Among them are a love for family values, an open mind about individual freedom of expression, a passion for the arts and a belief that the world would be a better place if we opened our minds to new ideas.
Recently there has been a flurry of media activity in the press about our recent efforts to put Oleanna on a postage stamp. Much of what has been reported in the press has been distorted. One report even said that we were intending to sue the government over this issue, which is completely false. We are not interested in creating problems for people, we just think Canadians need to lighten up a little! :-)
Here is the real story:
Seven years ago, I found myself in the Ukraine on business. At this time my focus was only at the tasks at hand and any extraneous activities were far from my mind. But Laura, the elderly woman who was acting as my translator at this time, had other ideas. She knew a young woman who, she claimed, would be perfect for me. I had no interest in meeting any foreign girls, having heard many stories about the problems this could create. But Laura was relentless, and under her constant pressure, I finally relented to meet her young friend. Unbeknownst to me, this young woman was equally reluctant to meet me and was likewise being pressured by her sister, Lusya who was also a friend of Laura. To this day I have no idea why they were so persistent or why they both conspired to get Oleanna and I together, but I am forever grateful to them because of it.
Oleanna and I fell immediately in love, much to our mutual astonishment. After a few years of dating, we decided to get married and filed for her fiancé visa to come to Canada. We were married a little over three years ago on March 1, 2003 and every day has been our fondest dream. We are truly inseparable.
Now that Oleanna has been in Canada for more than three years, she has become illegible for Canadian citizenship. She is very proud and happy to be here. When I discovered www.picturepostage.ca, I was struck with inspiration. What better way to celebrate her new status as a Canadian than to have her portrait on a Canadian stamp?
Oleanna is my muse. It is through her encouragement, belief and support that I embarked on an ambitious photography career. For many of our portfolio images, Oleanna was my model. She is also trained as a hairstylist and makeup artist. It seemed fitting to me that one of our images of her adorn this stamp.
Many of our images are artistic nudes. One in particular was the favorite of her family back in the Ukraine. This image, while nude, was very artistic, tasteful and not at all explicit. A large print of this image hangs in the living rooms of both her mother and sister’s home. I sent it in, hoping that it would be accepted, but was not surprised when a letter arrived a couple weeks later informing me that the image was “inappropriate for a postage stamp”.
Slightly disappointed, but not overly surprised, I sent in another. This one, while also nude, had Oleanna’s hand covering her breast and so I hoped that this would be enough to comply with the Picture Postage requirements. Another two weeks and another identical letter informed me that it was not.
Seeking guidance on what would or would not be acceptable, I contacted Stéphanie Roux, the Department Coordinator and Designer for Picture Postage. She explained that while the previous images were very artistic and tasteful, they could not publish a nude on a postage stamp. Could I please submit one where she was wearing clothes?
I selected one of Oleanna wearing jeans with her arms completely covering her chest. Sorry, Ms. Roux informed me, also unacceptable. Determined to create this gift for Oleanna and her family, we created a special Canadian flag motif costume, one where it could not be disputed that Oleanna was clothed and covered, and sent the image off for approval. This was also rejected but this time Ms. Roux wrote “Either one of the links below gives reasons why we would not approve (dignity of flag...). We’d want to see a ruling by Department of Heritage that, in this case, the flag is deemed to be displayed “in a manner befitting this important national symbol”.
http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/cpsc-ccsp/sc-cs/commuse_e.cfm
http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/cpsc-ccsp/etiquette/2_e.cfm
Not wishing to in any way insult the dignity of the flag, we once more set about to create a new image, this time using only generic maple leafs. The response was curt. Ms. Roux simply wrote “Unfortunately this image has been rejected. The image is not appropriate for a Canadian Stamp.”
Oleanna was crushed. Despite our every attempt to appease Picture Postage, she was being told that her image was unfit to be seen on a postage stamp. For her, this treatment only reinforced the treatment that many Canadians have given her since she arrived in Canada. Her feminine dress and European attitudes were not welcome here.
We contacted the media with our story and soon headlines appeared similar to “Man puzzled why topless image of wife rejected by Canada Post”. For every retelling of the story, it became more distorted and lewd in the suggestions.
What most members of the media seem to have missed is that the stamps being offered through Picture Postage are only valid for domestic postage. They could not be used to send a letter to the Ukraine. They seem to have missed the part where I told them that we would be buying some of the “keepsake” packages featuring a large image and several small stamps, which would be sent as a gift to Oleanna’s family. No one would even have seen the stamps unless they opened the package.
Sara Kennedy from the Calgary Sun reported that Oleanna was “topless with maple leafs covering her breasts”. Immediately the news nets grabbed onto the word “topless” and played it up. Oleanna was no more topless than anyone wearing a bathing suit on the beach at family vacation. Saying that she was “topless” was like me saying that the journalist who interviewed us was topless except for a shirt covering her chest.
One radio talk show host from the east coast, upon hearing that I wished to put a “topless” image of my wife on a postage stamp, said to me during a live radio interview “Wow, it would be really great to lick your wife!”
This story has only reinforced our beliefs that Canada is far behind most European countries in terms of artistic culture and morality. Our art work has been celebrated in many foreign countries where we have had our work displayed. They have told us that our figurative work “will be of significant historical value”.
I suspect, however, that the issue of what is naked, offensive or acceptable is an irresolute one as there are no empirical measures by which the discussion can be based. Our views on morality that govern our views on what is pornographic or morally acceptable are governed by our culture, our religious beliefs and our personal experiences during our childhood. Each view is as valid as the next and is entirely a personal perspective.
This discussion has arisen many times in the past. There are many cultures where a woman is required to be covered from head to toe, lest the appearance of more would instill an unholy lust in those hapless men who were unfortunate enough to catch a glimpse of a wayward leg or arm. In contrast, many European cultures, of which we are more familiar with, have far more open societies where nudity is commonplace and those that view it are not driven to trauma or excessive lust due to the fact that it has become a normal part of the culture and so is not forbidden fruit.
Someone once said that if society dictated that all women must wear earmuffs in public, and all men must wear gloves, that men would have an insatiable desire to place their fingers in women’s ears.
Go to a nude beach in Europe and children will happily build sand castles while naked (oops! I mean nude. :-) ) men and women walk past. The sight of nipples and penises are not interesting to them because it has not been made overly interesting by society. Children’s reactions are governed largely by the reactions of their parents, teachers and societal taboos. This is also true of adults. When a commercial on Russian television used photos of nude women to show how the new Motorola cell phone could use a picture for call display, no one blinked an eye. When I went shopping in the middle of the hot summer in Odessa and saw more than one woman shopping wearing nothing but a fishnet body stocking and high heels, no one stared or gave it much concern.
Don’t forget that North America (Canada included) is a relatively young culture, being only a few hundred years old, and was settled by puritans and others who disagreed with the European way of life and sought a world where their own values could flourish unfettered. As a result there is still a pervasive Judeo-Christian morality base that has survived to this day.
Oleanna and I, and most of European cultures, sit back in amazement when we witness the furor caused by a nipple peak from a “wardrobe malfunction”, or the seemingly incomprehensible hypocrisy associated with the uncensored depiction of violence, human degradation and suffering while censoring depictions of couples sharing love. But simply because we have a different perspective on the issue does not make it any more right or wrong than the perspective that all women should wear burkas.
An attempt to resolve this through “intelligent discussion” is like arguing which is a better color, red or blue. All perspectives are correct and all are completely wrong.
What is morally right in issues of nudity? Well, for you, it is whatever you say it is. I may share your perspective, but there are millions of others who do not. I can, to some extent, attempt to rebel against what I see as a society that has lost perspective, but in the end, we cannot change others, only ourselves.
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