A "sex" blogger (in as much as we are sex bloggers, we guess) for the Washington City Paper
is upset—we're talking 717 words of upset—over nude photographs taken
of her co-workers. Mind you, the photos were published years ago, at
another paper in another city, but she just can't seem to get the naked
boys off of her mind. We, on the other hand, think the image is a pretty forgettable
one and don't really get what all the stink is about.
She writes:
After finishing their tenure at Creative Loafing Tampa and graduating from Yale, Scheinman and Reed came to work at the Washington City Paper (Scheinman remains as CP’s Online Producer; Reed has since moved on to a Croc Fellowship at NPR). Before my new coworkers even arrived in the District, I heard tell of their cover-boy exploits down South, but I hadn’t actually set my eyes the cover until last week. When the newspaper was unceremoniously dumped in my cubicle, I approached the cover as I would the site of a terrible collision: Not knowing what else to do, I simply stared, wondering why the tears were not coming...
But while Scheinman and Reed were comfortable with their nude photo experience, I am not particularly comfortable with it. I generally am not opposed to the display of nude art in the workplace, but I do find saucy nude photographs of my co-workers moderately disturbing. I am not alone: In the aftermath of the issue, Warner wrote in a blog post, “the manager of a sports bar told us it was ‘inappropriate for a paper featuring naked boys on the cover to appear at a family establishment.’”
Or, you know, in your office environment. Scheinman and Reed’s essay, admittedly, is soaring:
They took a moment to look at us, lounging decadently in big, reclined patio chairs, sipping our drinks, smiling, feet up on the table, naked and spoiled as the day we were born, our cranberries dangling papally.
So soaring, in fact, that the image of papally dangling cranberries will forever be seared into my brain each time I approach our Online Producer with a modest question concerning our Web stats.
Even more unsettling is the inside photo. The second shot shows Reed and Scheinman, again naked, this time embracing an unidentified woman (also naked).
I may have just lost my naked lunch.
Am I right to be disturbed by this? Or is the nearly-naked coworker a sight we all must endure in the Internet age?
Ummm.... we think—especially given her job—she's over reacting. If one of our co-workers appeared naked on the cover of an alternative weekly, we'd get that cover printed on a t-shirt (a gray American Apparel t-shirt, of course) and wear it every day. Scanner Brian? Nicole?
Oh and you may be wondering how she even knew about the cranberries in question? Well, she did some investigating, that's how:
As with any unexplained tragedy, the image piqued my curiosity; I needed to know how and why this had happened.
Don't you know that curiosity killed the cat?
[The Sexist: Nude Co-Workers: Disturbing?]
