Carlie Christine nude Playboy pics and firing expose a double standard

May 7, 5:17 AMInternational LGBT Issues ExaminerKelvin Lynch

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                             Carlie Christine

Carlie Christine, who was recently fired from her position as a high-school cheerleading coach for posing nude for Playboy, gave an exclusive interview to Women's Issues Examiner Juliette Fretté.

The married, 20-year-old Christine said she posed for Playboy before she was hired by the school district, and it did not affect her job in any way.  

She said,

A parent printed my pictures off playboy.com and brought them into the principal's office.  However, I could not even begin to guess her motives behind doing so.  I feel most of the parents judged me based on my ability to coach cheerleaders, and I appreciate their continued support.  When I accepted this position as a cheerleading coach, I in no way thought that my past work with Playboy would effect my employment."

Christine continued,

I feel that a teacher or coach should be judged based on her ability to instruct children.  I think that the parents would have the right to be concerned if I was advertising or promoting Playboy to their children.  However, I made sure to keep my coaching job and work with Playboy completely separate.  If in the future I had a daughter who wished to pose for Playboy I would completely support her wishes.  I think that any woman who is proud of her body and chooses to express it in a healthy way should be entitled to do so.

Good point.  Why is nudity such a taboo in the United States, and how does it interfere with one's ability to peform their job?  Why are women in mainstream jobs who pose nude vilified by the media and people in their communities, while celebrities who do the same thing enjoy mainstream career success?

Walt Whitman wrote, "If anything is sacred, the human body is sacred" in Sing the Body Electric. 

Nudity is a normal human condition that has prevailed through mankind's existence. 

Primitivism.com wries,

Even today, in various remote areas of the warmer climes, naked societies persist as primitive tribes whose members do not wear clothes. These societies point up, among other things, how drastically our attitudes toward nudity and social organization have changed throughout human history. Unfortunately, modern civilization's puritanical laws of decency have labeled unclothed tropical-zone cultures as offensive and inferior. Missionaries, settlers, and tradespeople have effectively forced compliance with western dress codes wherever primitive cultures are found.

But savvy marketers know that sex sells.  Movie studios use nudity as a marketing tool to promote their newest releases.  Fashion magazine ads routinely feature half-naked models. A recent in-your-face ad by Tom Ford featured a cologne bottle wedged into a naked woman's waxed crotch. Amercrombie & Fitch has made a fortune in recent years featuring huge blow-ups of half-naked male models in its stores and the occassional topless girl or naked ass shot in its catalogs.  Dolce & Gabbana features a series of risqué "gay porn shoot" print ads that are wildly popular in upscale magazines.  And who can forget the Times Square ad featuring David Beckham's 10-foot long package prominently on display in Armani underwear?

Victoria's Secret catalogs are common masturbation material for teenage boys everwhere. Those bras and panties don't really cover the naughty bits very well,  do they? Not much imagination required.  But those pictures are perfectly acceptable to mainstream America.

Why are ads for erection pills, vaginal stimulators, sexual lubricants, and Girls Gone Wild videos on TV okay,  but God forbid America gets a 10th-of-a-second glimpse of Janet Jackson's pierced nipple?

Why is the sexual tease acceptable but nudity is not? Is it the taboo aspect of nakedness that makes it so compelling? Pornography is a multi-billion dollar a year industry in the United States, most likely because of puritanical American repression of nudity and sexual expression.

But the big question remains - why do celebrities who appear nude in films or magazines like Playboy enjoy a career jump-start or revival, while regular folks like Carlie who do the same thing lose their jobs?  It's a double standard that has me scratching my head.   

Carlie Christine is a beautiful woman and she should be proud of showing off her flawless body.  Here's hoping this whole brouhaha will bring her celebrity status, along with a movie deal, so she will be embraced by Americans instead of treated like a pariah. 

I'll be watching.

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