Throughout human history to this right exact minute, there are always people that want to control you. Specifically, they want to control how you use, view, and present your physical form. Part of that is for monetary gain, because if you're never happy with how you look, there is undoubtedly a veritable league of companies, surgeons, and shills that have the perfect fix for you…at a price, of course! It's a rook.
If it is not someone or the various businesses they are attached to looking at greasing their bank account, then it is a myriad of conservatives who are unmoored in both the empathy and ethics part of being a healthy functioning soul. Instead of singing the body electric, they would rather control everyone else's via a hateful mix of shame, guilt, anger, and when they can, even legality. As if anyone has the innate right to tell you or me how to navigate, view, or use our physical forms.
Autonomy is a daily battle in this life, which is why when key artists emerge to show us that not only is it possible, but it can totally be waged on your own terms. Writers, performers, musicians, painters, singers, and more are the pathburners and eye-openers that have done more right by us than any supposed leader.
There are three in particular who need to be championed, starting with two that are interconnected, which is writer, activist, actress, and artist Veronica Vera and late painter, performance artist, musician, and poet, Frank Moore. Veronica Vera is a champion, celebrator, and fighter for the intersection of sexuality and creative expression and has been since at least the 1980s. From her work in the waning golden years of adult cinema to her article work in men's magazines, Vera is the charismatic powerhouse that every artist would die to have in their corner. Her words consistently display this innate curiosity, intelligence, and playfulness that engage both the spirit and the mind. Looking back on any of her past work and quickly realize that the myth that Playboy was the only nudie periodical to have great writing was exactly that…a myth.
On top of all this, one of the most sizzling aspects about Veronica Vera as a creative and a human is that there is no one else like her. Anyone can cultivate a particular physical appearance or technical style, but innate style, soul, and individuality are hallmarks that are far harder to come by in this life. Vera is the ultimate hostess, muse, and maker who is bold but never too brazen. The fact that in 1984, she testified before a Senate Judiciary Committee about freedom of expression, particularly erotic expression, is further proof that Veronica Vera is the best kind of fighter and lover.
It was reading Vera's article, "Eroplay is Fun," which was originally published in a 1986 issue of Adam magazine, that introduced me to the world of Frank Moore. The piece alone is brilliant, with Veronica smoothly navigating both how Frank and his art has impacted her, as well as shining a light on both the man and his approach to expression.
The limits our society often puts on those with disabilities can outweigh whatever physical or mental handicap one is dealing with. Progression while there is still too slow, with a nearly tangible feeling that "normal" society is more comfortable when those who are disabled are neatly tucked away. It is all so absurd. What right does anyone have to compartmentalize the human spirit, not to mention the physical vessel encasing the heart and mind of a person? When we "other" another person, we are denying them equal footing and basic empathy.
One of the beautiful things about Frank Moore was that he was clearly someone who not only did not let anyone's hangups, especially society's, limit him as a human or an artist. Born with cerebral palsy and lacking the ability to walk or verbally talk, Moore was someone who seemed to just push through all of the status quo sad damage that is automatically inflicted upon anyone who is viewed as different. Eroplay was just one facet of Moore's many creative and spiritual endeavors, but its emphasis on looking and interacting with both our own and other's bodies beyond a simple genital-jolly-good-time is still fascinating. Orgasms and desire are beautiful, but sensuality and how we can interact with each other is far broader than that.
Especially because if how we look and regard others bodies can be reductive and short sighted, how about the way we treat our own vessels?
Which brings me to the Australian punk band Amyl & the Sniffers. Earlier this year, they made some headlines for making a "racy" music video for their new song "Jerkin'." If you're not familiar with the video, song, or the band, the mental images sugarplum dancing in your mind right now are better suited for Pornhub than this humble celebration of artists pointing the way to all around body love and autonomy. (There is zero wrong with that, of course, just make sure to clean up when you're done and delete the ole browser history.)
The reality is that the song is angry, the video cathartic, and the mainstream press and culture are still stunted enough to refer to simple nudity as "racy." "Jerkin'" lyrically is singer Amy Taylor's fiery clapback to the negative sides of internet culture aka trolls. Which is great and more than understandable, but by itself, has no direct tethers to this article. Cue up the video. Director John Angus Stewart took the spirit of Amy telling him, "“If the world wasn’t so fucked up, I’d never wear clothes," and applied it to this work. Initially you see just the band, which is great, but then the video unfurls all sorts of naked bodies of a fabulously diverse assortment of people and their physical forms.
We see real people being punk rock and defiant about their physicality and you know what? It's fucking beautiful. Old, young, handicapped, non-handicapped, cellulite, scars, tattoos, arm slings, etc etc, this array of human beings transforms a message that was initially a middle finger in the air to critics and internet bullies into an even bigger one against a society and culture that has thrived too long off of body shaming and repression.
To see the original cut of "Jerkin'," you have to go to John Angus Stewart's official website, since platforms like YouTube do not allow nudity. Granted, you can more than likely find violent images, including horrors like animal cruelty and war, on there, but as we all know, true mental terror apparently begins with seeing a flaccid penis and some boobs. Rome wasn't built in a day and undoing centuries of repression is far from an easy battle, but this is all the more reason why artists like Veronica Vera, Frank Moore, Amyl & the Sniffers, John Angus Stewart, and so many more are needed. Great and bold artists are and always have been, our lighthouses to a different way of sight and understanding.
At the end of the day, in your heart of hearts, know that you too are also needed and that any entity that profits from your fear and self-doubt is one that deserves not one grain of your power and emotion. Cherish your precious self and honor the fact that true rebellion begins within.
© Heather Drain 2024
I became a fan of Amyl after her appearance on a Sleaford Mods song. Great band and very nice article here.