Another surprise was my sixth model, a female friend, who responded after I put out a call to try getting more female representation. She wanted to participate because the idea was slightly alarming and uncomfortable, and she wanted to conquer the self-conscious feelings. I don't think I've ever seen her undressed before. Actually, I don't even think we have ever done something together, just the two of us, so I felt honored that she'd sign up for this activity. One thing we talked about was how even relatively nice people sometimes make really unkind remarks about how disgusting fat people are. Someone who would never tell an overweight friend that they look bad might still make an off-hand comment about having to wash their eyes out with bleach after seeing a picture of a fat person in a revealing outfit. But these kinds of persistent jokes are definitely sending the message that fat is something scorn-worthy, so if that's not the message we want to convey, maybe we need to stop making these kinds of jokes. Also, we talked about how in some ways, it's a bit of a relief reaching 40, because you aren't under as much pressure to be "hot". We started with a sort of classic woman-doing-her-hair pose, then did one that reflected more the life of the mind (a book reading position), both with the model not looking at the artist. Then we wrapped up with a direct look pose, which was slightly more challenging. I think most of my models have agreed that it's slightly odd to be looking at someone who is looking intently at you, and wondering exactly what they are looking at.