
"bottom"
Gumph!! Fnarr fnarr!
Italian nude models have hit art schools where it hurts by resolutely refusing to get their kit off in a strike over pay and conditions, the Times reports. The protestors are demanding “professional recognition” and full-time contracts in an industry where just 50 of 300 nude models have "fixed annual contracts", while the …
"Once a group of about 30 Japanese tourists turned up and started taking photographs. I had to cover myself up quickly.”
Hold on, you got naked in a public place and were surprised when people took photos. Where the hell was this? If 30 of them turned up at once, it sounds like she was obviously on the route of a guided tour.
"Education ministry official Nando Dalla Chiesa confirmed he'd agreed to meet the striking models, concluding: "We need to get to the bottom of this.""
Wonderfully-phrased sentence there! I doubt you could fit as much subtle smut and innuendo into anything else. I'm sure I would, er, come to the same conclusion as Mr Chiesa. Good work!
I just realised while looking at the list on google that I really don't read El Reg for the IT angle.... its like a day-by-day blow of the stories I open in new tabs, leaving all that "work related" news behind!
One of best Non-IT Angle titles:
Wanted: seasoned w**nkers for online ejaculation pole
So this woman voluntarily chose a profession in which she voluntarily takes her clothes off and poses nude, with the intention of people drawing her nude form. So my logical mind comes up with:
1) She voluntarily removes her clothes and poses for people to draw her. If that does not "violate [her] privacy", then why do people taking pictures? Is it that the pictures are an accurate representation and not the artists' representation? If you've agreed to pose nude, you agreed to give up your privacy while posing, whether there are 5 people present or 500.
2) She's upset that she doesn't get paid 25 euro per hour for sitting naked, literally doing nothing? Guess what, I'm upset I can't get that, too. But some of us work for a living. Don't get me wrong, I can imagine that it is a difficult or uncomfortable job, but it's not like it requires a whole lot of skill. Strength and fitness, yes, but skill, no. Also, let's not forget that 25 euros per hour is 50,000 euros per year at a typical 8-hour-per-day 50-week-per-year job.
3) Do any other kind of models get a fixed annual salary (fashion models, billboard models, TV models, etc)? No. So why should nude models? Fixed annual salaries are for people who work consistent hours (typically M-F 8-5 here in the U.S.). Almost nobody gets a fixed annual salary for limited, infrequent, or intermittent work.
in Italy, art schools are open to the public, and they're often located in accademia that are adjacent to famous galleries. So for example, after an afternoon tootling around the Brera, one can wander into the art class and watch some students life-drawing (which is the most important and fundamental skill an artist should endeavour to master, for a whole host of reasons - tone, proportion, line, volume, etc.)
Art models are in many parts of Italy state employees and union members, and as such have formal rights which are used to determine pay and conditions. Therefore they can't always just be *replaced* as casual labour, and often have a long-standing relationship with the art school where they work.
Further, as art schools and colleges are a huge moneymaker for the Italian economy, with many domestic and foreign students who come specifically for the immersion into Italy's vast artistic heritage, labour disputes in this sector, albeit rare, have an effect quite out of proportion to their numbers or pay scales. I can't see rich Americans forking out for their kid's life classes in Milano when all the life models are on strike?
dov'e lo scopo IT?
"Hold on, you got naked in a public place and were surprised when people took photos."
They are paid to attend a private class with the express purpose of being drawn/painted by aspiring artists.
Nude photography is a different job with different pay rates. Also, while art students' work rarely leaves the portfolio, digital photos go on Bebo. Finally, while nude photography is considered an artform by some, random tourists are generally considered "snappers" not "artists".
Really, do you consider everything you do in public to be public property? How would you feel if you went to a karaoke drunk and you found out that your tone-deaf version of Bat Out Of Hell was being passed around as a ring tone? That's what we call invasion of privacy.