Show and Tell Time

The lovely blog Stirrup Queens decided (apparently some time ago) that show and tell is wasted on the young, and decided to kick it web 2.0 style, by having a weekly post where people can post a show and tell on their own blog, and then get rounded up at the weekly thread. So without further ado:

Shadowedge's Show and Tell:

This is a cake (yes, posting about a cake was totally a nod to Stirrup Queen's post about making a sukkah cake) that I made for my very dear friend, Moonkai for her fairy themed birthday party. Now, Moonkai's favorite cake is angel food cake with whipped cream frosting, which is pretty easy to bake. However, it is much harder to decorate. So, I plotted very carefully. I would buy nasturtium flowers at the farmer's market, since they are edible, festive, and would go with the theme. Then, I decided that the cake needed a topper. I went to every party store, scoured the inter net, and could not find a fairy topper that was not a) so far out of my budget as to be laughable (50$ for a cake topper?) or b) Tinker Bell, which was simply not the theme.

I finally saw some pictures of the Schelich fairies, and then had to track them down. I finally found one at a local Target. I was almost done. But the figurine was heavy enough that I was worried it would either squish, or fall off, the cake. So I grabbed a fancy vase, and turned it upside-down in the middle of the angel food cake after I frosted it with the whipped cream. that supported the figurine quite nicely, and the nasturtiums hid the edges nicely. I also, (as you can kind of see) sliced strawbeeries to decort the bottom edge.

Needless to say, Moonkai was appropriately impressed.

Go see the rest of Show and Tell here.

Exhibitionism, or why I spent most of Friday night naked.

At this point, I work on the expectation that when I visit C and C's place for a party I will, at some point, end up naked. The why of this is not so much complicated as lost in the mists of time, poor memory, and a drunken haze.

This description, I realize, makes it sound like a drinking game gone awry and into depravity. Certainly, in one sense it was. But there are fundamental differences between how social nudity is handled at C and C's events and others I have attended.

In my experience, nudity at other events (specifically, in my case, high school parties years in the past) is characterized by a sense of shame and (sometimes) humiliation, paired with a conflicting set of social mores which simultaneously encourage one to get naked for the pleasure of the male gaze and condemn one for doing so. A girl, in this situation, is supposed to be drunk, and tricked out of her clothing. Wanting to be naked is right out. Or, if one does get naked of one's own volition, one is branded as sexually available in the worst way. Really, once one is naked, in these situations, one is tagged as sexually available, whatever the circumstances of disrobing were.

In contrast, C and C's events are characterized by an explicit respect for everyone's comfort zones, especially in the amount of clothing that one chooses to wear, or not. One friend of mine will happily sit around wearing nothing but her bra, while another friend declined to take off any of her clothing, but was happy to watch the rest of us caper about in nothing at all.

In the same vein of difference are the individual reactions surrounding the process of getting naked. In my perception, there is a distinct lack of shame, and an attitude that most often shouts: "Ta Da!" The exception might be Char, who's approach might be characterized as, "I'm so shy. I'm so shy. I'm naked! I'm very shy, indeed."

And while large amounts of intoxicants are usually involved in these parties, I am of the opinion that that has relatively little to do with the nakedness, except, perhaps, as an excuse for the commencement of the exercise. (Not that we need an excuse, really. But it does make the transition from clothed to naked more explicable.)

I like being naked. (As anyone who has lived with me for any length of time [hi Keathwick!] can tell you. ) Left to my own devices, I would most likely wear a bra and underwear, or less all of the time. I don't, for a host of reasons, including that it would make some people uncomfortable, but that is my general inclination. This has little to do with exhibitionism, and a lot to do with liking to be naked.

For years, in fact, I would disclaim a liking for exhibitionism, despite a penchant for having sex in semipublic locations. However, it is no longer deniable: I like people looking at me. Perhaps it is an occupational hazard: actors (as I am from time to time) adore the spotlight, the attention, the knowledge of being watched.

To quote Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, by Tom Stoppard: "We're actors! We're the opposite of people!"

Of course, Paradox would claim that it is my essential Scorpio nature has something to do with the desire for attention. I could claim that Moonkai's fondness for my exhibitionistic tendencies warped me.

Regardless, it seems that I have acquired a fondness for being naked that goes beyond the joy of not wearing clothing.