I started to compare my on-screen face and body with the real me. It was like painless plastic surgery and stopped me having to learn to accept the real me.īut the more I used them, the more I was convinced the way I looked was a problem that needed fixing.ĭaisy edited her photos to such an extent that she became frightened of meeting up with the men she'd sent them to, fearing that they'd be disappointed Looking back, filters were perhaps the most harmful part of all this. I found an app that gave me a more defined jawline. It was easy to trim the edges of a picture to make my arms look slimmer. I zeroed in on my flaws, downloading different filter settings, cropping and erasing to create smoother skin, a smaller nose, a narrower waist. Over time, though, a bully started to scrutinise the images, saying critical things - and that bully was me. So when men reacted positively to the pictures, I didn’t just feel a confidence boost I felt as if I was escaping my past self at last. I had always struggled with low self-esteem, having been bullied for being fat and ugly as a child. When I started taking nude photos, it felt incredibly liberating. I’d grown up in a strict Catholic household and was made to feel ashamed of sex and sexuality. While the positive responses she got from men gave her a confidence boost initially, Daisy began to fixate on finding flaws in her appearance Yes, women should be free to celebrate their sexuality on their own terms - but be careful where it leads. These days I warn friends who are keen to try it that it’s more complicated than it seems. I’m 38 now and was nearing 30 when I was in what I call my ‘nudes phase’. And it’s not confined to younger generations. You may have read about revenge porn (when recipients share racy photos or videos in retaliation) and believe you shouldn’t take nudes in the first place.īut I’m certainly not alone in sharing nude pictures of myself. Many were texted to the men I was dating, or hoping to date, at the time.ĭo you judge me for this? You might think sending explicit images of yourself out into the world is risky and ridiculous. I experimented with more revealing full-length poses and dressed up in lingerie.Īnd I found myself becoming addicted to both the buzz of taking the risque photos and the enthusiastic response from the grateful recipient - to the extent that, over a period of 18 months, I must have taken more than a thousand naked pictures, or ‘nudes’, as they are known these days. Daisy Buchanan started taking nude photos of herself and sending them to men when she was 26, at first finding it liberating
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