Life drawing (boring)

[JessfromKent]

Long story short me and my friends are going away for a long weekend in a countryside villa and they’ve booked ‘life drawing’ for the Villa.

I’m not going to protest (although I’d rather not) but is it me or does it feel very degrading. Somewhat ‘take your clothes off and entertain us for an hour’, nestled in between a film and making cocktails or AIBU

dont ‘objectify’

hes a fit guy who is being paid to stand naked in front of you. Obviously there will be objectification, that’s part of the point

Like others here I've done life drawing classes before. Fascinating, quite demanding and a real gamechanger in terms of developing observational drawing ability.

Any hint of even slight giggly inappropriate behaviour in a 'proper' (or maybe 'fomal' would be a better word) class would get the giggler chucked out tout de suite.

The hen-do version sounds awful.

I recently attended my first life drawing class.
It wasn't hen do related and the model was female.
If you have a tutor it may be very informative and some of you may enjoy it for what it is?
The model is being payed I'm assuming.
I doubt you'll be encouraged to draw a dick and balls like a bunch of primary school kids.....

As it’s not as expensive as a formal site like hens with pens the owner uses local ‘fit’ men to pose nude but they won’t be as buff as a hens with pens agency

Never assume what they'll be like until they turn up, OP, even if you've asked for a particular one. On the shadier side of this they're never going to post pics of their more dubious "models" and sometimes they just pinch the images from elsewhere

I hadn't realised it was just a random bloke who runs this and not even an agency/site with some sort of reputation. Personally I'd steer clear, and as for "Is it degrading?", since that's what we always say about strippers, lap dancers, etc., do guys deserve any less?

It’s stripping, just trying to pretend it isn’t

It’s ran by a women who is a professional artists.

The website shows past events and the guys are in decent shape but they aren’t like Hens with pens type agency guys.

Yes there’s double standards on show isn’t there. It’s not as cringey as stripping but we are still paying someone to be naked for our enjoyment I guess.

One of my sons does modelling for hen parties. But usually in pubs or hotels rather than private houses. Life drawing tends to take place in the afternoon too , so the women are - reasonably - sober. In his experience the women have been very polite and respectful. Oddly , he says it tends to be older women who get giggly. It might be just embarrassment as they also skulk at the back whereas the bride's peer groups are quite upfront , literally. There are some surprisingly good drawings produced as well !

Google CFNM . It's out there. Nothing to do with art mind you .😉

Sorry that's a reply to @Viviennemary

OP this is very much an English hang up. In lots of countries they have naked spas and the like. It's only us that think of the human body as sexual or sexualised only. For a vast majority the human body is just that, a body, artistic, elegant, human, with all its flaws and functional parts. To be celebrated. Life drawing is a really nice thing to do because of that.

It sounds like the arty-farty equivalent of hiring a nude waiter. The guy in question will be used to being drawn at such events, if that is the USP.
He might think it easy money, he might enjoy being ogled, it might be a means to an end, but I would imagine he is either going to be very professional and session led by the woman...or he will be jokey/join in with banter.

@JessfromKent it’s completely true I’m afraid, my bf was at a hen party Life drawing session. She’s pretty broad-minded but she was not impressed.

I've done quite a lot of life drawing over the years. The models have been male and female, all body types and all ages (not children, obvs). It has always felt like a huge privilege and the atmosphere has been completely respectful towards the model.

This is not that. It's all very 'Oooh, fit naked guy!' 'nudge nudge, wink wink' - it sounds very disrespectful and cheapens the whole concept of life drawing.

Life drawing is wonderful and not in any sense degrading. However I have been to a party where “butlers in the buff” were serving drinks and then posed for the guests to draw, and it was grim. I’d want to know that what was planned was more like the former not the latter.

Puts the arse in clarse - classy, cheeky alternative to a stripper. Can classy and cheeky co-exist...it is an excuse for cultured hens to pretend they are above all that. Kudos to who came up with the concept though, taches, berets etc The pens + hens will employ men, who find it an ego-boost as well as a laugh.

This is very much an English hang up. In lots of countries they have naked spas and the like

This is very true, and something I very much admire them for
However it's worth adding that - at least IME - many of these places would be unlikely to hire a guy like this for a hen party so theycould fnarr fnarr at him

Never assume what they'll be like until they turn up, OP, even if you've asked for a particular one. On the shadier side of this they're never going to post pics of their more dubious "models" and sometimes they just pinch the images from elsewhere

That makes me think of the episode of the IT Crowd where Jen is trying to distract the female employees whilst Roy makes his escape from under their desk, having been under there in all innocence but conscious of what it will look like. There she is saying "Wow, phwooooooarrr, will you just get a look at him!!!" when it's just an ordinary-looking middle-aged bloke with a bit of a pot belly!

To clarify, I'm not saying there is anything untoward or seedy in the least about genuine life-drawing classes; just as there's nothing dodgy about a genuine plumber turning up to actually fix a broken washing machine, but that doesn't stop certain people from setting up scenarios that start like that but then take quite a different route from there....

....and, as a PP said, genuine art students who are interested in 'the human form' from an purely artistic perspective would be just as fascinated by an obese great-grandad as a model as they would a muscular, toned 23yo man.

I remember that episode, SausageRoll!!

Also agree with you that nobody's having a go about life drawing as a genuinely artistic thing, only about somewhat questionable spin-offs

I didn't know 'Hens with Pens' was a thing, but as someone who's been at a lot of life drawing classes as an artist, there are some models who that sort of thing would suit better than a standard class.

I'm not ragging on the models for being exhibitionist - that's probably the only way to enjoy a job which is otherwise rather dull and uncomfortable, but I have occasionally felt like I'm unwittingly part of someone's little fantasy in a way that's not quite comfortable (nor that helpful for improving my figure drawing tbh). One chap was given little guidance on poses beyond 'standing', 'sitting' etc, and yet managed to contort himself into a succession of bent-over poses that rather beggared belief. I don't think I've ever seen a life drawing model's actual butthole before or since, but his was out there. For one pose, he just bent forward with his back to the class, legs akimbo: literally all I could see of him were the back of his legs, his arsecheeks, and his testicles. It was supposed to be a ten minute pose but I was done after five because there was only so much detail and shading I could put into his arse cheeks and nutsack. I drew his folded up dressing gown on a chair to fill out the rest of the time.

I hope that man has found 'Hens with Pens'; he'd be having a whale of a time.

To me this is no different to stripping or only fans which have been condemned on here. To the posters who have posed for life drawing, I commend you.

However, it makes me uneasy that lots on here have no issue with a presumably man in his 20s/early 30s standing naked and being leered at by a large group of women.

If this was a role reversal it wouldn’t get the same reception on here.