To Paula, From Bare Men

I welcome the direct notes and emails about Bare Men that I receive. To my relief, they are positive and supportive. Some people share their appreciation of the art, others are advocates of nudity, I hear from men who want to participate in the series, while others who contact me are explicit in their arousal upon viewing the photos.

A couple of the recent notes I've received recently:

"I was absolutely blown away by your Bare Men project and wanted to offer my sincere compliments. I found you on the website "Naked Men, Happy Women". It is a site I check out occasionally, and certainly your work just jumped right of the page! I do love your non-judgmental philosophy, not insisting on ideal or perfect body types. Your talent in this field is most evident!"

This one - Subject: Ekue's wisdom - I received from a man in the Midwest who was passionate about nudity the misconceptions surrounding it:

Abigail, I am a young man from Minnesota. Society deserves no apology for your support of nudity!!!

The human body is not indecent!!! It is a gift which provides opportunities for its occupants to pursue good lives. We all pretty much have the same bodies. We are born nude, we dress nude, we shower nude.....and under our clothes we are nude. Pornography also is absent when particular persons issue zero portrayal of sexual material (for arousal). 

I Didn't Ask To See Your Penis

Note: The above was NOT forcibly removed
"Storm Drain", Man. Toy.

These men...no matter how old, they just love to whip it out

That's a text message I received from a girlfriend after I told her I'd received a dick pic seconds before. I replied to her: Yeah! It's like their badge or something!


Men and their penises.

They love to show them off.

Even when you didn't plead to see it.

Even if they've never met you.

Waving The Red Flag

My online dating experiment continues...


I received this note in response to one I sent after reading someone's post/profile:

Hey Abigail,

Thanks for answering my little post. I forgot to mention something that may be very important to you: I'm short. 5'7 ... just thought I'd mention it. ;)

By the way, I try to stay fit also. I run every day. And try to avoid unhealthy stuff. It's too easy to let yourself go. And it's depressing to throw your health away. I think most American are obese because they're sad. It's just filling a void.

I Can Take No For An Answer

It hit me the other day that I don't pitch articles nearly as much as I used. Actually, I think it's been almost a year. This is not because I don't want any more of my articles published, it's due to the lack of response. As a writer, I get rejections all the time. That's not an issue. It's the silence that makes the whole process seem pointless and somewhat discouraging. I live by, "You won't know until you ask" and "Ask and ye shall receive" as played out in my life on numerous occasions.


Just say 'no.' Seriously, I can take it.

I Survived Craigslist

I used to meet folks off CL (circa 2005). Either I posted an ad or answered ads in "strictly platonic", "women seeking men" or "men seeking women". I was depressed and seeking something. I started to notice it was the same people posting ads and answering, repeatedly. Maybe they hadn't found a victim yet(victim in any sense of the word). A reporter on WABC radio was murdered after posting an ad for rough sex on craigslist (I'm assuming under "casual encounters"). The teen who answered his ad had a MySpace page that showcased his love of knifes (he stabbed the reporter 50 times) and sadomasochist view and lifestyle.

When I used CL, I googled people all the time. That's just my need to know what's what and who's who and how shit's supposed to go down. Any emails from anonymous addresses like "lovegun72@aol.com" or "nycblack@hotmail.com" got no response. After the 3rd or 4th time of getting an email, it was an automatic delete. The circumstances of the reporter's murder probably surprised those close to him who had no clue of his "other" life. The internet makes it easy to hide behind a computer screen. The internet also puts everything out there; just takes a little digging sometimes. I always do my research.