Doll Clothes: A Short Film by Cindy Sherman

Artist, photographer, filmmaker Cindy Sherman made this short stop-motion film, Doll Clothes, in 1975. I only just realized during my most recent viewing that she was actually continuing the conversation with Marcel Duchamp’s ‘Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2.’

There’s a glitch in the YouTube video, so you’ll need to drag the slider a bit to get the movie started.

Duchamp’s ‘Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2’ (1912):

I found this via the Echo Park Film Center.

Transportation Security Agents Want Nude Photos of Children at Airports

Many airports in the United States and the United Kingdom have installed new full body scanners.  They are easy to spot.  You walk in and a security guard tells you to raise your arms out to the side.  Then what happens is they take a naked photograph of you.  Naked.  Nude.  Bare-assed.  Birthday suit.  Free as the wind blows.  Exposed.  Porno.

Why porno?  Because they take naked pictures and look at them.  They want to do it to children too.  And guess what?  In the U.K. it has suddenly been noticed that taking naked pictures of children in airports violates anti-child porn laws.  You bet.  Think about it.  Your kid in the machine.  Arms up in the air.  Being photographed naked through his or her clothes.  The TSA claims that a single operator in a booth will view the naked photos of boarding passengers and children.  Fine.  So think about that.  A little fat guy sitting in there with his sandwich and his can of Coke watching you and your kids naked.  Enjoy that image?  Still want to fly?  Or would you rather just drive now?

No one anywhere has the right to look at our naked bodies just because we are getting on an airplane.  No one.  I certainly will not enter one of these invasive machines under any circumstances.  I think that airline passengers wherever they might be should absolutely refuse to walk into these things.  That will create chaos and slow things down until these hysterical security people back off with the nude photos.  Causing an uproar about this is probably the one thing that will stop the roll-out of these machines.  President Obama may in fact expedite the increased use of these things. Well, he’s the bright bulb who’s hiding photos of U.S. military torture practices and now he wants nude photos of us and our kids.  Cool guy, huh?

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) calls these things the ‘naked machines.’

In many airports the machines are voluntary and offered as an option to avoid a pat-down.  Not for long.  The TSA wants these naked photos and they want them really bad.  Have you met some of these TSA agents by any chance?  My god!  They are as dumb as posts.  I met one a year ago at Los Angeles International Airport in the parking lot.  She said she was lost.  Lost!  She couldn’t find the terminal building.  I had to literally walk her through the airport to find her work station.  I was just a passenger on my way somewhere.  She was totally lost and completely at my mercy.  I could have led her anywhere and stolen her badge.  Trust me, if you can’t find the terminal at LAX, there’s something seriously wrong with you.  That is the level of training these people are receiving.  Another time, just months ago, I gave the finger to a TSA agent who tried to jump in front of me while boarding a crowded shuttle bus.  He got on his phone and called airport police, saying that he had a dangerous passenger who had given him and his officers the finger.  Four police cars showed up.  Guess what happened when the officer in charge listened to the irate TSA guy.  He smiled at him, then turned to me and said, “Sir, would you be interested in pressing any charges against the TSA?”  I said, “No thanks, but it’s nice to know that a cop understands I’m allowed to give the finger to the TSA.”  He said, “If you change your mind call me at this number.”  Then he handed me a card!  He said there were lots of complaints about the TSA people and that his officers were sick and tired of dealing with them because they didn’t understand any of the laws.  And now we are asked to trust these TSA nitwits with naked photographs of ourselves and our children?  Are you kidding?  Seriously?