Protests - Part 65

 Oblation Run 2025

The annual Oblation Run is held at the University of the Philippines by members of the fraternity Alpha Phi Omega.  It's named after the Oblation statue (above), a symbol of the university, a copy of which is on each of the multiple campuses.  The statue represents the selfless offering of oneself to the country.  It was originally nude, but a university president intervened to require a fig leaf.

The naked run began in 1977 as a protest against the censorship of a film that exposed human rights abuses under dictator Ferdinand Marcos.  It has become an annual tradition used by fraternity brothers to protest current social issues.  The protesters are naked but masked, and all are male.  This year's Oblation Run was on February 14, 2025, Valentine's Day.  Above, the participants gather on the steps of Palma Hall with protest signs.

After gathering on the steps, the protesters lift one of the naked fraternity brothers up, and he emulates the pose of the Oblation statue, but without the fig leaf, above.

The overall theme this year was ‘Boto Mo, Hindi Benta Mo!’ (Your vote, not your sales), calling for clean and fair elections and proper voter education, and protesting against rampant vote-buying that takes place in the Philippines.

Then the participants walked to a spot where they lined up, above.  Some of the signs are in Filipino, but some are in English, including "UP Not 4 Sale", where UP stands for the University of the Philippines, "Vote Not 4 Sale", and "Impeach Sara Now", calling to impeach Philippine Vice-President Sara Duterte for corruption.  She has been impeached, though the Senate trial to vote on removing her won't happen until June.

And then they sang a song!  I can't make out all the words, but they are in English, and it's evidently a fraternity song.

After singing, the group resumed their march around the campus with their protest signs.  You may notice that the protesters are carrying roses.  Another tradition of the Oblation Run is that participants give a rose to a woman along the route, and since the event happened on Valentine's day this year, that seems appropriate.

Ivy League Posture Photos - Part 44

 Ivy League Posture Photos

Yale started taking nude photos of incoming freshmen in 1919 as part of a program to detect and correct posture problems.  The Yale photos have erroneously been associated with William Sheldon, a psychologist at Harvard and author of Nazi-like eugenic theories who used Harvard nude posture photos to illustrate his theory of somatypes.  The Yale program predates Sheldon, and, as far as I can tell, the Yale photos were never connected to Sheldon's work.

Here are posture photos of ten more Yale students that I had the opportunity to acquire.  For privacy reasons, I redact the names of men who might still be alive.  Three of these men may still be alive, so their names are redacted.

This is Yale Freshman M. B. on March 15, 1953.

In 1952, Yale installed an apparatus using mirrors to photograph the front, rear, side and top view.  Prior to that, the posture photo was just a side view.

This is Yale freshman William Jessup Hand on Oct. 11, 1958.

Note the strange pins stuck to each student's back and chest.  The pins were stuck on at specific points for later posture analysis.

This is Yale freshman Douglas Burr Robinson on Oct. 21, 1958.

Supposedly, by examining the angles formed by connecting the points where the pins touched the body, certain posture problems could be detected. 

This is Yale freshman Robert Holbrook Whitby on Oct. 23, 1958.

If posture problems were detected, the student had to attend remedial posture sessions, and a second posture photo was taken.

This is Yale freshman R. R. on Oct. 22, 1958.

The photography and analysis of the photos was conducted by the staff of Yale's Payne Whitney Gymnasium.

This is Yale freshman S. L. on Feb. 20, 1948.

The rest of today's photos were taken before 1952 and show only a side view.

This is Yale freshman Richard Austin Tilghman on March 3, 1948.

Nobody outside the gymnasium staff saw the photos, and the photos were not published for other students to see.

This is Yale freshman Peter Alexander Nowakowski on Jan. 16, 1948.

The posture photo program was discontinued in the 1960s, and later, most of the photos were burned.

This is Yale freshman Erling Christian Christopherson on April 15, 1948.

However, some of the photos escaped burning, including the photos that I have been showing in this series.

This is Yale freshman Robert Jones Lambert on Feb. 16, 1948.

*          *          *

Note: some of my followers consider these photos an invasion of privacy for the students.  To protect the privacy of the students, I redact the names of students who may still be alive.  I only publish the names of students who have died.  Legally, the right to privacy does not extend beyond death, i.e. it does not extend to spouses, children, grandchildren, etc. of the deceased person.

I consider these photos to be a historical record of the time.  Almost all of the Ivy League posture photos were burned when their existence became widely known.  In my opinion, that was akin to book-burning of books that someone claimed were obscene.  These photos are not obscene.  They should be celebrated, not hidden away.

Ads - Part 63

 Posters part 5

We continue our mini-series on ads in the form of posters featuring nude males.  Today, posters from the 1960s through the 1990s.  Above, a 1968 German poster for Andy Warhol's film Flesh.

A 1968 Soviet poster.  The slogan says "The lord of the world will be labor."

A poster for the 1970 German film Dein Mann das unbekannte Wesen (The Sensual Male).

A Spanish poster for the 1976 film Sebastiane.  The film, made in Britain by Derek Jarman, is about the life of St. Sebastian.  The film was aimed at a gay audience.  Critics found it controversial for its depiction of homoerotic behavior among the Roman soldiers, and for the fact that the film's dialog is entirely in Latin.

A 1980 poster for Eau Sauvage by Christian Dior.

A poster for the 1981 German film Das Boot (The Boat).

A poster for a 1991 Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition.

A 1992 AIDS poster by David McDiarmid.

A German poster for the 1992 American film Bad Lieutenant.

We end with a 1997 poster for an exhibition of the work of photographer Herb Ritts.

Next time: posters from 2000 to 2013.

Naked Farmer - Part 40

 State of Nature

We continue our series of photos posted by the Naked Farmer, Ben Brooksby, a young Australian farmer who posts photos of naked Australian farmers on social media sites. The naked photos are to get people's attention, and his message is to encourage people with mental health issues like suicidal thoughts to talk about it with someone and not to hide it away. Ben himself had suffered from panic attacks in school.

Farmers send Ben naked photos of themselves from all over Australia.  I organize the photos by which Australian state they're from.  Today's photos did not specify a state, so I call them "state of nature."

The photo above was called "Shepherd."

This one had the description: "Some call it the middle of nowhere, but for them it's the centre of their world."

Spring sunset.

Standing in a field.  I wonder what he's thinking.

This one was labeled "Stars and moon."

Rototiller.  Do you thing he has enough tattoos, or does he need some more?

This one was labeled "The rat race.  Stop and smell the roses."  I see no roses, but I think he's taking a well-deserved break.

The red-earth country.

Waving to the cattle and horses.

We end with the Bell End.  In British slang, the bell end is the head of the penis.  It also means someone who is acting like a jerk.  It's like calling someone a dickhead.

Bodybuilders - Part 16

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Hiking - Part 63

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