Getting Naked Again for All the Right Reasons

One of Britain’s top girl bands, The Saturdays, says they now feel ready to embrace their inner sexy, via The Daily Dail. The band is featured in FHM’s February 2010 issue.

‘Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be on the cover of FHM,’ said 20-year-old Essex-born Rochelle Wiseman.

And neither did my nan! I never thought anyone would want to see us prancing around in our underwear, but apparently they do.’

The fear of stripping naked in front of a lover is a perilous thought for most women. Legions of us cry that seducing our partner objectifies us — even if we women are in control of the performance. It’s forbidden!

Sorry, the art of seduction is not forbidden in my playbook. I encourage it, because it gives a woman confidence, once she gets the guts to do it.

It broke my heart — actually I sent a rare nastygram — reading  a “10 Tips for Feeling Always Sexy with Your Guy” article a couple years back.  Put pink lights in your bedroom, it advised. Your butt will look smaller when you’re walking naked into the bathroom, and he won’t see your cellulite.

The magazine wasn’t Vogue or even Cosmopolitan but one supposedly woman-friendly.  How about this terrific story in the Daily Mail Strip off in front of a man? Oh yes I can! The small but significant achievements that make life worth living . .

Please don’t yell at me but the woman writer Linda Kelsey is in … ahem … her fifties.

Rather than make new resolutions for 2010, Kelsey decided to celebrate the changes from 2009. I like this idea and for certain, scheduling an annual post-mortem on previous resolutions seems like a good idea. Linda Kelsey is celebrating her ‘I Can Do This’ moments. Love it, Linda!

After a divorce and 25 years of monogamy, Kelsey writes that she was sure she would never take her clothes off in front of another man. There’s a lot of women in her club. I can’t say that I was one of them, BUT the idea of a strip tease is its own unique moment in self love and confidence.

Linda Kelsey wasn’t averse to dating, thank goodness, and she met a guy who didn’t rush her into bed. They met over a few months and let the pot simmer, so to speak.

Quoting her words, I see the Linda Kelsey didn’t do a strip tease. She just got naked. No problem. We’ll have a strip tease feature another day. Millions of ‘real women’ of every age can relate to Kelsey’s accomplishment item #4:

Then I went away for a few weeks. We emailed and I thought of him often. I came home. We met up again and spent the whole day walking in the country. When it happened that night it was all so simple.

‘I CAN DO THIS!’ I thought, with uninhibited joy. I finally remembered that sex is about how we connect, not what we look like.