Vanessa Austin Locke: we all love Botticelli

I’m not saying I have the best job in the world or anything, but it’s got to be up there. This week I will mainly be: wearing corsets, shooting saucy films, reading and writing erotica, test driving sex toys, sampling new cocktails and planning a party. The strangest life I’ve ever known, as Jim Morrison said. In truth, as facetious as I can be, I actually take my job, and life in general, very seriously. I think sex is an art form, and like any art form it should be a transcendental experience, that puts us in touch with truth and beauty, and I love that the work I do goes some way towards helping people achieve that. God, I sound like a hippy. Well, I am a Steiner-baby.

The creative nature of my work means that I get to meet and work with some extraordinary artistes, most recently the painter Req, who is, as I write this, creating a seductive fresco in the courtyard of our new emporium on Ship Street. We had little trouble convincing people that a work of art featuring female bottoms and breasts was a thing of beauty, and after negotiating the veiling of a nipple and the repositioning of a hand we got the green light.

But there’s been outrage in Vienna recently (do the Viennese get outraged?) following the opening of the Nude Men exhibition at the Leopold Museum, charting the male nude throughout art history. So far it’s attracted more visitors than the Gustav Klimt exhibition earlier this year. Giant posters of naked men with their giant naked man parts on display have been censored around the city. But why? They haven’t made us put a willy-warmer on the ding-dong of Michelangelo’s David.
It made me realise that actually, the male body is probably more of a taboo than the female in some respects. Is the phallus still seen as such a threat that we have to cover it up? I think I’m right in saying that public nudity is legal in the UK, but a man’s penis must be flaccid (what a shame) and neither men nor women must harass, alarm or distress others. So why censor art that’s interpreting and expressing natural beauty (and by beauty I don’t just mean ‘pretty’) when our TV screens and magazines are jam-packed with grotesque images of fake flesh and borderline pornography?

They called me controversial in my first column, and maybe I do have a wide-open view in some respects, but I can be very conservative when it comes to certain things. I for one find the naked bike ride most upsetting. All those sweaty butt-cheeks and that tackle bouncing around. Ick. I must conclude that it comes down to aesthetics for me, which leaves any argument I may make riddled with contradictions, because I am the beholder and the beauty’s in my eye.
So I suppose the best we can do is to look away from the things we dislike and gaze on the things we love.
Do we need censorship to help us do this? Well, yes, we probably do in some cases; it’s our duty to protect the young, the vulnerable and those unable to protect themselves from things that may hurt, upset or frighten them. But when it comes to artistic expression, nine times out of ten I’ll be on the side of art, because that’s the good stuff… the transcendental… the higher plane. That’s where I want to be. I’ve no doubt that our beautiful fresco will raise a few eyebrows, but scandal puts the stir in sterling, right?

I’d like to invite you all to come along on 29 November from 5.30pm for a party across She Said Erotic Boutique, She Said Erotic Emporium, She Said Bridal and the She Said Gallery to help us celebrate the human body in all its forms and functions, through the eye of you, the beholder.

On the cards so far is the unveiling of Req’s fresco, the opening of the new store, the launch of the new blog, showings of our short film featuring Brighton pin-up beauties Simone Jane Piper and Bethan Moyse, the birth of the She Said cocktail, live lingerie models, a champagne and oyster bar and up to 20 per cent off everything across the stores. In fact, let’s make it 20 per cent off all weekend for Latest 7 readers.