Translated material
Naked patriotism
The girlfriends of British soldiers supported them with a military-erotic calendar
Charitable exhibitionism has long been no longer an original technique, but it still brings certain results. This was proven by the action of several dozen wives and girlfriends of British soldiers and officers. The second half of the military personnel who were sent as part of the coalition forces to Afghanistan and Iraq who remained at home decided to spend the time waiting for loved ones with benefit for the soldiers returning from the East with wounds and psychological trauma. Despite the fact that the second quarter of 2010 has already begun, militarized nude calendars for this year are still being sold in the UK. The women depicted in it, united in a kind of partnership of wives and girlfriends of British servicemen, have already managed to raise about 26 thousand pounds, reports The Daily Mail.The initiator of this action was a 20-year-old young lady with modeling beginnings, Kelly Monk. According to her, she also wanted to support her boyfriend Andrew Mason, who is serving in the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment. She found the best way to show her concern was to raise funds for the Help for Heroes charity foundation, which helps military personnel returning from the war. In correspondence with other friends of British soldiers, Miss Monk found that many shared her desire to donate to the fund, which has already raised about £30 million in the last two years. All that remained was to choose a fundraising method. The young ladies did not become particularly original - they invited fashion photographer Roy Goodwin and undressed.
Goodwin had to work hard, filming five dozen women at a military base and training center in Hampshire, most of them with complexes, and the eldest of whom was already over 40. He himself, in an interview with The Daily Mail, politically correctly noted that, posing in front of with his camera, the ladies showed great patience. True, none of the photographs depicting soldiers’ girlfriends near and inside strategic objects such as airplanes and submarines resembles an example of photographic art. And the resulting calendar can be classified very conditionally as a nude genre - despite the fact that the women are not wearing clothes, they were filmed in such a way that their private parts were covered with objects, often for military purposes, notes Newsru.com. It is this Puritan calendar that is sold in the UK for 7 pounds 49 pence. For 9.99, the calendar comes with a bonus - a poster of a more naked Kelly Monk.
Initially, Miss Monk planned to raise at least 50 thousand pounds for veterans of the Afghan and Iraqi campaigns. But the fact that she collected half, taking into account the simplicity of the photographs used in the calendar, can be considered an achievement. It is noteworthy that another initiative group of soldiers’ friends, led by 33-year-old Sarah Bennett Thurston, planned to donate a slightly larger amount to the Help for Heroes fund. Their 2010 photo calendar, Garrison Girls, was also on sale for £10, but the images used were decidedly more artsy. This group does not report its financial results.
It is not known how many British military personnel stationed in hot spots learned about their friends’ initiative, but the action certainly did not go unnoticed by the British generals. The Chief of the General Staff of the British Armed Forces, General Richard Dannatt, on behalf of all military personnel, expressed gratitude for the support of his troops.