Let me ask you a question - what is wrong with a woman's body?

Everyday women are constantly thrown images of the "perfect" body in magazines, on television, and from the human gaze. We judge our own body image by what we are told is "beautiful" by the media. We obsess about calories, working out, and what others are thinking of us. We suffer from the "gaze" upon us.

As a student at a women's college, I feel the obsession with the "perfect" body is even more prevalent in my environment. Women, even when surrounded by other women, still compare their body image with those around them. Everywhere they are glancing up and down, comparing, and often left feeling insecure about their own body.

"Look at her - she's lost weight. I wonder how she did it."

Women gossip about who might have an eating disorder and who works out all the time. They also gossip about who is gaining weight. "The body" is what seems to always make the first impression - not the mind.

So imagine the controversy some students might have when nude photographs are put up in an art gallery and when women's minds have been programmed to accept only the "perfect" body nude. What happens when a nude female body is distorted and not as beautiful as the human mind thinks it should be?

When women have constantly been exploited in pornography as sex objects, in magazines, and on television as having the "perfect" body, no wonder many students are offended to see nude photographs that do not represent these ideals on the wall.

We have become ashamed of our bodies. Rape, pornography, and the media strip away the female's identity- her identity to accept her whole self and appreciate who she is as a woman.

Photography is a medium that can be used to change these constructed "bodies". Bodies do not have to be "perfect" or "sexual" to be beautiful. Unfortunately, that is what society has created in many minds. Or that nude photograph automatically equals pornography. Women have become ashamed of their bodies, therefore becoming ashamed of who they are. Then, when a nude photograph of a female is put in their face, they expect it to be another "perfect" body they should strive to look like.

What about nude figure drawings? Artists have been drawing and painting the nude figure for centuries. However, the nude figure in this medium of art is often viewed as beautiful even if the body is not "perfect". Why is it different in photography? Is a photo too close to reality?

We should not be ashamed of our bodies. Unfortunately, the "ideal" body image and how it has been exploited has blurred our vision in the mirror and in photography.

• Bare art