Slate human guinea pig Emily Yoffe bares it all for the sake of art... Alex Chadwick speaks with Yoffe about her experience being a nude model for an art class. Yoffe has previously visited a hypnotist, entered a matzo ball-eating contest and tried to beat a lie detector test.
ALEX CHADWICK, host: This is DAY TO DAY.  I'm Alex Chadwick.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: Time now for another visit to the research lab that is Emily Yoffe's      life.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: Emily, welcome back to DAY TO DAY.</s>EMILY YOFFE (Slate): Nice to be here.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: Dear listeners, Emily's best known as the Human Guinea Pig for      the online magazine Slate, where's she's a writer.  In her Human Guinea      Pig role, she takes on unusual or unpleasant tasks that the rest of us      wonder about, but would never actually do.  A partial list of her      accomplishments include telephone psychic--you were great at that,      Emily--matzo ball-eating contest--I can't remember how you came out on      that one.</s>EMILY YOFFE (Slate): I lost, but I was the leading female contender.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: Beauty pageant participant--and, it turned out, the winner,      Mrs. Washington, DC--street musician.  She's back today to tell us      about--well, this would have to be your most revealing role so far,      Emily.  What exactly is it?</s>EMILY YOFFE (Slate): I posed nude for an art class, twice.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: This didn't involve an ad in one of these free weekly      newspapers, did it?</s>EMILY YOFFE (Slate): Well, if you give me your credit card, Alex, we might work      something out.  No, this was utterly legit.  This was at the Corcoran      College of Art & Design in Washington, DC, a renowned institution.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: That's a big, important thing.  And what sort of--I'll put      this as delicately as I can--what sort of qualifications does one need to      be a nude model?</s>EMILY YOFFE (Slate): I found there were two main qualifications.  One, you owned a      bathrobe.  Two, you'd be willing to take it off.  I think those were      probably the two things.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: Well, you don't--one need not be Rubenesque, say.</s>EMILY YOFFE (Slate): The application asked me for a physical description, and I asked      the interviewer what was meant by that and she said, `Well, you know,      some people write "swimmer's build" or something like that.'  I wrote      `middle-aged woman,' and--but that was all right.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: It must be normal, I would guess, for art students to see      this. But still, if I were in that position, I would be expecting maybe a      room full of gasps or some horrified--I don't know.</s>EMILY YOFFE (Slate): I myself really had to suppress giggles, and I mean, I could see      a couple of the students were seeing me about to crack up, and then I      thought, `Oh, if they start laughing, that's just going to be the worst.'      So I got myself together; no one laughed.  I mean, everyone's had the      dream you show up in class naked.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: Yeah.</s>EMILY YOFFE (Slate): And in the dream, you realize, `Hmm.  OK, this isn't good, but      I'm going to act like I meant to show up naked.'  So it's very much like      that.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: In your piece in Slate, you quote another woman who is a nude      model, and I was interested to read what she said about it.</s>EMILY YOFFE (Slate): Yes.  Well, she was, as she described to me, a starving artist.      And so there are certain starving-artist jobs and she said, `This was so      much better than working at Starbucks or an electronics store.'  And it      paid better, too.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: What is the pay for nude modeling?</s>EMILY YOFFE (Slate): It was $15 an hour.  Now that's about three times the minimum      wage just to sit on your rear end.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: Do you get cold?  That's something that always seemed to me      would be kind of a job hazard here.  Wouldn't you get chilly?</s>EMILY YOFFE (Slate): Good point.  They hand you a list of guidelines.  Now your      obligation is to have proper hygiene at all times.  Their obligation is      to turn up the heat if you say you're cold.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: Well, how did it go as you're sitting there in class?  What      happened, and how did things develop?</s>EMILY YOFFE (Slate): The first class, the teacher didn't tell me what to do, which      made it both sort of interesting and a little more stressful.  I started      doing, like, semi-yoga things and I was worried, `This is verging on yoga      porn here.'  And I got in one pose--I was kind of down on all fours      because I had to hold it for 20 minutes, and this middle-aged man who      really liked the pose called out, `Great pose!' which actually made me a      little uneasy.  And he started painting away and painting away just      really vigorously; I could hear him.  And during the break, I went and      looked at all the drawings, and most people were using pencil and chalk.      And in some, I looked quite lovely; some I looked like a giant toad.  And      he had done this almost fresco-like portrait of my rear end. And I have      to say I really wanted to buy it and put it over the mantelpiece. It was      like the "Mona Lisa" of rear ends.  It was really great.  I mean, it was      much nicer than my actual one.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: Well, maybe not.  Maybe this is it.  Are you going to      continue? You have a--you've launched a budding career as a nude model,      as the Human Guinea Pig.  Is this something you would continue?</s>EMILY YOFFE (Slate): No, I'm not going to continue because I looked up the history of      artist models.  It's very tortured.  You know, they tend to have, like,      breakdowns or commit suicide, and I just don't want to go down that path.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: Emily Yoffe is the long-suffering Human Guinea Pig for our      friends at the online magazine Slate.  You can find her article there on      nude modeling at slate.com.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: Emily, thank you again.</s>EMILY YOFFE (Slate): Thank you, Alex.