A New York Post reporter, Amber Jamieson, paraded semi-naked in Times Square wearing only body paint to mask her nudity.  It was a piece of “undercover journalism” aimed at ridiculing a decision by the city’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, and state governor, Andrew Cuomo, to crack down on the so-called “painted ladies” who wander the square and receive tips for posing with tourists.  The New York police department has created a 47-person taskforce of “impact officers” supposedly to bring order to the city’s tourist mecca.  Police chief James O’Neill explained that “there are many issues in Times Square” due to the performers who congregate there, including costumed characters and the painted women (also known by the Spanish moniker, desnudas).  So Jamieson’s response was a journalistic stunt that her editors were delighted to feature on the front page with the headine: “The naked truth: reporter goes incog-nude-o in Times Square.” Her breasts were covered with a panel saying “Censored by Mayor de Blasio.”  She had her body painted and then, wearing only a thong and a striking feathered headpiece, joined the regular retinue of nearly naked “performers.”  On her chest was a heart-shaped American flag with the stripes running down her legs and the letters “NY” “on my butt in red and white.”  As passers-by gawked at her and took photos, she reported that the experience was “scary, but also kind of liberating”, which left her “feeling full of girl power.”  Performers are not allowed to ask for money but can, and do, accept tips. Jamieson was given $20 by “some tall, male tourists from eastern Europe” after she had posed with her arm around the waist of one. Another picture was snapped “with me flashing my booty to the camera.”  According to her report, lots of women stopped to offer encouragement during her seven-hour stint as a painted lady. And she made $286 in all.  She wrote: “I realise the fight against the painted ladies is deeply sexist.” In her view the women were “exercising their ­legal right to be topless and hustle for money in the world’s centre of capitalism.”  And she concluded: “Of all the issues to dedicate task forces and extra cops, ­going after painted ladies seems like naked politics.”  Unsurprisingly, there was some criticism of Jamieson’s stunt. One writer on the Gothamist news blog, called it “well-intentioned” but complained that there were “no substantive quotes or interviews” with the female performers.  It meant that there was no exploration of the women’s reason for their nude performances. The writer quoted one, Saira Nicole, as saying:  “A woman’s body is always going to be commercialised. But as soon as a woman takes control and says I’m going to commercialise myself, that’s a problem.”  He also thought the fact that many of the women are Latinas suggested “a racial component” to the Post’s article that went “completely unexamined.”  In a tweet, Jamieson sportingly called it “a valid piece of criticism of my painted lady piece.”
Post writer Amber Jamieson dares to bare for an exposé of the police crackdown on the ‘painted ladies’ of Times Square