The Vilena Pose

Sometimes it takes a daring woman to create change and trends. In the world of pin-up photography, certain poses become famous for these daring women, and a few of these poses are now considered classics. Think about Marilyn Monroe, who posed with her dress being blown up and showing her bare legs!  At the time it was scandalous.  And now with the Internet, a classic Myspace/Facebook photo usually consists of one or two peoples smiling with one arm outreached, as though they don’t have any other friends to ask to take their picture.

So what can a woman do to present herself in a sexy way but without the means to get someone else to take her picture? Legend has it, Vilena, a Russian woman who was on an online dating site, ran into this exact issue. Her solution? To pose in front of a mirror on her hands and knees with her butt up in the air and snap a photo from a cheap camera. The result? A weird but somehow sexy photo of a woman that doesn’t reveal much except creativity and joie de vivre!

Somehow this photo has become a viral Internet phenomenon, with a few people posting their interpretation of “The Vilena Pose”. The general elements of the photo include a bare or g-stringed butt in the air forming a sort of halo-effect around the subject’s head, on hands and knees in the “doggy-style” position, and a small camera in one hand blocking a portion of the face.

Of course, after seeing this phenomenon I just had to try it out for myself. I decided I wanted a nice backdrop so I laid down a sheepskin rug in front of the fireplace. I struck a pose and found it to be surprisingly difficult to do. Here are a few pointers for anyone else who wants to try this for themselves. In order to keep a nice arch in the back you should keep your knees together. If one knee is even one inch behind the other, it gives the illusion that your buttcheeks are lopsided, and that is not pretty! And if you spread your legs apart, it reduces the height of your butt, which makes it more difficult to maintain the halo. If you’re large-chested, it helps to have strategically place your hair in front of yourself to avoid looking like you have udders hanging down.  If you don’t have long hair, you can either keep your chest on the floor or grab a blanket to lay in front of you, since one of the things that makes this pose sexy is that it doesn’t show traditional secondary sex characteristics. Then there was an issue of perspective. I found myself taking several photos just to see which was working and which wasn’t. This was when my back started to hurt, and I ended up with rugburns on my elbows! Damn you, Vilena!

The final product, though, was a surprisingly good photo. By arching the back, any cellulite is erased and what’s left is a beautifully toned butt. I wore a cute g-string that gave it a nice “whale-tail” effect. The expression on my face shows that I was just having fun and being silly. If I were in the market to be on an online dating site, I would consider posting this shot, as it has elements of tease and creativity, two things I admire most about pin-up shots.  Besides, if someone couldn’t handle a silly photo like that, they wouldn’t be able to handle me.

Since I took the shot, I posted in on my private Flickr account. So far, the stats show that it is definitely a flash-in-the-pan novelty, receiving more than 120 hits the first day, which dwindled down to about 30 hits on the second day. I suspect that, like the surprised prairie dog and Chocolate Rain guy, this will be a trend that’s short-lived. It would be fun, however, if it ended up being considered a “classic” pose in years to come. Imagine seeing billboards, greeting cards, postcards, or product labels featuring models in the Vilena pose. Only time will tell…