Nuns & Nudity: Racy Equinox ad hardly shocks

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What would Jesus do if he saw the new ad campaign for posh gym, Equinox? God only knows, but the Catholic Church isn’t lost for words.

“It says a great deal about this perverse obsession in both the fashion industry and the advertising industry of exploiting and mocking and sexualizing Catholic religious imagery,” C.J. Doyle of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts has stated.

Equinox fired back: “Our ad campaigns are based on personal motivation and fantasy and throughout history the body has been considered a form of art.”

But who fantasizes about nuns painting nudes? Or is this supposed to be a common fantasy of nuns themselves, who dream of ogling, er, sketching genitals when they’re not praying? If so, Equinox shouldn’t expect a giant boost in membership from local convents. The Rage highly doubts that we’ll be seeing women in spandex habits doing Pilates and spin classes at the Equinox on Sunset Boulevard.

Clearly, Equinox aimed to shock. And, in a way, they did because people are talking about the new campaign shot by fashion photog, Ellen von Unwerth. But hasn’t Madonna already pirouetted on this sacred ground a million times? Didn’t she even hump a cross in one of her videos? In a world in which stripper poles have become de rigueur household appliances, The Rage says: ‘Yawn.’

Are you offended?