I ramble.
I'm constantly encountering a weird sort of prudery that pervades certain art and music scenes. People who have no idea what art and fetish modeling or burlesque entails will immediately condemn it, simply on the basis that it involves female nakedness.
While I agree that depictions of the female body in our culture are almost completely sexualized, and often degrading and exploitative, I can't understand why some choose to write off any nudity as tasteless and harmful. The female (and yes, male!) bodies typically displayed are harmful in the sense that they do no represent more than one or two types of bodies or personalities. Neither, in my opinion, do they represent a true sense of nakedness.
Nudity exposes both physical and emotional secrets, and when nakedness is stripped of its symbolic and ritual meaning, it becomes only another mask - something that is prevalent, almost necessary in our culture. Nakedness denotes vulnerability and honesty, but also power and respect. Stripped of artifice, the body - and the human inside it - speaks only for itself.
Burlesque approaches this theme with both artifice and fantasy, but when the outer trappings of appeal are thrown off, the bodies of burlesque performers are exposed to the public eye. The performer allows her naked body to make the final statement. Similarly, visual and performance art - whether sculpture, painting, photography, etc - casts the human body in different lights and separate disguises, but ultimately the body must project whatever emotional meaning the artist hopes to convey. In this way, the human body is a vessel and a conduit; not merely a piece of meat - even if that is what the artist hopes to convey - because it displays cognitive thought and a value system.
While I still question depictions of the naked body that only meant to titillate, I find that honest expression of human nudity and sexuality is a very good thing. A fine line does indeed exist between exploitation and representation. Humans are complicated animals: the same being that seeks to make a cerebral statement also has an unmitigated desire to fuck. I don't have any answers yet; I only know that I stand firmly against any form of expression that involves coercion, force or unequal balance of power. I'd love to see more pornography and visual art that functions as a celebration of human abilities and carnal urges. As long as our culture exists as a patriarchy, however, I believe that nakedness - at least in most depictions - will function as a faceless, generic ideal that forces most humans to view themselves, and others, simply as objects.
I'm constantly encountering a weird sort of prudery that pervades certain art and music scenes. People who have no idea what art and fetish modeling or burlesque entails will immediately condemn it, simply on the basis that it involves female nakedness.
While I agree that depictions of the female body in our culture are almost completely sexualized, and often degrading and exploitative, I can't understand why some choose to write off any nudity as tasteless and harmful. The female (and yes, male!) bodies typically displayed are harmful in the sense that they do no represent more than one or two types of bodies or personalities. Neither, in my opinion, do they represent a true sense of nakedness.
Nudity exposes both physical and emotional secrets, and when nakedness is stripped of its symbolic and ritual meaning, it becomes only another mask - something that is prevalent, almost necessary in our culture. Nakedness denotes vulnerability and honesty, but also power and respect. Stripped of artifice, the body - and the human inside it - speaks only for itself.
Burlesque approaches this theme with both artifice and fantasy, but when the outer trappings of appeal are thrown off, the bodies of burlesque performers are exposed to the public eye. The performer allows her naked body to make the final statement. Similarly, visual and performance art - whether sculpture, painting, photography, etc - casts the human body in different lights and separate disguises, but ultimately the body must project whatever emotional meaning the artist hopes to convey. In this way, the human body is a vessel and a conduit; not merely a piece of meat - even if that is what the artist hopes to convey - because it displays cognitive thought and a value system.
While I still question depictions of the naked body that only meant to titillate, I find that honest expression of human nudity and sexuality is a very good thing. A fine line does indeed exist between exploitation and representation. Humans are complicated animals: the same being that seeks to make a cerebral statement also has an unmitigated desire to fuck. I don't have any answers yet; I only know that I stand firmly against any form of expression that involves coercion, force or unequal balance of power. I'd love to see more pornography and visual art that functions as a celebration of human abilities and carnal urges. As long as our culture exists as a patriarchy, however, I believe that nakedness - at least in most depictions - will function as a faceless, generic ideal that forces most humans to view themselves, and others, simply as objects.
VIEW 6 of 6 COMMENTS
thanks for your words, they were kind and something ive been needing lately.
We all have our little oasis'... i live so much elsewhere than on these plains that friends have taken to calling me fairy princess haha since i really have created another world to live in, when the real one gets to be too much.. but it is easier to do this living the life i do. Someday, i think, im going to run into a rude awakening.
Until then...
xo