The Thing about Nudity

Jen Macy

for radio?

It’s shocking. Appalling. Faces flush, eyes turn away. Some suppress giggles. One voice shouts encouragement. Tomorrow, it will be in all the papers – “Streaker Loose on Campus”. Eye witnesses will tell the story with amusement and awe: “Guess what I saw today? You won’t believe it!” Why is this display of nudity both horrifying and titillating? It’s just a body, we all have one, and we’ve all seen at least one in its sheer naked glory, haven’t we?

Our American sense of morality dictates what of the body may be displayed, and when. Hollywood nudity is rated “PG-13” for certain displays of the body, “R” if certain female parts are exposed, and “X” when certain male parts are. We know that these social rules we cling to are not shared the world over. Many an American youth has ogled his first pair of breasts among the pages of National Geographic. These people who wear beads, and maybe loincloths, spending their lives in comfortable nudity. We understand that these alien cultures exist, out there somewhere. They don’t have the same super-sexualized images of nudity that we have. There, in warmer climes than we experience, the nude body is expected, comfortable, familiar.

And we internalize our own culturally prescribed notions of nudity. After all, when Adam and Eve tasted of the forbidden fruit, they realized their nudity and covered themselves in shame. Some people are be shocked to learn there are parents who bathe with their children as they reached the ripe old age of three. At the same time, other parents never allow their two and four year old children of different genders to share a bath tub, no matter what the rush. This is a culturally dictated discomfort, felt to different degrees by different people. It was established by ideas of morality and is perpetuated by law and social mores. But realizing that our discomforts are just that, derived from American culture, gives us the freedom to behave in a manner in opposition. And it’s a good thing – with out that courage to behave differently, our streakers would have to enjoy their nudity at home, and we would have miss those titillating marathons.