The Hype of Nakedness
Over the past few weeks I've come to something of a realisation: my body is mine, I can change it to a degree but it will always be my body. It will have blemishes and marks, stretches and hair and lines and it will not always be taught or tight. My body is perfect, I may not have always thought so but it is. And I am happy.
Something of an epiphany I know. There's probably going to be a lot more work to accepting this realisation every day as well. But I have started a journey of appreciation not many find the serenity to make.
I have also realised everyone has a body. We all have similar parts, and they are just anatomy. Nudity is not alluring or seductive unless the lights are dim and the candles smell like some awful rendition of musk. Nakedness in its simplest form is merely the most natural state of being human.
While reading Porter magazine recently I found an article by Lisa Hilton on the mixed messages of being naked, of what the media and society say, and how that view has changed over the years. Where previously I was unaware of the debate around the Playboy decision to cease showing naked women it became apparent to me that being naked was more than just a personal experience. It is a collective, an appreciation of society of what we are and enjoying our bodies, not hiding our natural state.
The idea that nudity is a taboo, and somewhat explicit is confusing, especially as a young woman coming to terms with her body and sharing it. Yet being told that my body should be concealed, that it is inappropriate to show too much skin here, but far too modest to cover up too much there is creating a fragmented image of what my body really is. A resounding realisation came to me after reading Hilton's view, especially when she said that "I am less threatened by men who want to admire my nakedness, or indeed leer, ogle and pant over it, than I am by men who want to conceal it." Her opinion rang clear brought to reconciliation all the experiences in the past year where I had revelled in my nudity rather than shied away from it.
Nudity, particularly in a woman, is controversial and always will be. There is no denying that in certain circumstances nudity will not be appropriate, modesty will have its place in society and that is great. But the stigma around a naked woman is unreasonable. The sexualisation of a body is not perverted, it is completely justified, in the right context. A woman's anatomy should not be sexualised while she is attempting to express her views, political, humanitarian or personal. A woman should not be ridiculed for her anatomy, her size and shape as a means to degrade her value or input or opinion.
The representation of the female body is not to be dictated by the members of society who have no control on said body; basically men. And as a feminist being told to conceal myself goes against the basic instinct of freedom. If I want to embrace my nudity I will, if I want to conceal it I will. Men have no foundations to say whether or not a woman body should be on show; their opinion on what is to be revealed and not is unjustified.
Hilton really highlighted a debate I was unaware I was jumping into. As a young woman I cant deny the part I play in the debate over my body, it is my body after all. The more aware we are of nudity the less prohibited a naked body becomes.
Something of an epiphany I know. There's probably going to be a lot more work to accepting this realisation every day as well. But I have started a journey of appreciation not many find the serenity to make.
I have also realised everyone has a body. We all have similar parts, and they are just anatomy. Nudity is not alluring or seductive unless the lights are dim and the candles smell like some awful rendition of musk. Nakedness in its simplest form is merely the most natural state of being human.
While reading Porter magazine recently I found an article by Lisa Hilton on the mixed messages of being naked, of what the media and society say, and how that view has changed over the years. Where previously I was unaware of the debate around the Playboy decision to cease showing naked women it became apparent to me that being naked was more than just a personal experience. It is a collective, an appreciation of society of what we are and enjoying our bodies, not hiding our natural state.
The idea that nudity is a taboo, and somewhat explicit is confusing, especially as a young woman coming to terms with her body and sharing it. Yet being told that my body should be concealed, that it is inappropriate to show too much skin here, but far too modest to cover up too much there is creating a fragmented image of what my body really is. A resounding realisation came to me after reading Hilton's view, especially when she said that "I am less threatened by men who want to admire my nakedness, or indeed leer, ogle and pant over it, than I am by men who want to conceal it." Her opinion rang clear brought to reconciliation all the experiences in the past year where I had revelled in my nudity rather than shied away from it.
Nudity, particularly in a woman, is controversial and always will be. There is no denying that in certain circumstances nudity will not be appropriate, modesty will have its place in society and that is great. But the stigma around a naked woman is unreasonable. The sexualisation of a body is not perverted, it is completely justified, in the right context. A woman's anatomy should not be sexualised while she is attempting to express her views, political, humanitarian or personal. A woman should not be ridiculed for her anatomy, her size and shape as a means to degrade her value or input or opinion.
The representation of the female body is not to be dictated by the members of society who have no control on said body; basically men. And as a feminist being told to conceal myself goes against the basic instinct of freedom. If I want to embrace my nudity I will, if I want to conceal it I will. Men have no foundations to say whether or not a woman body should be on show; their opinion on what is to be revealed and not is unjustified.
Hilton really highlighted a debate I was unaware I was jumping into. As a young woman I cant deny the part I play in the debate over my body, it is my body after all. The more aware we are of nudity the less prohibited a naked body becomes.
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