Equality Of The Sexes. What Happened To The Nude Male?
I think that most reasonable people would agree that the concept of equality knows no qualifiers. Simply, equality shouldn't be based on race, creed, class, sex, sexual orientation, culture, beliefs, etc. This said, we do have a variety of injustices across the world from female genital mutilation to the disparity in health care between different communities/populations, to the denial of equal marriage rights to homosexuals, and much more. Each of these involves great causes and I do not want to simplify their meanings. Simply, they're not what I intend to address here. Instead, I'd like to ask, what happened to the nude male?
Throughout different cultures and eras, the human form has been admired. The female body was worshipped as a temple of fertility and womanhood. The male body was portrayed by sculptors to be a pillar of strength and perseverance. Thus, why do we see the lack of nude males being displayed throughout our society? Personally, I have a fascination with the human body, its form, and function, and it's part of the reason why I'm in medical school. I'm amazed by how our bodies work. Thus, why are we not admiring the exquisiteness which is, essentially, us?
It has been my observation that the female form is revered in a way almost dysfunctional for both men and women. Women (especially teenage girls), often feel the need to conform to a certain socially accepted appearance. In fact, many may face lifelong challenges and health problems, shown through eating disorders, simply as a means of striving for an unobtainable, unnatural, and unhealthy figure.
Quite interestingly, men are not free from this burden either. In fact, many men are made to feel that they shouldn't express their feelings openly, lest they be perceived as less "manly". We are not stoic, uncaring figures, so why should it be accepted that this should be status quo? Further, our disbelief that our emotions should be displayed is further compounded by homophobia. We feel that we would be scrutinized for looking at the male body with the same curiosity with which we look at the female form. Incredibly, homophobia has helped to further entrap men's emotions and secure an uneasy internal struggle that is never fully addressed. However, this does not exist in all cultures.
When I was in South Korea, I was amazed to see a culture in which men were not wracked with homophobia. Men held hands just as women did. It was seen as a sign of respect so as if to tell the world "I appreciate this person's company", and not hint at the sexual orientation of both men. Teenage boys sometimes held each other as teenage girls do here. In fact, while camping, I stood up once and had a bunch of dirt and leaves on my butt. One of the Korean guys simply rubbed the dirt off of me with no worry or consideration about a perceived hint at his sexuality. It was at this moment that I saw how truly dysfunctional we are in the US. We live in a society being afraid of how others might view us. We limit our curiosities because of how we might be portrayed.
Thus, my question is, how do we get away from this need for external acceptance? How may we learn to be happier, and definitely much healthier, without worry, shame, guilt, and remorse?
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Comments: 116
lol
On a serious note, this is a great topic of discussion. However, it is early and I can't seem to find anything witty to add to it. It does give me something to think about though. :)
But it also has to do with our taste for art and erotica. Even many women are more "turned on" by the grace of the female form than the male form. Perhaps when men become more compassionate and empathic in our behaviors, the male form will hold a more culturally-wide imprint of beauty for a far wider population.
Most of the nude or near-nude men we see in advertisements or in erotica, shows the male as an aggressive beast dominating the female form. Hence, the male form loses a distinct quality of grace. That can be reclaimed once the male nude form is an absolutely equal player -- even with all that musculature -- in its characterization and interaction with the female form.
Does this make sense?
Obviously, you do not watch NFL or NBA football where muscular male nudes are presented on TV each and every day.
Watch the post games interviews on your nightly news. You don't need cable for that.
;)
if there is someone to blame for our ridiculous paranoia and homophobia, you gotta thank all those good ol' fashioned puritanical crackhead christians for their repressed influences.
let's face it, western society is a society filled with fear...
fear of individuality.
fear of showing honest emotion.
we are a cut-throat society that could care less about the "whole." grant it, there are a few folks on the outskirts of the american norm who still believe that it takes a village to raise a child and that success is best when shared by all, but the majority of americans are all about the "me."
but back to nudity and the man. along with all the other crap that religion and the powers that bestowed upon us, they also gave us "shame." the crux of christianity, islam and judaism taught us that sex was bad and all the reasons it was bad.
"shame" is a powerful tool of control. and i think "shame" has much to do with why you don't see the "penis". don't believe me? look on the internet about how many men are concerned about size. if we hide it... no one can really say for sure what the norm is.
(silly time)
ehem... as a guy who REALLY appreciates the body, i say...
BRING ON THE COCK!!!
I have also noticed that women compliment each other in ways that men cannot compliment women without seeming like a lech or as if they are coming on to them. I spend a lot of my time in community theatre, acting and directing. As actors share their dressing rooms it is common amongst us to strip down to the underwear in each other's presence, men and women together, to make costume changes. We also have to be comfortable interacting with each other on stage in ways that one would only do with an intimate sexual partner in real life (kissing, embracing, etc.). Because of this we develop a level of casual, friendly intimacy that is uncommon amongst people who are not actors.
Even so, I recall during one of our costume changes in a play a few years ago, one of the women actors looked at one of the other women actors as she was in her bra and panties and said: "Whoa, smokin' hot body, Marny."
She was correct, Marny who is not a young woman, does have a very hot figure. But I, as a male actor, could not have made that comment while we were both in our underwear (even with a room of other actors around us) without causing discomfort for either Marny or I or someone else in the room.
The exploitation of sex has also created this hyper-sexualized sensitivity in society. We are encouraged through advertiusing and the tactic of cheap titilation paraded as enterttainment to think about sex constantly, meaning we can hardly interact with the opposite sex in a non sexual way or at least without a sexual context on some level.
BTW I refuse to except the fact that women and men are equals
After all why should we ladies lower ourselves ??
I don't have to look hot to enjoy sexual pleasures nor do I have to be perfect in the nude to be sexy
I feel so sorry for anyone who believes other wise you are missing so much !!
I gag to see Victoria's Secret advertisements. Poses, facial expressions and the "come hither" look in the eyes of the Vickie's models are NOT about selling undergarments. Did you know, by the way, that bra sizes for the more "generously endowed" woman are not available in the Victoria's Secret stores? Larger sizes are only available through the catalog.
The male body no longer represents "strength and perseverance". Handsome, well-oiled, buffed-out guys soliciting a fragrance that will knock the sox off a female admirer are merely in illusion. The first thought that instantly comes to a straight woman's mind is "oh, baby, come here".........the second thought is "he's gay".
You're right, Dan. The human body is no longer appreciated as one of our Creator's most magnificent gifts. It's about sex.
Outside the artistic world and maybe the medical field, I think it's highly unlikely that in the U.S. "society" the nude body will ever be seen again as a monument of beauty. (And looking at my neighbor's fully-clothed figure while working outdoors and while bending over his garden, I'm glad.)
Richard Owl Mirror ~ About the guy with the beard; I think I dated this guy once. He looked a whole lot better when they gave "last call"!
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I think it shows the extent of media brainwashing in English speaking societies. If a Swedish of German couple in their sixties like to walk along the beach naked, we should respect them by not gawking, sniggering or commenting. Why should they be embarrassed about being old, after all its the false tanned, botoxed, silicon enhanced bodies that are not natural.
Your article is commendable. I'm so glad I read it and I hope many more will see how well you have stated your concerns. Recognizing the sickness in our society regarding our sexual attitudes is the first step towards healing.
The one thing that comes to mind is Michael Jackson song.
You have to look in the mirror and figure yourself out first!
Thats where it starts if everyone had to look in their own mirror and break down what you are actually made of, your thoughts, your beliefs, your upbringing... Maybe thats where we should start...Make everyone accountable for their own actions, words,and thoughts. Look in the Mirror! If everyone thought for themselves instead of being in the IN Crowd maybe things would be better here. Look what our country did to its people.......There is no freedom ....what happened to the freedom of Christianity in this country ...Our Fore Fathers ....made the USA based on Christianity and now its slowly taken away by people who want 1 world govt, 1 world currenency, 1 world religion.
Thats what happened to the NUDE MAN! Look in the mirror... This whold NUDE MAN thing goes much deeper....the free man , free woman is no longer free!
Suppression leads to reinforcing the very behavioral or thinking pattern one wishes to oust. re: puritanism and Victorianism.
That is why the NUDE MAN Is no longer around..... You didnt really read what I wrote other wise you wouldnt have stole my idea
Oh well , that s life I guess USA stick it in the a$$ of someone else!
Prime example of your own article............
I am mad but Like I said I forgive you cause you are my Gather Friend......
And men think women are weird! LOL
That much has definitely improved.
We too had male models to draw in art classes. But older women demanded that that part of their anatomy be covered with either swim trunks or towel.
Well thought through, and gracefully constructed. This is the type of posting that I came to gather FOR originally. This one could and should be published by someone in the mainstream print media.
Dubby is 100% correct in her assessmet of the causes. MEN want to look AT women and women only want to look at THEIR man. ( in general anyway )
One INequality that ssems to be inherent biologically is that men on the whole are more sexually driven than women, so it follows that female nudes would be more influential on men.
Forgive me for cherry picking a small section to elaborate on BUT . . . .
I disagree with the assumption that denying homosexual marriage is wholly an inequality, since the very definition of marriage thru the ages has always been one potential father and one potential mother, two men simply dont fit the prerequisite for that .
BUT I believe there should be a limited form of Civil allowance for homosexual couples to handle custody, inheritances, powers of attorney etc etc etc
BUT I also worry that suddenly allowing tons of homosexual partners to draw SSDI would collapse the whole system for everyone.
As for ERIN and SUZE, I have many nudes of myself, and I am no adonis, BUT I struggle with the confidence to post them here.
In my own life, self nudity is an open, frequent, and comfortable thing.
I think if most women, and even some men, would come to my house and ask me to see me nude, ( SEE it only to start - LOL ) I'd easily and gladly grant that.
I'd LOVE to find a friend or mate who paints or is very photographically inclined to do BETTER nudes of me than I have done alone.
The chat rooms in these sites tend to OVER compliment the womens beauty, while largely ignoring the men who are slightly heavy or otherwise not ideal.
IS THIS a reverse or the problem Dan has raised ? ? ?
Interesting and novel article and interesting comments!
> are in the US. We live in a society being afraid of how others
> might view us. We limit our curiosities because of how we might
> be portrayed.
This is one of the best articles I have seen from you Dan.
I agree. Americans have somehow been led down and path
to social ruin.
I had a similar feeling to this when I saw the movie "SickO" and
it made me think what are we doing to our culture to make it
all about money and greed.
Once people have their eyes open to how unhappy and on a
declining path we Americans are, and what other people think
and do, and how what other people think and do can be better
we begin to think.
America used to be a place where we would take the best
of what we saw elsewhere and incorporate it here. Now we
ignoranantly want to push our mistakes onto the rest of
the world without a thought.
Oh ... and by the way, go see the movie "Forgetting Sarah
Marshall" and you will find out what happened to the
nude male! It is hilarious.
These days in the dominant population of the U.S. the body is seen only in terms of its sexual nature. Even in this comment thread alone, many, albeit jokingly, responded to your discussion of the nude male with sexual innuendo rather than a discussion of the beauty (or lack of beauty depending on one's perception) of the human body. I do not like the way the body has become sexualized. Yes, we are all sexual beings, but the body is so much more than a sexual object to be leered at.
Like you Dan, I am fascinated by the wonder of the human body, inside and out. It's complexity in form and function is incredible. I love that it comes in such a multitudinous variety of sizes and shapes and looks. There is no one perfect body, though our media would say otherwise and does, and, as you say, warps the perceptions of young girls especially so much so that they do damage to their bodies trying to achieve a perfection that does not exist instead of being able to see, each and everyone of them, that they are beautiful in their own right.
Great topic. Very thought-provoking.
I thought it was about time -- I mean, they're stupid any way you look at it but, at least with similar subject matter being presented for both sexes, it was fair...
Well, that didn't last but a week or two and they never showed "Boys Gone Wild" video advertisements again! Just another example of how homophobic our culture is and how much of a double standard is in place, IMHO...
taboos in society do not equal dysfunction, however one of the great things about the "global village" is that we can critique our socieites by looking at other societies and decide what we want to keep or grow out of.
it's PAST time to have this discussion..
THANKS!
Of course, perfectly proportioned men such as Michelangelo's David are an exception. But to be honest, most women and men that I know agree that men look better with at least a minimum of clothing on because men tend not to be as evenly proportioned as that David.
Being from Europe, well England, I am always amazed at the degree of modesty and shameful reactions to normal bodily functions and displays.
I don't have anything to add right now. You have summed up a lot of my opinions. I was very interested to hear about your experience in South Korea. I think the more we hear about this experiences, the more we understand, the less ignorant we are!
As far as alienating men from each other ... how else do you get them to hate and kill each other when they need to?
As for the naked thing ... the men in power need to attract women and they are usualy old and ugly, so of course they do not want too many distractions so they ocver up other men and make it about expensive clothes, and cars, and watches and jewelry.
Finally I am really surprised that more women never seem to commment or notice the anti-women bias in everyday life.
The female organ is insulted and compared to a loser or with a lack of courage or weakness.
When a man wants to be really insulting to another man, he compares that man to a woman. Beating another man at a contest is likened to "conquering" a woman in sex. Are women blind to this or are they just too overwhelemed to ever mention it?
Than again ,what is really hidden is what women think and say about men deep down, that is even less exposed.
Just some thoughts.
Personally I find it a thing of beauty to have a nice bod - penis and all. I like both the female and the male form and it is sad that we are ashamed or self conscious about our bodies.
Last year I visited Germany and saw the campaign for Dove soap on TV - something about how all woman are beautiful - just the way they are.
Both in the TV ads and in the magazine ads - they had nude models - the oldest woman was in her eighties! The ads were nicely done too.
Would you believe that Dove ran and still does run the same campaign here in the US, but no nudes here!!! Kind of defeats the idea that we should be proud and happy with the body we have, don't ya think?
Same campaign in the US - they didn't even show a boobie - unbelievable. Those values are wrong and skewed and it is shameful that our young girls - some of them anyway - would consider plastic surgery - but never consider showing their body nude and would be uncomfortable and shocked about seeing young men they know in the nude.
I believe that it is difficult for parents raising a daughter or a son in a society that is so prudish - yet, you have a need to protect your children from sexual exploitation and provide them with good values at the same time.
Great article Dan and great comments too.
and find it very attractive at times, I have also been on nude beaches in the Caribbean and seen some sights that should be kept quite private. I think the same
could be said of women , beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, and some of it should be just between you and your mirror.
You just have to come to where I am. :P
"TESTICULAR FORTITUDE"!!!
I think that is what the guy said, when praising Hillary Clinton.
Yes, Bruce. Women are aware of the fact that to put someone down, this society uses female anatomy , or other feminen atributes, as name calling.
We've been aware of it, for a long time. Who invented the derogatory term, "WEINER"? Just wonfering.
Oh - as for the obesity issue. I firmly believe that the rise is obesity in my generation stems from all of the fad diets we did as little girls in the 70's and 80's. I'll guarantee you obese women have dieted more and in excess of normal weight women.
Like everything in our country - it will take time.
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977336431
Nice article Dan, Another hit and another ten!
CC Miranda, May 18, 2008, 9:46am EDT ~~
Hey Miranda --- do a Google search for "nude rugby players".
You will probalby never watch NFL again and will henceforth watch NRL or Super 14.