PBS. Shakespeare. Not exactly a combination that screams evil pornographic smutty filthy filth, now is it? Until you hear about Sir Ian McKellen getting naked as King Lear, and marvel at the mix of outrage and ewww that the notion seems to bring out of people. Just read the comments on the above linked post alone… and if you need more convincing that Americans are tight-assed about nudity, ask ten people in line at the supermarket whether it’s okay for people to get naked on screen or on stage or on the beach or in the fenced-in privacy of their own back yard.
Here, by way of contrast, is a thoughtful article and discussion (in the comments section) of real-live nudity and whether or not it’s artistically and culturally appropriate, aesthetic and/or harmful.
When I was 15 or 16, my high school bought a block of tickets to the touring production of Equus in Boston. Any student could sign up and go for free. A faculty member drove us in, fed us dinner, and herded us all efficiently into our seats. I didn’t know in advance that two characters (a young man and woman) would get naked onstage. And it wasn’t her nakedness that made everyone shift in their seats, it was his. I’d seen a penis before, but never a real live stranger’s penis loose in the wild, so to speak… and I remember the subtle shock that rippled through the audience. It was partly the sheer vulnerability of it, and partly the symbolic value — anything might now happen. And because of the staging — the play is typically done in the round, and the audience is essentially right on stage — the whole experience was very immediate. We could see the sweat in the actors’ armpits and the goosebumps on their thighs when the air-conditioning hit their bare skin… and suddenly the whole scene was so much more visceral.
That was 30 years ago, and things have moved forward. But this culture is still pretty damn confused in its response to public nudity. Nowadays it seems pretty much accepted for beautiful people to get naked, but let a non-airbrushed person show their skin and suddenly it’s icky and…. and what? I think that word we’re looking for is real. Nudity that we can objectify is fine. Nudity that makes a person more real instead of less — even in a completely non-sexual context — now, that’s scary.
And it is scary, that’s the thing. I say on the talk to me contact form that I won’t send people naked pictures. I’m not sure I would even take naked pictures of myself, not because I’m ashamed of my body, but because I have been socialized to believe that bodies are private. And also because so often women don’t have control over our own bodies, and so the idea of physical privacy becomes much more twined with ideas of safety and self-determination.
So I wouldn’t do a reading naked. I wouldn’t get naked to sell my books. But I might go to a naked beach one of these days. I would definitely skinny-dip with strangers (have done it before). And I would probably get naked on stage or on screen for a role, if it was what the story required.
So what’s the difference? What are the boundaries? No answers here, just questions right now, and curiosity about what others think and feel.
First of all, movies have been showing full frontal nudity for years, especially womens’ full frontal nudity. I am also reminded of the musicals Hair and Oh, Calcutta! Of course they weren’t the cultural icons that King Lear is. Nudity is associated in my mind with vulnerability, which seems to make it perfect for King Lear. Another great line from that same scene, when Lear spots the swineherd’s hut is his saying, “The art of our necessities is strange, to make foul things beautiful.”
On the other hand, I associate genitals with sex, sex with intimacy and intimacy with vulnerability. That’s my hang-up, so if I saw a naked King Lear unwarned, I would probably be surprised and a little uncomfortable, but I would also be awakened and moved.
Thanks for including the balanced and intelligent discussion.
Barbara Sanchez
Yes, women’s nudity has certainly been around for a while, but it is pretty rigidly codified — it’s either sexualized or it’s dehumanizing (e.g. people being stripped in concentration camps or prisons). Or it’s comic — we see an old fat wrinkly person naked so that we can all laugh or go ewww along with the protagonist. I think we have a ways to go on this front (sad smile).
Glad you enjoyed the Guardian discussion, I thought it was great.
It seems to me that many people are afraid of sex which is associated with nakedness. For Americans maybe it starts with the puritans, but maybe for many people it goes all the way back to the Christian takeover; Eve and the apple and being tossed from the garden and forced to put on clothes, etc.
Seems odd that we haven’t moved further along in this arena.
I was raised with that way of thinking. I remember in high school going to a figure drawing class that had a live nude model. I knew it was perfectly reasonable, and although I hated the way I felt, I could not get over being shocked. I could barely move, much less draw. After that, I never had a problem with it.
I would say that I am comfortable with semi-private, but not public nudity for myself; for others I’m happy to view whatever they want to show. The nudist lifestyle is not really for me; I could never be that comfortable. Clothes are rather functional after all.
It sounds like from reading those comments that a lot of people only object to nude bodies that don’t fit their definition of beauty. Sad that so many people still have such narrow ideas of what beauty is.
I get part of it though; I know I’m a lot less inclined to show my body in its current state than I was when I was younger and thinner. Still I will go skinny dipping if the occasion permits. I hate having to wear a bathing suit; the water, wind, sun, moon feels so fantastic on bare skin.
A lot of people won’t even sleep nude. I’ve never really understood the necessity or practicality of clothes in bed.
Here’s one guy’s work you might find interesting if you haven’t seen it. There are a couple documentaries on him. He’s committed to changing people’s attitudes about nudity. He gets all sizes of groups of people to pose nude in public. He’s been arrested multiple times in the US for doing it. spencertunick.com
Plus there’s the whole ageism thing. Maybe people don’t want to see old people nude because it reminds them of their own mortality.
I just told a friend at lunch today that one of the things I miss about not working at a remote cabin in the woods anymore is how I would walk down a long wooded draw in just my shoes sometimes. Air against my skin, feeling naked as the animals: precious. And a week ago I was in Vancouver reading the local paper in a coffee shop and heard about a dance performance at a local nude beach where the dancers just wore paint. Sounded great; though I couldn’t attend, I noticed a signpost to Wreck Beach as I walked across the University of British Columbia campus. I thought, “Now that’s unusually sane. Imagine advertising the way to a nude beach on any U.S. campus.”
@Jennifer — Your story about art class reminded me of this recent article in the Seattle paper about a career art class model.
I modeled once for an artist when we were both in college. A woman in the theatre program was also a visual artist, and asked me one day if I would model for her for a life drawing class project. I was so naive that I had no idea “life drawing” was code for “naked.” We went into a dressing room, she locked the door and said, “Okay, take off your clothes and stand up on the counter over there.”
And so I did, trying to project the total cool of someone who took off her clothes for strangers every day while blinking internally and wondering what to do with my hands…
And it was cold in the room.
The part that actually made me most self-conscious was getting up on the counter. Partly because it was my body in use, not just in a static pose. And I was trying not to bang any sensitive parts on the sharp edges (grin).
@Jean and Jennifer both — yep, nature + naked skin = good thing (well, unless nature is manifesting as teeth, claws, hail, yadda yadda). One of my favorite memories from high school is swimming naked in a New Hampshire lake on a warm spring night. The air so warm, the water so cold, the stars, and the charge in the air of other naked teenage bodies. Wow. Pretty amazing.
Jean, did you have to go through a comfort curve to walk naked away from the cabin? I think I would enjoy that kind of walk, but I think it would take me a lot of walks before I didn’t feel on full alert all the time…