Casio, right on! No one mentions the old man naked, the older women, the young children because they're not sexually titillating. When a body is out of "shape" (which of course means does not conform to WESTERN standards), it is suddenly invisible.
"why do we compel a beautiful woman through laws and social conditioning to cover up her body?"
Because we don't need people to be sexually aroused all day long. Especially MEN who are the visually stimulated ones.
"What is the fundamental difference between the tip of a nose and a nipple?"
You're kidding, right? Do you find the tip of a nose erotic? How about oh I dunno -- a nipple? A nipple has a reproductive *function*, the nose does not.
"What is the fundamental difference between a mouth and vagina?"
We nourish ourselves with our mouth, we reproduce via vagina. Didn't your parents ever tell you were babies come from?
"Your lips and a labia?"
One is protective covering for our teeth and gums, give us more ability to speak and form words (communicate), we can use our lips to test temperature, etc. Tactile. Labia protect the vestibule of the vagina. Also, people don't have pubic hair on their lips, but post pubescent labia majora do.
"A tongue and a clitoris?"
Now if you don't know the fundamental difference between a tongue and a clitoris, you are just plain ignorant of female anatomy. It's pretty insulting even to think that you'd compare the two. The clitoris, according to scientists, serves no other purpose than for female pleasure. A tongue is not as sensitive as a clitoris, a tongue can be used in speech, a tongue has tastebuds on it and aids in eating and digestion -- these parts are not even in the same SYSTEM. ONe is digestive and one is reproductive.
"Why is showing some of these these things offensive but not others?"
OK look up a few posts. See those two people who posted "Me likes the titties" etc.? THAT'S WHY! Because we have idiots like them who will go around ogling women's breasts, etc. and who sexualize everything and who will be sexually aroused by seeing it. It's offensive because sexual parts have the power to distract and to reduce an average, halfway intelligent man into a guy who says stuff like, "Me likes them titties!" Talk about Neanderthal. If maybe MEN could control themselves, we wouldn't have this problem. But they can't.
"Why is it not wrong to admire a teenage girls' legs, but not her breast?"
The question has NEVER been that it is wrong to admire breasts. The question IS, should bare breasts be shown. It isn't the body itself that people object to (unless it isn't conforming to western standards of beauty of course because then even the most staunch of liberals will balk), it is what reactions come from it. May I recall "tittie" man above? Nudity causes people to become aroused, it is distracting. It is like dangling a carrot in front of a hungry horse. And the desire for sex is a hunger that is never truly satisfied. That's why every instance of nudity can become destructive. It doesn't mean the body is to blame, or that it isn't beautiful, but it is what goes on in people's minds that leads to action and that is the problem people are worried about.
I don't enjoy hearing men talk about women's bodies piecemeal like those two bounders did above, and I'd definitely be against nudity because of reactions like that. But if we had mature people who could see the body as art and not just as a sexual tool -- that's different.
But you know what? People who say the body is art -- they most likely don't think that a middle aged man's body is anywhere near as "artful" as a teen female's body. THAT comes from arousal, pure and simple. It's just plain bias, really.
I resent the whole body as art argument because you can't make that argument unless you're willing to see ALL types of bodies nude -- not just the young or attractive ones.
Don't threaten ME with a dead fish!
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mari_ishtar
19 years ago
"Because we don't need people to be sexually aroused all day long. Especially MEN who are the visually stimulated ones...
Nudity causes people to become aroused, it is distracting. It is like dangling a carrot in front of a hungry horse. And the desire for sex is a hunger that is never truly satisfied. That's why every instance of nudity can become destructive."
Okay, i understand that many people these days don't get instruction in logic and reasoning, so bear with me while i try to untangle this one.
1. In times past, all humans were naked together all the time, with the exception of those living in extremely cold regions (and even they went naked whenever possible - the Indians of Tierra del Fuego, who live in a climate so
harsh that Darwin observed snow melting on the naked breasts of women, were extremely resistant to adopting clothing. They preferred dermal contact with the environment, hostile though it was, to the loss of sensation implied by wearing clothes).
2. There are still many groups in the world today who live in everyday nudity or near-nudity.
3. These groups have no concept of pornography and are not pre-occupied with sex the way clothed people are.
4. Because they are naked all the time, nudity has no sexual connotations for them.
5. It is clothing that produces sex-obsession and makes nudity sexual.
6. Without clothing, there would be no "nudity" - it would just be the way we all are.
7. It is therefore the practice of covering up the body that creates unhealthy and stunted expressions of sexuality as reflected in male pre-occupation with female body parts and functions such as you mention in your post.
It is very difficult for a man (or woman) raised in a clothed culture to imagine any other way of relating to nudity other than as sexual, and no one wants to hear that their sexual responses and thought-processes are warped and stunted at an extremely retarded stage of development due to their cultural milieu, but it is nevertheless true for the vast majority of Western, industrialized people. If you could break out of your social conditioning and experience the alternative for yourself, it would change your life forever.
And to movie man... you keep using the word "moral" in your posts. I seriously question whether you understand the meaning of the word. Morality among unclothed populations is of a far higher caliber than that prevalent among the clothed. Nudity is a state of being, just as we are born. Morality is a behavior. One cannot be immoral simply by being naked or viewing the nakedness of another.
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