CAUTION: NUDITY
by Nicole
About a month ago, Rich was flipping through the stations on the TV like he always does. We only get about 18 channels. Eight of them are American. Of those eight, two are basically just message boards with music in the background, one is a military weather channel, one is almost all sports all the time, and one is CNN Asia. That leaves three channels, one of which is the same as another except that it is seven hours behind, so if you miss a show at 7 pm you can just wait until 2 am. This can present a problem for a chronic channel surfer, so Rich usually flips through the Japanese channels as well. Sometimes they have really funny shows, even if we can't understand a damn word they're saying. Sometimes they also have really cool commercials with huge American stars that you'd never see stoop to the level of a television commercials in the States, like Bruce Willis and Leonardo Dicaprio. But on this particular night there was nothing good on. I was sitting at the computer, slaving away at the zine (okay, so I was probably sending away for free shit on the internet) when Rich told me to look at the TV. I was afraid that he had found wrestling or something I found equally as pointless. But he didn't. He found...PORN! Yes, right there in front of my eyes on regular TV was a group of very naked people having sex. Not soap opera sex mind you, they were having the type of sex that you generally see in the slightly more tasteful porn films. Of course the first thing Rich did was hit the record button, to record it for his brother of course. He's been checking the same channel almost every night since, hoping to catch some more, but he's had no luck. The whole incident got me to thinking.
We live in Japan, a country that for the most part is rather conservative. Women still perform "women's work", men are still the main bread winners. Public displays of affection are not appreciated. The porno mags and videos here block out or blur the actual sex organs. But one thing even they don't seem to have a problem with is nudity. Most countries in the world are in agreement. So why is the US, a country that is supposed to be so free in it's thinking, so against the human body? What is so horrible about nudity that if a movie shows it, it gets an R rating? Why is there always so much fuss surrounding "pornography "? The human body is about as natural as one can get, and one thing every person in the world has in common. We all have one, if you don't then I must have missed some sort of new, technological breakthrough.
But I think it's safe to assume that you, like me, possess a human body.
At what point does the body become such a shameful object? We're born without a single shred of clothing. When we were very little most of us enjoyed running around naked and no one gave us a second glance. But at what age is it suddenly decided that it's time
to hide what we are from the rest of the world? It must happen somewhere around the time we go from being toddlers to being actual children, because if two 5 year old kids are caught playing doctor, they are scolded and told that what they were doing is dirty.
Why do we insist on teaching our children that the naked body is a dirty thing and they should close their eyes when the see it? What are they learning from this example? I think we're teaching them that if other naked bodies are bad, then theirs must be too. As they grow older, they begin to think that maybe if they did this or that, their bodies would not be so shameful. Maybe if they lost a few pounds, maybe if they starved themselves or threw up their food. I'm not saying that America's prudeness is the cause of eating disorders, but it could very well have some influence on it.
I think that if America became more realistic and less uptight about nudity, it would have an excellent effect. First of all, we'd become desensitized to it, which isn't always a bad thing. We'd get used to see nudity on television and in regular magazines. It wouldn't be such a big deal. Teenage boys would no longer have to hide stolen pornos under their mattress, and wives would no longer get mad at their husbands for stealing a glimpse at some internet porn when no one is looking. We'd be so used to seeing all different types of bodies that women and men alike would no longer have to cringe at the thought of another being seeing our imperfections. I'm not saying we should throw away our clothing and take to the streets in our birthday suits, I'm just saying we could all afford to be a little more open minded about nudity in general. It's not like I'm asking you to accept something totally new and unheard of, you've had a naked body since the day you came out of your mother's womb. So think about it, and tell other's to think about it. Then throw away all your clothes and run down the street naked. Just kidding.