On Nudity

144 words

Anonymous 18th century figure drawing of a young man.

In figure drawing class, I always liked how the models’ nudity seemed completely casual and ordinary as they posed.

Models, I wrote— I know there was more than one in rotation, but I only remember the mother. Her child or children’s handprints were tattooed somewhere on her body— her hip or ribs. The handprints were green or orange or maybe it was just one handprint, a blue handprint, on the back of her shoulder.

Our culture sexualizes the female nude with astounding immediacy. For this, female nipples are verboten, while male nipples are harmless. A female nipple is a provocation, something illicit.

Yet it’s a matter of convenience— this sexualization. If she’s a sexual object, then she is smaller than the viewer, conquerable, own-able. But if she’s not a sexual object then she might be free, and we can’t have that, no, not that.

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The above essay is 144 words, a part of a series explained over here.