Far from supposedly protecting the innocent or the easily offended, pixelization on TV or in the movies actually increases prurient and overtly sexual interest in the body. Can there be any doubt that the TV networks and the government don’t realize this? Of course they do: sex sells. Bars or spots covering the breasts, buttocksContinue reading “Pixelization = Titillation”
Tag Archives: nudity
Stripping and Teasing
One Monday morning in the fall semester of 1997 or 1998, when I was an assistant professor at a university in Alabama, the phone rang in my office. “Are you married?” the female voice asked. “Yes, why?” “My friend, So-and-so, used to be your student. She’s getting married this weekend and we’d like to knowContinue reading “Stripping and Teasing”
In the Spotlight: Nudity and Performance
Performance theorist Richard Schechner on the contradictions of “nakedness”: “Nakedness reverberates in apparently contradictory directions. A naked baby, a naked corpse, a naked person asleep. A naked prisoner running a gauntlet of truncheon-wielding concentration-camp guards. Dreams of being naked alone among a crowd of the dressed. Naked and seductive; hundreds of naked people sunning onContinue reading “In the Spotlight: Nudity and Performance”
On Reserve
Unwrapping the Sensory Mechanics of Nudity There are certain body parts that the twin social strictures of religion and politics most want to cover—or, more accurately, to bind. These parts are put on reserve, so to speak: under wraps. According to the rules of repression, they can’t be checked out, or unwrapped, except by special,Continue reading “On Reserve”
Nude Dermatology
What’s our largest body organ? The skin you’re in, of course. Our skin is the mongo-network of transaction points between what’s kept inside and what’s kept at bay. It’s the home of most of our tactile receptors for pressure, pain, heat, and cold, the home of our most ancient and basic sense: touch. I happen toContinue reading “Nude Dermatology”