Nudity & Sex

In the past little while, I've come across a number of interesting posts dealing with nudity and sex(uality), and how these manifest within culture.

An excellent, if long, post (here) talks largely about the differences between Europe and America with regards to attitudes toward nudity. In Europe, nudity is largely viewed as a part of the human condition, it can be seen on television and at beaches and is generally no big deal. Even sex is viewed as something normal and natural. In the U.S., nudity=sex and sex is either (depending on who U talk to) something dirty and bad to be hidden away from the eyes of decent folk, or something to be flaunted in what can only be called a pseudo-liberation. Ironically, both American views are part of a single anti-sex ideology (link).

Both of these views rely on the objectification and fetishisation of the human form, particularly the female form -- women are either reduced to two tits, an ass, and a pussy which must be covered up in order to preserve moral decency; or women are reduced to two tits, an ass, and a pussy which must be to some extent exposed in order to fulfill (highly fetishised) adolescent male sex fantasies. Of course men don't come out very well in either one of these anti-sex cultures either. In the former, a man is eternally fighting temptation and the impurities of flesh and isn't free to explore balanced and healthy relationships (however he might define them); and in the latter, a man has to live up to the machismo standard of bagging every piece of tail he can find -- whether he wants to or not -- and once again isn't free to explore balanced and healthy relationships (however he might define them).

Behind the ideologies we find two groups, both seeking power over the masses. Conservative nut jobs on the one hand, and the people predominantly responsible for the fetishisation of the human form -- namely advertisers and generally speaking "business" -- on the other.