| Tad Mitsui <[email protected]> | Sat, Sep 19, 6:13 AM (5 days ago) | ||
to me | |||
WHY WE ARE ASHAMED Of OUR BODY.
The unmentionable part of me got a fungus infection. I had done nothing about it for a few months because I was embarrassed. It took a long time before I decided to seek medical attention. Now I had to expose myself twice a day for treatment. Stupid me? I agree. Why are we ashamed of some parts of our body?
As far as I know humans are the only animals ashamed to expose parts of anatomy. Is it only the people who follow Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition who are bound by such a prudish tradition? Hindu culture has unabashed sexually explicit arts. Greek and Roman cultures gave us many nude sculptures. Japanese too. When the Allied Occupation Forces came to Japan in 1945, General MacArthur’s bureaucracy banned the centuries old tradition of female/male mixed bathing featuring soaking in the hot tub. It is called “Onsen.” American bureaucracy ordered the hot spring operators to divide the bathing areas into the separate female and male sections. Even in Europe the ancient Romans had mixed baths. Japanese people wondered what kind of dirty mind would deny the old cherished custom that had been widely practiced for centuries.
The creation story in the Hebrew Bible gives us the hint about the origin of the Jewish/Christian “dirty mind.” According to the Biblical creation story, the first man and woman became self-conscious after they disobeyed God. They ate the fruit of knowledge. They wanted to be like God who knew the difference between right and wrong. Hence they were no longer “noble savages.” They became self-conscious and aware of their nakedness. They were ashamed of their body. They tried to prevent their naked truth from being exposed with fig leaves. Why did self-consciousness evoke shame about their body?
We think we are the most intelligent life-form. But no other organisms are ashamed of the gift of nature. To engage in the natural acts or expose certain body parts has nothing to do with ethics. But we have strange taboos. In Japan eating standing on feet is considered uncivilized. There are many other strange restrictions. Is it because eating and mating in public make us defenseless? Gideon chose as good fighting men only those who drank water kneeling down and drank water with cupped hands.
“Why is it embarrassing to show certain body parts? Why is nursing babies in public a questionable behavior?” Is such prudence found only in the culture of Christian Europe? I read an article written by a Lethbridge fine art professor, Devon Smither, who questioned the choice of “Group of Seven” as a representative of Canadian Art not John Wentworth Russell’s nude “A Modern Fantasy”which caused ruckus at the CNE in Toronto in1927 but went to Paris where he was warmly welcomed.
BTW, my skin problem has been resolved. Thank you very much.