In “Nudity as a Costume in Classical Art,” the author Larissa Bonfante, touches on the concept of nudity in art. The Greeks had a custom of the athletic male body, nude, as a way of separating themselves from non-Greeks, known as barbarians. She, the author, lays out five basic reason for mans use of clothing during this period.
The first was protections from the elements, followed by social reasons; to distinguish oneself of being from a tribe, or like modern gangs today. Third was a sense of shame, people have a tendency to be afraid of what other people will think of their nude body. The fourth is for decorations, like with men wearing suits or ladies wearing extravagant dresses. Lastly for apotropaic reasons, which to me seems to be the most prevalent through out the article.
Then, Bonfante went over how these applied to the Greeks as a society. She then describes a garments warn by the Greeks to cover the wearers sex organ. To me he assumptions lead me to believe that only the shame and magic aspects really applied to the Greeks when it came to nudity. To the Greeks when the sexual organ was uncovered, its power was released. In early Greek art the male genitalia and the female breast were often used to show weakness or powerlessness.
From there, she leaped into how nudity was effected in language as well. The word was avoided as much as the act of being nude, from the belief that magic around the word would be preserved. So much so that the words throughout Europe that mean nude, all originate from the same word.
The old testament contrasts this, as it paints nudity in the light of poverty,shame, slavery, humiliation , and perversion. Also, in the near east it was a sign of defeat in battle; as prisoners were paraded...
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... appearing nude. However, the breast had a dual role. On one side it showed vulnerability. While on the other it represented power; such as when depicting breast feeding.
For the Greeks nudity was primarily a way to represent their religious beliefs. That then lead to the comfortably with the idea of nudity. Which the Greeks embraced as it differentiated their culture from the barbarians, whom treated nudity still as shameful or as a vulnerability. As the author puts in her conclusion the points out how over time nudity represented both; god and human, human and animal, man and woman, public world and private life, wealth and poverty, admiration and pity, citizen and slave, civilization and barbarism, spirit and flesh, life and death, power and helplessness." I feel this sums up what nudity is the best as it does mean both. not just to the Greeks but still today.
... narrative. The two main males are nude with Greek idealized figures. Even the women’s sexuality is more pronounced with open breast and idealized beauty of their womanhood. This is very different from The Oath of the Horatii the first work we discussed, where the soldiers are completely clothed and the women are in the background.
...They had a reason for everything they wore from rings to length to additions such as the apron. Due to different pieces of art and literature, we are able to see how the Greeks advanced in fashion and how these advanced played a role in the advances religiously, socially and politically.
Being open about sexuality is usually seen as a women’s freedom or liberation, while the veil is seen as something that rejects freedom or liberation. Though some would argue that it allows the women to control or sexuality. “With the rise of prostitution and growing interest in the harem within the colonies, colonizers were frustrated with immutable veiled women who made apparent their denial of sex.”(Scott 60). Thus, aids to the initial resentment toward these veil
Skinner, Marilyn B. "The Archaic Age: Symposium and Initiation." Sexuality in Greek and Roman Culture. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005. 58-99. Print.
The novel also portrays a space where a woman’s body is something to fear and hide. "My nakedness is strange to me already. My body seems outdated. Did I really wear bathing suits at the beach? I did, without thought, amoung men, without caring that my legs, my arms, my thighs and back were on display, could be seen. Shameful, immodest. I avoid looking at my body, not so much because it's shamefull or immodest but because I don't want to see it. I don't want to look at something that determines me so completely."(P.63) Women fear their own bodies, they don't love themselves. Which is unfortunate because having love for your body can create a very powerful space for a woman. When women learn to love themselves and their bodies and not fear what they can do with them, they gain self-esteem and confidence to do whatever it is they want to do.
Around the time where Greece was known to be the greatest civilization on earth, many people used myths and stories as an extension of their belief because they were culturally significant and important. Ancient Greece was a male-dominated civilization that created laws which would benefit only those with power, which let to the suffering of those without power. The relationship of the sexes was very important, because it showed how men were more superior and woman were frowned upon because they were treated more like minorities. Aeschylus’ “Agamemnon” is about a Greek king who would do anything, including sacrificing his daughter, because he feels as a man and a king whatever decisions he makes are always just. Sophocles’ “Antigone” is about a girl who goes against the religious values of the society, and get persecuted because state laws restrict her
The existence of pornography is not a new invention. For years, humans have found certain depictions to be sexually arousing. Holmes and Holmes (2009), for example discuss how in ancient civilizations, Mesopotamia, for example, there were depictions of men and women in sexually explicit scenes on various household goods, such as plates and washbasi...
...s this shows her feminity as a women it also portrays her as being a temptress because of the exposure of her breast. Unlike the woman being almost completely covered but being shown in a tempting way in relation to her feminity, the man on the other side is completely exposed in order to demonstrate the youthfulness and strength of his body. Which the Romans used in artworks as a form of political advertising to show that a man that had a masculine body, young and strong, could be a leader. The man’s exposure of skin is considered as positive form of dispaying his masculinity while the woman’s lack of exposure except for her breast can be viewed as tempting through her feminity and disapproved. This shows the gender indiffernece of feminity and masculinity, where masculinity is portrayed in positive forms while femininity has only negative aspects to be protryed in.
It has become a negative topic to talk about, everyone started to sexualize their bodies and become more ashamed of it. As Foucault examples, “when anatomies were shown and intermingled at will, and knowing children hung about amid the laughter of adults: it was a period when bodies ‘made a display of themselves.’” Even though in the beginning of the 17th century people still talked freely about their bodies, it was not though of as bad or negative because it was not sexualized. People were free because as he explains, skin is just flesh there is nothing to hide or even sexualize. Yet, soon repression was used to silence pleasure and desires, and having sex outside of marriage or reproduce was not
However, for a man to appear naked conferred his power, his strong body and strong mind, while for a woman to appear naked would be indecent and confer immodesty. Sculptures of unclothed women were usually of the Goddesses of love and sexuality, which justifies the nudity. The need to justify female nudity while male nudity was considered commonplace already reflects ideas about gender. In the sculpture, the woman is clothed in a mantle, which symbolizes modesty. Women were treated as vessels for children, not as human beings capable of aggressive sexuality. (invisible; not
The attire of men and women in the eighteenth century cemented the roles they were supposed to play. The style of made dress belied his nature as somewhat more free from restrictions whereas the woman, bound by corsets and strict dress-codes found herself held back in clothing as in society. A sphere of influence, behavior and conduct was assigned to both sexes; each was valued for different qualities. These gender distinctions do not allow any overlap between the two sexes. (Marsden, 21) In light of this, society viewed cross-dressing (the practice of one gender dressing themselves in the attire of the other) as a threat to its own structure. For a woman to forsake the clothes and character of women for that of men sounded monstrous. Such a practice would create sexual ambiguity - a woman would assume the clothes of a man and thus the manner and actions of a man, yet her physical nature denied her that right. Cross-dressing creates monstrations - a woman ceases to be a woman after she has assumed male garb and can never hope to be a man.
The Greek perceptions and uses for sex and sexuality were far from Victorian in nature. Illustrated in an early inscription on a vase promising sexual desire to anyone who consumes its contents, there was value in virility (Freeman, 132). On the more lascivious end of the scale, were the Corinthians, who engaged in ritual prostitution in their temples which they believed was overseen by goddesses (Freeman, 157). Yet in more conservative Greek culture there were defined roles and measures of appropriate sexual behavior.
The primary focus of ancient Greek sculptures was that of the human body. Almost all Greek sculptures are of nude subjects. As the first society to focus on nude subjects, Greek sculptors attempted to "depict man in what they believed was the image of the gods and so would come to celebrate the body by striving for verisimilitude or true – likeness (realism and naturalism!)."(Riffert) Not only did the Greeks celebrate the human form in their art but also in everyday life. (Riffert) One of the favorite topics for sculptors was that of the athlete. In Greek culture athletes were described as "hero–athletes". (Riffert) This shows that athletes were revered and looked upon as heroes. The influence of athleticism is evident in many famous sculptures. I will attempt to show how the human form influenced Greek art. It is important to note that many of the Greek sculptures discussed do not exist in their original form but rather in Roman copies of the original bronze sculptures. (Riffert)
Premise 1 contains many examples to back up its factuality. For instance, Muslim culture requires females, who reach puberty, to cover up practically everything from head to toe. It is deemed morally wrong for women to show their hair or skin to men for it is a means of seduction. However, in other cultures, causal wear is seen as normal and accepted without any men falling for a woman by the sight of her hair or skin. Therefore, the act of not covering one’s body is seen as right in one culture, and completely wrong in another.
From this reference, we find that sexuality has depended upon historical context, something that is also discussed in Marinucci’s article. Mottier’s reference to Aristophanes led us into the topic of sex, gender, and sexuality in Ancient Greece. Much different compared to today, during Ancient Greek times, sex was considered more fluid, gender more social, and sexuality was based on penetrative pleasure or reproduction. Sexual identity hadn’t quite made its way into society yet. One could say that Ancient Greece had a primary focus on sexual behaviors over sexual identity. From here, Marinucci leads her readers into a discussion of how an understanding of sexuality develops in the Western modern