The Sin of Nudity (In Honor of Nude Blogging Day!)

When Eve and Adam ate from the Tree of Life (the Fruit of Distinction), the first thing they did was attempt to hide their nudity.

The significance of this myth is profound. There was suddenly a distinction between "Eve" and "Adam," and the consciousness of Self snowballed into clothing. But why the shame?

Modern humans go through a period of Self-awakening echoing the Biblical myth. Egocentrism is replaced by the ability to abstract, and suddenly the people around us have seperate points-of-view. There is a larger world beyond our mind, and much of it is composed of other thinking, discriminating, judging individuals. This realization that there are others judging us brings to bear our instinct of self-preservation, and we hide our soft, vulnerable bodies--easily subjected to judgement!--from discerning eyes.

But again, why the shame?

Nudity is equated with sexuality in our modern culture. The focus of our clothing is, after all, on covering our primary sexual characteristics. The shame of sex appears to have a convoluted origin; according to Wikipedia, the use of guilt by parents to keep their daughters from becoming pregnant too early plays a part (especially in the modern culture, I think). Religious dogma is certainly there, as well as an emphasis on virginity as a virtue.

An idea I've heard repeatedly from nudists, however, is that the nudist lifestyle removes the stigma of shameful sexual associations with the human body--even to the point where negative body images are erased due to the exposure to other bodies. Is our obsessive use of clothing actually creating some of our most insidious psychological diseases, such as Anorexia Nervosa? Is it viciously circling itself around an arbitrary cultural shame?

Clothing can be seen as a restriction. It chains us to civilized mores than hold us from Eden. It walls us from the world that is perceived to be "outside" of us, but of which we are apart.

The spirit of Nude Blogging Day appears then to be freedom from the distinctions made when Eve and Adam first donned the leaf.