catapult magazine

Aw snap! This indeed is a complicated issue. Are you suggesting that the naked body is not arousing in and of itself? And if we’re going to go there, and it appears we are, then we certainly have to talk about the whole "body issues" phenomena in which people find all kinds of ways to cover up their "imperfections" with clothing. And let’s not forget that what is so pleasurable about a good healthy sexual act is precisely that one can be completely "themselves" with another. The pleasure doesn’t end with the revealing of something that was previously off limits, though I don’t deny that the expectation of seeing what was hidden is part of the package, so to speak.

I think what I was getting at, though, is the shame that is connected with nakedness after the Fall. I suppose you could interpret nakedness in the Bible as a direct symbol of shame, but David’s shameful half-naked dancing in 1 Kings seems to refute this because God seems to look down with pleasure on David’s humble and unabashed joy when God’s presence enters Jerusalem. Maybe God likes us to be in that awkward state, especially if we don’t even notice our own awkwardness…or if we do acknowledge it but feel comfortable with our God enough to just be ourselves in God’s presence.

in a recent post grant said he wished jesus’ first miracle would have redeemed nakedness instead of alcohol. i’m trying to imagine what that miracle would look like: perhaps jesus would have made everyone’s clothes disappear AND make people like what they’re seeing.

On the other hand, doesn’t the taboo against nakedness serve several important functions, not least of which is to make sure we get excited about the naked body and want to have sex with it. Wouldn’t it suck to have nakedness ‘redeemed’? The value of nakedness, after all, lies in its scarcity, doesn’t it?