| COMES NATURALLY #114 (September 21, 2001) | | | | misappropriating taxpayer dollars and |
| | | | rewarding questionable art," proclaims |
| Copyright © 2001 David Steinberg | | | | Republican State Senator Scott Bundegaard, "I |
| | | | believe we should take some sort of action." |
| SILENCING THE BODY ELECTRIC | | | | |
| | | | Far from anything pornographic, Kearns sees |
| "The more things change, the more they stay | | | | his photo as a commentary on Jesuits who |
| the same." | | | | practice self-flagellation and the Buddhist |
| | | | notion that desire is the root of all |
| -- French adage | | | | suffering. "The clothespins are attacking the |
| | | | most notorious organ of desire," he explains. |
| You'd think we were back in the stagnant | | | | Hardly a proclamation of free love, but the |
| 50's, the way people still get all worked up | | | | legislators are not interested in the |
| whenever a little playful nudity shows up on | | | | philosophical nuances of life, suffering, or |
| the landscape of daily life. After fifty | | | | the nature of desire. They just want the |
| years of radical confrontation and expanded | | | | picture that shows Kearns's genitals to |
| social consciousness around a thousand | | | | disappear. |
| different aspects of sex, sexual orientation, | | | | |
| and gender, it would seem that something as | | | | There's more. The University of Southern |
| harmless a little bare skin would simply be | | | | Florida recently coughed up $25,000 to settle |
| too insignificant to show up on social crisis | | | | a lawsuit by one of the school's art |
| radar screens, even among folks a good deal | | | | students, Nicole Ferry. Ferry claims she was |
| more conservative than you and I. | | | | sexually harassed by a photo that was shown |
| | | | by graduate assistant Derek Washington in one |
| Well, nice thought, but for all our real | | | | of her classes. The subject of the class was |
| progress on these fronts over the years, | | | | controversial art. The photo was a shadowy |
| plain old nudity still seems to be as real an | | | | image of two torsos, male and female, |
| issue as ever, out there in what passes for | | | | embracing. I guess you could say that sex is |
| the Real World. The shift from Clinton to | | | | part of the story here, but if this is sex |
| Bush as icon of national leader doesn't help, | | | | it's neither graphic nor outside the |
| even if the shift is as much about image and | | | | mainstream. (You can check the photo out for |
| style as anything else. As the White Picket | | | | yourself at . It is, believe me, both |
| Fence reality of the new administration seeps | | | | tasteful and tame.) |
| inevitably into the national subconscious, | | | | |
| it's taking less and less to ruffle the | | | | The 250 students in instructor Diane Elmeer's |
| feathers of people who want to see nothing | | | | class were warned that some images to be |
| but Pleasantville wherever they turn. Among | | | | shown in class that day might offend some |
| people who have fused fear of the body and | | | | people. They were given the option of |
| fear of sex into one bubbling cauldron of | | | | skipping the class without penalty. Nicole |
| moralistic anxiety, it doesn't take much for | | | | Ferry chose to stay, then sued. Her father |
| them to feel like the devil is at their door, | | | | felt she had been "exposed to crude and |
| waiting to infect them and theirs with some | | | | disgusting pornography." USF, while denying |
| rapidly mutating virus of moral turpitude. | | | | that either Washington or Elmeer had done |
| | | | anything wrong, decided to settle with Ferry |
| I'm not even talking, this time, about | | | | rather than take the issue to court. As the |
| stories that put sexual deviance or sexual | | | | president of the faculty Senate explained, |
| diversity up for discussion on the current | | | | after a recent overhaul of the state |
| events chopping block. Let's ignore, for the | | | | university system, "I'm not entirely sure |
| moment, the lawsuit by Indiana state | | | | where we stand in terms of academic freedom." |
| legislators to block performance of "Corpus | | | | USF thought it best to just make the whole |
| Christi," a play about a guy named Joshua | | | | issue go away as quickly and quietly as |
| growing up gay with his twelve close buddies | | | | possible. |
| in modern-day Texas, and attempts by The | | | | |
| Promise Keepers and The American Family | | | | And then there's the whole brouhaha about the |
| Organization to keep a record album with the | | | | Summer 2001 Abercrombie & Fitch clothing |
| song "Jesus Christ, Homosexual" from ever | | | | catalog, which shows fun-loving, college-age |
| reaching retail stores. Let's also skip over | | | | men and women cavorting in the nude -- |
| the story of how Leilani Rios had to go to | | | | playing touch football, splashing in the |
| court to hold onto her place on the Cal State | | | | pool, laughing, flirting, kissing, showering, |
| Fullerton track team after she refused to | | | | generally having a good time -- boys, girls, |
| quit her job as an erotic dancer. These are | | | | alone, together. Rather lovely, really. |
| important stories too, but they are about | | | | |
| something a little more loaded than simple | | | | Illinois Lieutenant Governor Corinne Wood |
| nudity. | | | | (Republican) is not amused. She has mounted a |
| | | | "Stop A&F" boycott campaign to protest the |
| We know how tightly people can get tied in | | | | nudity. Never mind that A&F only sells the |
| knots about sex that's outside their personal | | | | catalog to people over 18 and has it |
| sense of what's mainstream. But what's been | | | | shrink-wrapped so it can't be flipped through |
| piling up in my folder of clips for possible | | | | by impressionable children. Wood claims that |
| future columns are stories about nothing more | | | | the A&F catalog has "35% more nudity" than |
| controversial than the reality of the naked | | | | its previous edition. (One has to wonder |
| human body, about the inclusion of the naked | | | | whether this supposedly precise calculation |
| human body in some rather straightforward | | | | is based on number, size, or graphic impact |
| works of art, theater, and advertising. These | | | | of the photos in question.) Her website ( |
| are naked images that have nothing to do with | | | | offers no fewer than 22 (discreetly censored) |
| sex at all. But plenty of people are steaming | | | | pictures from the catalog ("click on photos |
| about them nonetheless. | | | | below to enlarge") to make her point, |
| | | | allowing her to both capitalize on the visual |
| Provincetown, Massachusetts, is not what | | | | appeal of A&F's nude young bodies and condemn |
| you'd call a conservative town. It's best | | | | it at the same time. |
| known as an artist colony and as a | | | | |
| specifically gay-friendly resort. In the | | | | "Abercrombie and Fitch is glamorizing |
| nakedness department, it's even got its very | | | | indiscriminate sexual behavior that |
| own delightful, publicly-sanctioned, | | | | unsophisticated teenagers are not equipped to |
| clothing-optional beach. Nonetheless, the | | | | weigh against the dangers of date rape, |
| Crown and Anchor Inn, which has been showing | | | | unplanned pregnancies and sexually |
| a local production of Off-Broadway's biggest | | | | transmitted diseases," Wood declares. She has |
| hit, "Naked Boys Singing," has been twice | | | | rallied not only the Council on Islamic |
| ordered to "cease-and-desist" showing the | | | | Relations, the Illinois Catholic Conference, |
| play by P-town's erstwhile building | | | | Concerned Christian Americans, and the |
| commissioner, Warren Alexander. Alexander has | | | | Chicago Rabbinical Council to her cause, but |
| classified the show as adult entertainment | | | | also (I'm embarrassed to say) the Chicago and |
| because it includes full, frontal (male) | | | | Illinois chapters of NOW. |
| nudity, and in P-town, adult entertainment is | | | | |
| not allowed within 500 feet of churches and | | | | A&F spokesman Hampton Carney seems to be |
| municipal buildings. Both the local Town Hall | | | | taking Wood's campaign in stride, perhaps |
| and its Unitarian Church are closer than that | | | | even welcoming the publicity her campaign is |
| to the Crown and Anchor. | | | | bringing to A&F. Appreciation of nudity, says |
| | | | Carney, is simply a part of college |
| Now, you should understand that "Naked Boys | | | | experience, pointing to both UC Berkeley's |
| Singing" is no live sex show. It describes | | | | famous nude activist, Andrew Martinez, and |
| itself as "a musical revue celebrating the | | | | the "overwhelmingly positive" response he |
| joys of male nudity in song, comedy and | | | | says the catalog has generated from A&F |
| dance." According to reviewer Martin Denton, | | | | customers. |
| "the material is, by turns, gentle, humorous, | | | | |
| sentimental, and--very occasionally--slightly | | | | All of which is nothing new, but the flash |
| raunchy." Aside from New York and P-town, | | | | point at which controversy rears its head |
| "Naked Boys Singing" is being produced in | | | | seems to be moving backward all of a sudden. |
| London, Rome, Tokyo, Sydney, Houston, | | | | It's no longer questions of breaking |
| Chicago, South Florida, and San Francisco. | | | | obscenity laws that are at issue. Rather, |
| "Seeing eight men with their members flinging | | | | people who are offended by speech and images |
| around in all directions on stage while they | | | | that are clearly legal are feeling that they |
| sing and dance is just funny," Australian | | | | have the right, even the duty, to speak up |
| Director Jeremy Cumpston says of the play. | | | | and have those images and ideas beaten down |
| "It's all about nothing more substantial than | | | | by the force of public pressure. It's not |
| silliness and fun." | | | | coincidental that many of these people are |
| | | | politicians looking to make political hay |
| So what's the big deal? Once upon a long, | | | | from other people's biases and fears. I think |
| long time ago (1968), there was big fuss over | | | | it's also not coincidental that Image of |
| nudity in a Broadway play. The play was | | | | Propriety George W. Bush demonstrated last |
| "Hair," a celebratory musical about the | | | | November that his version of gee-gosh |
| then-new hippie phenomenon. A year later, | | | | old-fashioned propriety could be parlayed |
| there was more controversy when nudity showed | | | | into occupying the White House. |
| up in another Broadway play, "Oh, Calcutta." | | | | |
| Nudity in legit theater was groundbreaking | | | | For a bit of cross-cultural perspective, try |
| back then. It had never happened before. | | | | this on for size: New Zealand's Auckland |
| Hippies, acid, free love, and the | | | | Museum recently rejected an opportunity to |
| Haight-Ashbury were sweeping all sorts of | | | | exhibit the original Dead Sea Scrolls, |
| traditions out to sea. People were struggling | | | | deciding instead to go with an exhibit of |
| to catch up with the times. But that was over | | | | body art that includes nude paintings, |
| thirty years ago. The world has changed from | | | | photographs of genital piercings, and |
| bottom to top fourteen times since then. Have | | | | mannequins wearing bondage equipment. The |
| we entered some kind of time warp? Maybe | | | | museum board decided that the Dead Sea |
| Dwight Eisenhower isn't really dead; maybe | | | | Scrolls were "too esoteric" and that the body |
| he's been face-lifted into Dubya. Maybe the | | | | art exhibit would be more of a popular and |
| fact that Dubya can claim the title of Leader | | | | commercial success. As the Australian |
| of the Free World encourages people like | | | | director of "Naked Boys Singing" noted wryly, |
| Commissioner Alexander to stand up and let | | | | we are "much more open to [nudity] than the |
| their outrage at penises bobbing around on | | | | Americans, more laissez-faire that way, a bit |
| stage be known. Unfortunately, Warren | | | | more relaxed, you know." |
| Alexander is not the only bodyphobe feeling | | | | |
| his oats these days. | | | | Indeed. |
| | | | |
| Jim Kearns is a 25-year-old photographer and | | | | [If you would like to receive Comes Naturally |
| student at Glendale (Arizona) Community | | | | and other writing by David Steinberg |
| College. His photo, "Self-Portrait: Desire as | | | | regularly via email (free and confidential), |
| Penitence," shows him standing naked with | | | | send your name and email address to David at |
| (among other things) clothespins on his | | | | . Past columns are available at the Society |
| genitals. The photo was published in GCC's | | | | for Human Sexuality's "David Steinberg |
| literary magazine, The Traveler. As a result, | | | | Archives": . Two books edited by David -- |
| state legislators are threatening to cut | | | | "Erotic by Nature: A Celebration of Life, of |
| funding to the college unless GCC President | | | | Love, and of Our Wonderful Bodies," and "The |
| Teresa Martinez Pollack, who has defended | | | | Erotic Impulse: Honoring the Sensual Self" -- |
| both Kearns and "The Traveler," either | | | | are available from him by mail order. |
| resigns or redefines her position on freedom | | | | Descriptions and ordering information are |
| of speech. | | | | posted at and .] |
| | | | |
| As it turns out, state legislators can't fire | | | | David Steinberg |
| Pollack outright, but they do hold the | | | | |
| college's purse strings. "If [GCC] is | | | | P.O. |