private (with private parts); thus the strictures of contexts which code and
constrain the ways in which nude is performed under the gaze of others. url
blurring between the boundaries of sexuality and nakedness, the encroachment
of signications belonging to 'sexually naked' circumstances into sites of nonsexual
nudity, signifies an improving cultural consciousness of the instabilities of circumstance
and signication. While sex and sexuality have been discussed at such length in
the public sphere in recent decades in terms of the normal and strange -- always
within special limitations, and told nally by the cultural injunction of the
hetero/homo binary and its forms and borders -- they have become banal
and dull topics, no longer websites for matter and cultural craze or spec-
tacle. What replaces it as striking, subsequently, is not public nudity by any means, but
the struggle over signication under the breakdown of context. This challenge, as
I shall go on to show, occurs at the very private level, since nakedness per se has
been deemed an extremely personal matter, but at its most significant it relates to the
ways in which the performative issue acts and behaves in relation to the gaze,
and the issues that occur when the rituals that constrain both the body and
the gazer become unstable.
Revealing and Showering --
nudity, signifies an improving cultural consciousness of the instabilities of circumstance
and signication. While sex and sexuality have been discussed at such length in
the public sphere in recent decades in terms of the normal and strange -- always
within special limitations, and told nally by the cultural injunction of the
hetero/homo binary and its forms and borders -- they have become banal
and dull topics, no longer websites for matter and cultural craze or spec-
tacle. What replaces it as striking, subsequently, is not public nudity by any means, but
the struggle over signication under the breakdown of context. This challenge, as
I shall go on to show, occurs at the very private level, since nakedness per se has
been deemed an extremely personal matter, but at its most significant it relates to the
ways in which the performative issue acts and behaves in relation to the gaze,
and the issues that occur when the rituals that constrain both the body and
the gazer become unstable.
Revealing and Showering --
confessional -- by virtue of the disclosure of an 'internal' picture of the body barren of
of the signications of clothes and variously encoded otherwise in terms of
musculature, genitalia shapes and sizes, torsos and breasts, abilities, skin colour-
ing, suntan or sunlight exposure and so forth. As an effect of the gaze and the variations on
the imaged body, this is a site of subject -- the compulsion to produce a body
that seems 'in accord' with specific codes and customs and behaves in
Unique manners.
Supposedly without interest in the sexual, a gaze that is performed as a glimpse, or
an affronting lack-of-interest, a peek or a non-prying glimpse.
It is no coincidence the framework of the communal shower functions in
connection with disciplinary institutions such as schools, fitness centers, athletic facili-
of the signications of clothes and variously encoded otherwise in terms of
musculature, genitalia shapes and sizes, torsos and breasts, abilities, skin colour-
ing, suntan or sunlight exposure and so forth. As an effect of the gaze and the variations on
the imaged body, this is a site of subject -- the compulsion to produce a body
that seems 'in accord' with specific codes and customs and behaves in
Unique manners.
Supposedly without interest in the sexual, a gaze that is performed as a glimpse, or
an affronting lack-of-interest, a peek or a non-prying glimpse.
It is no coincidence the framework of the communal shower functions in
connection with disciplinary institutions such as schools, fitness centers, athletic facili-
focus of examination cultivates not only the bodies on display and their attributes,
Skills and moves, but how the body in this type of circumstance is played out and
looked upon. Nakedness in the shower or locker-room lets an extremity of
policing of the body: its musculature, its masculine or feminine pubescent
of garments (wealth, status, group afliation, etc.). In http://casatellana.com/__media__/js/netsoltrademark.php?d=nudebeach.buzz/contents/71139561/3.html , then, the 'type'
of nakedness -- non-sensual -- and the 'sort' of gazing that happens is produced in
The Nude Theme
over (ds) 1/8/#03/03 1:47 pm Page 59
Page 7
and through the circumstance of the showers by ritual and tradition. The erotic here
is relegated to other bodies, and a transgression of the context results in penalize-
ment. In an episode titled 'The Apology' (1997) of the popular sitcom Seinfeld,
Kramer tries to learn techniques to reduce his time showering by analyzing
-- and taking notes on -- guys showering at his local health club. When his comments are
Erroneously understood to indicate sexual gazing, he's attacked, appearing in a
The irony here is that in truly being a site
which heavily polices against sexuality and the erotic gaze, it becomes a tremendously
sexual site, requiring further and more severe policing.
As notably, the site and its policing against sexuality is entwined in the
contemporary ethnic binary system of gender. Apart from some very specic
and distinct formations, communal showers which encourage gazing at the nude
bodies of others are masculine- and feminine-exclusive. Culturally, such sites are
highly 'guarded' from a transgressive invasion by sexes which have no legiti-
Dozens of 'teen sex' lms, for example Revenge of the Nerds
college students, nearly consistently for erotic purposes (of both the fratboys and of
the crowd). As a means of keeping the shower site non-sexual, the separation
of genders operates wholly in the conditions of Butler's 'heterosexual matrix' in which
the compulsory, illusional order of sex/gender/desire codes sexuality as the
natural desirous interest just ever to the sex-which-one-is-not (Butler,
Skills and moves, but how the body in this type of circumstance is played out and
looked upon. Nakedness in the shower or locker-room lets an extremity of
policing of the body: its musculature, its masculine or feminine pubescent
of garments (wealth, status, group afliation, etc.). In http://casatellana.com/__media__/js/netsoltrademark.php?d=nudebeach.buzz/contents/71139561/3.html , then, the 'type'
of nakedness -- non-sensual -- and the 'sort' of gazing that happens is produced in
The Nude Theme
over (ds) 1/8/#03/03 1:47 pm Page 59
Page 7
and through the circumstance of the showers by ritual and tradition. The erotic here
is relegated to other bodies, and a transgression of the context results in penalize-
ment. In an episode titled 'The Apology' (1997) of the popular sitcom Seinfeld,
Kramer tries to learn techniques to reduce his time showering by analyzing
-- and taking notes on -- guys showering at his local health club. When his comments are
Erroneously understood to indicate sexual gazing, he's attacked, appearing in a
The irony here is that in truly being a site
which heavily polices against sexuality and the erotic gaze, it becomes a tremendously
sexual site, requiring further and more severe policing.
As notably, the site and its policing against sexuality is entwined in the
contemporary ethnic binary system of gender. Apart from some very specic
and distinct formations, communal showers which encourage gazing at the nude
bodies of others are masculine- and feminine-exclusive. Culturally, such sites are
highly 'guarded' from a transgressive invasion by sexes which have no legiti-
Dozens of 'teen sex' lms, for example Revenge of the Nerds
college students, nearly consistently for erotic purposes (of both the fratboys and of
the crowd). As a means of keeping the shower site non-sexual, the separation
of genders operates wholly in the conditions of Butler's 'heterosexual matrix' in which
the compulsory, illusional order of sex/gender/desire codes sexuality as the
natural desirous interest just ever to the sex-which-one-is-not (Butler,