G’day all.

A ‘Net friend writes:

>Melbourne’s Moomba celebrations at the weekend included a parade that in

>the words of the Melbourne Herald Sun newspaper gave melburnians the

>’sock treatment’ with “topless street artists and raunchy floats

>spicing up a traditional family day”.

[…]

>So I would ask what is it that we are supposedly needing to look forward

>to? One spectator commented “I personally thought it’s gone to paganism,

>and completely disintegrated from something children enjoy.” So is this

>the future that Mr. Scobie speaks of? A pagan festival that we need to

>hide from our children? As these events seek to outdo themselves each

>year, can we look forward some way down the track to naked couples

>copulating on city streets???

This is not directed at you in particular, Peter, but I’ve never understood why when people are on the topic of nudity, they immediately leap to the topic of sex. I don’t understand why the two concepts are so tightly coupled (to use an unfortunate term).

The fact that some partial nudity at Moomba immediately brings to mind the Sydney Mardi Gras (where sex _is_ a more common theme) and suggests that next year we might find explicit sex in the parade IMO says more about our insecurity with nudity than the intent of the parade organisers.

>That maybe an exaggeration, and I’m no

>prude, but there has been a constant trend towards nakedness in live

>theatrical productions, the film industry, and all forms of media.

The uncovered human body has always been with us in our art, from prehistoric times to the present. There just happened to be less of it in the Western world between the Victorian era and the mid-20th century. There was a similar coyness in the counter-reformation era, as my wife has just informed me, so nudity probably just goes in and out of fashion.

I think I understand what you mean, though. There’s a qualitative difference between Manet’s “Olympia” and www.somepornsite.com (haven’t checked to see if that’s a real web site, but it probably is), and the difference is good versus bad taste. I think that rather than a trend towards the unclothed, what you’re noticing is a trend towards pulp media. That is, the amount of rubbish is increasing at the same time as nudity is becoming more acceptible, so we’re seeing a lot of bad uses of nudity.

>The children of Israel descended into paganism in the

>wilderness and were punished by God.

There’s a difference between nudity and worship of idols, too.

Cheers, Andrew