Do you think nudity in art can affect a persons sexuality?

[z01ks]

I was wondering about this the other day. Going to drawing classes, constantly seeing human beings nude and studying them, or just looking at a lot of art containing nudity - could it psychologically affect a persons libido or a persons view on sexuality in any kind of way? If anybody knows of any good articles related to this, please post them.

[ArtsySiridean]

No...

[Spellsword95]

No. Definitely no.

[QueenGwenevere]

Y'know, there are and have been whole cultures where people see each other nude all the time. As far as I can tell, it's never made them any different from people anywhere else.

Plus outside of America and certain other conservative countries, you can find plenty of pictures of naked people all over the place in art, ads, comics, and other popular media. The whole idea that seeing naked people is in any way damaging is mostly due to puritanical tendencies brought on by religious zealots in places like the US.

[vineris]

Probably. At least, when your sexuality is still being developed. I don't know how malleable it is once you are an adult. But then every other thing you experience in life is also probably messing with you. Do you ever stand in a store in the produce aisle and watch someone picking out peppers and wonder whether it's affecting your sexuality? Or how about advertising -- most of those ads are explicitly trying to mess with your brain to get you to buy stuff. Do you ever wonder if deodorant commercials are screwing with your sexuality? I think that looking at naked people in art is one of the LEAST of our worries, you know? Because like... naked people. They're pretty normal. But using sexual suggestion to try and form an attachment between you and shampoo, that's kinda fucked up.

[arenhaus]

It can't. American and some other cultures' hatred of nudity is a recent aberration.

[bcarman]

I'm American and I love nudity everywhere except on my favorite chair.

[QueenGwenevere]

Probably. At least, when your sexuality is still being developed.

PROBABLY NOT. I grew up around hippies, I saw naked people all the time from day one, I don't think it did anything to me. Or if anything, it made me more sane and healthy and willing to accept people and their bodies and my body as what they are than if I'd been constantly told that nudity was shameful when I was growing up.

If you ask me, people trying to make kids ashamed of their own bodies is MUCH more of a thing to worry about than seventeen+ year olds drawing nudes.

[Krilce!]

[tobbA]

Yes. It will make you realize that nudity in itself is has nothing to do with sex, it's just the way people look without clothes.

In todays society the only time we view other people naked is generally in sexual situations. This conditions us to think they're one and the same. So I think going to nude life drawing classes is a very healthy thing for your view on sexuality.

[Black Spot]

I knew I shouldn't have taken my son life drawing when he was 12. Explains so much - like how he's (mostly) normal for a 17yo now.

[vineris]

PROBABLY NOT. I grew up around hippies, I saw naked people all the time from day one, I don't think it did anything to me. Or if anything, it made me more sane and healthy and willing to accept people and their bodies and my body as what they are than if I'd been constantly told that nudity was shameful when I was growing up.

#1: Change is not necessarily negative. You're describing a potential possible change in you while simultaneously saying "change is probably not happening". Make up your mind!
#2: Anecdotal evidence is not evidence.

[Psychotime]

But using sexual suggestion to try and form an attachment between you and shampoo, that's kinda fucked up.

[SmallPoly]

I doubt it's affected my sexuality, but being used to seeing nudity from an academic perspective does take away some of the impact it appears to have on other people. I find it very strange how seriously other people in my country respond to nudity (while being totally fine with ultra-violence).

[Psychotime]

I find it very strange how seriously other people in my country respond to nudity (while being totally fine with ultra-violence).

You're forgetting the constant issue over videogame violence.

[QueenGwenevere]

You're forgetting the constant issue over videogame violence.

But movie violence is apparently A-OK... And real-life violence against women and furriners and "people-who-aren't-like-us" is apparently okay, too.

AMERICA IS WEIRD.

[SmallPoly]

You're forgetting the constant issue over video game violence.

I'm not, though I did expect someone to bring it up.

Video game violence falls more under "fear of newfangled thing corrupting our youth" than anything else. The same standards are not applied with nearly as much enthusiasm to Movies, news reports, aggressive full-contact sports, war re-enactments, going to actual war and doing some actual killing, or playing pool (which starts with P and that rhymes with T and that stands for trouble).

The reaction to nudity, on the other hand, transcends most kind of media and turns something as seemingly inconsequential as a blurry nipple being displayed on screen for a few seconds into a national scandal, years in court, millions in legal fees, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential fines (which in this case were ultimately thrown out).

[Psychotime]

And real-life violence against women and furriners and "people-who-aren't-like-us" is apparently okay, too.

...Huh!?

Video game violence falls more under "fear of newfangled thing corrupting our youth" than anything else. The same standards are not applied with nearly as much enthusiasm to Movies, news reports, aggressive full-contact sports, war re-enactments, going to actual war and doing some actual killing, or playing pool.

Anyway, ever heard of the Video Nasties? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_nasty ...Though, that only happened to the British.

I'll have to concede for this one.

The reaction to nudity, on the other hand, transcends most kind of media and turns something as seemingly inconsequential as a blurry nipple being displayed on screen for a few seconds into a national scandal, years in court, millions in legal fees, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential fines (which in this case were ultimately thrown out).

You have to back that one up if you can really use a term like national scandal...but then I remembered the crap over the Super Bowl Janet Jackson thing and the really creepy obsession the paparazzi and consumers have over wardrobe malfunctions and the like.

[SmallPoly]

Anyway, ever heard of the Video Nasties? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_nasty ...Though, that only happened to the British.

I hadn't heard of it before, but I did find that interesting. It seems like it shared some of the same trends that have been going on presently with video games. Also reminds me of the Hays Code and the Comics Code.

[QueenGwenevere]

...Huh!?

I dunno, seems like every other thing in the news these days is some crazy redneck/teabaggers/Newt Gingrich/other idiots justifying why it's okay for them to gang-rape or beat or otherwise abuse women/beat up or throw death threats at gays/shoot a black kid because he's black/etc etc etc...

Oh, and the 22 republicans opposing the Violence Against Women act. There's that. That's just one big case of "WHY!??"

And us going to war with everybody and their dog for no good reason, of course. There's always that.

Or maybe I should just stop reading news articles for a while. The past year has left me extremely pissed off at large portions of this country. There are some states these days you can't pay me to visit...

[Line]

Try watching this documentary of a man who was raised as a girl, because his penis was accidentally
cauterized when he was being circumcised (male genitalia brutality much?) yet he didn't feel like a woman,
far from it he was attracted to them.

Also there's evidence that masses of cells in the brain are responsible for our sexuality, hence heterosexuals,
homosexuals, transsexuals etc. It all seems to be perfectly natural, and it happens, the way brown, blue and
green eyes do.

So, from what the indications are...no, looking at the naked human form won't affect your sexuality. If
anything, you won't fear the beauty of the human body, the way religion does...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HfAhLuZZ5o

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexually_dimorphic_nucleus

[vineris]

Try watching this documentary of a man who was raised as a girl, because his penis was accidentally
cauterized when he was being circumcised (male genitalia brutality much?) yet he didn't feel like a woman,
far from it he was attracted to them.

Also there's evidence that masses of cells in the brain are responsible for our sexuality, hence heterosexuals,
homosexuals, transsexuals etc. It all seems to be perfectly natural, and it happens, the way brown, blue and
green eyes do.

But there's also clear evidence that some people's sexuality is affected by external factors. Look at something like, say, a shoe fetish. A human brain might have gender orientation and sexual preference encoded in it in the womb, sure. There is plenty of evidence to support that. But before birth the human brain can't know that something like a shoe exists in the outside world. So at some point, in the lives of at least some people, their sexuality MUST be affected by the external world otherwise things like fetishes would not exist. They may be born with a tendency to fixate on an object, sure, but they can't genetically know what that object is going to be. Likewise, on a smaller scale you may be born a woman who prefers women, but being attracted to redheads who smoke has to be something that happens to you after you encounter redheads and cigarettes.

[Kamber Parrk]

I was wondering about this the other day. Going to drawing classes, constantly seeing human beings nude and studying them, or just looking at a lot of art containing nudity - could it psychologically affect a persons libido or a persons view on sexuality in any kind of way? If anybody knows of any good articles related to this, please post them.

As empty and psychopathic as it may sound, in life sessions, I usually have one eye on the clock and I'm just working at getting better at interpreting the human form as best as I can in the allotted time.

My grim unfeeling "look of measurement" will occasionally cause a model to who makes eye contact to break down and snicker for a few moments. . .

But, that woman in those Progressive Insurance ads? I WANT her, badly. . .even though she's fully clothed. . .and even though she's pretty damn annoying. . .

[Line]

But there's also clear evidence that some people's sexuality is affected by external factors. Look at something like, say, a shoe fetish. A human brain might have gender orientation and sexual preference encoded in it in the womb, sure. There is plenty of evidence to support that. But before birth the human brain can't know that something like a shoe exists in the outside world. So at some point, in the lives of at least some people, their sexuality MUST be affected by the external world otherwise things like fetishes would not exist. They may be born with a tendency to fixate on an object, sure, but they can't genetically know what that object is going to be. Likewise, on a smaller scale you may be born a woman who prefers women, but being attracted to redheads who smoke has to be something that happens to you after you encounter redheads and cigarettes.

Sure I won't disagree. I just didn't take it as far, I kept my thoughts more around the realm of sexuality geared towards preference
of sex, not fetishes.

I suppose preferences in that degree follow a different set of rules, maybe the interaction between cause of pleasure in our primal
brain and the reasons we associate the pleasure with, in our modern brain. But then again it may be hard to determine what the case
is because the brain works in some cases, from what I understand, in a way that can be characterized as precognitive. What seems to
happen is that centers in our primal brain call for pleasure hormone (dopamine) to be release before the effect we connect with pleasure
occurs. So, it's kinda like a weird paradox, what came first the egg or the chicken?

That being said (and such data makes the brain and all these issues seem even more interesting, and we will get definitive answers
some day) I never saw a human being who claimed to have been born with a user manual, so to give the hardcore puritans some food
for thought, under that prism, even a kiss is a perversion!

But hey, if looking at nude models while you draw, get's you both the skill you want to obtain, and a mood for a particular kind of
nipple, it's all the better isn't it?

[dierat]

Being exposed to nudity will desensitize you to it (or, looking at it from the other perspective, living in a society where nudity is taboo makes you very sensitive to nudity when you do encounter it). But I don't think lifedrawing classes will affect your sexuality because they are very nonsexual. The discussion concerning media is different because in those situations, nudity or partial nudity is used in intentionally arousing ways to get your attention which can over long periods of exposure change what you associate with sexual arousal.

[LORD M]

Croquis turned me asexual.

[QueenGwenevere]

Not only are life drawing classes nonsexual, they're about as unsexy as you can get, short of dissecting cadavers.

Seriously, most of the models and poses and the setting itself are distinct turn-offs, if anything. Plus you're so focused on actually drawing that sex is the last thing you're gonna think about. The first five minutes of your first life drawing session might be awkward, sure, but as soon as you start drawing, you're WAY more nervous about getting the drawing right and whether the teacher is going to come prowling around behind you just when you've made a horrific mistake...

You're more likely to have your sexuality affected by hanging out with other art students, if you ask me.

Or by hanging out with students, period. I mean, come on, having ID crises and episodes of sexual confusion is what college is for. Drawing nudes is the icing on the cake, if anything.

[Chris Bennett]

The Pope didn't seem to mind it all over his nice ceiling.

[QueenGwenevere]

The Pope didn't seem to mind it all over his nice ceiling.

Which pope? One of them minded and had clothes painted on.

Though none of them minded the naked Greek statues elsewhere in the Vatican... That place is packed with nudes.

Of course, Popes are not exactly a model of non-sexuality...

[Beeston]