Even in the most introspective, reclusive and sad moments of life, I tried to express my authenticity in some way, whether through clothes, hair, the vast taste in music acquired along the way, through the critical and rebellious way of putting myself in situations of injustice.
Sometimes I felt the need to expose myself more physically, in several ways. Showing off or dressing provocatively. I don\’t see anything wrong with that. Not to mention the fact that since I was a kid I like to be naked and I do it every chance I get. Sleeping, swimming, sunbathing naked, I feel naturally free.
And it is here that, unfortunately, I have to resume speeches of freedom and property to justify why.
Just by the decisive emphasis at the end of the title, you must have already realized that there is an intrinsic issue to the statement.
The woman\’s body never really belonged to her. The patriarchal society, true owner of this good, has been shaping it in countless ways, veiled and not veiled, its form and presentation, in the way that satisfies it and is necessary for its purposes of maintaining power.
Women have always dressed and behaved in order to meet social standards and rules determined by them, men and their expressions of machismo.
When groups in defense of women\’s equal rights and freedom began to emerge, it was not a surprise that soon women\’s clothing and etiquette began to be questioned.
Among the most diverse forms of declaration of autonomy and feminine positioning in the face of the oppressions of patriarchy, nudity is still one of the most controversial.
Tragically, women and, of course, men, totally out of their place of speech, have been attacking nudity and the exposure of female bodies on social networks.
I understand the fear of reinforcing the practice of objectifying women, as well as the concern about extending a standard of perfection to us women. But the question is: isn\’t limiting the discussion of nudity (partial or total) to the female silhouette the same as limiting one of our forms of expression again?
Wouldn\’t that be giving voice to the machismo that attacks women for wearing short clothes and blames them for rape? Look, I\’m not talking about pornography, I\’m not talking about girls exposing their young bodies of immature minds on the internet believing that this is feminism.
It is our duty to teach girls to exercise their freedom. As well as explaining these structures to them, pointing out the ways in which they limit us and emphasizing the need that making choices requires responsibility. There is no freedom without ethics and that is awareness, not limitation.
Telling a girl simply you\’re too young to go out like that or, worse, they\’ll mistake you for a whore, they\’ll want to fuck you and other pejorative sentences does not explain the social problem that is patriarchy. On the contrary, it reinforces the idea that she is responsible for the other\’s unhealthy behavior, without having the slightest awareness of why our culture sees her that way.
Likewise pornography. Nudity itself is not the problem. Well, beautiful paintings extolling the beauty and power of naked female bodies, sometimes in an almost sacred way, are displayed on the walls of houses, institutions and renowned museums around the world. Not to mention indigenous cultures in which the absence of clothing is just the most natural expression of the human condition.
The crux of the criticism that today (I confess that I enjoyed watching it and this is the subject of the next text) disgusts me in this category of films is precisely the animal and inhuman way in which women are shown and treated. This presentation of women as pure objects of sexual usefulness reduces us to the conditions against which we struggle so much: submission, devaluation, oppression, standardization and typification.
Regarding the high exposure of women with perfect bodies on the internet, I don\’t see any problems, in general, with wanting to expose their vanity or admiration for their own body. I don\’t believe we have to spend our vocabulary on personal struggles or direct criticism. This is not a fight against women, but against a system that stipulates standards at will and vehemently prevents representation, the presentation of all bodies with their unique beauty.
After all, we are multiple and unique, we are fat, thin, short, tall, black, white, yellow, trans, cis and so many other variations of the beautiful and originally free being that we were born to be.
Let\’s not fall for this belief that our nudity or exposure of our bodies is the problem. We have to learn to contextualize if we don\’t want to give voice to the old structures that have imprisoned us for millennia.