Perseus, a bronze admired by thousands, but he is naked! Yet a naked man of flesh and blood is reviled????? (Photo Courtesy of Andrys Basten)

     Is that how you feel about seeing somebody nude, or even going outside naked yourself for others to see? When you see me naked in the picture alongside do you feel embarrassed? Did you dare to click on the picture to enlarge it? Although, I admit I am somewhat long in the tooth at the age of 56, do I really look so bad? Is my body so disgusting that you feel repelled by what you see? Yet 1.2 million people every year queue up to see the most famous nude man of them all, Michelangelo's David. As BBC correspondance Joe Boyle asks, "Why do 1.2 million people flock to the Italian city of Florence every year to look at an enormous statue of a naked man?" That is a good question! Why do people WANT to see a naked man carved in marble, but when the same people look upon a real man of flesh and blood they suddenly find themselves repelled by what they see, or are simply fearful to look? What a strange paradox this is. If I was to stand naked alongside that of Michelangelo's David, ask yourself, am I really so different? So what is the problem? One is carved in stone, the other in flesh. So in reality, only the material in which each is made, differs. Sometimes when things are so obvious, even then people can be blind by what they see. Perhaps, if we take a look at this issue of Gymnophobia, from the perspective of a parable, the blinkers may fall away from your eyes and you may see things as they really are, and then you may question why you feel the way you do.

The Parable of the Soiled Mind

     The well-respected mainstream author Howard Fast (1914-2003) became famous for his novel Spartacus which was filmed in 1960, wrote a science fiction story in the same year entitled Sight of Eden. It offered a poignantly sad appraisal of the human state of mind with respects to the issue of nudity that is the theme of this book.

     The story Sight of Edendescribes the journey of the first humans to another planet outside our Solar System. Seven astranouts of both genders descend upon a planet where they find a beautiful Eden, with gardens, rivers, fountains - but apparently no inhabitants. Yet there are also beautiful buildings, some of whose corridors are "lined with colorful and masterful murals of naked children at play". Perplexed they search for the inhabitants of the veritable paradise who have apparently abandoned the fabulous buildings for no apparent reason.

     Three days after their landing, the astronauts are finally greeted by a man, a human seemingly just like them. He reveals to them that many worlds throughout the universe are inhabited by "humans" and that this whole planet has been set aside and developed as a park for their use. However, as the astranauts considered the possibilities of living on this beautiful planet, the man expressed his sadness and tells them that he is familiar with the history of Earth, its wars, violence, and destructive ways. Furthermore, only on Earth, he said, did mankind exhibit such pathological behavior and for this reason visitors from other worlds avoided the place. The astronauts from Earth, therefore, were not welcome here on this paradise world.

     The man sighed. Once, he said, their world was the most beautiful world in the heavens, but in the course of time, mankind raped it's natural resources for selfish gain, so that what remained was a polluted world made barren by the misappliance of the technologies of man, the ground soaked in the blood of millions of animals and his own kind. No! Man must be confined to his own planet and not allowed to join the rest of galactic society of humankind.

"In all the universe, there is only one race of man that holds its bodies in shame and contempt. All others walk naked in pride and unashamed. Only Earth has made the image of man into a curse and a shame." (Credit: Fred Harding)

     Needless to say, the astronauts objected to this slur on their characters and responded by saying that what he was talking about was the past history of Earth. which was now irrelevant. Mankind had grown out of such things. The man listened to their arguements with respect but then a knowing smile crossed his face. Suddenly without warning he opened up his robe, and allowed it to slip off his body to the ground. He now stood before them completely naked.

     The women instinctively turned their heads away and covered their eyes, while the men reacted with shocked disbelief and gasped. This was not what they had expected on this new world. The man picked up his robe and clothed himself again, and as he did so the astronauts slowly began to comprehend what had taken place. The man then spoke to the astronauts and explained that, in all the universe, there is only one race of man that holds their bodies with such shame and contempt. All others walk naked in pride and unashamed. Only Earth, he said, had made the image of man into a curse and a shame. The astronauts hung their heads for they knew that what the man had said was true. In that moment they came to realize the absurdity of a race of beings which cannot stand to look at themselves as they really are....naked!

     Have you got the message? The parable should have made you think about the issue of nudity and how mankind in general perceives it to be. It is as Henry David Thoreau in his journal remarks, "What a singular fact for an angel visitant to this earth to carry back in his note-book, that men were forbidden to expose their bodies under the severest penalties!"

     The famous nineteenth century writer Mark Twain hit the nail on the head when he said, "Adam and Eve entered the world naked and unashamed -- naked and pure-minded; and no descendant of theirs has ever entered it otherwise. All have entered it naked, unashamed, and clean in mind. They have entered it modest. They had to acquire immodesty and the soiled mind; there was no other way to get it."

     For most of human history, the issue of nudity was one that was considered normal, but today, to be seen nude accept in the cinema or in magazines is considered obscene and dirty. Clearly something has happened that has turned most of mankind into Gymnophobics, but what? The answer can be found in my latest book, The Answer To All There Is