Naked v. Nude

Today, in Art, I discussed this work, titled Grande Odalisque by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, with my art teacher. In 1814 when it was painted, this painting and others like it were far too provocative. I am intrigued by human sexuality so immediately, this painting caught my eye.

My teacher, who had told me to find a painting I could turn into a self-portrait, told me that I couldn't do this painting. His explanation, aside from his want to keep his job, was that this painting was inappropriate even when it was made. He explained that because the subject is staring at the viewer of the painting; this he says is the difference between naked and nude. A "nude" subject is one that is unclothed and looking to the right or the left. When the subject of a painting or artistic work is unclothed and staring directly at the viewer, the subject is "naked."

The difference, one I had never considered, is so interesting. I wonder if this difference applies in life outside art... (Although I'm not sure if there is life outside of art...)

Big Bad Sex

Today, I watched La Petite Jerusalem with Mom and Vienna. The movie focuses mostly on a Jewish girl named Laura, living in a suburb of Paris with her sister Mathilde, brother-in-law, mother, and nieces and nephews, who struggles with the line(s) between her religion, her philosophical studies, and her burgeoning sexual desires. In the movie are many sex scenes and many sensual shots of Laura and of Mathilde with her husband.

At one point, Vienna turns to me as we were seated on the couch together and says "This is so embarrassing watching this with our mother." I laughed. Vienna has always been ill-at-ease with sex and with sensuality.

It makes me laugh that my sister can get so weird about watching a woman slowly roll stockings up her thighs or touch her bare neck. The thing is, I doubt that my sister is the only person I know who is so bothered by a woman touching her own bare skin or by seeing a scene where a guy kisses from her shoulder to her jaw. For one, I find it fascinating. I think sex and sensuality are beautiful (just not when it's my mother, ha-ha).

I am almost completely comfortable with my desire to be touched by a man. I am almost completely comfortable with my own body. Sure, I have just enough self-doubt that I am not 100 percent comfortable with these things.

That my sister can be so bothered by these things seems to me to be the result of -- and I keep saying it -- society's double standard of the sexes and sex.

Take just about any boy my sister's age (16) and you'll likely find that he watches porn on a regular basis, that he's done it with at least one girl, and/or he jacked off at least once today. Just as many girls as are having sex are not. Generally the girls my sister's age who have had sex did so because they were in relationships. Guys? I don't know, but I don't think that for as many of them, being in a relationship is a stipulation required to seal the deal.

With this in mind, I think more people should watch La Petite Jerusalem and talk with the daughters of the world telling them it's okay to want sex, to have sex, and to see sex in a movie.