I'm ashamed of having written about body shame
without doing more prep on the subject. It seems
rather intuitive to me that some people and
cultures are less or more uptight about revealing
the body. Though I indicated there were many
applications of the term "body shame," such as a
psychoanalytic or even a medical use, it was
primarily everyday life I was considering
anecdotally. I am guilty of not being more precise.
Take my working without a shirt experience.
Playing frisbee in college or sunbathing in the
Sheep Meadow in Central Park are perfect
situations for upper-torso male nudity. Since I
have no tattoos or scars, such exposure is
anonymous in the city or the campus, and not even
worth thinking about. Yet in the rural countryside
it became a scandal. Why? I can only assume that
my behavior violated the normal expectations of
the rural locals.
There's body shame on the golf course. You can't
really play shirtless on a decent course without
having somebody come down from the club house to
enforce the rules; on the other hand, golf courses
are also known for encouraging loud and outrageous
golfing clothes. Go figure.
As for Robert mentioning the Greeks wearing the
same clothing at meetings, that was to enforce
equality, not as a sign of body shame. Greek
Olympic athletes often competed naked for the same
reason, equality: by not wearing colors that
associated you with a family or status, you were
competing solely on the basis of your athletic merits.
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