As a teenager living in 2016, I feel as though I have incredible insight into this topic. Adolescents between the ages of 13 and 19 are sometimes referred to as being in the “exploratory age.” There is so much truth to this statement. During these years when teenagers are so called trying to “find themselves,” they dibble and dabble in any and everything. Amongst the mischievous things that they presume to aspire to is sexting.
By definition, sexting is the sending and/or receiving sexually explicit content, whether by text messages or any other social networking site. This includes the sending and/or receiving of nude photographs. Statistics show that sending semi-nude or nude photos is more common among teenage girls than guys with 22% of teen girl’s having sent some form of nudes while only 18% of teen guys have done so. This is a rather popular practice among high school (ages 14 to 17) and college (ages 18 to 24) students with 24% of high school students and 33% of college students reporting to have been involved in sending such messages at some point in time. Of these numbers, 15% of teenagers say that they have sent nudes to people they have never actually met in person (DoSomething, "11 Facts about Sexting"). This leads me to ask a timeless question. When did the sacred art of nude photography loose its original classiness, its celestial insinuation? In ancient traditions, nudity in art was used to express human aesthetics. The appreciation for the human body as art has diminished as a result of the hypersexualization of the body. This has been accomplished by a variety of factors. Nudity in art is mostly seen in the Western hemisphere of the world and can easily date back to the 5th century. …show more content…
The first gender to be used in such art were females. Often time voluptuous female body sculptures were used in religious ceremonies as emblems of fertility, therefore having sacred implications. A large majority of the nude sculptures were actually religious idols that were worshiped, mainly the Greek gods. Male nudes first appeared in Greek culture. They were often used to show divine mythological heroism. Most of the first nude male sculptures portrayed finalist of the great Olympic games which were held there (Graves, "Life Study: The Nude in Art - a Brief History"). Nude art was meant to show what the ideal human body (Bain, "Nudity in Art - From a Christian Perspective"). Notice that most of the sculptures, paintings, and drawings showed the human body at its best. The males would be slim, fit, and muscular. The women would be portrayed to be somewhat plumb because it was considered to be healthy for them and so that was the style. Nude art drastically decreased during the rise of Christianity. …show more content…
In fact, the only nude art that was allowed was that which depicted religious scenes or events (Graves, "Life Study: The Nude in Art - a Brief History"). A great majority of this period later came to be known as the Renaissance. During this time, many great works of art were created, such as the painting on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel and the sculptured statue of David. Notice how both of these sacred creations are affiliated with religion. However, this phase where only “religious” nude art was permissible didn’t last long and soon the artists regressed back to making the nude art that they had been so accustomed to making beforehand. But what were these artists trying to portray to their audiences? I believe Catholic Apologist and Speaker Matt Fradd says it best. He states that the artist is trying “to arouse wonder and awe at the beauty and dignity of the human person.” What a beautiful and noble ambition. However, this is not always the goal of the artist. According to Matt Fradd, the intention of some so called “artist” is “to portray a person in such a way in order to arouse lust in the viewer” (Fradd, "Porn and Naked Art: What’s the Difference?"). But is it the artist fault for arousing these feelings in the viewer? Is this really an issue of lack of self-control on the viewer’s part? And this is the point where nude art meets pornography. It is a well-known fact that pornography is a huge problem in our country. The cause
By definition, sexting is the sending and/or receiving sexually explicit content, whether by text messages or any other social networking site. This includes the sending and/or receiving of nude photographs. Statistics show that sending semi-nude or nude photos is more common among teenage girls than guys with 22% of teen girl’s having sent some form of nudes while only 18% of teen guys have done so. This is a rather popular practice among high school (ages 14 to 17) and college (ages 18 to 24) students with 24% of high school students and 33% of college students reporting to have been involved in sending such messages at some point in time. Of these numbers, 15% of teenagers say that they have sent nudes to people they have never actually met in person (DoSomething, "11 Facts about Sexting"). This leads me to ask a timeless question. When did the sacred art of nude photography loose its original classiness, its celestial insinuation? In ancient traditions, nudity in art was used to express human aesthetics. The appreciation for the human body as art has diminished as a result of the hypersexualization of the body. This has been accomplished by a variety of factors. Nudity in art is mostly seen in the Western hemisphere of the world and can easily date back to the 5th century. …show more content…
The first gender to be used in such art were females. Often time voluptuous female body sculptures were used in religious ceremonies as emblems of fertility, therefore having sacred implications. A large majority of the nude sculptures were actually religious idols that were worshiped, mainly the Greek gods. Male nudes first appeared in Greek culture. They were often used to show divine mythological heroism. Most of the first nude male sculptures portrayed finalist of the great Olympic games which were held there (Graves, "Life Study: The Nude in Art - a Brief History"). Nude art was meant to show what the ideal human body (Bain, "Nudity in Art - From a Christian Perspective"). Notice that most of the sculptures, paintings, and drawings showed the human body at its best. The males would be slim, fit, and muscular. The women would be portrayed to be somewhat plumb because it was considered to be healthy for them and so that was the style. Nude art drastically decreased during the rise of Christianity. …show more content…
In fact, the only nude art that was allowed was that which depicted religious scenes or events (Graves, "Life Study: The Nude in Art - a Brief History"). A great majority of this period later came to be known as the Renaissance. During this time, many great works of art were created, such as the painting on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel and the sculptured statue of David. Notice how both of these sacred creations are affiliated with religion. However, this phase where only “religious” nude art was permissible didn’t last long and soon the artists regressed back to making the nude art that they had been so accustomed to making beforehand. But what were these artists trying to portray to their audiences? I believe Catholic Apologist and Speaker Matt Fradd says it best. He states that the artist is trying “to arouse wonder and awe at the beauty and dignity of the human person.” What a beautiful and noble ambition. However, this is not always the goal of the artist. According to Matt Fradd, the intention of some so called “artist” is “to portray a person in such a way in order to arouse lust in the viewer” (Fradd, "Porn and Naked Art: What’s the Difference?"). But is it the artist fault for arousing these feelings in the viewer? Is this really an issue of lack of self-control on the viewer’s part? And this is the point where nude art meets pornography. It is a well-known fact that pornography is a huge problem in our country. The cause