Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Consequences of immodesty

Apparently, curators and "models" at New York's Museum of Modern Art have discovered that when an exhibit removes his clothes, visitors suddenly feel free to touch the exhibit. This illustrates one of the wonderful functions of clothing, that of a barrier to prying eyes and fingers.

Yes, it's not anyone's "right" to do this kind of thing, but it illustrates what your grandma (or maybe your momma) would have told you. Dressing, or not dressing, in certain ways is simply asking for trouble.

1 comment:

pentamom said...

Why is it NOT someone's "right" to touch what they can see, anyway? Why draw so severe a line at physical touch that it automatically becomes, if not a crime, at least the prelude to one?

I mean, if letting it all show is just natural and healthy, why is touch such a big deal? I may not want people putting their hands all over my car if they find it interesting, but unauthorized car touching has never gotten anyone charged with a felony, as far as I know. But it CAN'T be that the human body is inherently more private, can it? That might lead to....modesty, or something!

It's funny that it seems absolutely inevitable that you draw a line somewhere when it comes to the degree to which a human body is public property, but if you draw it a little farther out than modern "liberated" society would do, you're the Taliban, and if you draw it a little closer in, you're subject to severe criminal penalties.