Ashamed of your own body?

April 15, 2008, 3:21 PM

I've seen this many times: parents telling their children that the human body is disgusting and filthy.

Mostly, the highly religous believe this. But I dont understand something. "We were made in God's image. If our bodies are filthy, wouldn't that make God's body impure as well, he who is always pure?"

What do you guys think?

April 15, 2008, 4:15 PM

My opinions on the human body are mixed. Yes, they're disgusting because of sex, and yet, if they were ugly, I wouldn't even be drawing them.

Although I think it's because the fact that people have emotions that can be drawn is a fairly beautiful thing. That and I like drawing characters with different hairstyles.

I don't particularly care what others think of their own bodies. If you actually cared and thought it was ugly, it might lower your self esteem, but it's amusing that the religious people choose to take it in such an illogical fashion.

April 15, 2008, 5:07 PM

Well... religions are a funny thing. They run on the word of God, somebody who they have absolutely no proof of his existence, their only back-ups are some nutjobs who claim to see visions and have magical healing powers.

I'm not saying they're wrong but... it just seems a very weak source when you put it like that, and it's a good job they have faith, really. Anywayyy, my point being that religions make up their own rules based on what they THINK God would want. So... if they can find a reason for something to be wrong, ANY reason at all, even if there are 20 reasons for it to be good, then it's off the list, it's a sin. One of the catholic religion's major flaws is the amount of times it contradicts itself... if God *did* design us, then being the perfect being that he is, he wouldn't want us to consider his work disgusting, would he? Like I said, religions make up their own rules, NOT God. Hell, we don't even know if he exists.

April 16, 2008, 1:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vlad, The Impaler

I've seen this many times: parents telling their children that the human body is disgusting and filthy.

Mostly, the highly religous believe this. But I dont understand something. "We were made in God's image. If our bodies are filthy, wouldn't that make God's body impure as well, he who is always pure?"

What do you guys think?

The bible isn't supposed to be taken that literally. Because then we'd all look the same.
Some people have absolutely amazing bodies, there's this chick in my history class... I digress.
The bible is a book, and it's how you interpret it that matters, not what it is says exactly.
The bible say he created us from his own image, not he made us look exactly like him.
I've always taken that to mean, humans look somewhat like god, and that we all worth the same as people.

April 16, 2008, 2:47 PM

Yes, but why let an authoritarian book tell you how you should think about how the human body looks like? Isn't that kind of like, "I give up thinking about life--someone spoonfeed it to me." Don't people have their own opinions of what it looks like?

There's too many different ways of interpreting the bible. There will be people who interpret the bible to say there's literally a heaven and a hell directly above and below them until you fly them in a plane or teach them geology. Or that they believed the Earth to have been literally created in a mere 6 or 7 days--until you tell them it's scientifically impossible and teach them some physics and astronomy.

April 17, 2008, 12:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vlad, The Impaler

I've seen this many times: parents telling their children that the human body is disgusting and filthy.

Mostly, the highly religous believe this. But I dont understand something. "We were made in God's image. If our bodies are filthy, wouldn't that make God's body impure as well, he who is always pure?"

What do you guys think?

Uh I've never heard anyone outright tell their children that the human body is disgusting, religious or not. All I have ever heard is that they tell their children to keep their body covered. (And who wouldn't want their kids to be covered with all the sickos out there?)

As for the body being disgusting... well apparently the city I live in is considered to be the fourth fattest city in the country (AKA the world) So... yeah XD

April 17, 2008, 3:08 AM

Have you even seen a bodybuilder? If you have then you would see how nasty the human body can get. but again that is because the people made themselves that way. and saying that we are made in God's image does not mean God's physical apearance.

April 17, 2008, 8:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rydia

Uh I've never heard anyone outright tell their children that the human body is disgusting, religious or not. All I have ever heard is that they tell their children to keep their body covered. (And who wouldn't want their kids to be covered with all the sickos out there?)

No, it's not usually said directly but it's implied alot in the way children are raised and in the culture. This country actually baffles me in that it plays both sides. On one hand you've got sexuality imbued into the media, yet on the other, the human body is still made out to be something dirty. Simple biological features such as a penis, vagina or breasts are considered "naughty" parts and treated as taboo. Bizarre limits are set between something sexy and okay for TV/movies and something that's obscene and porn-worthy.

A few years back, in Nashville someone made a large bronze sculpture in the middle of the city of alot of nude chicks frolicking or w/e (been a while since I've seen it). Whooooboy did people freak. There were people on the news complaining about how it was perverted, moms ranting about how they didn't want their children seeing that, etc. It was ridiculous.

Remember the Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" a couple years back? She was scantily clad and no one minded, yet once Justin showed one of her breasts it was like ZOMG NIPPLE OBSCENE

despite the fact that she had it covered with a star or something. But have any of you stopped to consider the whole nipple thing? Cleavage is fine, and sideboob is fine, but if the nipple shows you've crossed the line. Why? Who decided that nipples were terrible, perverted things? And why is a female showing her nipples a strict no-no, but with guys it's fine? It just makes no sense.

If people would stop treating the human body as taboo, we wouldn't have these ridiculous issues. People into art generally look at the body from an aesthetic point of view and take everything into account, not just the no-no parts. But sadly, the view that the body (one in good shape, anyway) is a work of art isn't a part of the mainstream.

Little kids giggle and laugh whenever they see a penis or breasts in a textbook or in art because they're raised to think that stuff is lewd. Alot of time is spent in people's minds wondering what's under someone's clothes and generally arousal occurs at the first site of anything "naughty." Now, I daresay that if everything on the body was treated equally, the extreme fetishism people place on the privates would be diminished. Little kids wouldn't gawk at a weewee, there would be less wondering what's under a shirt, and porn (at least softcore) would probably lose some of its appeal as well. But that's just my theory.

April 17, 2008, 4:14 PM

I wonder how many people who admire the Statue of David also find the human body disgusting. They'd be hypocrites in a way.

If we are not made in God's physical image, then in what ways are we like God? We have none of God's perfections. You claim we look nothing like God physically. We have none of God's powers, or weren't created that way--and therefore, we think differently (but since God apparently is omniscient, he doesn't need to think). So how can we be anything like God at all?