The paper focuses on the phenomenon of nudity as a symbol, and on its different meanings with the possibilities of various interpretations. Its aim is to provide a critical analysis of the growing sexualisation and pornification of contemporary culture. In the first part of the text the historical concepts of nudity in the mode of the natural and the sacred are summarised. Although nudity was invested with various meanings (for example slavery and abasement in Mesopotamia, poverty among the Jews, social superiority among the Greeks), it was always informed by the sacred. Cult rituals securing fertility, but also ceremonies that today we treat as sporting events (for example the Olympic games), were above all a religious rather than a secular occasion. In different religions we can discern different levels of openness or distance concerning the naked body, while at the same time nudity (and sexuality) could become an expression of religious experience. In contemporary times (especially in our geographical area) the element of sacredness is receding from the perception of nudity. Nevertheless we may still meet with nudity in the mode of the natural (especially in the nudist and naturalist movements), and with cultivated eroticisation (with takes its exemplary form in art). A more serious development is, however, the growing process of the sexualisation and pornification of contemporary culture, exploiting nudity and sexuality in order to attract attention, or financial gain. We point to several cultural manifestations (politics, advertising, art and sport), using examples from concrete social signications of nudity in its non-naturalness, that is with the aim of attracting the attention of the public. These are, for example, political protests; special television current affairs programmes („naked news“); the growing sexualisation of advertising (presenting a sexual context without displaying the sexual organs); the merging of pornography and art which does not stop even at the natural boundaries of the human body, i.e. the skin, but enters into bodies; nakedness in sport showing itself not only in sportspeople posing for erotic magazines, but also in the ways that sporting events are recorded, picking up on the inadvertent revealing of parts of the bodies of participators, or on the revelations of the spectators. Philosophy should not give up the ambition of thoroughly enquiring into these cultural forms, despite the fact that philosophical anthropology has so far interested itself in sexuality rather than in nudity explicitly. If one of the characteristics of philosophical thought is being critical, then a critique of the sexualisation and pornification of contemporary culture should be conducted with emphasis on the richness of the human way of being and on human relations that maintain the dimension of love as the essential respect to the other, not on the technical exploitation of reified bodies with the aim of purely mechanistic stimulation or financial reward.
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The paper deals with a topic which is not very frequent in kinanthropology; it concerns the phenomenon of the naked body in the environment of movement culture. Within the individual aspects of this cultural subsystem (sport, movement education, movement recreation, movement therapy, and movement art), it points out a variety of meanings and contexts adding sense to nudity on a continuum ranging from naturalness and functionality through erotization and sexualization to pornoization of particularly sport environment. The author prefers a functional naturalness of nudity and rejects the instrumentalization and changing human body into a thing and, thus, exceeding the characteristics of the sphere of movement culture.
The article examines how nudity was used as a promotional strategy in the Polish cinema in the 1980s. In contrast to earlier decades, the Polish movie industry delivered dozens of films that contained female nudity and erotic scenes. Some actresses like Maria Probosz, became automatically associated with such movies. Paradoxically, the Polish cinema of the 1980s was only slightly concerned with the discourse of eroticism. As Maria Kornatowska writes,The shortage of erotic sensibility was compensated by ‘bald nakedness.’’ The reasons for the increased presence of nudity on movie screens stemmed from the transformation of social lifestyle and audiences’ demand, the search for easy profit and the need to de-politicize society. Of significant importance were the influences of the growing video market and western cinema. Projections of nudity were meant to divert attention from the bleak reality of Poland enmeshed in crisis provide a sense of belonging to the Western world, and give mostly male viewers visual pleasure. It was also a marketing technique luring viewers to cinemas by bombarding them with daring posters and stills reproduced in the press and in front of movie theaters. My article will discuss and explain the ways of presenting female nudity in terms of these economic and political tasks.
The article is devoted to descriptions of female nudity and the role of dress in creating the image of a character in Baroque poetry. The author reminds us about the literary models determining the way characters are described, considers the shape and semantics of the images of dress, discusses the contexts justifying the “exposing” of the woman, including the motif of peeping typical of the old culture. The quoted fragments of the works by Samuel Twardowski, Jan Andrzej Morsztyn, Zbigniew Morsztyn, Wespazjan Kochowski, Adam Korczyński and Jerusalem Delivered by Tasso and Kochanowski reveal the suggestiveness and sensuality of he Baroque visualizations of the female body. However, owing to the convention of highbrow literature, the nudity of female characters was not described in those texts, only hinted at through certain “undressing games”. Seventeenth-century poets oscillated between hiding and exposing, exploiting dress in the erotic narration, which on the one hand was supposed to protect the body’s secrets, on the other – stimulate the reader’s imagination. The initial analytical and interpretative remarks in the article open the way to further identification of the semantics of nudity and corporeality in Old Polish literature.
The paper deals with a topic which is not very frequent in kinanthropology; it concerns the phenomenon of the naked body in the environment of movement culture. Within the individual aspects of this cultural subsystem (sport, movement education, movement recreation, movement therapy, and movement art), it points out a variety of meanings and contexts adding sense to nudity on a continuum ranging from naturalness and functionality through erotization and sexualization to pornoization of particularly sport environment. The author prefers a functional naturalness of nudity and rejects the instrumentalization and changing human body into a thing and, thus, exceeding the characteristics of the sphere of movement culture.
Liudprand of Cremona is one of the most interesting authors of the tenth century. He is well known for his description of the Byzantine court and also for his jokes in Antapodosis – a first chronicle of Europe. Based on these tales, he is treated by scholars as a prime example of medieval misogyny. Lately the more political view of these narrations emerged, but still women in Liudprand’s works are seen mainly as victims. This essay shows that this view is wrong and that there is much more to be found in the text. Through Liudprand’s jokes emerges a much more complicated view of the position and role of woman in the society. To see this, the stories have to be put in the context of the tenth-century society.
The treatise deals with breastfeeding as a significant socio-cultural phenomenon. It studies public breastfeeding and ambivalent attitudes toward it in the contemporary Slovak society. It is based on theoretical background of the study of cultural taboos, gender, intimacy, sexuality and physicality, and use of public space. It focusses on the public pressure and the interpretation of the phenomenon of “good mother”. It traces back the historical aspects of breastfeeding and its forms and significance in traditional culture, as well as changes in the contemporary Slovak society. In particular, it pays attention to media, political and institutional influences on breastfeeding practices, and it analyses public activism in this realm. The focus of the work is on the Central European socio-cultural space. The study presents findings from research carried out using the method of content analysis of posts on Internet discussion forums. It subjects the texts of these posts to a qualitative analysis, whereby it focusses on the contents of the statements as well as the ways of expressing oneself on the topic.
The central argument of this essay is gathered from two historical novels published around same time and revolving around the same historical figure August Engelhardt. High temperature, in particular the tropical heat finds its metaphorical expression in the sun and then the fever as two prototypical colonial phantasies and/or fears and weaves the narrative around the temperature driven intricacies. Marc Buhls Das Paradies des August Engelhardt (2011) and Christian Krachts Imperium (2012) form the primary sources for the discussion within the topic of colonial desire with reference to the temperature as a significant indicator of either appreciation or devaluation underlining the colonial mentality. My paper concentrates on the overlapping sites within German speaking literature from post-colonial perspective. Along with the works of Marc Buhl and Christian Kracht, I cursorily touch upon Ilija Trojanows novel Der Weltensammler (2006), since it deals with the figure of a historical British colonial officer, Richard Francis Burton. The common thread running through all three works is not only the fact that they deal with scurrile biographies from the pages of colonial history in India and Africa, but that they develop the narrative on another common indicator – the Tropes and their Temperatures.
The paper focuses on the previously unexplored topic of various forms of nudity in Sienkiewicz’s writing. The writer’s entire literary output is reviewed here, with special reference to novels (Quo vadis in particular is notorious for a plethora of sadistic erotic scenes). Given the writer’s extraordinary talent for seduction and his creative capabilities, the paper looks into images that could have been considered indecent at that time andwere prudently hushed up. The following modules: Collective nudity and mutilated nudity, Separate naked bodies, Diana at a water fountain, Human statues, and Naked manhood look at Sienkiewicz’s depiction of corporeality, eroticism, and sexuality, which, combined with cruelty, recur to reveal the writer’s intimate fantasies. The figures commonly used by Sienkiewicz in his works making recourse to mythology and other cultural texts include animalisation, reification, hyperbole, and synecdoche; they are particularly refined when it comes to nudity.
Artykuł opisuje problemy interpretacyjne powstające na tle wprowadzonych do Kodeksu karnego w czerwcu 2010 roku artykułów: 191a, 200a i 200b. Znamiona stypizowanych w tych przepisach typów czynów zabronionych są niejasne i niespójne z założeniami aksjologicznymi, które najpewniej towarzyszyły ustawodawcy podczas ich uchwalania (a zatem nie czynią zadość założeniu o racjonalności aksjologicznej prawodawcy, nie spełniają bowiem należycie swojej funkcji w systemie prawa karnego). Wszystkie spośród poddanych analizie przepisów powinny zostać znowelizowane tak, aby zaczęły należycie chronić te dobra, do których ochrony zostały one powołane w momencie ich wejścia w życie.
EN
The article describes interpretation problems regarding the articles: 191a, 200a and 200b of the Polish Penal Code which became a part of this Code in June 2010. Characteristics of crimes stipulated in these provisions are vague and stand in contrary to axiological presuppositions which apparently legislator had in mind while implementing these types of crimes (as they do not satisfy the rule of axiological rationality of the legislator, and they do not function properly in penal law system). All analyzed regulations should be amended so that they could protect these goods which should have been protected from the beginning of their implementation.
The aim of this work is to analyze the crime of fixing and distributing the image of a naked person or a person during the sexual act. On the basis of the analysis, the author will answer the question whether the introduction of the offence referred to in Article 191a of the Polish Penal Code was necessary and appropriate, and additionally, whether – according to the legislator’s assumptions – this regulation will counteract the increase of this phenomenon.
PL
Celem niniejszego opracowania jest analiza przestępstwa utrwalania i rozpowszechniania wizerunku nagiej osoby lub osoby w trakcie czynności seksualnej. Na jej podstawie autor sformułuje odpowiedź na pytanie, czy wprowadzenie przestępstwa określonego w przepisie art. 191a k.k. było zabiegiem słusznym i koniecznym. Ponadto oceni, czy analizowana regulacja stała się, zgodnie z założeniami ustawodawcy, remedium na przeciwdziałanie wzrostowi tego zjawiska.
Pop feminism in the service of revolution. Women’s movements and practices of protest: Ukrainian group Femen case studyIn my paper I take a close look at the protest group, Femen, the circumstances of its creation, development and recent activities - initially in Ukraine, latterly also in Western Europe. I analyse the character of the group which belongs to the category of new social movements, and I present and analyse those indications of the activity of demonstrations of the movement based on what took place at street level. The object of my interest is also the issue of the appearance of the representatives of Femen in the media (new and traditional) and the influence of the pop culture on different aspects of its activity. I also question the issue of the employment of nudity in the public domain, and its connection with the usage of the expression of nationality against the background of other feminist movements. Popfeminizm w służbie rewolucji. Ruchy kobiece i praktyki protestu na przykładzie ukraińskiej grupy FemenW pracy pochylam się nad ukraińskim ruchem protestu Femen, kontekstem jego powstania, rozwoju i działalności – początkowo w Ukrainie, a potem także w Europie Zachodniej. Analizuję charakter grupy jako należącej do kategorii nowych ruchów społecznych, a także przedstawiam i analizuję przejawy działań kontestacyjnych ruchu, opartych o konwencję performance’u i przedstawień ulicznych. Przedmiotem mojego zastanowienia jest także kwestia obecności oraz funkcjonowania przedstawicielek Femenu w mediach (nowych oraz tradycyjnych) oraz wpływów popkultury na różne przejawy jego aktywności. Rozważam także kwestię wykorzystania nagości w sferze publicznej, powiązaną z użyciem idiomu narodowościowego, w kontekście innych ruchów feministycznych.
Artykuł dotyczy analizy prawnej art. 191a kk wprowadzonego ustawą z dnia 5 listopada 2009 r. o zmianie ustawy – Kodeks karny, ustawy – Kodeks postępowania karnego, ustawy – Kodeks karny wykonawczy, ustawy – Kodeks karny skarbowy oraz niektórych innych ustaw. Ten przepis dotyczy utrwalania wizerunku nagiej osoby lub osoby w trakcie czynności seksualnej, przy użyciu wobec niej przemocy, groźby bezprawnej lub podstępu, albo rozpowszechnia bez jej zgody wizerunku nagiej osoby lub osoby w trakcie czynności seksualnej. Zachowania takie mają miejsce także wobec małoletnich, a ich sprawcami bywają rówieśnicy pokrzywdzonych.
EN
This paper presents a legal analysis of Article 191a of the Penal Code, included in the Act of 5 Nov 2009 on amending the following acts: the Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Executive Penal Code, the Fiscal Penal Code, and several other laws. This regulation concerns recording images of a naked person or a person engaging in a sexual act, by use of violence, unlawful threat or deceit, or disseminating images of a naked person or a person engaging in a sexual act without his or her permission. Such behaviours affect minors, too, and some of the perpetrators are the victims’ peers.
In my paper I take a close look at the protest group, Femen, the circumstances of its creation, development and recent activities - initially in Ukraine, latterly also in Western Europe. I analyse the character of the group which belongs to the category of new social movements, and I present and analyse those indications of the activity of demonstrations of the movement based on what took place at street level. The object of my interest is also the issue of the appearance of the representatives of Femen in the media (new and traditional) and the influence of the pop culture on different aspects of its activity. I also question the issue of the employment of nudity in the public domain, and its connection with the usage of the expression of nationality against the background of other feminist movements.
PL
W pracy pochylam się nad ukraińskim ruchem protestu Femen, kontekstem jego powstania, rozwoju i działalności – początkowo w Ukrainie, a potem także w Europie Zachodniej. Analizuję charakter grupy jako należącej do kategorii nowych ruchów społecznych, a także przedstawiam i analizuję przejawy działań kontestacyjnych ruchu, opartych o konwencję performance’u i przedstawień ulicznych. Przedmiotem mojego zastanowienia jest także kwestia obecności oraz funkcjonowania przedstawicielek Femenu w mediach (nowych oraz tradycyjnych) oraz wpływów popkultury na różne przejawy jego aktywności. Rozważam także kwestię wykorzystania nagości w sferze publicznej, powiązaną z użyciem idiomu narodowościowego, w kontekście innych ruchów feministycznych.
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In “What’s Wrong with the (Female) Nude?” A. W. Eaton argues that the female nude in Western art promotes sexually objectifying, heteronormative erotic taste, and thereby has insidious effects on gender equality. In this response, I reject the claim that sexual objectification is a phenomenon that can be generalized across the experiences of all women. In particular, I argue that Eaton’s thesis is based on the experiences of women who are white, and does not pay adequate attention to the lives of nonwhite women. This act of exclusion undermines the generality of Eaton’s thesis, and exposes a more general bias in discussions of female representations in art. Different kinds of bodies have been subjected to different kinds of objectifying construal, and the ethics of nudity in art must be extended to take such variation into account.
Nota krytyczna autorstwa Pawła Jędrzejki, poświęcona książce Marka Helfricha, Naked Pictures of My Ex-Girlfriends. Romance in the 70s. (Los Angeles: Rat Press, 2000).
EN
Paweł Jędrzejko's critical note on Mark Helfrich's photobook Naked Pictures of My Ex-Girlfriends. Romance in the 70s. (Los Angeles: Rat Press, 2000).
Shame is a feeling, it is definable in the areas of psychology, history of culture, and customs in the analyses of the history of religion and ethics. Shame defines the relationship between the object of shame and the subject of this feeling and, ultimately, the subject may not feel ashamed because of an act or a fact, which is not, for him or a certain moral and religious community, understood as a reason for shame. A slightly different, but also related to the concept of ‘shame ‘, is the notion of ‘bashfulness’ understood as a human capability to feel shame to the same extent as the pursuit of other virtues: love, being sensible, faith, chastity, hope, but also humility, modesty and silence. ‘Bashfulness ‘ is an integral part of the condition of a decent, fair and noble life, which in the Roman social education was defined by one common virtue – ‘virtus ‘, known in Greece as ‘arete’. The Christian understanding of virtues and vices, described by Prudentius and later on studied in detail in various texts and works of art by E. Saxl, and A. Katzenellenbogen, specified in detail both virtues and vices at the same time following ancient models. The author undertakes the analysis of the phenomenon of ‘shame’ in the visualisation of Christian, especially medieval, art starting from the accounts of important biblical citations on the ‘shame’ theme. Then she attempts to point out stage images illustrating the religious or moral problem of shame commonly referred to nudity, which, however, is not a proper understanding of shame and bashfulness. The study focuses on selected issues: personification of shame and on the events (described in the Old Testament) which imply shame. The selected images are illustrations of Genesis cycle where the First Parents’ feeling of embarrassment was depicted. The author indicates the sources of ancient compositions of the Aphrodite statue- -Venus Pudica, which developed the topos of ‘shame’ and ‘bashfulness’ imagery. This type of nudity constitutes a distinctive programme of gestures, movement, counterpose and the composition of the head. They are a clear visualisation of the female ideal – of virtues, including the virtue of an ideal love that was associated with bashfulness. The validity of this theme in Italian medieval art, especially in Nicola and Giovanni Pisanos’ works, was pointed out. The personifications of virtues: Venus Pudica or Hercules shown on reliefs in pulpits in Pisa, confirm the validity of the theme of ‘bashfulness’ in medieval art. In the cathedral sculpture, on the outer facades, the sets of virtues and vices used to be depicted, and they were supposed to be addressed to the wide audience of urban publikum. The author of the study pointed out the reliefs of cathedral facades in Paris, Amiens, Magdeburg in which the virtues, including the virtue of shame, had been presented. The columns in the Church of the Norbertine monastery in Strzelno are of great significance for European art. The author also suggested a new iconographic interpretation for the naked figure of Venus pucica. The second field of research is the issue of narrative scenes, the visualisations of nudity based on the Bible, that constitute a positive sense of understanding naked figures in Christian art: Bathsheba in bath, the dancing King David, the suffering Job and the naked, drunken Noah. The author focuses on the analysis of the complex and non-uniformly presented Adam and Eve’s narrative of the feeling of shame. The moments when they experience the feeling of shame and their nudity for the first time are diversified. The author of the Book of Genesis does not mention first parents’ other feelings in paradise, the only statement is the lack of being ashamed of their body at the moment of creation and then the experience of shame after the original sin. The author included more extensive research on the visualisation of the Genesis narrative in her book Human Corporeality in the medieval Italian painting, Vol.I, Lublin 2012. The experience of the first parents’ embarrassment when recognising their nudity was, at the same time, the experience of a permanent virtue of bashfulness. In the Italian series of Genesis imaging the parents experience grace due to the shame they suffered. Additional scenes, which were introduced into cyclical narratives of Genesis and which confirm the meaning of Divine Mercy in the cycle ending the creation of man, are pointed out in the study
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