Throughout history, artists have seen the nude figure as a beautiful expression of womanhood, in all its glorious shapes and sizes. But ask the average female how she views her own bod in the buff and it gets a lot more complicated. Nakedness reveals everything we usually get to hide: vulnerabilities that date back to high school, parts you struggle to love or just outright hate , scars, stretch marks, etc. Women's Health conducted a reader survey in to chart that complex relationship we have with our stripped-down selves. Now, though it's just four years later, a lifetime of change has occurred on the body front. The body-positivity movement exploded, strong replaced skinny as social media's favorite adjective, and loveyourcurves campaigns abound—making us wonder, is there more love?
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Recent event-related potential studies have shown that the occipitotemporal N component - best known for its sensitivity to faces - is also sensitive to perception of human bodies. Considering that in the timescale of evolution clothing is a relatively new invention that hides the bodily features relevant for sexual selection and arousal, we investigated whether the early N brain response would be enhanced to nude over clothed bodies. In two experiments, we measured N responses to nude bodies, bodies wearing swimsuits, clothed bodies, faces, and control stimuli cars. We found that the N amplitude was larger to opposite and same-sex nude vs. Moreover, the N amplitude increased linearly as the amount of clothing decreased from full clothing via swimsuits to nude bodies. Strikingly, the N response to nude bodies was even greater than that to faces, and the N amplitude to bodies was independent of whether the face of the bodies was visible or not.
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At the time, the feminist movement was either denigrated or dismissed in the so-called mainstream media. Most magazines marketed to women were limited to advice about finding a husband, saving marriages, raising babies or using the right cosmetics. To pay tribute to five decades of reporting, rebelling and truth-telling, Ms. The Internet accounts for much of this growth, and young people are particularly exposed to advertising: 70 percent of to year-olds use social networking technologies such as MySpace and Facebook, which allow advertisers to infiltrate previously private communication space. Although mass media has always objectified women, it has become increasingly provocative.
In many religious circles and philosophies of life, the human body is excluded from the realm of spirituality and meaning. Due to a dualistic approach, nudity is viewed as merely a physical and corporeal category. In social media, there is the real danger that the naked human body is exploited for commercial gain. Advertisements often leave the impression that the body, very specifically the genitals, is designed merely for physical desire and corporeal chemistry. They become easily objects for lust, excluded from the beauty of graceful existence and noble courage.
