If strippers can be called exotic dancers, then drug dealers should be called exotic pharmacists” (Unknown).
The use of this quote is meant to debase the profession of exotic dancing. There are many negative stigmas that are behind the idea of strippers, yet they remain one of the most popular forms of adult entertainment today. Strip clubs are equivalent to museums in that we can look but we may not touch. So the question must be asked: is sexual gratification through visual perception an art form? Simply put, yes.
Both pornography and stripping are forms of art based upon John Berger’s ideas of nudity and nakedness in his work Ways of Seeing. Naked V. Nude In order to see explicit materials as art, we must first understand the difference between nakedness and nudity. The dictionary has little distinction between these two words; both denote to be without clothes. However, nakedness has another meaning: vulnerable and undisguised. This is the main distinction made by John Berger in his work Ways of Seeing. Berger presents the belief that to be naked isn’t simply to be without clothes: it is to be and reveal oneself.
Nakedness is free from all disguise. Nakedness is vulnerability. “But it would seem that nakedness has a positive visual value in its own right: we want to see the other naked” (58).
We desire to see the other naked in order to not only experience vulnerability ourselves but also to experience another person being vulnerable to us. At the instant of full disclosure of our bodies with another human being, we develop a sort of intimate connection. The instant of total disclosure is often immediately before moments of physical intimacy, a moment in which we as humans share our bodies and our flaws with another. At the moment of nakedness first perceived, an element of banality enters: an element that exists only because we need it…
The Term Paper on Time and Form
Introduction While the English language has past and present tenses, it does not have a future tense because there is no particle for it. To say what will happen in the future, you can use the modal auxiliary will (plus the base form of the main verb), the verb phrase be going to (plus the base form of the main verb, the present simple or the present progressive, etc… But, be careful! There are ...
This is the element of banality which must be undisguised but not chilling. It is this which distinguishes between voyeur and lover” (59-61).
Banality that is undisguised but not chilling removes our fear of the unknown about the other person’s body and allows them to be a lover. When banality turns chilling it the other person is then a voyeur whose body is greater than our own. Nakedness equates with reality. Another erson’s nakedness “acts as a confirmation and provokes a very strong sense of relief… We are overwhelmed by the marvelous simplicity of the familiar sexual mechanism” (59).
In the moment of disclosure our fears are quelled in the realization that either she is a woman like any other, or he is a man like any other. Compared to nakedness, nudity is heartless and fantasized. “To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognized for oneself” (54).
Berger means that once we perceive a naked body as an object, it becomes nude. “Nudity is placed on display…
To be on display is to have the surface of one’s own skin, the hairs of one’s own body, turned into a disguise which, in that situation, can never be discarded. The nude is condemned to never being naked. Nudity is a form of dress” (54).
John Berger reveals nudity as a disguise, essentially a naked body minus emotion, connection and honesty. Nudity, in John Berger’s opinion, cannot nor will ever have emotional associations. Nude bodies are disguises placed on display for the pleasure of others. Nude bodies are works of art; they are objects whose purpose is to stir up desire and fantasy rather than emotion.
Strippers and Pornography “In an average European oil painting of the nude the principal protagonist is never painted. He is the spectator in front of the picture and he is presumed to be a man. Everything is addressed to him. Everything must appear to be the result of his being there. It is for him that the figures have assumed their nudity. But he, by definition is a stranger- with his clothes still on” (54).
The Essay on Pornography 12
Sexual morality has declined in America today. The immoral life can be seen all around us. We see it in drugs, alcohol, movies, magazines, gangs, teenage pregnancy, pre-marital sex, and society as a whole. A person can walk into almost any convenience store and purchase a magazine depicting naked women. Videos and movies with graphic sex scenes can be rented or watched in any movie theater. They ...
In this quote John Berger perfectly describes exotic dancers or more widely known, strippers by what he means by nude. The European oil paintings of the nude were essentially static versions of strippers and pornography.
The audience for most strip clubs and pornographies are generally male, whereas the performers are female. Strip clubs and pornographies give the illusion that everything is just for the one male or group of males; everything addresses them specifically, not as a general audience. Strippers give this illusion with lap dances and eye contact, whereas pornographies give the illusion being that they are normally viewed in the privacy of the viewers home. “Her body is arranged in the way it is to display it to the man looking at the picture. This picture is made to appeal his sexuality. It has nothing to do with her sexuality” (55).
The essential duty of the stripper is to display herself (perhaps himself) to the viewer and evoke sexual consciousness. We are all sexual beings. Most of the time our sexual beings remain subconscious to us as we perform our daily activities, otherwise we would be considered perverts, constantly aroused and in need of sexual gratification. It is when our subconscious sexual beings become the forefront is when we become conscious sexual beings, with our sexual desires becoming active in our minds. As stated, the primary goal of the stripper or pornography is to evoke this subconscious sexual being to our conscious minds.
By evoking our repressed sexual beings, strippers fulfill their role of being nude: they are displayed before us appealing to our sexuality and fantasy. Strippers and pornography are exactly like European oil paintings of the nude in that they evoke sexual desires. In order to turn desire into the ultimate goal of fantasy “the photographer is to turn the figure into a nude, which [can be achieved] by generalizing both sight and viewer and making sexuality unspecific” (60).
The photographer must eliminate emotional connection and unoriginality in order to make the body a nude art.
The Essay on Pornography 9
Pornography 1. Introduction My topic deals with the issue of whether or not all pornography should be illegal. I will defend the position that pornography should be kept legal by arguing, first, that pornography is beneficial to society, and secondly, that any position to make pornography illegal would go against the rights of the first amendment. 2. Argument My argument is that pornography is ...
The artist must eliminate feelings of banality so as to reach the desired level of fantasy. Nakedness is banal for in nakedness we realize the ordinariness of our bodies. In nudity we fantasize about the extraordinariness of the human body with the help of our imaginations and the external stimulation of strippers or pornography. As humans, we intrinsically have a greater desire for what we do not have or cannot attain. Therefore, strippers are often more desired for presenting the built-up idea of sexual gratification compared to an actual sexual partner.
With strippers and pornography our inner sexual desires or fantasies are brought forth giving us at least visual gratification. As humans, we find the fantasies given to us by nudity are often greater than the perceived banality of the naked. In essence, fantasy and imagination outweigh and overpower reality. Strippers and Pornography as Art Strippers perform their jobs by remaining attractive, choosing the right outfits and performing the right dances. Pornographic filmmakers perform their jobs by displaying actors in the right lighting, creating the right script and the actors performing the right moves.
The art form of stripping or pornographies does not derive itself solely on their production. The art of stripping or pornographic filmmaking is the nudity, how it is portrayed and the desire it induces. The art form is the feeling these nudes arouse inside of us. The feelings do not necessarily need to be sexual desire and fantasy, but could also include that of detest and rejection. In the end, strippers and pornography are images presented to us displaying the human body in a sexual fashion designed to elicit feelings of lust, desire, fear, contempt, etc. Because they stimulate these feelings, they can be considered art.
