{"id":35870,"date":"2011-12-27T12:00:58","date_gmt":"2011-12-27T17:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=35870"},"modified":"2013-11-09T04:48:38","modified_gmt":"2013-11-09T09:48:38","slug":"what-makes-a-body-obscene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2011\/12\/27\/what-makes-a-body-obscene\/","title":{"rendered":"What Makes a Body Obscene?"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the last week of December, we\u2019re re-posting some of our favorite posts from 2011. Originally cross-posted at\u00a0<\/em>Ms.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

The cover of this month\u2019s Dossier Journal<\/em> magazine has caused a great stir.\u00a0 In a matter of a few hours, five readers — Andrew, Jessica B.,\u00a0anthropology professor Kristina Kilgrove<\/a>,\u00a0artist Thomas Gokey<\/a>, and my brilliant colleague,\u00a0music professor David Kasunic<\/a> — all sent in a link.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what all the fuss is about:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>(source<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The model is a man named Andrej Pejic,\u00a0with hair and make-up usually seen only on women, sliding his shirt off his back. \u00a0Some might say that he is gender-ambiguous and the image deliberately blurs gender; are we seeing a chest or small breasts? \u00a0It is not immediately apparent.<\/p>\n

Both Barnes & Noble and Borders “bagged” the magazine, like they do\u00a0pornographic ones, such that one can see the title of the magazine but the rest of the cover is hidden. \u00a0Barnes and Noble said that the magazine came that way, representatives for\u00a0Dossier<\/em> <\/em>say that the bookstore “chains” required them to do it (source<\/a>). \u00a0Non-ambiguously-male chests pepper most magazine racks, but this man’s chest hints at boobs. \u00a0And so he goes under.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s going on?<\/p>\n

Explaining why it is legal for men to be shirtless in public but illegal for women to do the same, most Americans would probably refer to the fact that women have\u00a0breasts <\/em>and men have\u00a0chests<\/em>. \u00a0Breasts, after all, are… these\u00a0things.<\/em> <\/em>They incite us, disgust us, send us into grabby fits. \u00a0They’re just so\u00a0there<\/em>. \u00a0They force us to contend with them; they’re bouncy or flat or pointy or pendulous and sometimes they’re plain missing! \u00a0They demand their individuality! \u00a0Why won’t they obey some sort of law and order!<\/p>\n

Much better to contain those babies.<\/p>\n

Chests… well they do have those haunting nipples… but they’re just less unruly, right? Not a threat to public order at all.<\/p>\n

So, there you have it. \u00a0Men have chests and women have breasts and that’s why topless women are indecent.<\/p>\n

Of course it\u2019s not that straightforward.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not true that women have breasts and men have chests. Many men have chests that look a bit or even a lot like breasts (there is\u00a0a thriving cosmetic surgery industry around this fact<\/a>). \u00a0Meanwhile, many women are essentially “flat chested,” while the bustiness of others is an illusion created by silicone or salt water. \u00a0Is it really breasts that must be covered? \u00a0Clearly not. All women’s bodies are targeted by the law, and men’s bodies are given a pass, breasty or chesty as they may be.<\/p>\n

Unless.<\/p>\n

Unless that man\u2019s gender is ambiguous; unless he does just enough femininity to make his body suspect.\u00a0 Indeed, the treatment of\u00a0the Dossier <\/em>cover<\/em>reveals that the social and legislative ban on public breasts rests on a jiggly foundation.\u00a0 It\u2019s not simply that breasts are considered pornographic.\u00a0 It\u2019s that we’re afraid of women and femininity and female bodies and, if a man looks feminine enough, he becomes, by default, obscene.<\/p>\nLisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em>American Hookup<\/a>, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em>Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a>.\u00a0You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the last week of December, we\u2019re re-posting some of our favorite posts from 2011. Originally cross-posted at\u00a0Ms. \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014 The cover of this month\u2019s Dossier Journal magazine has caused a great stir.\u00a0 In a matter of a few hours, five readers — Andrew, Jessica B.,\u00a0anthropology professor Kristina Kilgrove,\u00a0artist Thomas Gokey, and my brilliant colleague,\u00a0music professor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8070,218,403,55,2103,129,1047],"class_list":["post-35870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-artliterature","tag-bodies","tag-deviance","tag-gender","tag-gender-bodies","tag-media","tag-pornography"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35870"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58554,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35870\/revisions\/58554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}