I see my roommates naked pretty often.
It’s not weird. It’s not even intentional. It just sort of happens when our paths cross outside the bathroom, or when one of us is showering and the other is brushing their teeth. The first time was shocking, sure, but it’s slowly become a part of our everyday lives. And although it’s not something that we ever really acknowledge, it is something that’s brought us closer together.
The body is a site of vulnerability, a site that amplifies or dampens one’s deeper insecurities depending on its state. Think about the advice every first–time public speaker recieves: Imagine the audience naked. It’s a way to flip the script—though expressing yourself to an audience might be embarassing, letting someone see you naked, completely unguarded, is several orders of magnitude worse.
Or think about your romantic relationships. You’ll try to look your best on a first date, but as you develop in your intimate relationships, your physical appearance comes to matter less and less. The “lack of effort” you put in isn’t because you don’t care—in fact, it’s because you do. It’s no coincidence that the people who see us naked are the people we’re closest to, the people we can’t imagine life without.
What makes the body so powerful is the power we have to construct it. Whether it’s through the clothes we wear, the makeup we apply, or the “looksmaxxing” we attempt, our lives are full of attempts to shape the way others perceive us—and, reflexively, the way in which we perceive ourselves. Those efforts to shape the way we’re viewed can be liberating, sometimes. But it can also be deeply frustrating to know that there’s no way to separate yourself from the shell you were born into—to know that the first judgment anyone makes of you is based not on who you are inside, but how you present yourself on the surface.
The Body Issue is an exploration of perhaps the most important part of the human experience—physical existence. By thinking about nude models and “Chinese times in our lives,” Street asks how image and self–image are constructed today. We put our detective caps on to investigate the state of sex and body standards on Penn’s campus. And through interviews with boxers and students struggling with substance addiction, we think about what happens when the human form is pushed to its limits.
It’s often said that “the clothes make the man.” But it’s only by seeing him naked that you know him for who he truly is. And at this point, I think I know my roommates fairly well.
Stay classy, dear reader.
