🍑✨The Nexialist #0079
Anasyrma | How To Feel Better Naked | Bigorexia | Body Shaming Stories | BFF Nude Portraits | Nakedness: Deeply Human | Gymnasium | Why Are Some People SO Horny? | Akimbo
Welcome to the most intimate part of my brain (not really), The Nexialist
I had been saving a lot of this week’s content for some time, waiting for the perfect time to share it with you. I love nudity, and I know it can be a sensitive topic. However, after going for a coffee last weekend and taking a risk on trying to read some articles in Dutch, I came across an article about Naturism and nudity. Of course, it made me stop and read the whole thing, looking online for the words I didn’t know (great to learn about body parts!). On top of that, the heat wave triggered me to practice more nudity and seeing people biking around the city in their swimsuits inspired me to go against modesty here. Now you get a Nudity Special Nexialist. I hope you enjoy!
1 year ago »🕺✨The Nexialist #0029 : Stream Trava Línguas | ADORO | Twerking on the Table | Don’t Be Afraid | Glass & Patron | Roman | Sad, Mad or Bad | Morning Music | Hot N Heavy | Boomers vs. GenZ
😈Anasyrma
Anasyrma (Ancient Greek: ἀνάσυρμα) composed of ἀνά ana "up, against, back", and σύρμα syrma "skirt"; plural: anasyrmata (ἀνασύρματα), also called anasyrmos (ἀνασυρμός), is the gesture of lifting the skirt or kilt. It is used in connection with certain religious rituals, eroticism, and lewd jokes. The term is used in describing corresponding works of art.
Anasyrma may be a deliberately provocative self-exposing of one's naked genitals or buttocks. The famous example of the latter case is Aphrodite Kallipygos ("Aphrodite of the beautiful buttocks"). In other contexts, this gesture has an apotropaic character, that is, a means to ward off a supernatural enemy, or it may be a sign of mockery, analogous to mooning.
Who knew there would be so much culture in a simple mooning. Anasyrma is one of those Wikipedia pages that you (or at least me) want to read the whole thing. Lifting up your skirt is such a frequent motif since Ancient Greece that it even has a name. Apparently, mooning or exposing your genitals might have magical and supernatural effects (or can just be done for the joke.)
🍑How To Feel Better Naked
My friend Tassia, who also shares the love for nudity, sent me this article from The New York Times, “How to Feel Better Naked” by Catherine Pearson. “Whether you want to find joy in your body, or just greater self-acceptance, these four strategies from psychologists and activists — and, yes, nudists — might help.” Here are the four parts of the article:
Spend more time naked
Focus on how your body feels
Ask yourself: Am I avoiding being naked?
Surround yourself with images of different body types
I think these are such great tips to get started. The last one is very important. I always think that we probably see more bodies on our screens than our own and chances are, they look a certain way. The effect of that on us certainly is not the best.
“Remember that nearly all adult naked bodies jiggle or wobble, have hair, have cellulite, have scars, have the marks of living,” Dr. Engeln said. “It’s easy to forget this if you’re mired in a media world that only includes Photoshopped images of the young and thin.”
💪🏼Bigorexia
The quest for perfect pecs is so strong that psychiatrists now sometimes refer to it as “bigorexia,” a form of muscle dysmorphia exhibited mostly by men and characterized by excessive weight lifting, a preoccupation with not feeling muscular enough and a strict adherence to eating foods that lower weight and build muscle. The condition can also lead young men to become obsessed with their appearance, checking themselves in the mirror either constantly or not at all.
This article is a reminder of how body dysmorphia also affects men, in this case more specifically, younger men. I think the conversation around body positivity has been led by women (as the vast majority of positive change movements of our time), and men should take a cue on opening up this discussion.
Read: What Is ‘Bigorexia’? by Alex Hawgood - NYT
🤬Body Shaming Stories
When we talk about gay, bi, trans and queer bodies, there are extra layers when it comes to body image. Grindr is the “world’s largest social networking app for gay, bi, trans and queer people” and I was positively surprised to see them opening up the conversation about body shaming stories, such a big problem in the app.
🎨BFF Nude Portraits
The Cut (no, it’s not a channel about circumcision) loves to play with nudity in their videos. This one stuck with me because you see two very close friends that have never talked about their body insecurities or even just seen each other naked. In the beginning, you can see the laughs and humor used to avoid awkwardness, which is understandable. Also, I loved the questions they ask each other such as: “can you give me three authentic compliments about my body?” One last thing: was I the only one pretty impressed with the second painting?
“Small questions have powerful effects when they go viral. Cut spreads stories for fun, for serious, and for real– bringing the internet together one awkward moment at a time.”
🍑Nakedness: Deeply Human
I’ve mentioned Deeply Human here before, but this episode about Nakedness is what got me hooked to it (thank you, Juan, for sending it my way). Dessa Darling does such a good job with this one, bringing “The Naked Attraction" (a dating show where people first meet naked), the possible origins of this call for modesty, some colonial history of nudity and social differences between male and female nudity. It’s sad to understand we are living in such a prudish moment. It’s worth listening to it.
Listen: Nakedness : Deeply Human
🤸Gymnasium
In Ancient Greece, the gymnasion (γυμνάσιον) was a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men. The latter meaning of intellectual education persisted in Greek, German and other languages to denote a certain type of school providing secondary education, the gymnasium, whereas in English the meaning of physical education pertained in the word 'gym'. The Greek word gymnasium, which means "school for naked exercise," was used to designate a locality for the education of young men, including physical education (gymnastics, for example, exercise) which was customarily performed naked, as well as bathing, and studies. For the Greeks, physical education was considered as important as cognitive learning. Most Greek gymnasia had libraries that for use after relaxing in the baths.
Just needed to add this here as a reminder that Gyms were spaces where men used go to learn and also to exercise naked.
🥵Why Are Some People SO Horny?
I was giggling watching the whole time watching this. I decided to bring this video here (1) because it is interesting and funny (2) but also for us to remember that nudity shouldn’t always be sexualized.
😎Akimbo
Akimbo: adjective or adverb | uh-KIM-boh
Akimbo means "having the hand on the hip and the elbow turned outward." It is also used in the broader sense of "set in a bent position." // The model, arms akimbo, struck a pose at the end of the runway.
Akimbo arrived as Word of The Day recently, and reminded me of Amy Cuddy’s TED Talk on Power Poses, or How Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are. It also got me thiking about the origin of the word, which looked Amerindian, African or Japanese, but it’s actually from “Middle English, the adverbial phrase in kenebowe was used for the bent, hand-on-hip arm (or later, for any bent position).”
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