Where did it go awry?
I can’t help it; I just keep reading this book and I can not stop (Promiscuities Naomi Wolf). If I could stay home the rest of the week to finish it I would…but of course, I can’t.
In Western culture’s debate, images of female sexualized nakedness are assumed, by progressives and conservatives and apolitical concerned mothers alike, to be innately degrading to women. The trouble with this is that it locates the degradation of the women within the sex or the nakedness itself, rather than in the distorted value assigned to that sex and that nakedness.
In our culture, women’s nudity is typically seen as exposing women-in the sense of making them vulnerable-for the sake of more powerful, less vulnerable men. But, as Havelock Ellis argued in his Studies in the Psychology of Sex, other cultures have organized female nakedness very differently.
This is true; I have often become caught up in it myself to be quite frank. When I say ‘it’ I mean specifically, the idea that the purpose of the nakedness of women can not equate to anything other than an unequal intent. I’ve gotten caught up in that idea and it’s made me angry many times. Somewhere in my intellect, I know better than that though. My profession has taught me that one of the most important skills I can have is that of being able to reframe something…an idea, a situation, etc. Many of us have learned to see sexuality in this light through no fault of our own; we’ve learned to see it in a space and time that is two dimensional, when in true reality it can be better described as four dimensional. Our culture is not our fault however, once we’re aware of what our culture has ingrained our choice thereafter is our responsibility.
In other cultures there are defined rites of passage intended to allow a person a more firm grasp on what is happening to them physically. Per Navajo tradition:
When a Navajo girl reaches puberty (the time of her first menstruation), she undergoes a four day ceremony called Kinaalda which signifies her transformation from childhood into womanhood. The ceremony is centered around the Navajo myth of Changing woman, the first woman on Earth who was able to bear children. The myth says that Changing Woman performed the first Kinaalda and that the ceremony gave her the ability to have children. Because of this, all Navajo girls must also undergo the ceremony so that they will grow into strong women who can also have children…
Throughout the ceremony, the young woman will perform tasks on others that she is having performed on herself. This is because the Navajo believe that during a sacred ceremony, the participant gains the power to help others in the same way they are being helped. During the Kinaalda, this means that the young girl will be ‘molded’ by her mother and then she will also ‘mold’ others in the tribe and so on.
The key word for me there is help. The general way that girls become women in Western culture pales in comparison to an example like this one. Unfortunately the norm is not a ceremony marking a significant change as well as teaching in a proud way about all that comes with it; it is usually masked in embarassment and uncomfortable conversations, if one is lucky. Not to mention the images, ideas, and inferences from culture at large that a girl has already been taking in since a much younger age.
