/fornicate/
The naked human body is a beautifully peculiar thing. It’s a symbol of anatomy, evolution, artistic splendour and a spiritual connection to nature, not to mention its red-carpet standing as humanity’s most cherished past time, sex. But what happens when you’ve seen the same naked body every day, twice a day for fifteen years? Does it become as stimulating as brushing your teeth? Does the sex appeal of what was once a pair of perky breasts leave you high and dry for the tidal wave of wrinkles now settling in? Does the sight of your partner’s penis start making you gag in a bad way?
The question of nakedness is obscure. Our culture has sexualized nudity to the point where any state of undress is taken as inherently erotic upon first glance. While nakedness can be overtly boner-producing in certain instances (porn for one), it can also be carnally invigorating via non-sex-oriented mediums like erotic art or a strip tease. I wonder, does nakedness lose all sensual meaning after a certain amount of time? Will my boyfriend’s exposed body become nothing more to me than just that- a body- within a few years? Maybe, maybe not. I’ve seen the same naked body almost every day for nearly two years now and I can definitively say that I am still thoroughly excited by it. On an even more narcissistic note, I’ve seen my body every day for nearly 19 years and while there have been moments of disappointment, the general consensus has been positive.
As time goes on, I think we become increasingly at ease not only with the most natural parts of our partners, but also with our own. In this sense, we cease implementing our nakedness as a way of creating a sexual atmosphere (which I assume is the sole purpose of being in the nude for the first year or so) and instead use our bare self as a way of proving comfortability with our partner and satiating our desire to be starkers at any given time of the day.
This of course doesn’t mean that all sexual feeling is lost to human framework, it just means that arousal is shared with a sense of normalcy.
We evolve to a state where we can be equally turned on by, and indifferent to, a person’s body. While that may seem a little deterring, it’s nice to know you can be clothing-free without your partner trying to bend your ass-out over the kitchen sink. Couples in lengthy relationships reach an equilibrium between “Oh yeah baby, walk that around!” and “Oh, he/she’s naked. Cool.” This is pretty extraordinary when you think about it. A naked person can be sex. A naked person can be a physical being. A naked person can make your undies a little wet, or leave you with organic inspiration.
So one day, you can wash your dinnerware in the nude like it is just another Tuesday afternoon, and by Wednesday, the kitchen sink may be soaping up something a little dirtier than a plate.
