VIRB

There's an impressive 2nd century ancient Roman statue of Hercules at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh -- photo at http://ncartmuseum.org/collections/highlights/ancient/classical/049_lrg.shtml -- It's more or less life-size and gives us a solidly built Hercules carrying his club. The statue is complete, although repaired in places, except for his phallus. My understanding is that this part of his anatomy was in place when the museum acquired the statue (back in the mid-twentieth century, I think), but his brash nakedness caused some furor among some people and the statue was put away for a while. At some point before its re-emergence, the phallus was accidentally knocked off -- at least that's the story. I guess it must have smashed into a million pieces and couldn't be repaired like other parts of the statue have been.The fact that it was ever seen as necessary to remove the statue from view is one example of the threat that nudity, and particularly male nudity, seems to pose to so many people, especially in the U.S.

There was a Celtic tribe of warriors, in Britain I think, who would fight nude as a way to put more fear in their opponents and show their great courage. And there was a story recently about a policeman who was either in the shower or had just come out and realized a burglar was trying to steal his car -- the cop, naked, ran out after the man. The story read that the burglar was so startled by the naked man that he stopped what he was doing and ran, but the cop caught him anyway. It would seem that nudity would make someone more vulnerable (physically, of course, it does) but there does seem to be a certain aggressive shock element to a naked man, at least in some circumstances. I know firsthand the surprise element that just appearing shirtless before people has had when they weren't expecting that from me.

I'm thinking about this stuff mostly because of what happened here on Virb this week. I saw a news story come up on the "odd news" about the Austrian rugby team stripping in public in Lithuania after a crushing defeat in that country. That story can be found at http://uk.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUKL0515458620080505?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews (sorry, I haven't figured out how to do hot links on Virb, you'll have to cut and paste) I thought it was interesting that the footage was on someone's Virb page, since I don't see Virb mentioned often in the news (well -- never, really). But in Justafa's blog (the poster), he explains that the video was against Virb's policy. He apparently then posted it on YouTube, and it was yanked from there as well. The footage is now on a Lithuanian site: if you're not a prude who's going to be scarred for life because you see some naked athletes filmed from several yards away, you can see it at http://www.delfi.lt/news/daily/lithuania/article.php?id=16906925

There's nothing offensive about this video. I haven't seen any explanation by the Austrians about what prompted this, but it seems to have been planned a bit beforehand. Interesting that the singing ('Singin' the Rain') and the antiphons ('Blazers off, ties off, etc.) are in English. I think it was part drink, part just lads having fun, and a little good-natured 'in your face' to the winning team. It's funny, in a 'laughing with you, not at you' kind of way. I hope the team's not embarrassed by it -- I admire them for having the balls to do something like that. It's cool, too, that Lithuania merely said that what they did could possibly be seen as an act of hooliganism, but there was obviously no effort to arrest them. I have a feeling that, had this happened in the U.S., it would have become an international incident.

And finally, just a few words about censorship and offensive material. Why is it that an image of a bloody, dead body can be shown on any news program and it's allowable, but we have to be so shielded from healthy nude bodies? I'll always be more offended by the lying faces of politicians than I am by something like this. I think it would have been more cool of Virb to look the other way a little about allowing something like this, but it's true that the policy on nude content is stated clearly. I guess it's not 100% "all of the things that make you you" on Virb -- still, a much better site than MySpace. The only major social network site I know that allows bloggers to put adult material is Yahoo's 360. You have to designate that the blog has adult content and no one can see it unless they also have a 360 page and have deliberately chosen to see such content. Maybe Virb could add some flexibility like this, too?