Enlightened Male2000

March 8, 2010

What would you change about your genitals?

Filed under: Body Acceptance, Discussion — Tags: , , — martin @ 12:18 pm

As a writer, I enjoy penning tales that celebrate male beauty, mind body and soul.  As doctors and researchers, the folks in the psychology department at McGill University are concerned with how men evaluate certain features of their genitals.

In fact they are conducting research on this very subject in the form of an Internet survey, which I found to be an interesting piece of research in this era of size matters.

Enlightenedmale2000 currently gets around four hundred hits a day, most of which, I assume, are from men. And since men, gay straight, bisexual or otherwise, are critically conscientious of their genitals, this survey sparked my curiosity about what you would change about yours.

The following image is my perception of perfection.  Not too much pubic hair or too little.   The penis is not too big or too small and is accompanied by a nice low hanging scrotum, nearly hairless and weighted with a pair of well-defined testicles, all of which has appealing shape and color.  I would trade with this guy.

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So, given a chance to change something about your genitals, what would it be?  A longer or thicker penis? More or less pubic hair?  A straighter erection?  A harder erection?  Want your foreskin back, or get rid of the one you have?  Larger or smaller glans?  A mole or wart in the wrong place?  Or maybe you’re among the fortunate few who are completely satisfied by how everything is hanging down there.

February 13, 2010

Women With Negative Body Image

Filed under: Body Acceptance — Tags: — martin @ 2:01 pm

Women’s genital self-esteem affects sex, health

From The Globe and Mail.com

By Zosia Bielski

Study finds shame about their body can hamper orgasm and keep women from going to the doctor.

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Women who feel negatively about female genitalia find it harder to have an orgasm and are less likely to get regular gynecological exams, says a new study from Indiana University.

They are also often more critical of their own genitals – and other women’s – than men are, according to the study, published in the current issue of the International Journal of Sexual Health.

The anxiety some women feel about their genitals is rooted in messages gleaned from parents and pop culture, said study author Debby Herbenick, a sexual health educator with The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction.

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“Individuals may adopt negative attitudes toward women’s genitals as a result of cultural-level scripts that suggest that women’s genitals are unclean or dirty,” writes Dr. Herbenick, who is also associate director of Indiana’s University’s Center for Sexual Health Promotion in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation.

(more…)

January 18, 2010

Ryan McGinley Photography

Filed under: Art, Photography — Tags: , — martin @ 12:43 pm

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Born October 1977, Ryan McGinley lives in New York City. He began taking photographs in 1998. In 2003, at the age of 24, McGinley was the youngest artist to have a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He was also named Photographer of the Year in 2003 by American Photo Magazine.

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McGinley captures the spirit of youth and couples that with a rare and often vilified personal freedom–getting naked.  Young men and women, guys and girls not quite over the the age threshold that locks them in the real world, who not only know how to enjoy their youth, but their own skin.  Without shame or inhibition, McGinley takes the older observers back to their own youthful days and makes them dream about how much more carefree we could have been had we not been relentlessly indoctrinated about the shamefulness of the human body.

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January 8, 2010

Body Flaws?

Filed under: Body Acceptance — Tags: , — martin @ 6:58 pm

Personally, if I were with someone with a perfect flawless body, I would be a little uncomfortable.  Most of us have flaws, and often these flaws endear us to each other.  Though human perfection is interesting to look at, I find websites that feature endless images of flawless men or women become a little tiresome.  I think the answer lies with those who, despite their flaws, respect their body by watching their weight and perhaps stay in shape with a bit of physical exercise.  But then, all things considered, the human body is a miracle in any form.  The pictures I’ve added to this piece are of those who have learned how to enjoy their imperfect bodies.

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From The Australian

By Melinda Tankard Reist

SHOCK horror: nude supermodel has dimple on thigh. In a move labelled daring and revolutionary, this month’s edition of Marie Claire features nude photos of Australian model Jennifer Hawkins airbrush-free. The shoot reveals “brave” Jen with all her flaws.

And what exactly are these impediments? A tiny crease in Hawkins’s waist, a slightly dimpled thigh and “uneven skin tones”.

Quelle horreur. As if this isn’t enough, Hawkins notes an additional flaw: her hips. She has them. Miss Universe 2004 is really the Elephant Woman.

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According to Marie Claire editor Jackie Frank, the Hawkins images were inspired by a survey of 5500 readers that found only 12 per cent of women were happy with their bodies. That’s right, nude pics of a woman considered one of the world’s rarest beauties are supposed to cheer the rest of us up. The pictures will be auctioned this month, with proceeds going to eating disorders support group the Butterfly Foundation.

That Hawkins has been enlisted in the cause of girls who hate their bodies and are, in many ways, victims of the dominant ideal of female beauty kind of messes with my head. How can these pictures possibly help women feel good about themselves?

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Labelling hips, a little dimpling on the thigh, a small waist crease (which looks like what happens when any woman sits down) and supposedly uneven skin tone as flaws is already problematic. Who decided these were flaws and not part of being a woman? And if these are flaws, then how are other women supposed to feel feel?

And what about all the other flaws Hawkins, 26, will accrue if she has kids and when she ages?

(more…)

December 16, 2009

Drop Your Pants for Daniela

Filed under: Body Acceptance — Tags: , — martin @ 3:59 pm

In a delightful effort to counter the vile effects of prudery, Australian Daniela Krohner has provided a novel website where you can drop your pants and share your secrets.  It’s called http://pantsdown-skirtup.blogspot.com/ (If the link doesn’t work, copy and paste the full location in your search bar)

Participate if you dare.  Here are some examples from those who have.

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May 23, 2009

Naked Yoga: A Stripped Down Exercise

Filed under: Body Acceptance, Culture — Tags: , , , — martin @ 9:05 am

For the past 10 years, Ray Whetstone has been teaching a nude yoga class in Oakland Park. Whetstone demonstrates the pigeon pose. (Sun Sentinel/Article by Michael Laughlin / May 5, 2009)

I am straight.

I repeat that to myself as I walk into a dance studio, pull off my shirt, and drop my shorts and undies onto the wood floor.

I’m surrounded by 17 other nude men – and mirrors.

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In a moment, we’ll start practicing yoga.For 20 years, I’ve taken yoga classes in sweaty gyms, incense-drenched studios and even in an office conference room. But always with my clothes on.

Tonight will be different for me, but not for most of the men in the room. Ray Whetstone has taught naked yoga for more than 10 years in South Florida. I learned about it by stumbling across his site, arcoirisyoga.com.

Arco iris is Spanish for rainbow; most of the men here are gay.

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“The automatic assumption is that nudity is sex,” he says. But not here. He notes that in all his years of teaching, every man’s dog has remained downward.

I place my mat in a corner spot, so I’ll have one neighbor instead of two. In the minutes before class starts, I stretch out in corpse pose, so I won’t have to look. When we stand up to start the class, I tilt my gaze slightly upward, so if I see anything, it’s faces and shoulders.

Then I fill my head with yoga-ese.

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Yoga is all about letting go of external labels that get in your way, I remind myself. Going within. Testing your focus.

Besides, if anyone’s looking to score, it wouldn’t be with this 50-year-old.

“We’ve had straight boys here before,” says Whetstone, who in 1998 became the first openly gay elder ordained by the Presbyterian Church. An optometrist, he commutes to Naples four days a week to work. Teaching naked yoga two nights a week is his recreation. (more…)

May 15, 2009

America’s Trouble with Body Acceptance

Filed under: Body Acceptance, Culture, Discussion — Tags: , , — martin @ 7:21 pm

Article by: MARC PASCAL, The Moderate Voice

Perhaps living and studying in Europe on a number of occasions changed my perspective, but I cannot understand the silly outrage that many Americans show when some female displays her nipples, or other parts of her anatomy that are supposed to be off-limits.  Contrarily the displays of male genitalia and buttocks are more often treated as comic relief.  Public or private nudity does not pose a threat to American values and morality.

Too many Americans have an unhealthy and uncomfortable attitude towards the human body, the opposite sex, and sexuality in general.  This attitude also extends to the female nipple which is objectively essential for breast-feeding babies. Perhaps this unhealthy obsession with occasional nudity, and then endlessly discussing it and looking at photos on the internet, might reflect a lack of a healthy occupation with sex.

This blog is not a discussion about the many variations of human sexuality but just the simple inability to look at the human body as something natural and that human sexual intercourse in its many forms are a normal part of our humanity. Perhaps some fault lies with most of the world’s religions and some of their extreme American expressions (i.e. Puritanism) for such a social, emotional and intellectual mess.  Too many people were taught the strange view that things of the body are completely separate from things of the spirit, and anything enjoyable is probably ungodly and sinful.

We have for too long in the U.S. been taught and we still teach our children through our words and actions that human sexuality is somehow dirty and cannot be discussed openly in public, except by innuendo.  Thus we only encourage more confusion, exploration, and some excessive behavior because we cannot take sex out of the “prurient interest” closet.  Children need to appreciate their bodies and learn to fully respect those of other people.  They need to know the correct medical terminology for all the parts of the human anatomy and how to safely engage in sex while understanding the consequences. Then we can dump all our stupid euphemisms and warped attitudes into the garbage heap of history.

In Europe with its far more casual attitude towards human sexuality and public nudity, pregnancy among unwed teenagers and sexually transmitted diseases are just a small fraction of what they are in the U.S. We are certainly doing something wrong with respect to sex education, particularly if we want to eliminate the need for abortion and the long-term public costs of unmarried teenagers raising children. (more…)

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