Public Nudity Takes Away Choice
Anna Sauber Kuntz
Issue date: 4/17/08 Section: Opinions
It's a contradiction that's struck me ever since my first week at Smith; for a supposedly feminist school, Smith sure has a lot of things that could be used as evidence in a sexual harassment suit against it.
The Convocation theme for Lamont, I was told as a first-year in 2004, was the mafia. Eager to start partaking in school traditions, I called my mom and asked her to describe what people on "The Sopranos" wore, which led to a closet raid for my best dress shirt. At no point did anyone ever tell me that Convocation had nudity involved. Had they said our house theme was not the mafia but the Bada Bing, I might have stayed behind.
When I came downstairs to walk over with the rest of the house, there were a few girls wearing bras and nothing else on top, which I thought was odd, but reasoned that it was like somebody wearing a bikini top on the beach. Upon actually arriving at Convocation, I found myself behind a topless girl with painful-looking nipple piercings; when I turned around to look for a clock, I realized I was face-to-face with the sheer-fabric-covered crotch of the girl behind me. I left and I've never been back to Convocation since. Celebration - about which I was equally unwarned and to which I also have not been back since - offered more naked women, so I decided that if I simply went to class and didn't go to any school-sponsored events, I would be safe from being forced into unwanted intimacy with strangers.
Unfortunately, I was wrong. There were the girls who put nude photos of themselves on the hallway side of their door, the girl who ran naked through the living room when I hesitantly ventured downstairs to watch the Oscars and, this week, there was the naked girl in the Sexhibition posters who, unless I either completely changed my daily routine, ate breakfast at a different place and took ridiculous "long ways around," I had to see three times a day, at the least.
I don't care if people want to be naked at places and events that are designated for that purpose, though it disappoints me that I had to miss out on classic aspects of Smith life just because I didn't want to see anyone naked. I don't care if there are posters advertising for Sexhibition. I don't even really care about the ones with the bikinis and bondage wear. But how are naked Smith students popping up in unexpected places any different from men in parks exposing themselves to passersby? Is it that Smith students are - mostly - women? That they're trying to be "liberated"? They're not liberating me. I don't have a choice when it comes to seeing naked classmates; I have to see them whether I want to or not. I also have to hear strangers sharing the intimate details of their sex lives while I sit by myself at breakfast trying to read or study.
The Convocation theme for Lamont, I was told as a first-year in 2004, was the mafia. Eager to start partaking in school traditions, I called my mom and asked her to describe what people on "The Sopranos" wore, which led to a closet raid for my best dress shirt. At no point did anyone ever tell me that Convocation had nudity involved. Had they said our house theme was not the mafia but the Bada Bing, I might have stayed behind.
When I came downstairs to walk over with the rest of the house, there were a few girls wearing bras and nothing else on top, which I thought was odd, but reasoned that it was like somebody wearing a bikini top on the beach. Upon actually arriving at Convocation, I found myself behind a topless girl with painful-looking nipple piercings; when I turned around to look for a clock, I realized I was face-to-face with the sheer-fabric-covered crotch of the girl behind me. I left and I've never been back to Convocation since. Celebration - about which I was equally unwarned and to which I also have not been back since - offered more naked women, so I decided that if I simply went to class and didn't go to any school-sponsored events, I would be safe from being forced into unwanted intimacy with strangers.
Unfortunately, I was wrong. There were the girls who put nude photos of themselves on the hallway side of their door, the girl who ran naked through the living room when I hesitantly ventured downstairs to watch the Oscars and, this week, there was the naked girl in the Sexhibition posters who, unless I either completely changed my daily routine, ate breakfast at a different place and took ridiculous "long ways around," I had to see three times a day, at the least.
I don't care if people want to be naked at places and events that are designated for that purpose, though it disappoints me that I had to miss out on classic aspects of Smith life just because I didn't want to see anyone naked. I don't care if there are posters advertising for Sexhibition. I don't even really care about the ones with the bikinis and bondage wear. But how are naked Smith students popping up in unexpected places any different from men in parks exposing themselves to passersby? Is it that Smith students are - mostly - women? That they're trying to be "liberated"? They're not liberating me. I don't have a choice when it comes to seeing naked classmates; I have to see them whether I want to or not. I also have to hear strangers sharing the intimate details of their sex lives while I sit by myself at breakfast trying to read or study.