Chapter 15

Kevin spoke, “All right, we saved this part of our presentation for the last because after that death-blow Denise just administered to the viability of your Program, we’ve got what perhaps could be a lifeline. You folks on the Program Committee couldn’t offer a way to do the Program here at Norwich Academy basically because there isn’t one. What if we try to take off the blinders and look at the Program’s objectives in a completely different way? Have a paradigm shift?

“You all probably have the text shown on this slide memorized. It’s from the Program booklet introduction and a paraphrase of the preamble to the Human Sexuality Promotion Act. But I’ll put it on the screen anyway; these are viewed as the Program’s kind-of ‘objectives’ but they aren’t that really, they’re more a statement of principle.

^{The Program has been carefully designed to help you become more comfortable with your body and your sexuality, to treat others in natural balance as both individual people and sexual beings, to learn to harness your natural energies, and to behave in a more mature and morally conscious manner. By becoming more comfortable with your body and sexuality, it is hoped that your sexual tensions will be in general diminished but more focused when appropriate. This is your opportunity for rapid personal growth.}

“Nowhere in those principles do I see the word ‘nude’ or ‘naked.’ If you do, please show it to me. ‘Sexual’ does not mean ‘naked.’ Most animate life, vertebrates in particular, are ‘sexual beings.’ They are by definition, because they come in two sexes. Notice that the wording distinguishes between ‘individual people’ and ‘sexual beings’ as if these are two discrete, independent entities Wrong, wrong. Life is much more complex; let me illustrate. Humans reproduce through a process called ‘sexual reproduction.’ We all know that; a male and female are both required to produce a child. Certain animals much further down on the evolutionary scale can reproduce asexually—they produce offspring without another parent’s genetic contribution. Can anyone in the room tell me if asexual reproduction can occur in humans?”

There were many blank stares, then Dr Seetis ventured, “Well, human gametes are haploid, they only have half of the needed chromosomes ... don’t you need the chromosomes from both male and female gametes? I don’t see how...?”

Kevin grinned at her. “What about identical twins or triplets?”

“I ... ah! Of course! Binary fission is a form of asexual reproduction.” She turned to the others. “The zygote—from the fertilized ovum—splits into two, or even more, they develop, making two or more babies from one single fertilized egg cell. There’s only one fertilized egg cell but it becomes one of what’s called the ‘daughter’ cells,” she explained.

Kevin went on. “Precisely. My point is that in life, nothing can be pigeon-holed. We are all sexual beings but sometimes, and not infrequently, we can reproduce asexually. Another pigeon-holed social issue mentioned in the Program principles is ‘morally conscious’ behavior. Whose morals are we choosing to emulate? Different cultures harbor different sets of moral values and legally imposing one group’s moral or cultural values on another is a form of totalitarianism. And so out of such dictatorial roots sprang the Program.

“The major source of the idea for a naked-in-school program seems to come from two academic fields, psychology and sociology, and some ideas from these fields were merged to address a theorized social problem. Adults seem to think that most of society’s ills can be cured by fixing the problems of adolescents, so academics spend lots of time studying youth to see where some tinkering can be done to solve their problems, believing that any good effect will carry on to adulthood. I found an article from 2004 by a professor from a university near mine, Georgia State, S. Talburt was her name, who said that people in general have a fixation on the need for adults to watch over and guide teens to achieve progress in socialization because adults tend to project onto teens their own desires and expectations—and also anxieties. In fact, lots of researchers use the term ‘dangerous passage’ to describe adolescence since society views this age group as being susceptible to many kinds of temptations and negative influences, especially where sexuality is involved. So this became an area of social concern giving rise to the idea to channel teenagers into a controlled environment where their sexuality could be shaped into some kind of standard. That’s what the statement of principles seems to try to establish: a social goal.

“The way I read these principles tells me that their author is attempting to use language that advocates the breaking down of artificial social barriers. This author wants the subjects of his social program, our children, to connect with the essential being of their peers and to learn how to interact with them in constructive ways. This suggests that there is something of an existentialist philosophy operating in those words of principle.

“Let’s explore that idea. According to the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, interpersonal relationships don’t operate through rational thought. He suggests that in a face-to-face encounter, one person feels or senses the other person addressing him, not as a physical entity, but as an abstraction of thought. In his work Totality and Infinity, Levinas imagines the other person not as an individual but an idea—an expression connoting defenselessness, vulnerably, and yes, even a form of nudity, which is concealed by the cloaking of social convention and normal propriety. In his view, such interpersonal encounters demand one’s attention and in some way burdens the two individuals with a form of responsibility for one another.

“So in interacting with other people, we assume a certain responsibility toward them, in Levinas’ view. We actually can feel this connection, a kind of bonding, especially if the conversation becomes intense, in our interactions with others. Then the barriers which divide the two interacting people tend to drop, revealing the uncloaked essence, the nakedness, of each other. This is the ‘nakedness’ that the principles of the Naked in School Program seems to refer to. It’s the nakedness that results from the exposure of one’s essential being to another by sharing interactions.

“Jean-Paul Sartre is another existentialist who used nakedness as a metaphor for the exposure of one’s vulnerabilities. Sartre’s views on nudity have been thoroughly discussed by many authors; it’s well known that he was most uncomfortable with his own body. In fact, he expressed his belief that people lose their tie to civilization when their clothes are removed. His lover Simone de Beauvoir wrote in her book Adieux: A Farewell to Sartre, that he told her ‘In disrobing, one leaves behind not only one’s clothes, but also civilization itself.’ That is clearly seen in the case of children, who are not yet fully civilized in that their impulse control is not yet fully developed, when faced with a naked, vulnerable child and given free license to take physical liberties with him or her, tend to react in ways which result in humiliation, persecution, and even physical abuse. William Golding exploited this very idea in his novel Lord of the Flies.

“Sartre even discussed voyeurism in his book Being and Nothingness. He described how the watching of a naked person who has no control over being observed not only constitutes a power imbalance over the naked person but also objectifies them in the most extreme way. From this Sartre deduced that this voyeurism somehow then affects one’s own concept of his own person, his existence, in ways he can’t control. This idea, observing and being observed, is a main theme of his play No Exit. In the play, Hell is not physical torture; it’s actually the pain caused to the naked male protagonist by his being forced to ‘see,’ in French, voix, thus ‘voyeur,’ the nudity of his two naked female companions and for him to realize that they must ‘see’ his own nudity as well. Sartre feels that this objectifying ‘seeing’ destabilizes human relationships and, indeed, that’s precisely what happens among high-school children when they are placed into situations where this imbalance of the watcher-controller person and the observed-objectified person occurs. It’s actually psychologically damaging for both parties and Sartre’s insight shows us why the objectified person can suffer a kind of hell.”

“Mr Coris, I must interrupt,” Dunton broke in. “Just what is your background? That is one of the most insightful analyses of some difficult works from a major philosophical school—existentialism—I’ve ever heard as applied to a practical social problem. You seem to be too young to have an advanced degree, but your analysis was compelling and shows a real depth of knowledge. I teach education at my university and I’m sure my colleagues in philosophy would love to hear your ideas.”

“Sir, I’m a senior at Avery University in Atlanta. I took several philosophy courses and became interested in existentialism, so I’m familiar with Sartre’s and Levinas’ work. I think it was the way they viewed the human body and my opposition to the Program, that got my interest. Then I thought of the connection between their views of public nudity and the Program problems we had in the States when preparing for our meeting tonight. May I continue?”

“Hmpf. I wish just one or two of our own students were as erudite as you. Please proceed.”

Kevin resumed his lecture. “The Program was supposed to be based on academic research which supports the idea that being ‘sexually balanced,’ if such a thing exists, results in ‘personal growth.’ I’m completely unclear what it is exactly that is supposed to grow, though.”

Chuckles sounded.

“But I and my friends, who looked hard for details, could never find any such studies, just reports of naked encounter groups which sprang up during the sexual revolution, lasted through the mid 1980s, and gradually disappeared, at least reports of them in the psychological literature did. Reports from participants spoke of how they became more open and accepting of other people, how their personal horizons were expanded, and how good the sessions made them feel. I wonder though, if it was not the nudity but was really the pharmacologic assistance which was typical of these groups, that helped with their expanded horizons.”

Laughter.

“Anyway. The next academic work I’d like to mention is a study of the effects of sexuality—not necessarily nudity—on the perceptions of the validity of a social cause. There were several papers published on this topic but the one I want to mention in particular is called ‘When Sex Doesn’t Sell: Using Sexualized Images of Women Reduces Support for Ethical Campaigns.’ The title says it all. The authors, Renata Bongiorno and two co-authors, sought to determine whether images in these ads improves the acceptance of the cause. A large numbers of subjects, men and women, many of college age, were interviewed. The authors first interviewed their subjects to learn the extent that the subject supported the goals of the cause. Then they showed ads which contained images of naked or almost-naked supermodels along with the models’ statement of their support for the cause. After showing the ads, the researchers asked each subject how strongly they perceived the credibility of the model as a spokesperson for the cause. This slide shows the authors’ conclusion as published in their article.

^{Overall, these findings are the first to demonstrate that sexualized images that dehumanize women reduce concern for ethical behavior in a domain unrelated to gender relations and sex. This extends research showing that women’s dehumanization is associated with increased tolerance for unethical behavior towards women—specifically men’s attitudes towards sexual harassment and rape. These findings open the way for further research to explore whether similarly negative effects would occur if sexualized images of women were used to sell [any] ethical causes ... for instance, in promoting action to address poverty.}

“It was interesting that similar results were obtained from both male and female subjects; their sex had little to do with their opinion. What message can we draw from this study? Possibly that viewing unclothed subjects, when one is not similarly unclothed, may tend to objectify and dehumanize the subject. When that occurs, it’s a short step to self-justification for the abuse of the vulnerable person, and the conditions in schools provide just those opportunities. Small wonder for the statistics showing the large number of assaults which Denise covered earlier.

“Going back to my original premise, how can we achieve the principles stated in the introduction to the Program booklet? Without bringing nudity into the mix, that is. This was a question which one of our close friends wrestled with when she was assigned a class project in her college education program. This was a problem which was difficult to work on, since the Program had recently been discontinued at the local high schools, but the professor was unwilling to change the topic since all of the topics had been screened and approved by the curriculum committee in the education school. I’ll show you some brief video clips of the program her group designed. It incorporates all of the Naked in Program principles without the need for nudity.”

Kevin started the video player program on his laptop.

“These scenes take place in the late spring. The children were eighth graders who would be entering high school in the fall and came from three feeder middle schools. Most kids didn’t know each other,” he said as he started the video.

The scene showed children filing into a room and looking around.

A voice instructed, “Please go to a mat and sit down, six people to a mat.”

The scene shifted; mats on the floor in the room were filled with seated children.

The voice called out again, “How cool; I see boys hanging with boys and girls with girls. Wonder why. Oh, I’ll bet you all wanted to sit near someone you were most comfortable with.”

Some children laughed in the video as Kevin spoke, “This is the ice-breaker period. We used light humor with the kids, who were nervous.”

A new voice spoke. “I’ll also bet each of you know someone else on the same mat you’re sitting on. Am I right?”

There was a chorus of yeses.

“And some kids you don’t know too. Right?”

More yeses.

A man walked into the camera’s view now and stood in the middle of the mats. “Well, guess what? In a few short months you’ll be in high school; you’ll be in the big leagues. But in high school you’ll meet batches of new people, all potential friends. How will you find new friends? How will you know how to meet new people and become friends with them? Today we’ll begin to show you a little about making connections with the kids who’ll become your new friends. I want you all to move into a circle on your mats, facing inward. Take the hands of the kids on each side of you. Now, one person on each mat begin and start telling your new friends on your mat your name, age, and your middle school; going around the circles.”

Kevin paused the video. “Notice we used touch right at the start. Body contact is absolutely essential to these bonding techniques. Now watch what happens next as we throw a little uncertainty at the group.” He restarted the video.

A woman walked into the circle of mats, took both of the man’s hands, and admonished him, “Don’t hog your time with these kids! I want a turn too!” and jokingly pushed him out of the circle as the kids laughed.

Then she held up a card. “See this? You got one like it when you came in. Find your card.” The kids dug their cards out from wherever they had put them. “See the number? Look up at the ceiling—there are numbers up there! A number over each mat. Go to the mat which matches your number and sit down.”

The scene shifted; kids were seated on their new mats. The woman spoke again. “Hey guys, look at what happened. Three boys and three girls on each mat. It’s like magic! You don’t think?”

There was some laughing and some uncomfortable shifting around.

“Now boys. See the blue dots on the mats? Sit on one. Girls, move to sit facing a boy on your mat. Uh uh, not on the opposite side of the mat ... Sit closer, closer, good, now take each other’s hands in your own and look at your new friend. Or maybe not new; this could be an old friend too. Now introduce yourselves as you did a few minutes ago in the circles and this time tell your new friend something about yourself, like a sibling or a pet or a favorite music group.”

Kevin paused the video. “Notice how reluctantly they began holding hands when it became one-on-one compared to when they were in a circle. We’ve stepped up the intimacy a hundred-fold just by isolating couples.”

He resumed it and the scene jumped slightly. The couples were sitting fairly close now and the woman was speaking.

“Now, both girls and boys, close your eyes and keep them closed. I want the girls first, reach out and take your partner’s hands; touch them all over—palms, fingers, wrists, backs. Get to know their hands. Run your fingers and palms all over them, as much as you want, and try to memorize how they feel.”

As the children began doing that, Kevin remarked, “It’s a theater trick. It helps actors who have to play an intimate scene to break the ice. The hands are a major erogenous zone and this exercise is actually very powerful. Listen closely to the video.”

On the video, the girls were stroking their hands over the boys’ hands as they were told and within a minute little sighs of pleasure from the children became audible. Then the scene changed; now the boys were stroking the girls’ hands. The woman began speaking again and there were sounds of disappointment from the children.

“Don’t open your eyes yet; keep holding hands. Boys, keeping your eyes shut tight, no peeking! tell your partner something about what you noticed about her. What she’s wearing, about her hair, how her hands feel.”

Kevin spoke over the video, “Then the girls get to tell the boys something about them. But look at the body language now.”

The children were leaning into each other and some were almost close enough to embrace. Hand holding was now mostly replaced with stroking partners’ hands and forearms as the children whispered to each other. Kevin stopped the video.

“I edited out our instructors’ demonstration of how to sit very close, so in this next scene from a few minutes later, you’ll note how kids who were strangers fifteen minutes ago are now acting like they’ve been friends for years.”

He restarted the video. Now some couples sat facing each other, cross-legged, knees touching, while others were sitting with their legs spread and the girl’s legs lying across the boy’s. Their chests were within a foot of each other. Their forearms were resting on each other’s shoulders, arms touching along their lengths, looking into each other’s eyes.

The man was at the center of the mats now and he spoke. “Close your eyes, everyone, and lean closer and listen to your new friend’s breathing for a minute.” The video played for twenty seconds and then shifted. “Now, still keeping your eyes closed, let’s have each boy whisper to his new friend what he thinks the scariest part of high school will be. It’s all right to tell her, even though we all know that there’s nothing that can really scare a boy, right?” The children broke out in laughter. “Guys, since nothing scares you, then tell her something about high school that has you, well, just a bit concerned, okay? Girls, I want you to remember that what your friend tells you is a total secret, okay?”

There was a lot more laughter.

The woman’s voice was heard from off camera. “Okay, that’s great; now gals, eyes still closed, tell your friend something to make him feel better, more confident, how you can help him, or why he shouldn’t be concerned.”

The whispering was now very animated and most couples were virtually in an embrace. Kevin let the scene play for about thirty seconds, and then it shifted again. The woman was speaking.

“Very good, now everyone, still eyes closed, let’s switch roles and girls, tell your friend about something about high school that you might find scarey.”

Kevin paused it again and his audience sighed in disappointment. He winked at Denise and she smiled back. The people in the room, to a person, were thoroughly enthralled, sitting on the edges of their seats.

Kevin went on, “In this next scene the boys are telling the girls not to worry and how they would help them and I’ll point to some children you’ll want to look at carefully.”

He started the scene and pointed to a few girls, in sequence, and the viewers around the table could see tears in some of their eyes while the susurration of the children’s voices sounded gently in the background.

“Let me jump ahead a few minutes; we’re almost at the end of this round,” Kevin remarked. “At this point in the session, the children were asked to tell each other about the happiest thing that ever happened to them, their favorite music group, song, best holiday they ever had, all kinds of happy things.”

He started the video. Now the girls were sitting between the boys’ legs, their backs were resting against the boys’ chests and their heads were leaning together, while they held and stroked each other’s hands and were whispering to each other. It was a powerful, intimate scene. Kevin stopped the video.