Flesh and Behavior

My father always maintained that you can tell that a civilization is in terminal decline and on the road to decay when women bare their breasts in public. “Look at the Etruscans” he would point out…..”And the Romans….and the French Empire…..and even current Western civilization” It was his firmly held conviction that down the centuries civilizations have withered and decayed as a result of the flagrant over exposure of female flesh. “What’s more”, he would mutter, “it changes behavior and always for the worse”.

Was he correct? And what does history tell us?

We can probably assume that our very earliest ancestors wore skins when they needed warmth in cooler areas of the world but very little otherwise as they would have been too busy searching for food and avoiding dangerous hungry beasts to have much regard for their own appearance.

The ancient Greeks of course were very relaxed about the naked human body. The red and black figure Greek vases that we see in museums show naked or near naked figures engaged in daily activities and the original Olympic Games were contested by nude male athletes. Little is known about the standard Etruscan dress code other than that their warriors fought and their athletes competed totally naked while their women wore elaborate hair styles with robes that left their breasts bare.

The Romans held similarly relaxed attitudes. During Nero’s reign as Emperor, diaphanous togas made of very fine linen were all the rage for the wealthy classes. . Indeed the writer Seneca went so far as to say “our women have nothing to reveal to their lovers in the bedroom that they have not already shown on the street.”

A quick glance through history shows that the Greeks, Etruscans and Romans were not alone and that there may indeed be a connection between dress/undress and the state of a society.

In medieval Europe, probably owing to the strength of the Church whose teachings dominated all parts of life and society, clothing tended to be modest except for the appearance of the codpiece in battle armor. This exaggeration of male anatomy steadily grew in size over time and by the reign of Henry VIII huge padded codpieces had become a part of everyday upper class clothing.

Sixteenth century dress was all hint and titillation and the Spanish Ambassador to England wrote home telling of the extraordinary fashions at the English court. He was startled to find that some of the women wore such sheer partlets (fine silk or sheer linen fabric fastened between the top of the bodice and the neck ruff) that he could clearly see their breasts. He reported that the “wizened dugs” of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the First were not an attractive sight. Since unmarried girls were entitled to show a bit of breast it is entirely possible that being unwed, good Queen Bess may have decided not even to wear a partlet at all

In Napoleonic times (the first French Empire) women wore very low décolleté square necklines with a chemisette covering the bosom during the day for the sake of modesty. Indeed in paintings of this period women often look as though they are not wearing any underwear at all owing to the flesh toned stockinette pantaloons that they wore beneath their light weight gauzy dresses.

The historical evidence becomes hard to refute as each of these societies have flourished, displayed bawdy and sometimes decadent behavior then disappeared.

What do we see now in the 21st century? Playboy centerfolds, on stage wardrobe malfunctions, naked streakers at sports events, retailers selling g strings for little girls barely out of nursery school, naturist beaches, the casual display of butt cracks and everywhere spaghetti straps on women’s shoulders leaving bare flesh openly on show.

We live in a world where cleavage proliferates and pundits, media and friends unashamedly encourage us to “let it all hang out”

It is one of the great paradoxes of our time that this casual display of cleavage takes place in a world where advertisements for Cialis and Viagra inundate our televisions, our magazines and our computer spam. Could there be a relationship between this willing display of flesh and our malady du jour, erectile dysfunction?

Perhaps my father had a point.