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Remember the first time you were naked with someone? How exhilarating it was to finally pass that threshold, how painfully self aware it felt to have all of you exposed in front of someone, how erotic it was when your senses were intoxicated by their scent and feel of skin. Contemporary American culture has done away mostly with the taboo of nakedness, nudity is thrown in our faces every day, from the way we dress, to how promiscuous our culture has become, internet pornography, to our collective images in media. (I am not saying this is good or bad, merely an observation.) It's a long way from nearly a century ago when table cloths were necessary to cover piano or table legs because they would otherwise compromise someone's otherwise "moral" mind. A time where it was improper for the legs of anything, inanimate object or person, to show. Where women undressed in the dark, shaded their lamps, wore hooded bonnets and rode in closed carriages. (Sounds claustrophobic to me.) Victorian rebels had interesting, miniature gestures of combatting this. It was all in the little coded details, that others who understood what they meant could learn something about their sexual freedom. They would pierce their nipples and other parts of their body, and wear silk petticoats, which rustled seductively when up close. So sensual appeal came through preparations which were hidden by clothing. A Victorian symbol of sexual freedom was an invisible one. What would a man imagine when he heard that rustling of petticoat? It would have probably driven him wild with desire. It all sounds so absurd, but that stifling, heavy clothing of the Victorian era was a response to a new era of secularism, where meaning in daily life didn't revolve around the King of a feudalist age or around God. Before mass production, clothes were handmade, and people had few unless you were wealthy. They were an indication of class rather than emotions or personality. It's hard to imagine a world where clothes were not signifiers of individual personality, because today clothing expresses so much of who we want to be in public. A dress in 1750 was not a matter of what you feel, it was a marking of where you stood in society. A dress in 1890, could express your inner self; make you feel chaste, or sexy. So that Victorian prudery was a backlash against the new concept that you can decipher meaning and personal traits from clothing. So they covered up, laced themselves tightly, veiled their faces even, to hide their inner selves in public in a society that valued sexual chasteness. There was a strong division between public life and private life that didn't exist before and to transgress that boundary was quite serious, even if you were married. In another thread, Beardlessbard brought up how taboo intensifies crossing boundaries. Imagine how intensely erotic it must have been to even see someone's inner wrist, their ankle, their bare neck. Nudity became hyper fetishized in this context, it was more than to be simply undressed. It was about being allowed into someone's life, about trusting someone with their reputation in a strictly chaste society, about granting permission to an intimacy that few would ever have access to. The danger of rejection or shame to one's reputation, the barriers of outer garments, finally shed, the sharp, ecstatic relief once accepted. We've come a long way sexually in some ways, but it's always interesting to look back at history and see what was forgotten and could be appropriated to our benefit today. The fun of that is that we are self aware when we engage, and can still benefit from the emotional thrill. The privilege of intimacy is something we can take from the Victorians and make into a game of permission. The more value placed on it, the more the seeker savors it once he or she finally gets it. The more present we are as we peel the layers of clothing away, revealing gifts of intimacy one after the other. A heel slipped off, a lacy stocking peels away, a sweater comes off, a bra unclasped. Parts are exposed slowly and with much effort, making it that much more rewarding to behold and worship. Wouldn't that be a fun worshipping game?!