Naked Conversation with Abigail!
Just because I’m naked doesn’t mean it’s sexual.” — Abigail Ekue Smith
To be naked or nude is to be without covering upon the body.Both naked and nude can be traced back to Indo-European, where they join in the same ancestral word. However, their histories are different and so are their meanings. Naked comes from old English which derived it from Germanic source via the Anglo-Saxons. The Old English Dictionary dates the word back to 850.
Nude instead came from Latin and its first known appearance was in 1492. Initially, nude didn’t refer to a lack of clothing on bodies; instead in keeping with one of the Latin meaning ”simplicity”, “lack of adornment”, the word referred to a statement or assertion of fact that lacked written proof. In English it wasn’t until 1811 that nude became roughly synonymous with naked. Moreover when the words naked and nude did converge they still remained slightly apart, naked holding an undesirable place while nude being a more urbane word.
It is not known when humans began wearing clothes. Humans originally lived naked, without clothing, as their natural state. They postulate the adaptation of animal skins and vegetation into coverings to protect the wearer from cold, heat and rain, especially as humans migrated to new climates; alternatively, covering may have been invented first for other purposes, such as magic, decoration, cult, or prestige, and later found to be practical as well.
Political Curse of Nakedness
A woman’s body is both revered and feared in cultural traditions from East to West. It is immortalized as “pin-up girl” and simultaneously mystified as mother. A community of women in Nigeria, however, proved that a woman’s body is enough to bring one of the largest oil companies to the bargaining table. When their words were not being heard, they made themselves be seen…by threatening to strip naked in public.
“The stripping off of clothes particularly by married and elderly women is a way of shaming men — some of whom believe that if they see the naked bodies they will go mad or suffer some great harm. The curse extends not just at local men but also to any foreigner who it is believed would become impotent at the sight of “the naked mother,” says Sokari Ekine, the International Coordinator of the Niger Delta Women.
“We all come into the world through the vagina. By exposing the vagina, the women are saying: ‘We are hereby taking back the life we gave you,’” Turner says. “It’s about bringing forth life and denying life through social ostracism, which is a kind of social execution. Men who are exposed are viewed as dead. No one will cook for them, marry them, enter into any kind of contract with them or buy anything from them.”
Declaring Global Nude Day
How about declaring a day designed to set your self free? A day about nude, not lewd. It’s about having fun … with your clothes off.
Here’s what to do:
1. Get nude.
2. Get a mate or friend to film you.
3. Do something funny, wild or even crazy.
4. Upload the video.
5. Sit back and watch yourself.
6. Then invite others to sit back and watch it with you.
7. Laugh at yourself.
8. Make peace with a part of your body you don’t like.
9. Find a new way to accept yourself.
10. Be inspired!!
“I have always been an admirer of my own body. This has helped me and empowered me as a woman of color living in a world that is so superficially physical. “
- Angelique Shofar
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Welcome to this historical edition of the “Angelique Shofar Live!” Podcast. It is with honor that I am alive and a part of history. As well I am grateful for the little role that I may play as a history maker. This podcast brings a personal portion of the hearts and minds of women and men on November 5, 2008 - the day after Senator Barack Obama was elected as the first official Black African American President in the history of America. But wait, this is only the marking of the beginning of a new era.
