beaches and bodies

I just got back from a holiday that involved a fair amount of lying on the beach. This was wonderful for a number of reason, not least because it involved much doing nothing and much sunshine. But one of the biggest reasons it was wonderful was because of all the other human bodies around me.

The only beaches I've been to in the last few years are in India and Egypt. Plus, one of the things that I've come up against a lot in interfaith dialogue (not just Christian/Muslim) is an emphasis on modesty in terms of covering the body, particularly the female body. Generally it's associated with the aim of reducing lust in men. When you put this kind of regular input in the context of UK weather, where I often want to bundle up even in the middle of summer, it means I'd gotten a little confused about what exactly I thought about the human body and how we view one another's.

I found it so freeing to be at a Beach in the south of France because everything is hanging out. And it isn't airbrushed and posed and waxed like advertising in London (which is the predominate place one sees the bare human body here.) And it made me realize that this beach culture, as opposed to mass media, actually allows bodies to be bodies, instead of being solely about sex. It desexualizes human skin.

I just thought that was really cool.