What is it about genitals?

What is it that sets society ablaze about the sight or even talk of genitals?

I started to contemplate this question after reading an article in the Woman's Weekly Oct 2010, about Bettina Arndt the Australian sex therapist and writer.

In this interview Bettina talks openly about what she sees as the magnificence of the penis.

"I've always thought it's the most wondrous thing. The more you learn about the penis, the more you think it is extraordinary. It's this intricate mechanism. And I thought it was the most beautiful thing"

Although celebrated as part of the body beautiful in fine art, society still has this attitude that genitals should not be spoken of let alone seen?

 We have read in the popular press of the claim the sight of genitals will scar children psychologically and therefore they must be protected from such a sight.

[A point of clarification here, I am of course not taking about masturbation in public or any overt sexually aroused state being displayed in an exhibitionist way.]

If this were true then like the Puritans we should not allow our children to take a bath naked nor look at their own naked form in the mirror!

There is so much concern nowadays over the issue of body acceptance and yet we perpetuate the myth that parts of our body are "nasty or dirty"!

Without reference to what other bodies look like, concerns are raised about the normality and adequacy of our own genitalia.

In my generation the change-room /showers for sport or gym was a reference point to see (indirectly of course) the variations in the size and shape of penises.

Nowadays I am informed that even this communal nudity is disappearing with individual changing stalls or overt modesty.

So is it any wonder that adolescent boys grow up with concerns about the size/adequacy of their penis when their only reference are the male actors on Internet porn sites!

Hardly a representative sample of the diversity that is the norm.

Likewise I read with shock the increasing number of women that are having plastic surgery to "shape" their labia as they feel self conscious about labia that are perceived as being overly large.

Given the large number of female Naturists that depilate their pubic hair it is quickly realised that some women have large labia majora, others not so, some have larger labia minora, others less so.

Therefore again the "normal" range is expansive.

One of the many things that social nudity has to offer society is the practice of total body acceptance, not only of others but of oneself.