#1 September 19th, 2014 02:20 AM

Laura_N

Member

What do you believe in? Nudity and belief/religion

Hello Everyone,

Seeing my first folio going online last week was pretty exciting. It is such a liberating feeling to see the reactions (thank you again everyone who left a comment!) Just to look at the pictures online again - wow. They are so much more beautiful than I would have ever expected before I did the shoot! To see them on the site gave me a really good feeling and a biiiiiig smile During the past week, I spent a lot of time on ISM looking through folios and going through the forums and yeah, I really like it all very much. I have been feeling more self-confedent in the last days, somehow.

Anyhow, to start with my actual topic:

firstly, a little bit about my own belief: I believe in the universe, nature and the power of the positive thought and self-love. I don't believe that there is one true "God" or one particular religion, a "correct religion" for there are just too many of them existing at the same time (this is how I explained it to myself when I was a kid and it still pretty much sums up what I think).
I have been thinking a lot about nudity and religion lately because I am currently working together with a very religious (christian) person. And I keep thinking that I would never be able to tell this person about contributing to this wonderful website because she would think of it as a bad thing, as a sin.

My question to all of you, members and contributors, is: What do you believe in? Are you religious? And if yes, does it collide in any way with the use of this website? Do you have conflicting feelings or is using ISM conformable with your belief/religion?

Also, I'd like to learn about your past. Some of you have probably been brought up in religious families. Some might still remain in the original belief, some will have converted to a different one or even given up on believing in anything at all. However, I'd like to hear about your feelings towards the own body, self-image, nudity --> has it changed over the years? What happened? And, which part did ISM play?

I am really curious about what you have to say. This question has started to form in my mind slowly but steadily and now I'm almost bursting with excitement to read the first answers!

Thank you for sharing your experiences and stories!!!
Laura

polaroid

Member

Re: What do you believe in? Nudity and belief/religion

Hello Laura!!

Welcome again to the forum, it's exciting to see you here & loved reading your post!! Was really inspiring to read how you felt looking at your pictures again now they're up on the site & how you feel they're more beautiful than you ever imagined before you did your shoot. I loved how you described that seeing them gave you a really good feeling & a big smile:) It was so wonderful to read that!! Your pictures are so beautiful & your beautiful eyes & smile radiated such a warmth & joy & your new-found self-confidence sends out such an inspiring message & shows just how beautiful & special ISM is:)

I found your topic for this thread really intriguing!! I've thought so much about this topic too, particularly when i went to university & was really struggling to work out who i was, how i make sense of the world & how my sense of self fitted in with what i saw around me after stepping outside the safety & shelter of childhood & family & into the world & can often spend hours with all those thoughts. Being born in the early 80's in the UK, the state education system still provided an essentially Christian moral framework & structure for children's time at school, with acts of Christian worship part of the daily assemblies (hymn singing, bible study etc) & the structure of the school year was very much framed by Christian events in the calendar like the preparations for Christmas, Easter, Harvest Festival etc etc which were all used to bring everyone in the school together through shared celebration) Discipline & morality as far as its ever possible to instil those in children, was nevertheless very much rooted in a Christian morality which looking back is probably quite alien compared to how things are most probably done these days but at the time you were never really aware of it because it's how things were & you knew no different & because my memories of primary school are so blissful & happy & i don't have any real negative feelings towards the teachers or how the school was it's interesting to me how a lot of the time you only really question tradition & customs & culture when someone gives you a compelling reason to do so. Because i didn't ever have any reason to, i've always been totally fine with having an essentially culturally Christian upbringing at school despite not coming from a religious family at all & having never had any religious feelings or faith myself. Now looking back it seems strange that at the time i saw absolutely nothing contradictory or weird about sitting there singing hymns etc or saying prayers in school assembly when i knew i didn't have any belief in any religion, but the best way to describe it was that it was for me at least an essentially passive cultural experience, something that was just part of how things were that simply ran in the background & was part of a broader message about forgiveness, compassion, helping those in need, showing love & understanding to other people & those from other backgrounds, religions & cultures etc etc. All admirable stuff that i'm sure is tucked away as part of the way my upbringing helped shape the person i am today but i just didn't believe in god because i never had any emotional or spiritual reaction to any religion or religious message. To me, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddism, Islam etc felt no different to when i studied Greek & Roman mythology at university. I have great respect for those who have a peaceful religious belief which doesn't seek to judge others nor is used as a justification for political ideologies which judge, persecute or attack others but at the same time i'm not one of these people who wishes i did have a faith of some kind. I find organised religion particularly difficult to comprehend because of all the complicated stuff in the way of what should be a spiritual connection simply between human & creator if that's what an individual believes, with nothing else in the way of that direct link. In my mind & i'm sure others may feel very different, you unfortunately cannot separate the religious books & texts upon which the main world religions are based from the politics & agendas of those who wrote them & the times in which they were written. To me any message those texts might bring have become so distorted by being passed through those filters that i'd find it very hard to know what to believe. The way women are presented & treated in these texts & the very real affect this has on many women's lives throughout the world to this day is a case in point. It's impossible to tell whether the attitudes presented in these texts are a product of the faith itself or a product simply of a paranoid male patriarchy at that time, when abject misunderstanding & fear, particularly of female sexuality, was so dominant in these societies. Any prominent role played by women in these religions could & probably was simply erased at the time religious texts were written to protect dominant male elites, leaving complete uncertainty as to the true message originally intended to be conveyed.

So, given that i don't have any religious beliefs…what then do i actually belief in & how close do i get to anything akin to spirituality. Well, i think you summed up exactly how i feel Laura when you wrote that you believe in the "universe, nature & the power of positive thought & self-love". That's so beautifully written & i don't think i can describe my own thoughts any better than that. As i've found myself describing on lots of occasions on this forum, i find beauty in so many things, feelings, moments or emotions, even in sadness & darkness & self reflection & in all the things i love, whether it be music or art (i'm a photographer) or simply when i look up at the moon in a clear sky or when i'm stargazing & that to me is the closest i think i feel to any sense of spiritual experience. The wonderment i feel at the sheer beauty & complexity of life itself, in my own heart is made all the more beautiful simply because to me it's nature itself that has made such beauty. I'm fascinated by people & how inner beauty radiates out of people through self-love & body confidence, self expression & the confidence that gives people to learn who they are & to express it, & that is why i feel so privileged to have found ISM & why i'm in awe of people like you Laura who contribute to the site & share such beautiful & inspirational experiences. The beauty of humanity which i feel comes through in the experiences contributors share though ISM also perhaps represents something similar to a spiritual experience for me if that makes sense:)

Thanks so much Laura for starting such a fascinating topic!! I've really enjoyed thinking through all these things again, its a really positive & amazing experience to really delve deep into how you view the world & what you believe in & just like you i cant wait to hear everyone's experiences & stories too!!!!:)

Ben xx

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Find your truth. Face your truth. Speak your truth. Be your truth.

viva

Member

Re: What do you believe in? Nudity and belief/religion

Hi Laura, so good to have you here on the ISM forum

This is a topic I've been thinking about a lot lately as well. Over at the Ifeelmyself forums we're having a kind of analogous discussion about sex and love, tantra and  intimacy vs. dirty porno sexy sex, and whether and how we can comprehend a world in which both are valid expressions of sexuality. This is kind of a madonna/whore dichotomy, which I think a lot of people with religious upbringings get taught as well.

You're familiar with it - we all get taught the same story through our media, tv and movies. There are chaste kisses, and there are dirty kisses, there's romantic dancing, and dirty dancing, good girls and sluts, nice boys and players....

But I think it's actually really damaging to be raised in this false dichotomy, because we can be good people and still want to be fucked hard, or have our asses licked, or have sex on a park bench in the rain (various things I personally enjoy). We can have sex for money and still be sensitive, we can love our husband and also get on our knees to suck his cock, we can dress up as schoolgirls and then take our own kids to school.

Are love and sex one and the same? Is the only kind of loving sex the kind which is had face to face, drowning in each others' eyes, in complete privacy? Or is that only one little dot on a very exciting spectrum?

It's an interesting topic, but the problem for me with religion in general is that, religion doesn't like interesting topics. Religion likes rules and answers, and when it comes to sex, certain religions are very clear about the answers: no, dirty thoughts are not ok. No, masturbation is not ok. Fantasizing is not ok, and in fact, sexy sex stuff is just not really ok at all.

I feel sad for people who grew up with those messages because I feel that they're just not applicable to the natural tendency of human minds and genitals. But people who grew up with those messages probably feel sad for me, too.

commie

Member

Re: What do you believe in? Nudity and belief/religion

To answer Laura's questions, I believe in the objective universe as well as in other minds.
I've been raised by prudish disbelievers, the kind who'd claim not to be prudes and try to prove it to themselves. Since I was pretty young, I've not been happy with my body and I've associated nudity with coercion. Only now I care a whole lot less about all that than I used to, mainly because I've grown to care about other things and that stuff seems quite petty from my current perspective I guess.

As to my opinion about the topic, I think people often exaggerate the role of religious beliefs.
Religion is culture. You don't quit a religion by stopping to believe in some abstract notions. Never having performed certain rituals or having been raised by atheists does not make you free from religion.
Many of the views of people who identify as secular, atheists, irreligious and whatnot are rooted in their religious background. While it's easier to shed clothes than one's views about nudity, there are more fundamental beliefs, assumptions and values which are even harder to shed.
That said, I don't want to belittle the role of nudity in culture wars. Just because something is only skin deep doesn't mean it can't be powerful.