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Naked
We may have come into the world in our glorious nakedness - but it's something we seldom discuss with others. Men and women of all ages and sizes speak openly about what their bodies mean to them. They discuss what they like and loathe and how they believe the world perceives them.
Due south
Facing yourself in the buff is something most people of all ages can find an uneasy experience and each film is dedicated to a particular stage of life: from the hormonal explosion of puberty to the gravity surrender of old age. "Eighteen 'Til I Die" tackles perhaps that most difficult of periods - middle age - with individuals explaining their strategies for trying to defy the menopause, balding, wrinkles and those very first upsetting grey pubic hairs.
The great leveller
The problem is that there is nothing we can do - despite our best efforts. From the moment we are born, our body has started to age and, ultimately, decay. Throughout the average life, we shed over 19 kilograms of dead skin alone. Others even say that the rot sets in earlier than this - for example, the number of eggs in an unborn baby girl's ovaries is already on the decline even before she is born!
Like a fine wine...getting better with age
The fact that we age is no mystery, but there is no consensus on why human beings live so much longer than other mammals. Intriguingly, the pilot whale is the only other animal to go through the menopause. However, both spend many years looking after their grandchildren and it has been argued that this function may have been overlooked - that this is in fact our "greatest achievement" - being the longest living mammals in the world.
New and improved
Despite the baldness, the loss of hearing and the fat stomach, old age is not just a story of decay. The body in fact continues to renew itself. The lining of the gut, for example, is totally replaced every three days and the blood is renewed every three months. Parts of the skeleton are reproduced every four years and most of our body is no more than 10 years old. The reason we look old may be that the body is constantly copying itself and, eventually, the copies develop faults. Another theory is that free radicals in oxygen can damage the body.
Find out more:
BBC: The Human Body
Changing attitudes
Our sense of disgust at our own ageing bodies and those of others reveal our very narrow definitions of what is beautiful and acceptable and what isn't. These cultural constructs are something many artists are challenging - not least Melanie Manchot, whose photographs of her 67-year-old mother, in the nude, force us to reassess our knee-reactions to which naked forms we find acceptable.
Find out more:
Melanie Manchot
Nude cultures
Facing yourself in the buff is something most people of all ages can find an uneasy experience and each film is dedicated to a particular stage of life: from the hormonal explosion of puberty to the gravity surrender of old age. "Eighteen 'Til I Die" tackles perhaps that most difficult of periods - middle age - with individuals explaining their strategies for trying to defy the menopause, balding, wrinkles and those very first upsetting grey pubic hairs.
The great leveller
The problem is that there is nothing we can do - despite our best efforts. From the moment we are born, our body has started to age and, ultimately, decay. Throughout the average life, we shed over 19 kilograms of dead skin alone. Others even say that the rot sets in earlier than this - for example, the number of eggs in an unborn baby girl's ovaries is already on the decline even before she is born!
Like a fine wine...getting better with age
The fact that we age is no mystery, but there is no consensus on why human beings live so much longer than other mammals. Intriguingly, the pilot whale is the only other animal to go through the menopause. However, both spend many years looking after their grandchildren and it has been argued that this function may have been overlooked - that this is in fact our "greatest achievement" - being the longest living mammals in the world.
New and improved
Despite the baldness, the loss of hearing and the fat stomach, old age is not just a story of decay. The body in fact continues to renew itself. The lining of the gut, for example, is totally replaced every three days and the blood is renewed every three months. Parts of the skeleton are reproduced every four years and most of our body is no more than 10 years old. The reason we look old may be that the body is constantly copying itself and, eventually, the copies develop faults. Another theory is that free radicals in oxygen can damage the body.
Find out more:
BBC: The Human Body
Changing attitudes
Our sense of disgust at our own ageing bodies and those of others reveal our very narrow definitions of what is beautiful and acceptable and what isn't. These cultural constructs are something many artists are challenging - not least Melanie Manchot, whose photographs of her 67-year-old mother, in the nude, force us to reassess our knee-reactions to which naked forms we find acceptable.
Find out more:
Melanie Manchot
Nude cultures
Your Comments
- Kathy_ wrote on 12 Apr 2006 at 03:22 AM
yeah, go nudity! - Something to say? Add a comment...
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