What we see here in this post, and everywhere actually on the HaPenis site, is a resurrection of the “exuberance of the flesh” that characterises Greek and Roman representations of the human body. Remember, it was the ancient Greeks who allowed public nudity for men (cf. Urban Nudist and the astonishingly beautiful Bryan for contemporary examples of male public nudity), who exercised in a “gymnasium,” which means “a place to exercise naked.” All of our frustrated discussions on this site about the anxieties we have about public nudity; about showing pubic hair in public; about men’s urge to shower and be naked together, the closer the better; about “the unbiddens,” etc. etc. are all a product of our Christian cultural heritage, summarised in the story of Adam and Eve! (I owe these thoughts and the wonderful phrase “exuberance of the flesh” to Stephen Greenblatt.) –AJ
