jpskewedthrone | Naked Writing

Naked Writing

OK, so the posting yesterday of the naked writing has led my wandering mind to a question:

Why the hell do we have clothes?

I mean, where did the entire concept come from? Not peer pressure. We didn't look around as ape-men and say, "OMG! The porpoises are wearing skirts! We've got to get some of those!" Why are we the only species on the planet that feels compelled to cover ourselves in fake fur-replacements? The obvious reason that leaps to my mind is protection. To protect our skin from the sun. To protect our skin from briars and such. To protect ourselves from accidentally hitting ourselves in the balls with our club? Seems kind of lame for that. I mean, obviously we do it now because of the social moors of decency and whatnot. But where did those social moors come from? Who sat down and said, "BTW, I think we should all cover ourselves, because, you know, someone might be looking."

Or is this a sexual thing, like male birds having pretty colors to attract the females, but in reverse. Did men get so self-conscious at some point that they said, "Wait a second! If I cover this up, the females won't know what kind of package I've got and I can score easier!" Or something.

But I'm serious. How did this "clothing" concept even arise? Where did it come from? We always picture the first clothing as being the caveman's loin-cloth . . . but why did the caveman care? Do we have evidence that they cared? Where was the transition from nude to Soho?

Not that the answer matters. Perhaps it was aliens.

In any case, I managed to write today (not in the nude, because it started out hot but we got some thunderclappers and that cooled it down big time . . . although not back to the norm temp for this time of year). Again, not as much as I'd hoped for, but some. I now know the shape of the rest of the chapter (all 5 pages and 2 scenes of it) and should be able to finish that off tomorrow even if the writing is slow. If not, I'll set aside some time to finish it this weekend. One chapter a week until the beginning of the new semester is my goal, which won't get the novel done by then, but should get it close. I hope. Or perhaps not, since the word count doesn't seem to be near 50% yet. There may be more chapters to this thing then I think.

43,200 / 100,000
(43.2%)

Vacant Throne

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Or is this a sexual thing, like male birds having pretty colors to attract the females, but in reverse. Did men get so self-conscious at some point that they said, "What a second! If I cover this up, the females won't know what kind of package I've got and I can score easier!" Or something.

I've seen this posited as a serious hypothesis on a documentary about human sexuality.

You can't be serious. I mean, in some weird sense it makes sense, but I meant it as a joke.

Well, as serious as evolutionary sociology hypotheses ever are. We in the more experimental sciences tend to not think very highly of such hypotheses, which are little more than unprovable guesses. Sure, it could be correct, but we can never know really.

Acto archaelogy class a billion years ago, two reasons (besides warmth) shame and status. The party line might have changed since then.

*headslap* Warmth! I should have thought of this, especially considering the context.

I'm not sure I would have thought of the "status" though. It makes sense . . . sort of. This is why I wouldn't have thought of it. I don't generally notice these kinds of status symbols, or if I do notice, I don't think of it as a status symbol. It comes of as an indicator of a person's taste.

Not a joke. An even bigger motivator than sexual appeal, however, is advertising social status. No kidding. Think about it, we still use clothing for both purposes today. Also, consider that clothing might have started out as a means of carrying our food, tools, etc. with us. This would have led to the social status usage. He/she with the more visible or accessible tools/colors/sex appeal is awarded higher standing.

Just a few thoughts from the anthropology camp. It all comes down to communication. :)

I don't think I would have thought of social status as a reason. Why did we turn to clothes for social status, when other animals use who has the best nest location or whatever to indicate social status? But I can see it developing out of carrying food, or babies, or whatnot, especially considering the hunter/gatherer life they led.

It was mostly for protection, whether it was from sun, cold, or living situations (loincloths are good to prevent from sitting on hot rocks). With my fair skin, I don't go topless (even in situations where I could) because I am guarenteed a sunburn, so I can sympathize with this.

As far as more elaborate clothing goes, social status is a lot of it. In many societies, only certain classes were allowed to wear specific colors (fancy dyes, such as purples and reds were often limited to just nobility or catholic church leaders by law or custom) or fabrics.

And yes, sadly, as time went on, religion began to dictate that the body was shameful and needed to be covered up.

My theory as to the origin of loincloths: menstruation. Mr. Cave Man may not really need a loincloth, but at least some of the Cave Women at least occasionally will have a menstrual cycle and without a loincloth will be dribbling blood all over. Mess issues entirely aside, blood attracts predators. (This is something they sometimes warn you about if you're a woman traveling to an area with bears.)

pockets.

case closed.

This was the first evolutionary step required in order to enable our society to reach the pinnacle of evolution--Project Runway!

oh. god.
Thank you. Now I know frozen coffee drinks hurt while coming out the nose.

Hee!

We didn't look around as ape-men and say, "OMG! The porpoises are wearing skirts! We've got to get some of those!"

Of course not, silly. The porpoises were busy making and wearing crowns out of seaweed!

True. When researchers exploring issues of possession gave dolphins and porpoises at one water park different toys to interact with, they were perfectly happy to share the toys like balls, but would get violent and fight each other for the right to either wear a crown, or carry a trailing loop around one fin. :-)

Read Genesis 3.

The first man and woman were naked. It wasn't until after they sinned that they realized they were naked and felt ashamed. And since we were born into sin we also need clothes to "cover up" our sin.

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