Nude Teaching Is Not Exhibitionism — Applause for the Professor's Naked Lecture!

2006/9/27 20:19:16

These past two days, the fall of high official Chen has made it hard for any other news to register as news. But there is one news story that managed to become news: 56-year-old Professor Mo Xiaoxin, the principal investigator of a national-level research project on "Human Body Art and Human Nature Culture," taught a one-hour class in the nude before an audience. To quote the report:

"While discussing the characteristics of the human body, Professor Mo told the audience: 'My emotions can be reflected in my body — whenever I get angry or anxious, my thighs get bumps.' Under the gaze of all present, Professor Mo then did something that was hard to imagine. 'At the time, Professor Mo's emotions appeared very intense, completely in a state of selfless absorption. As he spoke, he undid his clothing and stood naked at the center of the podium.' While standing nude before the students, Professor Mo calmly explained: 'My own 56-year-old body shape reflects the characteristics of my era, emphasizing labor and natural beauty.' Professor Mo also humorously noted that his 'tiger's back and bear's waist' were 'historical imprints' left on his body from over a decade of physical labor."

The most immediate reaction is to label Professor Mo an exhibitionist, but this inference does not hold. Exhibitionism requires corresponding physiological responses resulting from the behavior. For Professor Mo, who is male, the most basic response would be engorgement of a certain body part. However, throughout Professor Mo's full hour of teaching, this obvious physiological response did not occur. (Of course, this ID was not present, but today's newspapers are so gossip-hungry that if such a response had occurred, with so many people present, the papers would certainly have described it in meticulous detail. And in fact, this did not happen.) Even considering that at age 56, physiological responses may be slower than those of a young man, one hour is more than sufficient for this physiological response to complete. The absence of this response can only prove that Professor Mo did not seek, or was not seeking, any kind of pleasure from this nudity. Therefore, the conclusion of exhibitionism absolutely cannot stand.

It must be noted that Professor Mo has a published work, "Examining Nudity: Body Art and Reflections on Human Nature." For him, this subject has been researched for many years. From his research perspective, behavior that seems excessive to ordinary people holds nothing special. Linking nudity with lasciviousness is an ignorant idea. Those who have physiological responses or mental agitation at the sight of nudity are the immature, the pathetic ones! It can be stated with certainty that among those who criticize Professor Mo, virtually all have visited pornographic websites and viewed all manner of nude photographs. To then turn around and hypocritically pretend to be saints — that is truly the behavior of human scum.

Of course, this is not encouraging anyone to expose their body in public spaces without reason. Professor Mo's incident occurred in a classroom discussing body art, and from the news photographs, there was an elderly model beside him who was also nude, further proving this was not a particularly unusual event. It was simply that Professor Mo had confidence in his own body and spontaneously served as a model — what is so shocking about that? The world simply has too many busybodies. Go do what you're supposed to do, and disperse!