“Nude male sculptures had been on display in the British Museum since the early 1800s, with no complaints. To modern eyes, classical sculpture is the height of respectability, embodying tradition and (as the British Museum titled its recent blockbuster show) ‘defining beauty’. Nichols also looks at the debate about obscenity that arose specifically from displays of naked male sculpture at the Crystal Palace. In 1854 these plaster cast representations of gods and heroes, many of them without a scrap of clothing, ignited fierce arguments that continue to trickle into contemporary discussions about bodies and perfection, what’s appropriate and what’s not. Where do ideas about beautiful bodies come from? In her recent book, Dr Kate Nichols, a researcher at CRASSH, explores the connections between beauty and morality, nudity and nakedness through the prism of public responses to the classical sculpture brought to the masses by the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. A recent survey points to a six-fold upsurge in the number of men using anabolic steroids, widely known to have damaging effects, to boost their muscles in the quest for a body of a Greek god. Earlier this summer advertisers of weight loss products enraged thousands of London tube-goers by asking: Are you body beach ready? The accompanying image showed a pitifully thin model in a tiny bikini. The efforts we make to shape our bodies to meet ideals border on the extreme.
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