How did you learn about your body? Did you mum tell you? Did you examine it physically, emotionally, scientifically? Did you listen to friends who described every activity they had ever undertaken, speaking in gory detail about every sensation and fluidious touch? Did you learn by fumbling along the way through monthly changes and burgeoning hormones and…well…fumbling?
I think i learnt from all of the above. I was never made to feel shame about my body or about sex. Sex was always a healthily respected thing to talk about in our house – probably sometimes in too much detail – and i’ve probably continued that joyous (and perhaps a little cringe-worthy) conversation into my home with my daughter. But really i am still fascinated by our bodies and the way they work, by the power of sexual feeling – by it’s normality and wonder and by the way my body can sometimes rule me and sometimes be beaten to submission by my brain. So i am still learning a lot about my body. How about you?
Who taught you about that body you have, and how?
Is your body a place of private parts or do you share it willingly, easily?
Does it still hold surprises?
(You can respond via the “call for stories” page)
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PS – thanks all for the responses last time – in long story, quick message and coffee fuelled conversation – i appreciate it immensely. Here are some thoughts from that…about when people first noticed their bodies.
Someone feels like their finger IS their mother or the thing they have most like their mother. And i love this. She also expressed that she has always wanted to have a chance to say this. And i love that too.
Someone wrote about the change in how they felt about themselves (from feeling fat and ugly and unloved) while posing for life drawing classes “It was at that moment of standing naked in front of art students at the North Adelaide School of Art I came into my body. I remember it clearly. I became aware of my own sexuality and for the first time felt good about my body. I went to be a life model for many years, both in SA and NY for painters, sculptors and even an Episcopalean Priest, who thought i was a unique beauty.”
Someone wrote about becoming “more aware of my body both in an aesthetic way and a functional way” when becoming a stand-up comic. ” It made me really aware of how I use my body to convey humour. It made me aware of how my body looks when I’m performing for people. I’m aware of how it functions when I’m on stage”
Someone talked about being aware they had a body because of being told to cover up…and “I also knew I had a penis, which I liked”
Thank you
Training my doubt. A development blog 