Cuerpo y Género. Exaltación del desnudo masculino y censura del femenino en las polis griegas

Abstract

In the gymnasiums, the arenas and others public places of the Classical Greece, it was common to observe the naked bodies of the men. This practice, was not only well regarded and accepted as a part of daily social life, but, also, was sign of the understanding of the male gender with its polis. However, the possibility of the public nakedness was only allowed under one condition, that of citizen, reason why women and other individuals of the male gender were excluded from this privilege. This corporal and social differentiation was not the result of a whim, as it was grounded on a scientific hypothesis based on the body heat of human beings. Discrimination or not, this difference caused, in the Classical Greece, the exaltation of the male nude and censorship of the female, not only in the field of public coexistence, but also in artistic production for several centuries, until the appearance of the first female nude in Greek sculpture.