Natural Beauty Pt. 04

On that note I shall finish off, with one last analysis. If there is one way in which I have been profoundly changed by life on Palmira, I nominate feeling pride in being female. Before Palmira I would have dismissed that sentiment, like taking pride in being born with brown eyes. Whatever you are or want to be, I would have said, to be proud of something that's outside your self-determination is vacuous. Now I think differently. We live in a world where, by and large, females are constantly reminded that we do not and should not have autonomy over our own bodies, that we don't belong to ourselves, that even our self-esteem is controlled by others. That might appear to be the case with Palmira's nude law, but I have learnt otherwise. The nude law is a liberation, not an imposition.

In a very important way Palmira is an enlightened society. Women and girls here show a healthy, positive attitude towards their bodies, are more self-confident and more comfortable with our sexuality, more self-accepting with regard to body image than those of our sex elsewhere, and more than males. Because we hide nothing, we learn that there is no such thing as the "perfect" body. Everyone looks at you but no one judges you. People have seen everything (and I mean that in both senses). This is a culture in which commercial and peer pressures don't make us feel we have to look like a Barbie doll or a supermodel.

Palmirenes suffer from remarkably few eating disorders. Anorexia, bulimia, obesity are virtually unknown. At the risk of generalizing: these often arise because a woman or girl experiences herself and her body as separate entities, and she forces herself to control the body she dislikes, making it in her mind an object that is alien and unwanted. If her body is objectified, it's worse when she objectifies it herself. I don't think this happens much on Palmira because you cannot separate your physical body from your essential being. (And men, set this example, are also healthy.)

In most Western cultures, the prevailing view of the naked female body is a detrimental mixture of titillation and shame. To take one example, if a mother breast-feeds her baby in public, this is often treated as improper behaviour, rather than what it is, a perfectly natural and wonderful thing. And yet women's bodies are used to sell everything from cars to cola drinks. In other parts of the world it's the opposite but no better. So womankind is caught between the bikini and the burkha. And the only escape, if it's allowed, is to adopt masculine habits, clothing, hairstyles, mannerisms, values — that is, to deny or repudiate one's femininity, one's own being. You cannot do that on Palmira. You come to terms with what you are, and with what you're not.

Nevertheless, in celebrating difference Palmirenes have addressed the issue of gender identity. It's written into the nude law. Their solution is not without controversy, but they've made an effort and it's a work in progress. Transsexual females — persons born male who have undergone sex reassignment through surgery — are subject to the law. Somewhat more contentiously, a transgender male — biologically female but whose gender identity is male — must be naked. On the other hand, transsexual males and transgender females are defined to be male. In other words, as the law stands, if you have breasts and a vagina, however you identify yourself you must not conceal them. If you have a penis, you must wear pants.

As I've stated before, Palmira is not perfect, it's no utopia. What makes this place unique is that the people believe that the expression of natural femininity should not be constrained by what are no more than contrived notions of status, gravitas, decorum, morality, modesty, shame. So women, far from being victimized or objectified by the nude law, are empowered by it. Palmira turns on its head the all-too-common notion that femininity is weakness. Palmirenes believe that you have to be strong, smart and self-confident to openly express your true self.

That is what I have found. Through the joy of nudity I have discovered a new sense of pride in my womanhood, in my natural beauty.