In "Sleeper", when faced with the prospect of cranial surgery, Woody Allen exclaimed, "My brain! It's my second favorite organ!"Apparently there are many males who do not consider their penis to be their favorite organ. Filmmaker Lawrence Barraclough has tacked the issue of penis size in his BBC documentary "My Penis and I", and his follow-up "My Penis and Everyone Else's". Barraclough also invites anonymous males to upload photos of their own members as part of his "Snap Your Chap" project, which includes the web site, a gallery exhibit, and a forthcoming book.
It's only a clothed society that can spawn something so odd as an art project in order to educate people about their own bodies. Certainly I applaud the the filmmaker's attempt to force the taboo issue into the fore, but at the same time I am dismayed that the human race has gotten so out of touch with itself that it no longer knows what a normal body looks like.
One night at a nude swim I took a look around the room and realized what a wonderful thing it was that people were able to shed their clothes so easily and unashamedly, given all the baggage we carry in our minds about nudity. We all need to see more of each other naked, whether it's at the gym, at the pool, at the beach, or at home, so this unhealthy mystique that we have imposed upon us about the human body can be dispelled.
So whether you "snap your chap", or spend a day at home in the nude, or take the plunge into social nudism, you will be taking a big step in the direction of normalizing your own body, and the bodies of others. Getting naked is getting real.
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