Sitting at my desk when suddenly my boss was standing behind me, watching me reading HN. Asked what I am doing, I say "nothing, just browsing for food for thought". To show him an example I randomly click on one of the headlines...

Any other year, this would be a believable story.

There's so much hair by today's standard that you can barely see anything.

The hair is a thing in itself in some cultures.

Yes. It's important to remember that the person who commissioned the painting was a Muslim, and in Islam both men and women are supposed to shave their genital area and underarms, because that's their proper state, according to islamic belief.

It seems that the head of the painting may have been found (though this is controversial).

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/985...

https://archive.is/rGrXL

There is speculation that this world is part of a larger complete figure that Corbet painted.

I am dubious. Origin of the World has such deliberate composition that it's hard to believe that there used to be another whole panel's worth of content up top. It would ruin the piece.

Search YouTube for a tableau vivant of a lady who opened up her charms directly below the painting. Many gallery goers applauded while the security ladies were very much put off.

I don't know if they're available in English, but this reminds me of Tardi's excellent Le Cri du Peuple

You mean of Jean Vautrin? And may I ask what is the connection between the article and the novel, which in English translation is called "The Voice of the People".

It's a French comic book based on Vautrin's work. The painting plays a minor role in it.

FYI, this needs an NSFW tag.

This was painted 154 years ago. I wonder if in another 154 years, in 2174, we'll still need cautionary labels on images of genitalia. Or if we may have matured a little by then (if we survive). I wouldn't bet on it.

The caution label isn't for my sensibilities, it's because I want to avoid potential hassle at work. Including having to explain what I was doing when someone sees my screen.

In this case mature just implies being desensitized to seeing genitalia. I don’t know if that’s better than maintaining a healthy “lust” for the world around you especially in light of the fact that the world doesn’t offer infinite novelty. Everything in moderation?

>In this case mature just implies being desensitized to seeing genitalia.

Maturity in this case implies being able to contextualise nudity.

Particularly in American culture this always seems to come up. photographs of a naked child in a bathtub being scandalous, a father kissing his son, censoring images of a breastfeeding woman and so on.

In my country mixed saunas and nude beaches are a big thing and I've met a lot of people in particular from the US who always seem to think this is in some way sexually creepy. There's nothing more natural than the naked body and genitalia, we all got some. I don't understand how a culture that isn't in some way repressed has to associate every naked body with 'lust'.

Many, if not most, cultures outside of Europe are touchy about nudity. Europe is not the forefront of ethical civilization.

You’d think after the 19th century and colonialism, Europeans would be a little less eager to condemn the rest of the world as ethically behind. Alas...your sentiment is an all too common one.

I don't think the rest of the world is 'ethically behind' or that a healthy relationship to the human body is exclusively European.

It's basically protestant modernity or whatever you want to call it that's caused this repression, also a European export so it's not like we're not to blame for a good portion of it. Huge chunks of the colonised world actually had fairly diverse and healthy attitudes towards nudity and sexuality before the era of colonisation. Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards is a great book about sexuality in Iran.

But either way today it does seem to be mostly the US which has the kind of influence that Europe had, and I don't enjoy it because it seems to affect our culture in negative ways.

I guess a culture that is mature enough not to be emotionally overwhelmed by their lust is also one with fewer unplanned pregnancies, a lower population, and less able to compete with more lustful cultures.

I was referring to maturity as a function of age and less about categorizing a whole culture as such. Regardless, I am referring to the maintenance of a healthy level of “fun” so life is more rewarding. It’s not really a trade off as you seem to be implying.

I emailed the mods.

Fabulous painting. That title!