Xref: utzoo sci.bio:853 sci.misc:785
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!chinet!editor
From: editor@chinet.UUCP (Alex Zell)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.misc
Subject: Re: A Unique characteristic of Humans
Summary: Which other species would ask this question?
Message-ID: <2151@chinet.UUCP>
Date: 28 Jan 88 12:10:12 GMT
References: <3032@zeus.TEK.COM> <1576@aecom.YU.EDU>
Reply-To: editor@chinet.UUCP (Alex Zell)
Distribution: na
Organization: Chinet - Public Access Unix
Lines: 39


  A discussion about the new Startrek series and the mini worn
by one of the characters soon resulted in a suggestion that
clothing for personnel serving on such a vessel was superfluous and 
that total nudity would be preferable in that environment.
 
  After disposing of minor questions such as "where would they hang their
insignia of rank?" it was noted that very seldom did one see photos
in National Geographic of people in primitive cultures without a 
breechcloth.  It was suggested that clothing had a protective function
without regard to modesty.  (We assume that ingestion of the apple
rind and of learning the distinction between good and evil had either not
yet occurred, or the concept had not yet arrived at that culture.)
 
  An  assertion that considerations of safety rather than modesty keeps me
from working at the kitchen stove or from repairing the steam boiler without
at least some covering that could act as a buffer in a dangerous environment
was answered with the following note: (I informed my respondent it would
be shared with a vast and serious group of superior erudition which would
ponder the question.)
 
  "Alex: You know, you've touched (in a sense) on a subject that I've often
wondered about. I mean, don't you feel awfully >vulnerable< having such
a sensitive organ dangling down there without any natural protection?
Women's breasts are sensitive, to be sure -- but, I understand, nothing
compared to the sensitivity of male genitalia.
 
  "This may sound facetious, but it does have a serious intent underneath.
File it under trying to understand how the other half feels. (A male
friend once asked me what it felt like to menstruate, and I always meant
to ask him this question, but never got around to it. Or did he change
the subject? Don't quite remember....)"
 
  (I wonder if I remembered to tell her that within a short time the
   discussion would drift and the original question would be 
   unrecognizable.)
-- 
Alex Zell  ..ihnp4!chinet!editor
I'd rather be on Pictou Island, NS