With all due modesty, it is day #3 of Breast Week!
This quote led to way more questions than answers for me.
I don’t think the author was talking about actual the female bosom. I believe it was originally meant symbolically, not literally. But I can see the meaning being expressed just as well, even better in some ways, when it is read as if referring to real breasts.
So, with that in mind, here is what I think it’s getting at: A woman being immodest about her breasts is lacking noble virtues, otherwise modesty would reside within her and she wouldn’t be flaunting them. Is that what you think it is basically saying?
Here’s the problem. How do we know when someone is being modest or immodest? Can 2 friends on vacation wearing very similar bikinis be different in that regard? Can one be modest and the other immodest with the exact same amount of flesh showing? How would we know the difference between them?
The quote suggests you would know the answer by the appearance of the ‘nobler virtues’ in the modest person. My question is, What are the nobler virtues?
And finally, the ultimate question in this regard:
Can a nudist be modest?
Click here to see the whole ‘Breast’ series
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Drawing and all these questions by Marty Coleman
Quote by Oliver Goldsmith, 1730-1774, Anglo-Irish writer
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Colette and I spent extensive time naked on beaches in Greece and Maui, last Fall and this Spring respectively. One adapts very readily to the reality that nobody is looking – unlike in the case of the modest ‘scantily-clad’.
Here is an interesting excerpt from the website of Lupin Lodge, near Los Gatos (yes, we spent a day there). Nudity is actually the most modest state, IMHO.
http://www.lupin.com/sexuality.html
Did I answer your question? 😉
Yes you did. I know from years of drawing the figure and teaching drawing that the anticipation of the students, and sometimes the models, about what a nude figure drawing session is like, is far different from the reality of it. The reality is that there is a profound sense of modesty in those types of classes.
For example, it was the rare exception when a model would finish a pose then walk around looking at the drawings without covering up. It seemed too exhibitionist for a model to do that, it was much more comfortable for him or her to cover up before moving into the studio space and interacting. That sounds odd, but it illustrates how modesty works in my mind.