Unravelling male nudes

Published on 4th September, 2016, in Mid-Day. A few decades ago, the statue of Bahubali, a sage from Jain lore, was being installed right in front of Mumbai domestic airport. Many protested, arguing that the image of a nude man should not be the first thing people see when leaving the airport. In response, the middle portion of the image was covered with a panel. Eventually, the statue had to be removed. The idea of seeing Bahubali’s image as that of a nude man disgusted the faithful, for it transformed an asexual transcendental symbol into a sexualised biology. Human beings are meaning-making animals. We can ..