I wanted to address whether or not there are some things that we should insist upon being private. I am convinced that some things should be largely kept behind closed doors, though Nussbaum may disagree. Nussbaum seems to think that to avoid creating too oppressive a definition of "normal" people should be given significant leeway in their expression of themselves. To this end, I am inclined to agree with her about things like nudity laws and so forth, but I think there are limits to what we should share with the rest of the community. It's one thing to respect a person's privacy, and it is very important that we do so. Having your own private life is, I think, integral to creating your own sense of identity, individual from anyone else.
However, there are some things for which we might insist privacy. Nussbaum is on the right track in pointing out that we shouldn't make privacy standards based upon a sort of otherness. If it mostly comes down to "Normal things can be public, abnormal must be private," then we have a recipe for oppression, even if such standards aren't codified into law. But there may be certain brands of human activity whose very nature imply that they shouldn't be conducted out in public.
The easiest example that come to mind is sex. This is not to say that sex should never be talked about, or made taboo. Rather, the act itself seems to have a certain private quality to it. A sexual encounter is by nature intimate. Partners come together and make themselves very vulnerable. My intuition is that we are not being capricious in not wanting to see people copulate in public. Such activity seems to cheapen what a good and healthy sexual experience ought to be – an intimate experience between partners. Introducing publicity to it seems to demean that relationship. The intimacy is gone when an audience is created. It seems to me to be a kind of activity that is better when it is conducted in private, and we ought to encourage people to keep it in private. But perhaps I am just trying to rationalize my 21st century, Westernized intuitions.
I agree with you. There should be some things that should be kept private. I think that it should only be things that invoke an intrinsic goodness.
ReplyDeleteI don't think your account is entirely a defense of 21st century, westernized intuitions. Relationships should be private, intimacy and otherwise. There is something intrinsically valuable about relationships that if publicized, they lose their value. The same thing could be said about sex. If you lose that private intimacy with your partner then it becomes meaningless. I'm sure we've all seen it, the Facebook couple that shares a bit too much.. That would be along the lines of too much publication.
Although I agree with Nussbaum that there should be this wide berth of self expression. Perhaps there are people who are far more comfortable with sexual expression, free love types, and for those - perhaps my opinion does not stand.
As only an example, I think that relationships/sexual love would be a good example of something that is an intrinsic good - it is by far not the only intrinsic good.
I feel like my intuition is to agree with you when you say that sex is something that would be cheapened if it was done in public. However, I also am wary that there is something perhaps arbitrary about the distinctions we are making – perhaps they simply come from our cultural background like you suggest.
ReplyDeleteFor example, in another context, it seems like it would be reasonable to make an argument about nudity that is similar to the one you made about sex. Perhaps seeing someone nude is something that also has its proper place in an intimate interaction and is cheapened by having it allowed in public. It just happens to be that in our culture, nudity is not always charged, sexual, or intimate. It also seems possible that in another culture, public sex could be just something that people do for fun that is not necessarily the intimate thing that it is in our culture.
Furthermore, I feel that there may even be some arbitrariness concerning what types of public nudity are acceptable to us. Although Nussbaum seems like she is against arguments against nudity in general, I think that our society today would in reality be much more OK with women being topless than they would be with a man exposing his penis in public. This seems to be again due mainly to culture.
What seems appropriate and inappropriate in a public context ultimately seems like it depends upon what cultural meaning that thing holds rather than upon some sort of objective reason.