The silvery, twirling mass seems to me to reflect chaos, the ocean, from which we all arise.

Being naked is how we are born, and truly connects us by the fact we are this vulnerable, even though we hide it. Even great warriors are vulnerable. The statue of David represents a level of male perfection I will never obtain. There is lots of history where dick picks were erased. Egypt was much more x-rated than we are allowed, mostly erased by the principles of Victorian England. Maybe here is a form of of unexplored discrimination. Women are more free to be liberated from clothing than men. Men must hide in shame. A woman can stand proud, bold, and naked and still maintain that essence of sacredness that all women embody. One of the virtues of feminism is not to be judge because of female, which also means not being ashamed of being female.

That portrait by Opie you provided could be seen as a reflection of class restriction. Women wore what they wore at that time because they had no choices. Wearing anything other would be scandalous. Her words of wisdom, her insight would have been lost had she worn a miniskirt. The artist commissioned to capture Mary has a point. Her thoughts are no less valued because she is female, in fact we celebrate her thoughts and the fact she is female.

Could this have been different? Yeah. Any clothing could have made her irrelevant, maybe even invisible. Are we still hung up on physical attributes? Clearly. You created an excellent point to dialogue over. But how do you represent the soul? How do you represent the mind? How do you inspire people to think outside their limited paradigms?

Oh, you create something controversial and let people talk about it. Here we are. Again.