I don’t know about the rest of Europe, but here in Austria there is, at least among enlightened people, the general view that Americans are extremely hung-up about nudity. Have you any idea how crazy that looks, seen from the outside, this obsession with nudity being dirty?
Sometimes I think it is an American thing, but we ran around naked at my house when I was a kid. Except for my mom. I remember one winter when my mother accidentally locked my father outside, when he’d run out naked to write his name in the snow…
Only a pervert thinks nakedness is dirty. When we were visiting Seattle several years ago, Beta was playing in the sand by Greenlake and since she had no bathing suit with her and was about 5 at the time, we just let her run around naked like we did here. My Austrian in-laws were along for the trip, and my father-in-law took a bunch of pictures of her since he’d just gotten a new camera. A lifeguard came over and asked Beta if she knew this man. I don’t know what was creepier, the lifeguard sexualizing a naked little girl, or knowing that he probably had a good reason to. It was an interesting moment.
I’m not saying people run around naked all the time in Austria. They just don’t seem to be, in general, so uptight about it. (Although there does seem to be a trend – for decades – in the media to eroticize the body, of course, for advertising reasons). Maybe it really is part of the American puritan heritage. I mean, what the hell is so bad about running around naked? What exactly? What do you think?
Wow. Great points.
Here in the Wild West we even dress our trees.
In shoes.
;)
Seriously, tho, Berkeley’s full of naked people.
A few years back, the city council decided that breast feeding was obscene and that men and women should all keep their tops on at all times. Well. That sort of micromanagement is not appreciated by the constituency.
The Naked movement of the early 90s had as its proponent a very handsome young man, some might call him a hottie supreme, as it’s chief proponent. Oh, Naked Guy, so idealistic and so well received by such wrinkly, flabby followers. No matter how much it’s Berkeley, this is still the USA., complete with the SlimFasted, silicone powered American Dream.
See, that’s the thing I think we’re up against here when we try to open ourselves to healthy public nudity: the body image thing. If it isn’t pretty, it should be hidden. Either way, pretty or not, someone is going to get in your face and tell you what they think about the image they assume your projecting for their entertainment (the theme of the film I’m writing). That right there is obstacle enough.
I agree. It’s silly. Although I think a lot of people are pretty relieved that we do have such hangups. Not everyone considers their own body beautiful, sadly. maybe if there weren’t the constraints no one would feel that way, I don’t know.
I do know if that if it weren’t for our puritan heritage, skinny dipping might not be as totally exhilerating as it is here.
I’m uncomfortable with the nudity of others. I like the fact that people I would rather not see naked are generally clothed. I don’t find it morally repugnant, just visually.
Well, look, two things. First, I’m not selling public nudity; I think it’s only polite to balance the Freedom To with Freedom From. I’m not saying, either, that people run around naked all the time in my town. The most visible difference, I suppose, would be for example when you go to a park or swimming pool, more little kids running around naked, more topless bathing, and a more relaxed attitude about changing into a dry swimsuit right there where you’re lying in the sun rather than walking all the way back to the changing room. And more guys taking leaks next to their cars on the shoulder of the hiway. People generally don’t get all worked up about that. Yet skinny dipping is still great fun. (But I’m not saying, either, that people are all blas
I agree with you Mig, to me American’s DO take nudity to a seedy dark place! I mean hell if you take nude photos you are total porn, if you enjoy a nude statue, you are sick and so on. I think it dates back to the days where sex was suppose to be dirty or something.
My Mother saw my “cowgirl Pics” and they were NOT even nude and she freaked! She told my whole family that I was showing nude photos of myself online! I was like WHAT? Only if you could have heard the calls I got after that from family….oh man! All because one persons idea of nudity was “dirty”!
How awful. Some people just don’t get it.
(URL?)
well, if we’re talking about around the house, I run around naked all the time. But there’s no one there who hasn’t seen me naked before (by choice even, except, I suppose, the cats). And I certainly don’t find anything wrong with that.
Puritanical backgrounds aside, clothes are armor, don’t you think? People hide in them. Or don’t, as the case may be. But it’s also a social mechanism, an expression of who we are. Without the shell we *choose* to show to the world, we’re naked in more than one sense.
Not an argument pro or con, just something that occurred to me while I was writing.
My Dad was naked a lot around the house – not while we were growing up, but later in life when he was able to indulge himself living alone. I did spend a summer with him in Florida when I was in college, and it was interesting to see the Jehovah’s Witnesses react when he would come to the door, sometimes wearing a t-shirt and nothing else.
There was only one time I ever saw him embarrassed. It involved chest hair and a new suit. Maybe I’ll tell the story some time.