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Nudity & Our Culture

Discussion in 'General' started by xxxJRosesxxx, Jan 16, 2013.

  1. Jan 16, 2013 #1
    xxxJRosesxxx

    xxxJRosesxxx New Member

    My Mom is a nurse, I grew up looking at her medical textbooks full of naked people, graphic injuries, and diseased flesh. When she returned from Afganistan this year from patching up our troops, civilians, and enemy troops she showed me photos of their broken bodies. I believe she has always let me see such things, so I wouldn't easily get quizzy at the sight of blood or freaked out by naked people. I still have emotional reactions to seeing people in pain and dying, but it's not the exposed flesh that makes me sick.

    So it bothered me last night when I saw a staus update of a teenage girl complaining about having to see naked elderly women in the locker room and if they had any shame at all. Ok, she's a shallow teenager and I know I'm only twenty...but it still bothers me that a naked body is worth complaining for her demographic. We're all born naked, it's our most natural state to be in at any age. Not even all cultures wear clothing, there are plenty of tribes out there still wearing tiny cloth over their genitals. What the hell does the term shame suppose to mean to her, we should be ashamed of our bodies? Why is it anyone elses business? Is it because they're old? Aren't they dealing with enough at their age?

    I feel old, I'm only twenty years old and already I no longer relate to teenagers. Even though I didn't relate to treating nudity as a taboo even when I was a teenager, I just don't care. Nor do I understand why anyone else should to any degree. I wish we could all go out naked if we wanted to, without staring or getting arrested.
     
  2. Jan 16, 2013 #2
    EtherealSummoner

    EtherealSummoner Lamentations 3:22-26

    XD If you feel old already, I am scared to think what will happen if you hit Kitty's age.

    I find it funny because if the were to have babies, I will wonder if she will be ashame of the baby's nakedness, especially when she needs to clean and bathe it. I do not know about nakedness for women since I am not one but as for nakedness for a man, I can understand. In locker rooms, I do not care when they are changing clothes and the like but then again, I do not want them to play around and be all up on me. I do not roll like that and my grandmommy always tell my ignorant, smartmouth cousin to put a shirt on because it is unnecessary, nasty and his body odor stinks up the place (Which I can agree).

    Being naked at a place can change everything. And speaking of nakedness.... I am trying to remember of this one picture where a man was walking around naked one time and people were calling it a deviant. Also, I have heard about a couple of info lately as to how some people are protesting for them to be naked in public, while doing the protests naked and even coming to the court naked. <_< Just eeew. No one does not want to see your junk.
     
  3. Jan 16, 2013 #3
    Angel

    Angel Lion Heart Staff Member Administrator

    Being born naked and going out naked are two completely different things as well as the opportunity to have clothing. Like you said, tribes out there still wear loin cloths but then again are they wealthy or even have the luxury of clothes. I doubt it.

    To display your nakedness in public, should be shameful. If you went to a public area naked, would you not feel shame?
     
  4. Jan 16, 2013 #4
    Kitty

    Kitty I Survived The BG Massacre Staff Member Administrator

    Well, I think teenagers, especially girls, often have a lot of insecurities about their own bodies and express that by being bitchy about other people's. And I think ageism probably plays some role in her attitude, too. Also, teenagers just aren't naturally empathetic.

    I'm a private person and would not want to walk around in public naked (not least because I'd be freezing!), and honestly, wouldn't really want to see anyone else doing it, either. But I can't imagine nudity in public actually catching on here, even if it were made legal. I think too many people have insecurities about their bodies to want to flaunt them. And I think there is too high an importance placed on clothes. People judge each other by what they look like. Taking away clothes takes away one way you make an impression on people. Whether or not it is "just" to judge people based on their appearance/clothes doesn't matter for this point. I know in other societies, nudity is more common, and I'm not sure why America has such a taboo, or why we're so shallow about a lot of things, but I guess, since I was raised in this society, it sort of makes sense to me. I don't think people should feel ashamed of their bodies, though many people do, but I feel some things should stay private.

    But I do think that the taboo on nudity can seem a little ridiculous in comparison to the way we think about other things. If you look at movies, for example, is a full frontal shot of a nude male actor going to traumatize a kid more than watching someone's intestines be ripped from their bodies (or some such violent death a la the Saw movies)? Both sorts of movies, we could probably agree, should be for adults, or teenagers mature enough to handle them. Yet movies with more explicit nudity and sexual situations (2011's Shame, for one, as I'm not talking about porn here) get higher MPAA ratings (and the stigma of the NC-17 rating) as opposed to the R ratings that the extremely graphic and violent movies get. That seems unfair to me.

    And I read something, somewhere recently, about parents demanding an art textbook be removed from a school's curriculum because it included pictures of nude statues (Michaelangelo's David was the one I remember being mentioned). Seriously? These are classic pieces of art, and used appropriately for an art class. The images aren't erotic. So I don't see what the problem is.

    So I kind of agree with you, xxxJRosesxxx. But I'm not ready to declare the US a nudist colony just yet.
     
  5. Jan 16, 2013 #5
    EtherealSummoner

    EtherealSummoner Lamentations 3:22-26

    If nudity is so bad, I wonder why actors and actresses are so eager to have sex on the shows and in the movies naked. As for the statues Kitty, I geuss they fear of perversion I guess... or stupidity of the students wanting to do somethign to the art/statue that is displaying the nude.

    Either way, it should be a private affair and should only be for oneself (Or two if in a marriage).
     
  6. Jan 17, 2013 #6
    xxxJRosesxxx

    xxxJRosesxxx New Member

    Not the old women in the locker rooms, it's a place where you change clothes in front of each other. I've noticed in gym locker rooms that it's usually older women who change in front of each other, but my generation will go into a bathroom stall (holding up the line for people who need to pee). Stupid teenagers.

    I was kind of half joking about the U.S. being a nudist colony, I just don't like how nudity alone is a taboo. Clothes do have a place in our culture from basics of protecting our genitalia from dirt, keep us warm, setting trends, and etc. Actually those more isolated tribes when introduced to some Anthropologist thought they looked funny in their clothes. Hahaha, I remember watching a documentary when I was little and one of the tribes people after giving a gift to a camera person looked down their pants to figure out if they were male or female. I don't think they cared much about the luxury of clothing, it wasn't a matter of being able to afford it and more that they lived in a climate that didn't find it necessary.

    I'm not comfortable with the way my body is right now in general, I don't feel much comfortable in a one piece bathing suit let alone naked. So I'd probably feel some shame in showing it in all its glory, of course people would look at me shamefully whether I was happier with my body. But nudity alone, in the sense of none erotic nudity I feel should not be shamed. All you're seeing is a human being not covered up by clothes. Would I do it? Here in the West I feel we've sexualized the body too much (especially women's bodies), and the Middle East of course has sexualized the female body even worse than us.

    My Mom told me about this civilian woman in Afganistan who had shrapnel that sliced her body up, was more concerned about them seeing her naked than saving her life.

    I prefer consenting adults, I don't care if they're married or not.

    :D I wasn't completely serious, I'm happy with having places people can go to be naked around each other like nudist colonies. I wouldn't personally go to one.
     
    Last edited: Jan 17, 2013
  7. Jan 17, 2013 #7
    Reprise

    Reprise Semi-present

    xxxJRosesxxx, what's the difference between non-erotic nudity and erotic nudity? As you said, the west has sexualised the female body too much, so if you were to go naked in public, you'd either be judged as being shameless, ugly, or someone who is trying to draw attention with their body. Of course, there shouldn't be anything wrong with nudity, but too many people(like that judgemental teenager you mentioned) think that it's a bad thing to be naked. And then there's the issue of insecurity, which would discourage people from going nude if it were ever legalised.

    Angel, what should be shameful about nudity?
     
  8. Jan 17, 2013 #8
    Angel

    Angel Lion Heart Staff Member Administrator

    It's just something innate or close to it. Why wouldn't it be shameful? In the privacy of your own home, sure nothing to be shameful about. But with the presence of other people especially in a public place then its natural to be a shame.

    On paper, I'm sure that we can say nothing is shameful about nudity but I doubt any one of us can truly act on that and feel no shame! :p

    So yeah, it is shameful. It's pointless to doubt that.
     
  9. Jan 17, 2013 #9
    Kitty

    Kitty I Survived The BG Massacre Staff Member Administrator

    I figured as much. XD

    I read something similar in some sociology class or magazine of some sort. Two women were in Africa visiting a tribe for some reason and the tribe was almost offended by the fact that the women covered their breasts, because they saw it as them trying to keep secrets. Which is an interesting way of looking at it.

    I think it's the attitude that you go into the situation with. If I'm a model posing nude for an art class, I'm not going into it to turn people on, and I don't think the artists are really looking at me, either. Or, as JRoses mentioned, a sketch of a naked body in Grey's Anatomy is not designed to arouse the viewer, nor, do I think in most cases, are the statues and classical art I mentioned earlier. It's the intention behind the nudity that makes the difference, I think.
     

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