Why do we wear clothes??

As a 50 year old I can answer that question for a bunch of us. Why do we wear clothes? To avoid grossing people out.

As I said on an earlier post. While this is the Great White North, it happens in every location. Clothes would seem the best defense, it wouldn't take a caveman to consider the benefits.

www.youtube.com...

a reply to: cooperton

I do not wear clothes unless my owner makes me put on ridiculous outfits and pretend I am a little toy child to play dress up with, in fact, the avatar I have was just that type of endeavor. She would not let me prance around in front of you folk without being presentable! I can and will lick myself at leisure with or without clothes and I will sneak the food off your plate completely naked if you wish!

I often look at a voluptuous woman and wonder the same thing

It's just not decent to be totally nude in a place where the majority of the people present would take offence. This is why nudist colonies exist, for people who want to be nude around people who don't care.

I don't look good naked, for one, yet with the right clothes, I get big smiles and sexy eyes from women

What really bothers me is how the human body is regarded as obscene whilst gruesome and gratuitous violent is ubiquitous and uncensored. Children are fed violence in the media even with childhood cartoons and yet told their bodies are filthy. Their bodies of course represent to them their own selves so you can imagine psychologically the kind of self-loathing that inspires. Moreover any one of us with working vision can see a naked body any time we like right in the mirror.

The Puritanical and Judeo-Christian roots of Western society that have influenced and fostered this bizarre mental anomaly are fairly obvious.

If ancient art is any indication the more enlightened cultures such as the ancient Greek tend to have simpler and less modest clothing. The Elizabethan Catholics couldn't pile on enough layers.

The fascinating question that this always brings up in my mind is the enigma of why there are creatures on this planet who are so incredibly ill-suited to survive naturally? We're very sensitive to small temperature fluctuations, very vulnerable without coverings and lack much of anything in the way of built-in weaponry such as claws, fangs, etc.

I live in Canada... winter time we would get pretty darn cold if we ran around naked.. -40°, let's say the frost bite would not be fun..

Its one of the ways that we distinguish ourselves from animals, there was a time in evolutionary terms, when we were in a "transition period" and some were wearing clothes, and others weren't. I'm assuming that clothing became a symbol of advanced evolution, along with the ability to speak.

Why do we wear clothes??

Because some people look terrible naked.

And I don't want to be scarred for life.

We wear clothes because no one wants to see you naked. Unless your really hot, then you should go naked.

It is not illegal to be naked in the state of Vermont, long as your not diddlin yourself. Of course there's only about two months out of the year when if ya went naked, wouldn't freeze your ass off.

a reply to: WeAreAWAKE

So, humans are ashamed of their own bodies... sounds like shame and self-esteem issues, and now it's illegal to be natural.

a reply to: cooperton

Because with out clothes, there would be no football. I know I
wouldn't tackle a naked guy.

No matter how many deflated balls he had.

originally posted by: cooperton

originally posted by: PhloydPhan
Clothes protect us wind, rain, too much sunlight, insect bites, etc.

Wouldn't we have evolved mechanisms to deal with these issues? Or, if you believe in an intelligent source to creation, wouldn't that intelligent creator encode us with protection from these issues? Why are we so disharmonious with nature?

We did.

We learned to wear cloths and build houses and fires.

Hi guys,

I thought I'd throw a wrench in the repression discussion...

While I agree with people being able to choose between "repressed" relationships and "open" relationships....

Still, I see pros and cons on both sides.

The argument exists that we fight over sex... We fight over money too by the way - We fight over productivity too.

But, we value things that are in scarcity - a luxury we currently have in a sense.

We esconce shiny objects (diamonds and gold) in showcases making it desireable in shop windows - or clothes or food.

We build our societies around the things we work for - rather than being useless/lazy too - gives us a sense of individuality - pride in accomplishment.

I don't think the repressed relationship is necessarily a taboo - we just established that we have to work for it - we don't all have to be the "same". We don't have to agree on everything - yet, we can be civil and respectful of differences and cultures without having to hurt each other for our differences - and sometimes learning to create differences that don't result in a physical fight.

I've been to the red light district in Amsterdam - they built tourism around their willingness to share with "repressed" people.

We're not really doing everything - there are so many "degrees" of freedom we as humans practice. It adds to the variety in my mind.

I think a combo is at play here, but it all boils down to security. Perhaps it started as sanitation, mild armor, and a means to control our bodily climate, but the culture has shaped it into something else altogether. In modern times people wear clothes to deceive, and not feel as insecure. We flip out on others who are not as insecure, and the nakies are a clear example of this.

Hi guys,

Something else occurred to me - a slightly different way of looking at the same:

We subject ourselves to so many "fears" that are just human constructs... when/if we lose our bearings - St. Thomas' explanation may bear resemblence to that future.

a reply to: cooperton


It's an interesting one for sure.. many tribes and certainly those (mostly) untouched by the modern world only wear a piece of cloth or some leafage to cover their modesty.
Obviously those in colder places would have used animal furs etc for keeping warm but mostly they do not wear clothes as we would call them and certainly not in the way we wear them - it was purely out of necessity and climate.

I always quite like seeing tribes and remote people's all just sat around chilling in their birthday suits... it's the way we did it for like ever.... and then there was money to made sadly.
And religion shamed most people too.

I'm not a Naturist... never been to a nudist beach (participating anyway lol) so have no vested interest in this.
Just my opinion really.

originally posted by: starswift
He, in your case, would have said "hang up your clothes fetish and trample it under your feet and do not be afraid"
Since the nakedness he was referring to was the purity of God unadorned by ornamentation of any kind, including sophist argumentation of any kind.
reply to: cooperton

I think the truth has both a symbolic and literal layer to it. Clothes were proposed to have come into use after the fall of humankind, perhaps clothes will be taken off for the ascent of humankind.

originally posted by: SalientSkivvy
I live in Canada... winter time we would get pretty darn cold if we ran around naked.. -40°, let's say the frost bite would not be fun..

This raises another question. In modern times Canada is great because modern technology allows us to defy the elements and its much cleaner up there. But, what pioneer initially thought it a good idea to settle in an extreme northern (or southern [its cold way down south too]) climate that required debilitating cold for half the year? I remember hearing stories about the American colonists battling harsh winters... the whole time I was wondering... why not just go farther south?

My question is why did the Homo Sapiens evolve to not have hair. With hair you could live more comfortably than with clothes.
Without clothes, as you observed, we would occupy a smaller environmental niche, so I guess clothes give us a competitive advantage if you subscribe to an idea of Darwinian competition.
In the higher sense our body is our robe that clothes our soul and separates us from the absolute.
The body is a sensory field that allows us to apprehend the world, without that vibratory field stillness resides.

originally posted by: Mandroid7
Sanitary reasons, for one.

I don't want to use a public seat after a 400 lb un- showered, non-wiping obese man sits there.

Then, I don't want to watch him walk away.

I stopped after reading this post and 100% concur.

Nothing more to add after that. lol