Another Look at Public Nudity

reply to post by Jomina

To be honest, it all needs to start with the basic thought of, why do all you poor gals have to keep your breasts covered at all times? Where is the fairness in it?

It's all about keeping the cost of motor insurance down.

The harsh reality is that most people look better with their cloths on.

I don't think that nudity is a big deal. However, I don't really want to see a bunch of nuddies walking up and down my street. Most people are not that nice to look at, so please keep yourself covered. Not because it's against my religion or the law but because I don't really need to see that much.

Originally posted by moocowman
reply to post by Jomina

 

To be honest, it all needs to start with the basic thought of, why do all you poor gals have to keep your breasts covered at all times? Where is the fairness in it?

It's all about keeping the cost of motor insurance down.

ahahah well played, moo, well played!

I guess that it's an acceptable trade off.. us guys get to go topless whenever we wish, women get the lower insurance payments.

I still think we get the bad end of the deal there lol

Originally posted by AshleyD
I think we have a pretty happy medium here. No burquas but no letting it all hang out either. I'm really not interested in seeing a pubic lice epidemic or fecal matter or any juice residue on public seating. Sorry to be crude but that is what it can come down to. I'm thinking of the germs over here. No thanks.

Very true. There is a public health issue to consider, especially since we are in a tightly packed (no pun intended) environment. This would be a bit of a risk on the part of everyone running around nude based just on things like fecal matter, etc. But on that same note, it would probably train us as a society to treat our bodies a little better and would help to build immunities.

Originally posted by Wildbob77
The harsh reality is that most people look better with their cloths on.

I don't think that nudity is a big deal. However, I don't really want to see a bunch of nuddies walking up and down my street. Most people are not that nice to look at, so please keep yourself covered. Not because it's against my religion or the law but because I don't really need to see that much.

That's the whole point.... society has given you these unnatural thoughts.
It is only a harsh reality because we are conditioned to think like this.

reply to post by St Vaast


Apples and oranges, though IMO. Yes of course there are tribes that will engage in at least toplessness while still wearing a loin cloth or what not. But our society is entirely different. I don't have issues with nude beaches or nude resorts but within the general populace, yes.

Let's face it, in the more developed countries, regardless of religion, clothing has been conditioned. To introduce it to us now because some tribe somewhere is happy as a clam doesn't fit for us.

Also, you point out they still wear something to cover their loins. In my opinion, that is not full nudity. I 'cover my loins' at the beach by wearing a bikini and nobody would say I was engaging in public nudity.

Originally posted by AshleyD
think we have a pretty happy medium here. No burquas but no letting it all hang out either.

hmmm...

would you stop to wipe, or otherwise attempt to "disinfect", the handle of a store-front door you found yourself following an obvious and/or known nudist into?




yes. it's a loaded question.

reply to post by 12m8keall2c


You're talking to a germ freak here. And I know what you're getting at. People don't have to be a nudist for things like bodily fluid residue to get about. Again, germ freak here. I know all about what's one paper money, the toilet handle, the faucets, door handles, unpackaged candy in a dish etc., and it is enough to have me locked up in a rubber room.

But I also know what is on the toilet seats. That is not going to be on a public bench in a micscropic amount where I can pretend it isn't there because I don't see it. That is going to be visible. Please think of what all goes on 'down there' with both the male and female bodies. Accidents as well. Again, I'm not trying to be crude but I'm thinking menstrual blood, fecal matter, pubic hair, urine, seminal fluid, vaginal discharge in public seating?

I think that is what makes the difference between the naughties who don't wash their hands after using a public restroom then dip their hands into the cucumber slices in the salad bar and a nudist who sat in a chair before me.

Germs are everywhere but can you see that this would at least be a more noticeable problem if public nudity became the norm?

Socratic question: () Why do bathing suit companies ask us to keep our undies on when trying on a bathing suit?

Microscopic germs and so other patrons don't soil them with bodily fluids.

Originally posted by AshleyD

Socratic question: (

) Why do bathing suit companies ask us to keep our undies on when trying on a bathing suit?

I´d love for some of the nudists in this thread to answer this one.

whoo hoo!!!!! for public nudity I'm in..lol

reply to post by AshleyD


Fair enough. Let's all work to make loin cloths fashionable again... or at least kilts and battle bikini's.

Coming from a country where ,at least topless, "nudity" is not really an issue at the beach(and even at some swimming pools) I can tell in all honesty, that the first time a foreigner(read " American") sees all this bare flesh, they invariably are aghast and totally shocked. However, the longer they are surrounded by boobs, the more they are de-sensitized(is that even a word??) to it . Seeing nude boobs all over the place on any any given hot summer's day on the beaches, helps tremendously in the normalizing of nudity. De-sexualizing, so to speak, the whole "boob" thing.

Funny by product: There has been an extensive ad-campaign for a certain green, lime-smelling soap-bar that featured nude breasts very prominently. Some people took offence, but most people liked the aesthetics of it. The campaign completely failed though to promote the "sexual atttraction inducing qualities" of using this kind of soap. It is somewhat hard to explain, but most "sexually inclined" campaigns overhere feature clothed people... It looks like the aesthetics of nudity takes over the moment it is so upfront for everyone to see.

No one overhere bats an eye if there is a giant bill-board on the side of the road with an obviously buck-naked model elegantly covering one leg with a white-greasy ointment in a blue-tin(Do not want to sound like a commercial peddler hehheh) Behind&boobs in full view..

I could be biased, as i am a trained sculptor and artist and I have seen more nudity in art classes than any normal person would in their entire life.

Originally posted by AshleyD
reply to post by St Vaast

 

Apples and oranges, though IMO. Yes of course there are tribes that will engage in at least toplessness while still wearing a loin cloth or what not. But our society is entirely different. I don't have issues with nude beaches or nude resorts but within the general populace, yes.

Let's face it, in the more developed countries, regardless of religion, clothing has been conditioned. To introduce it to us now because some tribe somewhere is happy as a clam doesn't fit for us.

Also, you point out they still wear something to cover their loins. In my opinion, that is not full nudity. I 'cover my loins' at the beach by wearing a bikini and nobody would say I was engaging in public nudity.

I agree that our society is entirely different. The question of course, is 'why' ?

I disagree with your argument that 'because some tribe somewhere is happy as a clam doesn't fit for us'. How do we know it doesn't fit for us? We haven't tried it.

Are we afraid to try it ? Are we afraid of being seen for what we are, instead of hiding behind artifice ? Are we afraid to see others as they are ?

After all, penisis are as unremarkable as tongues or elbows. Labia are as unremarkable as toes.

You speak of men's 'junk' and bodily secretions as being something you wish no contact with as result of general nudity. Yet don't noses drip and dribble and require to be 'blown', often in crowded public transport ?

This is all purely hypothetical, this discussion of general public nudity, but if we had all become accustomed, from infancy onwards, to seeing naked people in the same way we're accustomed to clothed people, so many of our attitudes and behaviours would be different to as they are.

For example, if, since childhood, we had grown accustomed to seeing people's nether regions in the act of clambering up the steps of a bus, or into a vehicle, we would accept genitalia in the same way we currently accept the sight of people's elbows. And wouldn't we be the better for that ? Wouldn't it mean that young guys wouldn't spend half their youth with a 'dirty' magazine beneath the sheets ? Wouldn't it mean that when they met a girl, they'd value her for her real qualities, rather than the size of her breasts ? And wouldn't that bode well when people married ? Wouldn't it benefit children of that marriage ? Wouldn't it mean relationships were less superficial and had more substance, more worthwhile foundation ?

For example, I watched the first in a series about a couple who'd become famous in the US upon the multiple birth of their six children. At one point, the couple were seated on a couch and the husband said, in relation to his wife's changed appearance words to the effect: ' When I met her she had long blonde hair. Then it got shorter. And shorter. Then it changed colour.' The interviewer asked something and the husband replied: ' I only like blondes'. Now this was a man who had recently become father to eight children all under age 3. Alongside him sat his wife who'd given birth to his eight children. She was still highly attractive, but in addition she was nurturing eight very young children, running and organising a home. Yet he preferred blondes with long wavy hair. I would have expected any man who'd fathered eight babies (and who had their welfare, support, futures to consider) to have different priorities and to regard the mother of his children as cloven to his body by that time .. to feel part of her, rather than concerned about the colour and length of her hair. I do believe that men even a hundred years ago would have cut off their tongue if it had uttered something as idiotic, under the circumstances.

But then, a hundred years ago, men weren't having artificial silicone calf muscles surgically inserted in their legs so they'd appear more muscular and masculine, nor would they have regarded as sane any woman who'd had bags of saline inserted in their chest wall.

General public nudity would be resisted, in my opinion, NOT because of any moral objection but because of general public vanity. And perhaps because of this, we all need to get in touch with the reality of naked bodies, in all their ages and stages.

[edit on 18-8-2009 by Skyfloating]

reply to post by St Vaast


Hey St. Vaast. Great post- and I actually am not in disagreement. So

Unlike the general discussion of the thread that is focusing on the social factor, I'm more interested in the health factor. So I was kind of trying to avoid the general public nudity debate where we just bandy around 'What's the big deal?' and discuss a new angle.

If I saw a nude couple on a public bench, to be honest my first opinion would be 'Eek! A nude couple is sitting on a bench.' lol But right after that I'd be wondering what they left behind. So for me I'm not really worried about the 'prude factor.' I love minimal clothing personally. But I don't want to see public seating turned into what I see on a public toilet. That's what I'm getting at.

reply to post by AshleyD


My "point" being, merely, ... you could "come into contact" with "them" quite haphazardly if not Even unbeknownst ... all the while, and being none the wiser.

Much the same as the checkout stand at any local market.

nudists People Everywhere.



fwiw:
I know you Know ... just yanking your chain a bit, that's all.



Me?
There are more pressing and important issues and/or concerns to fret ourselves over.

Originally posted by 12m8keall2c
There are more pressing and important issues and/or concerns to fret ourselves over.

Man, if that ain't the truth! The world's got real issues, and this ain't one of them.

Peace

[edit on 18-8-2009 by Dr Love]

Originally posted by Dr Love

Originally posted by 12m8keall2c
There are more pressing and important issues and/or concerns to fret ourselves over.

Man, if that ain't the truth!

The world's got real issues, and this ain't one of them.

Peace

[edit on 18-8-2009 by Dr Love]

On that note and not to derail, wouldn't that actually be a good sign, if this was the leading social talking point these days? Instead of Health Bills and Gay Marriage, the leading social issues are whether it is considered sexist to require woman to wear bikini bottoms instead of open loin cloths and whether it is ethical to walk a hamster on a leash or let them run free through the park.

Originally posted by Dr Love

Originally posted by 12m8keall2c
There are more pressing and important issues and/or concerns to fret ourselves over.

Man, if that ain't the truth!

The world's got real issues, and this ain't one of them.

It's a slow day both in the news and on ATS, so it was a good time to air out issues over fights for lesser Freedoms. I agree that there are bigger fish to fry, but while we are waiting for the pan to heat up, it doesn't hurt to peel a few spuds.

My biggest worry is that it is almost TOO quiet of a day on ATS and the MSM.

Originally posted by St Vaast
You speak of men's 'junk' and bodily secretions as being something you wish no contact with as result of general nudity. Yet don't noses drip and dribble and require to be 'blown', often in crowded public transport ?

Sorry, I missed this. Yes, sneezing and coughing happens. But what is the proper etiquette? To cover your nose or mouth when you do so. It doesn't always happen but that is the proper method.

Also, I know germs are unavoidable. I'm not sure why people are reminding me of this. lol Sneezing, coughing, people who use the restroom but don't wash. Trust me, I know. lol But can you admit public nudity would exacerbate the issue with a whole other line of far more visible fluids? Do you really want to see what you see on a toilet seat in a chair you were about to sit down on?

And no one has answered my bikini question yet. lol

That's all I have to say. Just think about it. Of course germs are everywhere. But to say a penis or vagina is no different than an elbow is just a little over doing it. Just think about the sanitary reasons as well.

Originally posted by 12m8keall2c
There are more pressing and important issues and/or concerns to fret ourselves over.

No one is fretting. We're simply discussing something in a thread for fun.

Admission: Ok, I am hiding under my blankie as we speak.

[edit on 8/18/2009 by AshleyD]