Nudity: Encyclopedia II - Nudity - Various modern-era attitudes

Nudity - Various modern-era attitudes

As a general rule, public nudity is not considered "proper" in most societies. There are, however, many exceptions and particular circumstances in which nudity is tolerated, accepted, or even encouraged.

In general and across cultures, most restrictions are found for exposure of those parts of the human body that put in evidence sexual arousal between male and female adults. Therefore, sex organs and women's breasts are often covered, even when other parts of the body may be freely uncovered.

Nudity in front of a sexual partner is widely accepted, but there may be restrictions — for example, only at the time and place of sex, or with subdued lighting, or covered by a sheet or blanket.

Nudity in front of strangers of the same gender is often more accepted than in front of those of the other or both genders, for example when bathing, in common changing rooms, etc. Gender-specific restrooms serve to prevent accidental partial nudity in front of the other gender. Urinals may have partitions between them to avoid the partial nudity of men to be visible by other men. In some cultures, even for people of the same gender to see each other nude is considered inappropriate and embarrassing. Also, the implication of homosexuality among naked members of the same gender can discourage this type of nudity.

In certain structured settings in which nudity serves a practical purpose — such as providing access to a patient's body during a medical procedure or therapeutic massage, or providing figure drawing students with unobstructed views of the human body — an individual may be naked in front of one or several clothed people. In most such situations, the exposed individual will be given a loose robe or cloth to cover themselves partially, even if their "private parts" must be exposed. Total nudity for the model remains the norm in figure drawing studios, however. Similarly, pornography is typically photographed with the models fully nude and the crew fully dressed. None of these settings are routinely experienced by most members of society, however, so they are not normative.

Although exposure of the top of women's breasts is usually tolerated, in the United States of America, exposure of female nipples is still not usually allowed in public; public breastfeeding, since the exposure it involves is functional, may be looked upon more mildly, but still it is sometimes considered problematic. However, courts in some North American jurisdictions—including Ontario and New York State—have legalized the exposure of women's nipples on equal protection grounds (see United States Constitution/Amendment Fourteen). The movement of "topfree equality" promotes equal rights for women to have no clothing above the waist; the term "topfree" rather than "topless" is used to avoid the latter term's sexual connotations. However, there are still extreme reactions on the parts of many to exposure of the full breast, as in Janet Jackson's partial breast exposure during the half-time show of the 2004 Super Bowl.

Nakedness (full or partial) can be part of a corporal punishment or as an imposed humiliation (especially when administered in public). In fact, torture manuals may distinguish between the male and female psychological aversion from self-exposure versus being disrobed.

Nudity is closely associated with sexuality in most cultures where some level of body modesty is expected. This is evidenced by the existence of striptease in these cultures. Sexual dimorphism when depicted in the main stream media of these cultures is often seen as sexually related. As an effect of Catholic cultural heritage, in Latin cultures the common definition of modesty does not generally admit genital nudity, but the definition of what is lewd has changed and women's breasts are now commonly exposed or depicted without scandal.

The trend in some European countries (for instance Germany, Finland, and the Netherlands) is to allow both genders to bathe together naked (In Finland typical only in private within family). Typically, older German bathhouses, such as Bad Burg, remain segregated by gender. The reverse is true of Japanese sentos. Most of the newer Japanese bathhouses are gender segregated, whereas the older baths in the countryside are mixed gender. In both cases (mixed or segregated) public bathing in Japan is done in total nudity.

Some people enjoy public nudity in a non-sexual context. This movement is known as nudism or naturism, and is often practiced in reserved places that used to be called "nudist camps" but are now more commonly referred to as naturist resorts, beaches, or clubs. Such facilities may be designated topless, clothing-optional, or fully-nude-only.

Others practice public nudity more casually. Topless sunbathing is considered acceptable by many on the beaches of France, Spain, and most of the rest of Europe (and even in some outdoor swimming pools); however, exposure of the genitals is restricted to nudist areas in most regions, Eastern Germany being a notable exception. (Nude bathing was one of the few generally tolerated liberties people could take in the socialist GDR, which explains its popularity.) In the United States, topless sunbathing and thongs are common in South Miami Beach, Florida. There are a number of nude beaches up and down the West Coast of the U.S., as well. A 1996 court decision in Ontario allows women to go topless in public in Canada.

Nudity - Children

Attitudes toward the nudity of children vary substantially, depending on the child's age and the context of the nudity. Among some people they have changed noticeably since the mid 20th century, largely due to increasing concerns about sexual abuse of children.

One of the more traditional attitudes regards children who have not yet reached puberty (or perhaps a younger age) as essentially asexual, and treats their nudity as harmless. This is most commonly true of infants, who are often depicted nude without negative social connotation. The work of Anne Geddes, for example, often depicts nude infants in scenes that would be considered in quite a different light if the children were several years older. In some cultures, it may be acceptable for male children to be seen nude by females, but not vice versa. This was formerly the practice in parts of the rural United States, for example.

In many places children are taught to never to be seen nude by those of the opposite sex (especially of the same approximate age). In these circumstances, children would be ashamed or very embarrassed if anyone (except perhaps a parent, sibling, or other close relative) of the opposite sex saw them nude. They may even be subject to giggling and teasing by clothed children of similar culture. However, children of this age may also be motivated by their curiosity to covertly expose themselves to a child of the other gender in exchange for them doing the same ("I'll show you mine if you show me yours"). This attitude toward nudity and gender separatism usually peaks at about age nine, later very gradually changing to allow for a sexual partner to eventually see them nude.

Increasing awareness of the fact that children are sexually abused has created a partial backlash in developed countries against the general trend toward increasing acceptance of public nudity, especially of children. In some cases, any public nudity of a person under the age of consent might be accused of being abusive. For example, there have been incidents in which snapshots taken by parents of their infant or toddler children bathing or otherwise naked were destroyed or turned over to law enforcement as child pornography. In New Zealand photographs of naked minors in newspapers and magazines were once socially acceptable, but would invoke horror and revulsion amongst the readership if published today. Perhaps coincidentally, swimwear fashions for children have become less revealing over this same time period. Debates are unresolved about the acceptability of child nudity.

Most naturists do not believe that nudity harms children or otherwise promotes abuse (assuming the child has no qualms about it). In virtually all cases of childhood sexual abuse, both the victim and their abuser were of clothed culture. It is being away from public view and secrecy -- not nudity -- which leads to abuse, they say. Any male who shows arousal at children can easily be identified within an all nudist setting; whereas in a clothed environment it would be much more difficult. Furthermore, they believe children of clothed culture tend to have curiosities about the nude body and sex that naturist children do not have.

Nudity - Non-Western attitudes

Attitudes in Western cultures are not all the same as explained above, and likewise attitudes in non-western cultures are many and variant.

Cultures usually dictate what is proper and what is not proper by traditions. Many non-western cultures allow women to breast feed in public, and some have very strict laws about showing any sort of skin.

Some strict interpretations of Islam require women to observe purdah, covering their entire bodies, including the face (see burqa), on threat of severe punishment.

Still very different traditions exist among, for example, post-colonial Sub-Saharan Africans. Whereas some tribes and family-groups including some Togolose and Ethiopian (e.g., Suri) tribes still commonly parade fully naked or without any covering below the waist, amongst Bantu people there is often a complete aversion from public nudity— thus, in Botswana when a newspaper printed a photograph seen here: CorPun website on corporal punishments of a thief suffering lashes on the bared buttocks imposed by a traditional chief's court, there was national consternation, not about the flogging (actually extended soon to age 50 and to women) but about the 'peeping tom'.

In various cultures children can go publicly naked (fully or strategically) while adults don't, usually till an age or ceremony considered the start of adolescence or of adulthood. An example of a rite of passage in a Benin tribe, traditional body scarification on the head is performed on a small child while completely naked, but to a boy being initiated as an adult baring only the torso (where the scars are made).

Much of East Asian culture still maintains a conservative attitude toward nudity, alongside relatively conservative traditional attitude towards body contact; this attitude has changed in recent decades to both revert to some preWestern cultural values, and accept new values through exposure to Western imagery, advertising, and media. Despite this relative prevalence of traditional attitudes for adults, however, Chinese culture continues to sanction the wearing of shorts by children which are not enclosed, permitting them to more easily relieve bodily functions. Moreover, in the preparations for the upcoming 2008 Beijing Olympics, some have called for the end of the tradition permissiveness for adult males to go shirtless in public during warm weather.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Various modern-era attitudes", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki