I don’t consider myself a nudist per se, but I do have a hard time understanding the issues we have in the United States with the naked body. A person I know on Facebook is constantly posting about how uncomfortable he feels when he sees women breastfeeding and feels they should go somewhere private. Thankfully, he was recently on a plane where the woman next to him decided to breastfeed midflight. He was forced to deal with this insecurity to the point where he seems to be starting to accept that it’s simply part of the cycle of life.
This is sort of a far out theory, but I think we have an underlying fear in the United States (in addition to our absurd Puritanism) that if we start to accept the naked body or exposed genitals in public that those body parts will be less taboo, therefore less arousing. As much as Americans hate to admit it, we love that our taboos make us feel dangerous.
As someone who could walk along a nude beach without thinking twice about the fact that there are naked bodies everywhere, I can attest that sexual attraction doesn’t die with an acceptance of nudity. In fact, I think it positively enhances our sexual desires, because it removes a bias of sight and gives fair play to our other senses.
Anyway, ranting aside, here’s a snip of the article:The American view of nudity as sexual at best, and criminal at worst, is the single largest problem the nudist community faces. We often wish that everyone in America had the same attitude as residents of more liberal nations. But why are those countries like that in the first place? It’s often joked that many Americans can’t even locate North America on a map – let alone countries elsewhere. So we don’t expect many people to know what makes other nations tick socially.
This was a great one ;)
