Why are Americans Afraid of being Naked?
Anna
exaggerated? It's not that I don't think that people in the
Netherlands are more tolerant of nudity than they are in America. Of
course they are. My question is HOW MUCH more. It's not like they
just casually go around naked. For example it mentions nude and
Clothing Optional Beaches but of course a society that has absolutely
no problem with nudity wouldn't have such beaches as all beaches would
be like that.
Sure compared to Americans I am sure they are much more tolerant but
we always risk in America overestimating such tolerance.
"Legally, in Netherlands people are allowed to be naked anywhere
except public roads or when they annoy others, a law in play since
1986."
There's photos at the original web site.
http://www.impactlab.net/2007/04/20/why-are-americans-afraid-of-being-naked/
Why Are Americans Afraid of Being Naked?
In the Netherlands people can be naked in their gardens, the beach and
recently the gym. But in America, even chocolate sculptures can’t be
without clothes. Why is that?
When Catholic protesters recently shut down a New York exhibit
displaying a naked, life-sized Jesus sculpted from chocolate, the
outcry wasn’t totally unexpected. Labeled offensive by critics, the
artwork touched an angry nerve by pushing religion and nudity — two
substances that historically don’t mix — into the limelight. While the
media was quick to exploit the story, it also expressed surprising
modesty when it came to the naked Christ, avoiding the full frontal
and opting for photos of the Lord’s backside.
Why Are Americans Afraid of Being Naked?
But in Europe, and particularly the Netherlands, where bakeries
display anatomically correct marzipan nudes in their front windows
right next to chocolate bunnies and chicks, such furor over
confectionary draws a complete blank. On this side of the Atlantic,
when it comes to nudity, Europeans happily assert they’ve got
absolutely nothing to hide.
“The Netherlands is a liberal country where public nakedness is
allowed, and that’s the way it should be — that’s why there’s a law
for it,” says Ragna Verwer of the Dutch Naturist Federation (NFN), a
70,000-member-strong organization established to expand naturist
activities.
Why Are Americans Afraid of Being Naked?
According to Verwer, 1.9 million Dutch regularly get nude, going to
nude beaches or stripping down in their own gardens, though she
estimates the numbers are much higher as NFN doesn’t include sauna-
goers in its research. “Naked recreation is well accepted here. But we
have to take care that things stay this way, which is why we often
discuss these matters with local city councils and recreation areas to
create more places.”
Why Are Americans Afraid of Being Naked?
Legally, in Netherlands people are allowed to be naked anywhere except
public roads or when they annoy others, a law in play since 1986. It
is not uncommon to find nude swimming sessions at public swimming
pools, nude or topless beaches. Recently, Fitworld, a gym in Heteren
in the eastern Netherlands, introduced Naked Sunday, offering locals
the opportunity for bare workouts. This quickly proved a popular idea
— at least with journalists, photographers and television crews, who
easily outnumbered participants on the opening day.
Why Are Americans Afraid of Being Naked?
“I’ve done interviews with people from Russia, Ireland, Canada,
Australia, America and Turkey,” says Fitworld’s owner, Patrick de Man,
who says Naked Sunday was in part a competitive response to other gyms
offering pole dancing courses, but also a response to a request from
two of his naturist clients. De Man says the amount of attention he
received both from home and abroad was surprising because “being naked
is absolutely normal here,” though admittedly, bare bench presses were
totally new to Holland. But the owner has also received complaints
from locals, mostly about sanitation, and at least one member wrote on
the club’s website that he was switching gyms.
“A lot people from the church have sent me letters about God and stuff
like that. But I tell them God was the first man of naturism. He and
Adam and Eve were all naked on Earth,” says de Man, taking the
criticism rather pragmatically. True — at least until the couple
donned their first fig leaves, provoking centuries of subsequent
debate.
“Nudity is definitely not shocking or even arousing,” says Mandy
Servais, a customer at Amsterdam’s Sauna Deco, in a robe wrapped
loosely around her body, which for all intents and purposes, was
naked, as Dutch saunas are visited in the buff. Says Servais, who has
frequented saunas since she was a teen, “I think as a society we’re
very simple and take a practical approach to sex and nudity. We think
that everything that exists is normal so there’s no need to make a
fuss. We’re not really occupied with what others think.”
Why Are Americans Afraid of Being Naked?
Verwer mirrors Servais’ response. “I think the Dutch believe let
everyone have their dignity and do what they enjoy most. This isn’t
just how we think about naked recreation, the same goes for gays –
everyone’s accepted,” she says.
While the Dutch seem to accept that underneath their clothing
everyone’s naked, the same laissez-faire attitude doesn’t apply in the
States, where the public has been schooled in the cultural ideology
that “nude is naughty,” and nudity is regarded as sexual.
Perhaps much of this attitude can be chalked down to America’s
cultural forefathers, the Puritans, whose deeply religious moral zeal
made them fear nudity so much they refused to bathe, ensuring a future
of national prudishness.
Why Are Americans Afraid of Being Naked?
This might appear a huge contradiction given the American media’s
rampant appetite for sex, but how else to explain the fury over Janet
Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” and the network’s rush to cleanup
before facing clampdowns and stiff fines? Or PBS’s need to position
the disclaimer “For mature audiences only” when broadcasting footage
of Michelangelo’s David.
A further inconsistency when it comes to nudity is what Americans
regard as risqué: barely clad Victoria Secret models strutting their
way across television or nude grandmothers? As Dove soap found out
this March, it’s the latter. The Federal Communications Commission,
which regulates America’s broadcast media, banned a series of prime-
time ads depicting six middle-aged women posing nude for Dove Proage
products, claiming it was inappropriate, though the ads ran
successfully in Europe and Canada.
Why Are Americans Afraid of Being Naked?
Ironically, Dove’s parent company is the Anglo-Dutch giant Unilever.
While a number of pro-family and women’s groups complained the ad
contributed to the further commercial sexualization of women — an
ongoing and valid debate — clearly, older nudity is threatening
because our culture rarely separates nakedness from sex, which is
something the elder crowd, at least until Viagra, wasn’t supposed to
be having.
On a similar note, in 2004 Wal-Mart, never one to balk at profits,
refused to sell Jon Stewart’s book “America,” which featured doctored
nude photos of Supreme Court judges. Old, saggy bodies were simply too
offensive compared to, say, the number of slasher films Wal-Mart also
carries.
Why Are Americans Afraid of Being Naked?
Of the Dove Proage ads, says Claire Taylor, who works in international
advertising, including projects with Ogilvy & Mather, the company
responsible for the Dove ad campaign, “If the ad featured 20-year
olds, there’d be no problem. It’s so hypocritical.”
Taylor, an American who has lived in Amsterdam for the last 25 years,
thinks the negative reaction stateside is due to “puritanical
prudishness,” which doesn’t balk at violence or soft porn on
television, yet is offended by older nudity. “Now seeing older bodies
— that’s reality TV if you want reality,” Taylor quips.
Why Are Americans Afraid of Being Naked?
Another, perhaps sobering, reality: America has the highest teenage
pregnancy rate in the industrialized world, according to the American
Association of Pediatrics, and a rate that exceeds the Dutch by nine-
fold. A healthy attitude to nudity as well as sex, something the Dutch
are regaled for, might have a positive impact as more exposure
typically leads to greater information.
Why Are Americans Afraid of Being Naked?
Still, in America, being naked remains complex. Because our
associations are often limited to porn, hippy naturalists, or the $400
million a year nude recreation industry, nudity is either seen as
sexual or a gimmick. Take journalistic “undercover” exposes — a choice
phrase, given the situation — on nudists at play (”Just look at those
guys playing tennis!”).
Or the media’s buzz over photographer Spencer Tunick and his nude
landscapes. Tunick, who specializes in photographing hundreds of naked
bodies sprawled together in abstract forms against an urban backdrop,
has definitely pushed social boundaries at home. But in Amsterdam,
where Tunick is due this summer, it’s a different story — or no story.
“Is it a big deal that’s everyone’s naked when everyone’s naked?” asks
Servais.
In Europe, then, clearly neither moral outrage nor public disorder
greets nudity. Men don’t go wild, women remain safe and the zero
fashion statement remains just that, something with zero impact.
Why Are Americans Afraid of Being Naked?
Taylor, who has fully adapted to Dutch ways, has taken her American
sisters to the sauna when they visit and watched their transition from
shock to comfort. “They’re both overweight, so at first they were
horrified. But one of my sisters quickly got used to being naked and
it felt natural. When you see that other people are flabby and kind of
falling apart, it’s OK,” she says, laughing. “Listen, you got to check
out each other’s parts, but seeing the Cesearean scars, fat rolls,
cellulite, eczema and aging bodies of the over 50s crowd puts it all
in perspective — you realize how absolutely unique a gorgeous naked
body is. Americans might associate nudity with eroticism but here,
it’s only associated with nakedness,” she says.
Why Are Americans Afraid of Being Naked?
But there is a glimmer of hope. Sometimes nudity can be a useful,
positive statement, even in the States. Like the World Naked Bike
Ride, a sort of “Critical Ass” of cyclists organized to protest car
culture, promote sustainability practices and celebrate creative
expression. Organized by Conrad Schmidt, a South African living in
Vancouver, British Columbia, the international event is clothing
optional.
“It’s a way of challenging the stifling conformity we get here in
Vancouver and North America, and certainly nudity laws challenge a
system that needs shaking up,” says Schmidt, who has been surprised
how trouble-free the rides have been on a whole, though in America,
Chicago tried to shut the event down and Los Angeles, never a hotbed
of community activism, boasted a larger police-to-participant ratio.
Why Are Americans Afraid of Being Naked?
“In Portland, people are always riding naked these days, but what’s
strange is they’re apparently harassed more by the police when they’re
clothed,” he says. “Nudity is tough for law enforcement because it
involves the concept of indecent exposure. There’s no good definition
of what’s indecent about the human body.”
Zee
> Does anyone know if this is true about the Netherlands or is it being
> exaggerated? It's not that I don't think that people in the
> Netherlands are more tolerant of nudity than they are in America. Of
> course they are. My question is HOW MUCH more. It's not like they
> just casually go around naked. For example it mentions nude and
> Clothing Optional Beaches but of course a society that has absolutely
> no problem with nudity wouldn't have such beaches as all beaches would
> be like that.
>
> Sure compared to Americans I am sure they are much more tolerant but
> we always risk in America overestimating such tolerance.
>
> "Legally, in Netherlands people are allowed to be naked anywhere
> except public roads or when they annoy others, a law in play since
> 1986."
>
> There's photos at the original web site.
>
so as always ...in order to keep rec nuders honest and always
displaying the truth rather than hate speech or bias directed toward
the usa.....i ask this question.....why are europeans and the dutch so
scared and mortified and sneaky quite about all those childish things
they do naked ...etc....riding bicycles...body painting.....running
and playing at the gyms and on and on but they never feature the baby
or child ...preteen or sub teen brigade as most all folks love the
children displayed in fun things.....yeah why are euros s afraid of
having children naked.....oh gawd i forgot the british are squeamish
about talking to americans on the internet....they do not trust their
ulterior motives ...what ever that is....or they may be just a
paranoid sect or shy folks...who knows......z
Zee
> exaggerated? It's not that I don't think that people in the
> Netherlands are more tolerant of nudity than they are in America. Of
> course they are. My question is HOW MUCH more. It's not like they
> just casually go around naked. For example it mentions nude and
> Clothing Optional Beaches but of course a society that has absolutely
> no problem with nudity wouldn't have such beaches as all beaches would
> be like that.
>
> Sure compared to Americans I am sure they are much more tolerant but
> we always risk in America overestimating such tolerance.
>
> "Legally, in Netherlands people are allowed to be naked anywhere
> except public roads or when they annoy others, a law in play since
> 1986."
>
> There's photos at the original web site.
>
>
> read more »
well Anna.....it just occurred to me that your experience with europe
may be more than mine if you have ever been there regarding the nude
beach scene.....and Dario may not have been there in a few years
also...so we are left with jenny and she does not seem to talk to
folks in rec nude and the europeans do not talk to americans either in
rec nude.......but lets you and i and Dario ponder the
situation.....we three do know that the russian and french kiddie nude
beach films are marketed on the internet which does tend to make one
think that family nudism is a big deal over there....but if you watch
a few of these vids you will note it seems like a few familys that are
located in various private spots for the vid shoot and also the french
vids are the same way....now if you check out the regular beach scenes
on the internet that are shot on european nude beaches....you will
note that not a child can be seen in the thousands of shots to be
viewed........we all know about spencer tunick and he requires one be
18 to be in his shootings......so is it true that if we have maybe 5
or 6 kids on a nice summer day on all the beaches in the usa and none
on haulover in florida .....he he.....could it be that the usa is more
family friendly than the european countries are......had you
considered that this whole bit about the european scene being so
tolerant is really just a mythe.......are we being duped as they need
usa tourism and they really are just lying a bit about all that
tolerance and widespread family nudism......he he.....i would hate to
think that lying in world wide nudism is as prevalent as the world of
politics .....that would really be a shame.......Dario....help us out
here ....have you been over there lately and i know you are aware of
the nudist kiddie vids being a few families that turn up in various
private locations for shootings and otherwise no kids or familiys seem
to be present......regards......z