It’s entirely a modern, “developed” world phenomenon where everything in the world is sexualized to the point that you can’t use the bathroom or shower around other people without feeling weird. That weird feeling is real, and you can’t just hand-wave it away, but it’s socially constructed. I think we should all remember that. There are currently and have been many times and places where people just don’t care nearly as much about each other’s bodies or being seen by others.
When you really think about it, it’s absolutely crazy. We have been wearing clothing for less than the last 100,000 years or so. A blink of an eye evolutionarily. And that was just cold environments. Before that, we had a 4.1-billion year unbroken chain of successful life that as far as we know, never wore clothes or felt shame going to the bathroom.
Yeah, it’s certainly irrational, but as you said, it’s very real. I don’t want people of the opposite sex looking at me naked (or even the same sex, but that’s less bad), and I’m sure they feel the same about me.
To me that sounds quite sad. Non sexual nudity is a unique experience it’s unfortunate that many will never be able to enjoy it or disassociate it from sexuality.
In Germany there are big and accepted nudist spaces. It was also quite the cool experience meeting strangers in a public sauna in Finland. It was such a peaceful environment, as everyone was literally exposing themselves and showing a certain vulnerability that we do not encounter otherwise.
It’s entirely a modern, “developed” world phenomenon where everything in the world is sexualized to the point that you can’t use the bathroom or shower around other people without feeling weird. That weird feeling is real, and you can’t just hand-wave it away, but it’s socially constructed. I think we should all remember that. There are currently and have been many times and places where people just don’t care nearly as much about each other’s bodies or being seen by others.
When you really think about it, it’s absolutely crazy. We have been wearing clothing for less than the last 100,000 years or so. A blink of an eye evolutionarily. And that was just cold environments. Before that, we had a 4.1-billion year unbroken chain of successful life that as far as we know, never wore clothes or felt shame going to the bathroom.
Yeah, it’s certainly irrational, but as you said, it’s very real. I don’t want people of the opposite sex looking at me naked (or even the same sex, but that’s less bad), and I’m sure they feel the same about me.
To me that sounds quite sad. Non sexual nudity is a unique experience it’s unfortunate that many will never be able to enjoy it or disassociate it from sexuality.
In Germany there are big and accepted nudist spaces. It was also quite the cool experience meeting strangers in a public sauna in Finland. It was such a peaceful environment, as everyone was literally exposing themselves and showing a certain vulnerability that we do not encounter otherwise.
Nudist spaces (for example sauna) are relatively common in some parts of Europe. I don’t think it’s necessarily a western thing.