Topics Sex

Question Why is it not acceptable to be naked in public? What makes it so absurd for people to be seen in their natual state? If i went to school naked, I would probably get expelled. So how did we come to decide what state of appearance should be in particular settings? Has it originated and developed because of the feelings people feel when they see a nude person that have caused us to think up this idea of clothing our bodies? Get what I'm trying to say? Deep down everyone wants society to make nudity the norm! (Except people living where it's real cold.)

Accepted:
March 15, 2008

Comments

Part of what you're asking is a social science question: taboos against public nudity are pretty common (though not universal). How come? What's the best psychological or anthropological or perhaps even evolutionary explanation? Not being a social scientist, all I could do is speculate. The blindingly obvious thought it that it has something to do with sex, which is what I take you to be suggesting, though exactly what it has to do with sex is harder to say.

If I were going to try to sort this out, I would probably turn to anthropology. Different cultures seem to have different attitudes toward nudity, and perhaps the anthropologists have some light to shed on all this. It's clear that societies with more relaxed attitudes toward nudity aren't morally defective on that account, but it would take some arguing to show that societies with a more modest outlook (ours, for example) are morally better for that reason.

Here's another thought. Fantasies about others' bodies are exciting for some people. But if all our fantasies were routinely fulfilled, they would cease to be exciting. Whether they're arbitrary or not, taboos can actually be a source of pleasure. Someone who wishes for widespread public nudity might not be so happy if they actually got their wish.

In any case, I'll have to confess that I'm an exception to your "deep down" speculation. I haven't the slightest desire to belong to a society where nudity is the norm. There are plenty of bodies I have no interest in seeing, plenty of furniture I'd prefer not to sit on bare-bottomed, and plenty of insects, pointy objects and ultra-violet photons I'd like to avoid.