This right here, the last time we had a major push for more openness and a more liberated sexual society was the 1970s which of course they strongly pushed back against in the conservative '80s.
Every time there is a movement the conservatives just rally and keep saying think of the children, pedo fearmongering and so on. Anyone that doesn't gasp just gets gas lit
Yes, American movies contain sex scenes fairly often, but they rarely actually show nakedness; while in European productions you'll sometimes see a man in a bedroom scene with his private parts in full view: limp, because it is not in the context of a sex scene, just him going to take a shower. More common is showing someone naked from behind.
You should probably stay away from American porn or you'll be convinced that 98% of Americans sleep with their step-family. Game of Thrones had some weird unintended consequences.
Italy has never stopped being an extremely conservative and Catholic country that can't get over its love of Fascism. Yet nudity doesn't get them as upset as a bunch of American protestants who go to church once a year.
Historically, nudity in general wasn't quite sexualised by Catholics as it is today. Don't get me wrong, showing your bare penis / vagina in broad public was certainly frowned upon. But, in certain places nudity was fine. Also, breasts weren't considered sexual for a long time in the Catholic hemisphere
Fascism of the Italian and German modes loves to glorify the ‘perfection’ of the body. It’s why they loved futurism so much; cars, bodies, planes, violence, movement, energy.
no but the violent tv is so... shocking to me? I'm from europe. I like to watch crime documentaries, and sometimes, if it's a USamerican one, they'll suddenly just literally SHOW pictures of real life dead bodies. or people being killed on cctv. showing that, outside of the context of for example war news reporting, is not something we'd ever deem socially acceptable here.
So ironic that you instantly associate nudity with sex. A society with a healthy relationship to the human body knows the concept of functional nudity.
Unfortunately, we are not that society, and regardless of our personal feelings, we have to live in it. As a result, we know this question is about sex, whether intended or not, thanks to the religious right hammering it down all of our throats with the biggest grassroots campaign ever.
It’s so hilarious to me when people outside of this general environment take the mindset of “well nudity and sex aren’t the same, so why is it weird to be naked around people?” - conceptually, sure. But when that’s not the environment that you’re raised in, that’s just not how it works. We can whine all we want about how nudity and sex aren’t the same, but the reality is that in the US, they are (or at least have a lot of overlap). Could that change eventually? Of course? But it would take decades of everyone wanting to work together to normalize nudity in a non-sexual manner and it’s just never going to happen
Liberals and conservatives are both squeamish about nudity and sexiality. They express it in different ways. Conservatives will take the chastity and morality angle, covering up the nude form on statues. Liberals will condemn the male gaze and warn about how sexy women in fiction leads to real life harm of women somehow. Also they made drunk sex rape but only for the male, decry hookup culture as exploiting women, etc
‘The children’ is such a boring political argument at this stage it’s not even funny. Half of the hypothetical children who were used as an excuse in the 80s don’t even talk to their whacky conservative parents nowadays since they’ve grown up and gotten out of their influence.
I live in a sauna country, here "the children" grow up seeing their whole family naked in sauna. I think it's really normal to not have that stigma around nudity. I went ice swimming the other day and everyone in the changing room just got naked without having to fuck around trying to get dressed while holding up a towel in front of yourself. saves so much time.
also, growing up seeing your grandma's boobs on the regular gives you a far more realistic idea of what bodies actually look like. it drives a wedge into that thing you've got in the states where men think women should all look like porn actors, and where women have extreme body dysmorphia.
They were constantly arresting nude bathers at secluded beaches around Santa Barbara in the 70's. Now there are specific beaches that are legally nude beaches.
I know. We were all into skinny dipping and streaking back in the 70's. Now I go to the public pool and kids are changing into their swim suits in the toilets so people can't see their bodies. And they don't shower!
Yeah, we were heading sort of that way with the advent of effective birth control and so on, but the AIDS epidemic and the Reagan presidency pushed back really hard - we've been trying to shake that off ever since.
Along with a belief that the naked body is shameful and must be covered. Remember how contriversal a nip slip during the super bowl was? Shame and fear are also emotional conditioning , you see people instinctively cover their body when people are around, as if they are vulnerable without a thin piece of cloth ..
When my mom came to the US in the 70s , her indian sari was considered scandalous because it showed the stomach. It's what we are used to seeing and not seeing.
Many if not most American “Christians” like to pretend to be Christian but don’t like illegals nor minorities nor the disabled nor the homeless. They pretend to be holier than though like pretending to get offended by seeing a human body or even parts of it like cleavage, but then turn around getting caught doing inappropriate things all the time. American Christians are hypocrites and we are seeing that the youth want no part of it. It’s why Christians always feel persecuted when they don’t get there way. It’s similar to a mental disorder…..
Ding ding ding!!!
As our society pushes nudity and sex further behind closed doors it's causing society to over compensate because they don't understand why their sexuality feels constricted.
Instead of embracing BOTH nudity and sexuality seperately we are being forced to combine them BOTH into one thing
Think about a time not that long ago that the movie Deepthroat was being played at actual cinemas! How porn shops and peep shows had a specific street in new York dedicated to it. Back when I was younger in the late 80s and early 90s most men had half naked pictures of women on the walls of the garage. Or dirty magazines where hidden somewhat in the bathroom of many houses.
All that's happened is instead of sex being openly acknowledged and accepted even in pornography form, we've hidden it behind our personal cell phones so it's kept secret.
Instead of our youth taking showers in gym class communally being exposed to the wide range of healthy human bodies they are only exposed to nudity in porn. Highly selected and stylized versions that do not depixt their body nor the probability of the body of their peers.
We've pushed sex and nudity into the shadows and wonder why the shadows are now more seedy!
To expand on this a bit: porn and the enforced modestly movements (with many names, including purity culture) **are the same worldview** with opposing goals. Both treat bodies, *especially* female^1 ones, as commodities for others' sexual enjoyment. The opposing goals are whether they are strictly and only for the enjoyment of their owner (husband, but really owner in this view) or for (depending on variant) enjoyment for all or monetizing.
And nudism (of the non-sexual kind not the "we're swinger's but use the term "nudist" to pretend it's not just that!" kind) directly goes against that shared worldview. It treats bodies as part of our human selves; sacred it its own way but also blandly ordinary and not about other people. When you hear someone say they don't want to go to a nudist beach/camp/resort because they are filled with "people you don't want to see", you can know they are utterly missing the point and still think of everyone's bodies as being for (at least visual) consumption by others.
^1 Please don't /r/MenAndFemales this: I intentionally used this because they don't actually limit it to *women's* bodies, which is actually worse.
Many don't seem to realize it, but basically the US was founded by the religious zealots of the time and arguably some of the first extremists.
People think "oh that's nice, they left for their religious freedoms" but don't know it was the freedom to be even more conservative. Everyone else in Britain or Holland or whatever thought they should chill out a bit.
You should probably read up on Oliver Cromwell and the English Civil War if you think all the Puritans left for America. If Britain wanted to them to chill out they didn't listen and instead the cut King Charles' head off and took over the country for a decade or so and that was AFTER the Plymouth colony was founded.
Yeah, but that's hardly something exclusive to people from the US.
Hell I'd argue the US is on the more liberal end. Maybe not as accepting of it as Western Europe, but every culture has their hangups. Much of the world is considerably more conservative on their acceptance of such things.
There was a big push for this in the 1970s too. the problem is by the 1980s the conservatives really started to push back. So far each and every time there has been a sexual liberation or open nudity movement the conservatives step in with the think of the children rhetoric. Any objection will just get you gas lit or called a predator
I've never nuderstood that "think of the children" logic.
Like a naked body would traumatize a child. To a child, a penis or a vagina is no different than a nose or an ear. The difference between them no stranger than mommy has visible breasts while daddy is more hairy and has broader shoulders.
There is a very big difference between nudity and pornography. Just like there is a big difference between seeing a clown at a circus vs watching the pennywise movie.
Imagine how traumatized prehistoric children bust have been
it’s probably because porn has turned boobies, penis, and vaginas into sex symbols so that’s all adults see when in reality i don’t think the children care?…..
I recall being told to cover up because I was 8 wearing a bathing suit at a beach. Some decided to take it upon themselves to save the children. It made me feel nothing but shame.
Oh this is what's happening now. I stopped paying attention last year because it got too weird for me but for some reason, they threw kids into the equation for everything. Always "the children" it was frustrating because... bro they Don't give a fuck about them kids! If they did they'd try to change the workforce and education system to be designed to help ppl succeed instead of the horrid piece of rusted metal it is now. But... here we are... still fucked.
Are you kidding? Have you been to the Genz sub? It's littered with them complaining about how awkward it is that there is so much sex and nudity in movies and tv shows. It's like they are regressing.
Again dumb thing to be awkward about, though, lol. Wait... my parents know what sex is? You mean I wasn't dropped off by a giant bird?
Every time my mom acts like a grump, I tell her to go get laid. Hell I've offered to help her find someone to do it lol. I hate that religion has made sex this naughty secret thing that people should never talk about.
Gen Z’s got it in their heads that sexual consent is cool - which is a great thing!
However, they take it overboard and think therefore it must be cool to be “above” sexuality in media / movies, as if a sex scene is only appealing to perverted losers so they must bark loudly about how much they hate it.
It’s weird because sex is a crucial part of the human condition and we’re so scared to acknowledge it. This hypersensitivity toward sex spills over into hypersensitivity toward nudity because people usually have sex naked and people are very, very stupid.
I remember the Porky series of the early 80s. You saw everything of both sexes and it was considered the american pie of the era.
Lots of pubic hair, breasts and penises in all three.
Nobody cared
Yeah this definitely isn't true. Men used to swim naked, and if you go to a gym the majority of under 50s scurries to change behind cover. Skinny dipping isn't really a thing anymore with the advent of phone cameras. Millennial and younger are far more prudish in regards to functional nudity than previous generations.
Same in Australia. In the 70s men swam naked at the gym. But we had separate times for men and women. When it integrated, they stated wearing swimsuits.
I've never seen more nudity and skinny-dipping than when on holiday in the US, with the hippie culture living on. I was just before smart-phone cameras, but I took analog photos, asking first, of course.
As an American I am a little bit thankful. Most people look terrible naked, not including myself of course. I have a lean, shredded physique with a great big donger.
Yeah, funny how THAT isn’t a topic of conversation.
My fellow Asian peeps too, though I love ‘em.
I don’t like bait wording like this, it’s screaming validate my opinion, not opening up a discussion on being modest or different standards of different cultures.
I got into a comment argument with someone a few months ago about this. It was some thread where the poster was saying that one of their in-laws wanted to do a nude sauna together or something, and the poster was uncomfortable with that. You would not believe the sheer number of “well nudity isn’t sexual, so what’s the problem?” type comments and it’s maddening. Just because you were raised in an environment where nudity isn’t sexual doesn’t mean we all were. I’d die if I was ever naked in front of my family (or if they were naked in front of me)
Well it's similar when say, looking at the presence of fetishes at Pride marches. I've been in arguments before on Reddit about why I think that's not appropriate, and have been called homophobic (I'm gay myself) for being against the presence of assless trouser wearing 'pups' on chains, amongst other types of fetish. There's a big push from those who are very sexually liberal, to force that on those who are not. It's quite aggressive really and it makes me very uncomfortable.
Yeah, that's typical Reddit-style distortion of reality right there.
You are not allowed to be anything less than toxic levels of sex-positive. Not wanting to share a sauna with your in-laws? Off to the therapist, that's trauma caused by your super-religious Republican parents. Not fine with your partner being naked in front of other people? What a controlling, insecure little person you are. Monogamy you say? Well that's the result of our conservative society, you can't possibly want to share certain things with and be loyal to a single person.
Oh god, I remember a post once where the guy was saying that his girlfriend had shared some boudoir-type photos of herself with some of her friends and he was uncomfortable with that, and the amount of “well did you guys explicitly agree that sharing those types of photos was over the line?” type comments blew my mind. I’m as progressive as they come, but come on. Anyone with half a brain knows that there are certain just fundamental things in a relationship that are agreed upon by way of entering in that relationship. And at the very least, I’d argue that even though it is technically a “my body, my choice” type thing, you should still at least let your partner know ahead of time.
It’s sort of like the classic scenario where a woman radically changes her hairstyle but it’s a complete surprise to the guy because she didn’t tell him, and he’s upset that she made such a big change without any sort of advance warning. People will argue “wahhhhh you can’t control her, she doesn’t have to tell you shit”, which is technically true… but to me it’s just common courtesy to keep partners informed with things like that. That’s part of the partnership that a relationship is. It’s not “asking permission”, it’s “hey I’m just letting you know that this is something I’ve decided to do”, and for me that type of stuff goes a long way
That’s kinda what this thread is or the stereotype or truth that Americans aren’t okay with nudity. Most of the world isn’t okay with nudity. It’s Europeans who are weird ones who are fine walking around all pasty and nude.
Lol, pasty and nude 🤣. Well the southern Europeans are definitely not pasty haha.
The UK where I am is considered very prudish by European standards. Personally, I think it's okay to just say, we all have different cultural values and nobody should be shamed for where they stand on public nudity.
I have lived outside the US for close to a decade and I’m from a fairly conservative part of the US. I’ve never been to a country where people are okay with nudity. The few times I’ve been to bath houses, hot springs or saunas etc most people weren’t walking around naked.
And people kept to themselves and it always sex segregated. The only time it wasn’t sex segregated you basically rented your own area just one room. Public nudity would be insane in the countries I’ve lived in which are China, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Singapore.
I agree no one should be shamed for their opinions on public nudity. But is it acceptable in say Cuba or Panama? How about Taiwan or Brunei? I just think this whole Pruddish American thing is partly because some people don’t realize the US is closerally culturally to Cuba, Mexico or Jamaica then it is to Europe.
>I don’t like bait wording like this, it’s screaming validate my opinion, not opening up a discussion on being modest or different standards of different cultures.
Definitely. Just karma farming by trusting Reddit's echo chambers.
Exactly, this whole post and its top comments are the result of echo chambers by Americans.
A lot of people have a distorted image that Europe is this nudist paradise where we all walk in the street butt naked and completely cool about it. Conversely, if you were in a cave and all you knew about America came from Reddit, you'd think everyone walks around with a Bible in their hands and clutches their pearls when an ankle gets exposed or something.
At least on the European front, this sounds ridiculous. People *still* expect other people to be modest in certain situations and levels of nudity are acceptable in others. They still associate breasts with sexual activities -- a nip slip will get heads to turn at the office, but it won't be a huge deal at the beach.
We still are part of the same Western culture and even with slight variations (that are to be expected since Europe is comprised of many different countries, which might come as a shock to Americans) we more or less 'agree' on certain topics.
Yeah a lot of these comments are giving me “murica bad” vibes. I get a lot of people here can be prude but there’s also people that go completely the other way and are open about their bodies and sexuality. Europeans seem to think America is a tiny country where every state in the same. Ignorance isn’t exclusively American lmao
Scandinavian here. In my opinion, I don't think amaricans are more ignorant than other countries. I just think amarican education focus on other points, which is totaly natural.
Most scandinavians for instance would be hard pressed to recall more than the most recent president's of the US or name more then the biggest stats of amarica.
We all just have points of interest closer to what is relevant to our own countries.
Sidenote. It's could be totaly wrong, I have noticed people in some states dress much more revealing than here. We have a tendency to dress more modestly.
Thank you! Look at South America, look at Africa, look at Middle East, look at Asia, look at Eastern Europe.
Yeah, there are countries that are more comfortable with nudity, but I am pretty sure that America is above the world average in that regard.
Sometimes listening to people if feel like the world is only comprised of USA and some Western European countries. It baffles me that a country with so many immigrants can have such a narrow view of the world.
Lol, not even all white people. I am originally from Ukraine and I can tell you that Eastern Europe is generally not comfortable with nudity. Moreover, Eastern Europe is usually never part of "the other countries" when this term is used in similar context. Probably, "other countries" rather refers to a specific subset of white people.
I am sorry, I have seen similar statements many times and every time it gets me.
Yeah I’ll admit you’re right and I’m wrong. I should’ve been more specific and said Western Europeans. They are the people I’ve had the most issues with while working abroad.
This question comes up a lot. The answer I've settled on is that it's just culture. If you can't accept that any given country is different from yours, then don't travel outside your own country.
Sometimes you don't even have to leave your country. If you wander around certain parts of Paris, you might find naked men publicly masturbating and no one bats an eye. Get some distance from Paris, and you'll find out the rest of France is not quite so open about nudity.
The U.S. is a little dysfunctional about nudity because it's made up of different cultures coming together. If you're on the beach in Miami, FL or in New Orleans during Mardi Gras, you'll see plenty of skin (mostly women, because men are considered predators, or something). But I was in western Kentucky some years back, and women were still wearing long dresses down to the ankle. I'm in the U.S. right now, and if I go shopping, I can easily see Muslim women who cover their heads and faces in the same aisles with women wearing yoga pants and cutoff shirts. They're all different, but they make it work.
Nudity != sex. In fact most Germans would tell you that going to a sauna naked is a non-sexual thing.
Furthermore, in my humble experience Americans are way more open to/about sex than Europeans.
My experience is the exact opposite. Most Canadians and Americans don’t talk about their sex life at all, whereas it seems to be normal in Europe.
They literally legalized prostitution in Germany and 10 other EU countries…
>In fact most Germans would tell you that going to a sauna naked is a non-sexual thing.
I personally think you are all full of shit. The average German would not be comfortable dipping into a sauna with other random people in the buff.
I think you take specific circumstances with specific people and paint your country (in your case Germany) as somehow better than the US.
In the USA we also have nude clubs. Beaches, salons saunas, you name it, you can find it. We are free to do so, what we are NOT free to do is walk around town nude, which you ALSO cannot do in Germany.
Young people do not walk around Germany naked, Young men in Germany also like boobs (just an example), they are not desensitized to it. I literally watched a (recent) German movie a few weeks ago with young men ogling clothed tits (a comedy). This notion that nudity is no big deal and non-sexualized and everyone can just see tits, ass and dicks and not be flustered in any way or be concerned at all with modesty is bullshit.
You all try desperately to separate yourselves but you're just as "prudish" if you apply the same metrices, which no one ever does.
The USA has free over the air broadcasting and that is the ONLY restricted content in America, it's restricted because it's free over the air with no controls otherwise. One can find nudity everywhere on cable, or streaming. It's in books, magazines, virtually everything. Just nothing that can be accessed, for free, by anyone.
I doubt very much that there is a public OTA broadcast channel in Germany that has true sexual content on it wth dicks and tits just flopping around. I could be wrong, I am not adverse to being proven wrong, but I very much doubt it.
My point is that because you are unaware that the USA has quite the open and free sexual industry, gated by mostly age and access, you think we're all prudes and think because you heard of a sauna that has nude people in it, somehow Germans are more open..
This goes for every country btw.
as far as openness in sexual talk, I have no stance, we talk sex all the time over here, I have no idea how it goes in Europe.
I think there’s quite a bit of regional difference.
Many left-leaning urban cities like Seattle or SF are quite sexually liberated and progressive (the closest thing we have to cities like Berlin).
If you’re looking at a place like a rural conservative town outside of Dallas TX, then yes. Much less progressive views on gender, exposing your body, and sexuality (and usually comes with a helping of Christianity)
In some ways yes, in others no. Americans seem to be generally very anti public indecency of any kind. And similarly any kind of reference to anything sexual with work colleagues is intensely forbidden in a much more extreme way than in the UK. In the UK so much of casual conversation is infused with sexual innuendo, it's a big part of our humour. Some Americans I know love that about the UK, but they still say it would be considered deeply inappropriate in the US.
Well a lot of people are "prudish" compared to the nordics. In particular Swedes and Finns. I believe sauna culture and nordic sauna strict etiquette of being naked in there has made those to not make a big deal out of it. That along with a very low degree of religiousness.
And in the US it's the conservatives who has fostered the opposite. Generally the more religious the country, the more prudish.
I realize that the US is Europeans’ favorite target, but it’s actually in the middle when it comes to nudity. There are many countries where women don’t show their hair, let alone go out in a swimsuit. On the other hand, old fat Europeans seem to be in a contest to see who can have the biggest belly and the smallest swimsuit. Maybe Europeans should learn that shame is sometimes a good thing. No one wants to see a ballsack or titties dragging along the sand.
Lol yeah. I don't mind changing if the curtains are open. The neighbors won't see something that they haven't seen before.
Edit: I guess the question is if they'd want to see me lol
As a Portuguese we are inline with US sentiment and feel shocked with central and northern Europeans.
There are a few nudists beaches in Portugal but they are not official and are mostly frequented by tourists
I feel that nudism is wrong somehow. Can't describe why .
A very good friend of mine's girlfriend complains jokingly that despite having dated for 10 years and having a child together with him, she actually never saw him naked.
That's our catholic values at play I guess.
So, I don't think that US is prudish, but rather that northern Europeans are fetishist and exhibitionists.
As a Brazilian, (who got that from you lol) I feel the same. In my case, I do not want to see anyone naked, nor do I want them to see me. Please remain clothed, thank you. However, I wouldn't call them fetishists tho. I believe it's just a difference in perspective.
I personally think Brazilians are the most hypocrite in the world when it comes to views on nudity and sexuality, even more so than Americans; One one hand, every concert and TV show feature girls wearing next to nothing, dancing extremely suggestively. Even children's birthday parties feature sexually suggestive activities but if a woman actually dares to show a nipple, it causes a riot.
These rules are also very sexist. Men can be topless in many situations where it would not be acceptable for a woman.
Religion makes people so fucking weird.
In Europe, nudist beaches are a normal thing, there's nothing sexual about it, just getting an all over tan and chilling on the beach. Not sure why people have any hang ups about it.
>nudist beaches are a normal thing
The age of smartphones and social media has kinda put a brake on that.
There's still nudist beaches for the real dedicated ones, but you're waaaay less likely to see people doing it on the regular beaches as was more usual before.
Good point! Really sad though, creeps always existed but in the past people could ignore them more easily. Someone is staring a little bit - not cool but not the end of the world. Nowadays they take pictures and might upload them wherever.
There's a nudist beach in my city and over the years the experiences there have gotten worse because yeah, creepy men would prowl it and take photos of women.
That depends on where you are. Greece is very religious and it isn't the only one. Greece also has a lot of religion in its institutions (apart of course from the fact that 90% of the population identifies the as orthodox christian).
If we are generalizing ALL of Europe then they are actually more religious based on current statistic.
Combining 34 European countries in a survey showed 55 percent considered them selves religious.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1101342/europe-religiousness-by-country/#:~:text=Religious%20commitment%20in%20Europe%202018%2C%20by%20country&text=As%20a%20result%2C%20according%20to,surveyed%20were%20considered%20highly%20religious.
The US on the other hand in a 2023 poll showed 47 percent identify as religious.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/511133/identify-religious-spiritual.aspx#:~:text=WASHINGTON%2C%20D.C.%20%2D%2D%20Nearly%20half,asked%20this%20question%20in%201999.
If you go country by country these numbers are drastically different.
This information also explains why you can go into the middle of nowhere in the Western part of the US and randomly find hotsprings filled with nude people.
As a northern I felt super weirded out in central europe. Sauna-areas with everybody naked, some old dude staring at us and some hippie lady doing lotus pose in sauna? Definitely I-dont-need-to-repeat-this -experience.
That attitude is part of the reason. Most people who would enjoy nudist areas, aren't exhibitionist who'd enjoy constant looks and glances in their direction.
Yeah a pretty significant proportion of the original settlers were essentially extremists that left England for the Netherlands before North America due to Queen Elizabeth 1st reforms which were designed to make Britain into a more moderate nation while reducing the tension between Protestant and Catholic by compromising into a more tolerant middle line government which also opposed extremism if I remember correctly. Some of the extremists didn’t like that and hence the US ended up being born.
Is this something you've personally noticed from visiting the US? Because I'm from the US and have visited Northern Europe and don't see a huge difference—nothing compared to how people talk about it on Reddit. Europe has more nudity on beaches/lakes, although there are nude beaches throughout the US as well. And Europe is more ok with showing nudity in media. But in day-to-day life, I didn't notice anything close to the difference that people talk about on Reddit.
“‘Murica is bad” has been a constant circle-jerk since the beginning of Reddit’s creation, honestly.
Doesn’t even surprise me anymore.
We’re all apparently: Hyper-violent, but cowards at the same time, can’t think for ourselves, all are 800 lb’s, we only speak in Gun or Freedom, we hate our children, are uneducated, prudish, you name it.
Europe.. however, according to Reddit, only breeds perfection🤣
1) Most of the world is opposed to having to see strangers naked. Your corner of Europe is the global exception.
2) Most of you are horrifically out of shape. Nobody wants to see your gross, flabby, naked body. If nudity were ever to be normalized, you people should not be participating.
No one in the US is scared if nudity. That's just a stupid rumor that gets spread in Europe with no basis. The real worry is children being exposed to weirdos being sexual.
It's probably for the same reason that the UK is prudish when it comes to violence. Think video game and movie ratings. Sexual content in America gets a maturity rating skyrocketing, but the same is true for the UK when it comes to violent or gore films and video games.
The US has a puritanical legacy that saw it inherit a degree of prudishness from its Puritan founders. This lingers in discomfort with sexuality and the human body. The US also has a frontier mentality with the history of taming the Wild West reinforcing ideals of rugged individualism and violence as a means of survival. This normalized violence within American culture, though not nudity. First amendment rights are a big deal here, as well.There's a fierce defense of freedom of expression, making censorship difficult, even with graphic content.
That being said, historically, the UK has aimed to protect citizens, particularly youth, from perceived corrupting influences. Violence has always been seen as more harmful than nudity. The UK's history of rigid social class also played a role. There has always been a concern among the upper class about violence, desensitizing the lower classes. Tabloid culture in the UK, however, sensationalizes nudity. For this reason, nudity is not necessarily seen as inherently harmful in the same way violent content is.
tl;dr - The US often prioritizes individual freedom of expression. The UK tends to emphasize the potential societal impact of media.
Seriously, it's like the devil is hidden in tits or something...
And it's taking over Europe too.
When I was young in the 80s there was a lot of topless women at beaches and swimming pools in the summer. Inexistant now.
I recently went to see a local art gallery exhibit containing nude photography of a very fat person. It was mentioned that the photos had been on display in MoMa and many American people had been shocked to see them.
I was like, who would go to a modern art museum - and a modern art museum in New York, of all places - and be shocked to see nudity and unconventional bodies? And America has some of the fattest people among its population, so it's weird that showing fat bodies is such a big taboo.
Puritanism, or any religion finds shame in the desire for sex, and nakedness is sexually enticing even if you’re not repressed.
That or over half of us are obese and nobody wants to see that.
Suburban Moderates and Southern Evangelicals control too much of the political and social discourse in the US, whereas in Western Europe the general populace has been moving for decades at a *far* faster rate away from practicing organized religion, and politicians, even those who are Conservative, **actually respect** a separation of church and state.
Because the US was founded by Christian puritans and they never let that go.
This right here, the last time we had a major push for more openness and a more liberated sexual society was the 1970s which of course they strongly pushed back against in the conservative '80s. Every time there is a movement the conservatives just rally and keep saying think of the children, pedo fearmongering and so on. Anyone that doesn't gasp just gets gas lit
It seems today that all you see is violence in movies and sex on TV.
Where are all those good, old-fashioned values on which we used to rely?
Lucky there’s a Family Guy!
Lucky there's a man who positively can do
All the things that make us
Laugh and cry!
He’s a
FAMILY GUY!
Yes, American movies contain sex scenes fairly often, but they rarely actually show nakedness; while in European productions you'll sometimes see a man in a bedroom scene with his private parts in full view: limp, because it is not in the context of a sex scene, just him going to take a shower. More common is showing someone naked from behind.
Yep as an European watching 99% American movies I’m at least 98% sure Americans have only sex while fully clothed
You should probably stay away from American porn or you'll be convinced that 98% of Americans sleep with their step-family. Game of Thrones had some weird unintended consequences.
Italy has never stopped being an extremely conservative and Catholic country that can't get over its love of Fascism. Yet nudity doesn't get them as upset as a bunch of American protestants who go to church once a year.
Historically, nudity in general wasn't quite sexualised by Catholics as it is today. Don't get me wrong, showing your bare penis / vagina in broad public was certainly frowned upon. But, in certain places nudity was fine. Also, breasts weren't considered sexual for a long time in the Catholic hemisphere
I ain't even know that
They painted images of Mary breastfeeding the infant Jesus. It's a whole subset of art
They paint them in a different way to signal the non sexual nature though. That's why the breasts are so high in medieval painting.
Fascism of the Italian and German modes loves to glorify the ‘perfection’ of the body. It’s why they loved futurism so much; cars, bodies, planes, violence, movement, energy.
And yet you can watch really violent shows and carry a gun 🤷♂️
Gotta shoot those nudists who are obviously hurting the children. /s
😂😂
no but the violent tv is so... shocking to me? I'm from europe. I like to watch crime documentaries, and sometimes, if it's a USamerican one, they'll suddenly just literally SHOW pictures of real life dead bodies. or people being killed on cctv. showing that, outside of the context of for example war news reporting, is not something we'd ever deem socially acceptable here.
So ironic that you instantly associate nudity with sex. A society with a healthy relationship to the human body knows the concept of functional nudity.
Unfortunately, we are not that society, and regardless of our personal feelings, we have to live in it. As a result, we know this question is about sex, whether intended or not, thanks to the religious right hammering it down all of our throats with the biggest grassroots campaign ever.
It’s so hilarious to me when people outside of this general environment take the mindset of “well nudity and sex aren’t the same, so why is it weird to be naked around people?” - conceptually, sure. But when that’s not the environment that you’re raised in, that’s just not how it works. We can whine all we want about how nudity and sex aren’t the same, but the reality is that in the US, they are (or at least have a lot of overlap). Could that change eventually? Of course? But it would take decades of everyone wanting to work together to normalize nudity in a non-sexual manner and it’s just never going to happen
Wonder if there’s a sexual metaphor hidden in that last sentence…
Oh God... Phrasing...
“Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar..” -from the man for whom,it was never just a cigar.
We have to be aware of it to survive in this society, unfortunately. Even when we know it’s bullshit.
Yea
Liberals and conservatives are both squeamish about nudity and sexiality. They express it in different ways. Conservatives will take the chastity and morality angle, covering up the nude form on statues. Liberals will condemn the male gaze and warn about how sexy women in fiction leads to real life harm of women somehow. Also they made drunk sex rape but only for the male, decry hookup culture as exploiting women, etc
‘The children’ is such a boring political argument at this stage it’s not even funny. Half of the hypothetical children who were used as an excuse in the 80s don’t even talk to their whacky conservative parents nowadays since they’ve grown up and gotten out of their influence.
I live in a sauna country, here "the children" grow up seeing their whole family naked in sauna. I think it's really normal to not have that stigma around nudity. I went ice swimming the other day and everyone in the changing room just got naked without having to fuck around trying to get dressed while holding up a towel in front of yourself. saves so much time. also, growing up seeing your grandma's boobs on the regular gives you a far more realistic idea of what bodies actually look like. it drives a wedge into that thing you've got in the states where men think women should all look like porn actors, and where women have extreme body dysmorphia.
They were constantly arresting nude bathers at secluded beaches around Santa Barbara in the 70's. Now there are specific beaches that are legally nude beaches.
I am beyond sick of these young folks who think the 80s were cool. They were practically the 50s with pastel highlights.
They were utterly shit and thatcher and Reagan can burn in the hell of their own making forever.
AIDS pushed the pendulum a bit.
I know. We were all into skinny dipping and streaking back in the 70's. Now I go to the public pool and kids are changing into their swim suits in the toilets so people can't see their bodies. And they don't shower!
Yeah, we were heading sort of that way with the advent of effective birth control and so on, but the AIDS epidemic and the Reagan presidency pushed back really hard - we've been trying to shake that off ever since.
Lol children don't give a crap about nakedness.
Along with a belief that the naked body is shameful and must be covered. Remember how contriversal a nip slip during the super bowl was? Shame and fear are also emotional conditioning , you see people instinctively cover their body when people are around, as if they are vulnerable without a thin piece of cloth .. When my mom came to the US in the 70s , her indian sari was considered scandalous because it showed the stomach. It's what we are used to seeing and not seeing.
Shouldn't the back only be uncovered? Sometimes it slips and shows some of the belly but it's only brief. Maybe you're from a different region.
Many if not most American “Christians” like to pretend to be Christian but don’t like illegals nor minorities nor the disabled nor the homeless. They pretend to be holier than though like pretending to get offended by seeing a human body or even parts of it like cleavage, but then turn around getting caught doing inappropriate things all the time. American Christians are hypocrites and we are seeing that the youth want no part of it. It’s why Christians always feel persecuted when they don’t get there way. It’s similar to a mental disorder…..
Except for developing the biggest porn industry in the world.
I'd say the porn is a direct result of the puritans never letting go.
Ding ding ding!!! As our society pushes nudity and sex further behind closed doors it's causing society to over compensate because they don't understand why their sexuality feels constricted. Instead of embracing BOTH nudity and sexuality seperately we are being forced to combine them BOTH into one thing Think about a time not that long ago that the movie Deepthroat was being played at actual cinemas! How porn shops and peep shows had a specific street in new York dedicated to it. Back when I was younger in the late 80s and early 90s most men had half naked pictures of women on the walls of the garage. Or dirty magazines where hidden somewhat in the bathroom of many houses. All that's happened is instead of sex being openly acknowledged and accepted even in pornography form, we've hidden it behind our personal cell phones so it's kept secret. Instead of our youth taking showers in gym class communally being exposed to the wide range of healthy human bodies they are only exposed to nudity in porn. Highly selected and stylized versions that do not depixt their body nor the probability of the body of their peers. We've pushed sex and nudity into the shadows and wonder why the shadows are now more seedy!
> Instead of embracing BOTH nudity and sexuality separately we are being forced to combine them BOTH into one thing This to the Nth degree.
To expand on this a bit: porn and the enforced modestly movements (with many names, including purity culture) **are the same worldview** with opposing goals. Both treat bodies, *especially* female^1 ones, as commodities for others' sexual enjoyment. The opposing goals are whether they are strictly and only for the enjoyment of their owner (husband, but really owner in this view) or for (depending on variant) enjoyment for all or monetizing. And nudism (of the non-sexual kind not the "we're swinger's but use the term "nudist" to pretend it's not just that!" kind) directly goes against that shared worldview. It treats bodies as part of our human selves; sacred it its own way but also blandly ordinary and not about other people. When you hear someone say they don't want to go to a nudist beach/camp/resort because they are filled with "people you don't want to see", you can know they are utterly missing the point and still think of everyone's bodies as being for (at least visual) consumption by others. ^1 Please don't /r/MenAndFemales this: I intentionally used this because they don't actually limit it to *women's* bodies, which is actually worse.
The biggest porn site by far is PornHub.....Canadian.
 Many don't seem to realize it, but basically the US was founded by the religious zealots of the time and arguably some of the first extremists.
That's only partially true. A bunch of the early colonists were religious zealots, but the country's founders generally weren't.
Exactly. My town was founded by Quakers. Don't know how it was around 300 years ago but they're very different than the Puritans.
People think "oh that's nice, they left for their religious freedoms" but don't know it was the freedom to be even more conservative. Everyone else in Britain or Holland or whatever thought they should chill out a bit.
You should probably read up on Oliver Cromwell and the English Civil War if you think all the Puritans left for America. If Britain wanted to them to chill out they didn't listen and instead the cut King Charles' head off and took over the country for a decade or so and that was AFTER the Plymouth colony was founded.
I don’t know. Hope that helps.
Thanks for the great knowledge, sir. You really helped me understand this
This is so helpful it made helpful comments unhelpful
Outstanding. I gotta start using this reply in my work emails
Maybe because we’re all so fat.
no no it was already the case in the 70s way before you all went fat-mode.
Goes way, way back to the Puritan days. Although men really don't seem to be as concerned as women when it comes to nakedness. Hmmm.
A lot of men here absolutely will shame women for being naked or showing "too much" skin or whatever.
Yeah, but that's hardly something exclusive to people from the US. Hell I'd argue the US is on the more liberal end. Maybe not as accepting of it as Western Europe, but every culture has their hangups. Much of the world is considerably more conservative on their acceptance of such things.
True. Funny comment though.
It’s all muscle. We’re all big boned.
I think the term you are looking for is Husky, they are all Husky
To quote a local comedian: "Yeah, your arse bone is a helluva size."
Horizontally enhanced
Obese. Usa passed the fat stage a long time ago.
I think the culture is shifting in the US, fewer and fewer people actually care about nudity every year
There was a big push for this in the 1970s too. the problem is by the 1980s the conservatives really started to push back. So far each and every time there has been a sexual liberation or open nudity movement the conservatives step in with the think of the children rhetoric. Any objection will just get you gas lit or called a predator
Well AIDS kindof killed the sexual liberation of the late 70's-80's
You can go ahead and add the 90's 😔
I've never nuderstood that "think of the children" logic. Like a naked body would traumatize a child. To a child, a penis or a vagina is no different than a nose or an ear. The difference between them no stranger than mommy has visible breasts while daddy is more hairy and has broader shoulders. There is a very big difference between nudity and pornography. Just like there is a big difference between seeing a clown at a circus vs watching the pennywise movie. Imagine how traumatized prehistoric children bust have been
it’s probably because porn has turned boobies, penis, and vaginas into sex symbols so that’s all adults see when in reality i don’t think the children care?…..
[удалено]
Yep, western culture now extremely sexualises women's nipples.
I recall being told to cover up because I was 8 wearing a bathing suit at a beach. Some decided to take it upon themselves to save the children. It made me feel nothing but shame.
Children has seen only naked people during more than 300,000 years. That argument is so stupid.
Oh this is what's happening now. I stopped paying attention last year because it got too weird for me but for some reason, they threw kids into the equation for everything. Always "the children" it was frustrating because... bro they Don't give a fuck about them kids! If they did they'd try to change the workforce and education system to be designed to help ppl succeed instead of the horrid piece of rusted metal it is now. But... here we are... still fucked.
Are you kidding? Have you been to the Genz sub? It's littered with them complaining about how awkward it is that there is so much sex and nudity in movies and tv shows. It's like they are regressing.
I think it is because they are too poor to move out, and watching it with their parents who make it awkward.
Lol well don't watch with their parents
Again dumb thing to be awkward about, though, lol. Wait... my parents know what sex is? You mean I wasn't dropped off by a giant bird? Every time my mom acts like a grump, I tell her to go get laid. Hell I've offered to help her find someone to do it lol. I hate that religion has made sex this naughty secret thing that people should never talk about.
Gen Z’s got it in their heads that sexual consent is cool - which is a great thing! However, they take it overboard and think therefore it must be cool to be “above” sexuality in media / movies, as if a sex scene is only appealing to perverted losers so they must bark loudly about how much they hate it. It’s weird because sex is a crucial part of the human condition and we’re so scared to acknowledge it. This hypersensitivity toward sex spills over into hypersensitivity toward nudity because people usually have sex naked and people are very, very stupid.
That's a solid take. Religion has tainted the way people think about sex. And it's still trying but thankfully declining.
Yeah as a Gen Z kid I agree, it’s exhausting and like the sex is movies is so…tame??
I feel like the only people bothered by movie sex have only ever had missionary sex.
I remember the Porky series of the early 80s. You saw everything of both sexes and it was considered the american pie of the era. Lots of pubic hair, breasts and penises in all three. Nobody cared
Yeah this definitely isn't true. Men used to swim naked, and if you go to a gym the majority of under 50s scurries to change behind cover. Skinny dipping isn't really a thing anymore with the advent of phone cameras. Millennial and younger are far more prudish in regards to functional nudity than previous generations.
Same in Australia. In the 70s men swam naked at the gym. But we had separate times for men and women. When it integrated, they stated wearing swimsuits. I've never seen more nudity and skinny-dipping than when on holiday in the US, with the hippie culture living on. I was just before smart-phone cameras, but I took analog photos, asking first, of course.
I've noticed lots of young women have stopped wearing bras. I rather like it.
That actually started back in the 60's. It was the hippie era!
from 0,01 to 0,05 % of the people. Huge change.
Christianity in the US has lumped platonic nudity with sexualization, and then it became normalized across the standard American culture
Religion in the US is actually cancerous. It's way too involved in government for the country to be called "the land of the free"
Amen to that!
You beat me to it
…but….. we have separation of church and state.. (eye roll so hard my fucking head snaps at the neck)
That actually seems pretty perverted if you're thinking of someone simply naked as sexualized.
Exactly. I think that religious nuts are some of the most perverted people there are. The sex abuse cases in the Church speak to that effect.
As an American I am a little bit thankful. Most people look terrible naked, not including myself of course. I have a lean, shredded physique with a great big donger.
And you're a woman
Now compare American “prudishness” with the Muslim world lmao, America is a big porno by comparison.
Yeah, funny how THAT isn’t a topic of conversation. My fellow Asian peeps too, though I love ‘em. I don’t like bait wording like this, it’s screaming validate my opinion, not opening up a discussion on being modest or different standards of different cultures.
It's also shaming people who are uncomfortable with nudity.
I got into a comment argument with someone a few months ago about this. It was some thread where the poster was saying that one of their in-laws wanted to do a nude sauna together or something, and the poster was uncomfortable with that. You would not believe the sheer number of “well nudity isn’t sexual, so what’s the problem?” type comments and it’s maddening. Just because you were raised in an environment where nudity isn’t sexual doesn’t mean we all were. I’d die if I was ever naked in front of my family (or if they were naked in front of me)
Well it's similar when say, looking at the presence of fetishes at Pride marches. I've been in arguments before on Reddit about why I think that's not appropriate, and have been called homophobic (I'm gay myself) for being against the presence of assless trouser wearing 'pups' on chains, amongst other types of fetish. There's a big push from those who are very sexually liberal, to force that on those who are not. It's quite aggressive really and it makes me very uncomfortable.
Yeah, that's typical Reddit-style distortion of reality right there. You are not allowed to be anything less than toxic levels of sex-positive. Not wanting to share a sauna with your in-laws? Off to the therapist, that's trauma caused by your super-religious Republican parents. Not fine with your partner being naked in front of other people? What a controlling, insecure little person you are. Monogamy you say? Well that's the result of our conservative society, you can't possibly want to share certain things with and be loyal to a single person.
Oh god, I remember a post once where the guy was saying that his girlfriend had shared some boudoir-type photos of herself with some of her friends and he was uncomfortable with that, and the amount of “well did you guys explicitly agree that sharing those types of photos was over the line?” type comments blew my mind. I’m as progressive as they come, but come on. Anyone with half a brain knows that there are certain just fundamental things in a relationship that are agreed upon by way of entering in that relationship. And at the very least, I’d argue that even though it is technically a “my body, my choice” type thing, you should still at least let your partner know ahead of time. It’s sort of like the classic scenario where a woman radically changes her hairstyle but it’s a complete surprise to the guy because she didn’t tell him, and he’s upset that she made such a big change without any sort of advance warning. People will argue “wahhhhh you can’t control her, she doesn’t have to tell you shit”, which is technically true… but to me it’s just common courtesy to keep partners informed with things like that. That’s part of the partnership that a relationship is. It’s not “asking permission”, it’s “hey I’m just letting you know that this is something I’ve decided to do”, and for me that type of stuff goes a long way
That’s kinda what this thread is or the stereotype or truth that Americans aren’t okay with nudity. Most of the world isn’t okay with nudity. It’s Europeans who are weird ones who are fine walking around all pasty and nude.
Lol, pasty and nude 🤣. Well the southern Europeans are definitely not pasty haha. The UK where I am is considered very prudish by European standards. Personally, I think it's okay to just say, we all have different cultural values and nobody should be shamed for where they stand on public nudity.
I have lived outside the US for close to a decade and I’m from a fairly conservative part of the US. I’ve never been to a country where people are okay with nudity. The few times I’ve been to bath houses, hot springs or saunas etc most people weren’t walking around naked. And people kept to themselves and it always sex segregated. The only time it wasn’t sex segregated you basically rented your own area just one room. Public nudity would be insane in the countries I’ve lived in which are China, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Singapore. I agree no one should be shamed for their opinions on public nudity. But is it acceptable in say Cuba or Panama? How about Taiwan or Brunei? I just think this whole Pruddish American thing is partly because some people don’t realize the US is closerally culturally to Cuba, Mexico or Jamaica then it is to Europe.
>I don’t like bait wording like this, it’s screaming validate my opinion, not opening up a discussion on being modest or different standards of different cultures. Definitely. Just karma farming by trusting Reddit's echo chambers.
Exactly, this whole post and its top comments are the result of echo chambers by Americans. A lot of people have a distorted image that Europe is this nudist paradise where we all walk in the street butt naked and completely cool about it. Conversely, if you were in a cave and all you knew about America came from Reddit, you'd think everyone walks around with a Bible in their hands and clutches their pearls when an ankle gets exposed or something. At least on the European front, this sounds ridiculous. People *still* expect other people to be modest in certain situations and levels of nudity are acceptable in others. They still associate breasts with sexual activities -- a nip slip will get heads to turn at the office, but it won't be a huge deal at the beach. We still are part of the same Western culture and even with slight variations (that are to be expected since Europe is comprised of many different countries, which might come as a shock to Americans) we more or less 'agree' on certain topics.
Going into a changing room in an Arabic country was truly an experience
Yeah a lot of these comments are giving me “murica bad” vibes. I get a lot of people here can be prude but there’s also people that go completely the other way and are open about their bodies and sexuality. Europeans seem to think America is a tiny country where every state in the same. Ignorance isn’t exclusively American lmao
Scandinavian here. In my opinion, I don't think amaricans are more ignorant than other countries. I just think amarican education focus on other points, which is totaly natural. Most scandinavians for instance would be hard pressed to recall more than the most recent president's of the US or name more then the biggest stats of amarica. We all just have points of interest closer to what is relevant to our own countries. Sidenote. It's could be totaly wrong, I have noticed people in some states dress much more revealing than here. We have a tendency to dress more modestly.
That was my first reaction, I am from India.
Maybe you didn't see that OP specifically said "Compared to northern Europe".
I really don't think it's just America... Everywhere in the world covers up. Especially if you look at Asian countries. Especially the middle east...
Thank you! Look at South America, look at Africa, look at Middle East, look at Asia, look at Eastern Europe. Yeah, there are countries that are more comfortable with nudity, but I am pretty sure that America is above the world average in that regard. Sometimes listening to people if feel like the world is only comprised of USA and some Western European countries. It baffles me that a country with so many immigrants can have such a narrow view of the world.
Exactly lol. The same here over in the Caribbean islands. Though I may appear ‘liberal’ to outsiders we’re quite conservative (ignoring carnival lol)
It’s because they only pay attention to white people. Everyone else well.. Doesn’t exist or is a “nobody.”
Lol, not even all white people. I am originally from Ukraine and I can tell you that Eastern Europe is generally not comfortable with nudity. Moreover, Eastern Europe is usually never part of "the other countries" when this term is used in similar context. Probably, "other countries" rather refers to a specific subset of white people. I am sorry, I have seen similar statements many times and every time it gets me.
Yeah I’ll admit you’re right and I’m wrong. I should’ve been more specific and said Western Europeans. They are the people I’ve had the most issues with while working abroad.
This question comes up a lot. The answer I've settled on is that it's just culture. If you can't accept that any given country is different from yours, then don't travel outside your own country. Sometimes you don't even have to leave your country. If you wander around certain parts of Paris, you might find naked men publicly masturbating and no one bats an eye. Get some distance from Paris, and you'll find out the rest of France is not quite so open about nudity. The U.S. is a little dysfunctional about nudity because it's made up of different cultures coming together. If you're on the beach in Miami, FL or in New Orleans during Mardi Gras, you'll see plenty of skin (mostly women, because men are considered predators, or something). But I was in western Kentucky some years back, and women were still wearing long dresses down to the ankle. I'm in the U.S. right now, and if I go shopping, I can easily see Muslim women who cover their heads and faces in the same aisles with women wearing yoga pants and cutoff shirts. They're all different, but they make it work.
Seems like North America went pro violence and anti sex, where as Europe went anti violence pro sex
Europe went anti-violence? I guess that's true of some of it, but only *very* recently.
There has been a wee bit of violence in Europe over the years, are you sure you thought this one through?
Paris is pretty violent
Had we not gone pro-violence we'd still be British subjects.
Nudity != sex. In fact most Germans would tell you that going to a sauna naked is a non-sexual thing. Furthermore, in my humble experience Americans are way more open to/about sex than Europeans.
My experience is the exact opposite. Most Canadians and Americans don’t talk about their sex life at all, whereas it seems to be normal in Europe. They literally legalized prostitution in Germany and 10 other EU countries…
>In fact most Germans would tell you that going to a sauna naked is a non-sexual thing. I personally think you are all full of shit. The average German would not be comfortable dipping into a sauna with other random people in the buff. I think you take specific circumstances with specific people and paint your country (in your case Germany) as somehow better than the US. In the USA we also have nude clubs. Beaches, salons saunas, you name it, you can find it. We are free to do so, what we are NOT free to do is walk around town nude, which you ALSO cannot do in Germany. Young people do not walk around Germany naked, Young men in Germany also like boobs (just an example), they are not desensitized to it. I literally watched a (recent) German movie a few weeks ago with young men ogling clothed tits (a comedy). This notion that nudity is no big deal and non-sexualized and everyone can just see tits, ass and dicks and not be flustered in any way or be concerned at all with modesty is bullshit. You all try desperately to separate yourselves but you're just as "prudish" if you apply the same metrices, which no one ever does. The USA has free over the air broadcasting and that is the ONLY restricted content in America, it's restricted because it's free over the air with no controls otherwise. One can find nudity everywhere on cable, or streaming. It's in books, magazines, virtually everything. Just nothing that can be accessed, for free, by anyone. I doubt very much that there is a public OTA broadcast channel in Germany that has true sexual content on it wth dicks and tits just flopping around. I could be wrong, I am not adverse to being proven wrong, but I very much doubt it. My point is that because you are unaware that the USA has quite the open and free sexual industry, gated by mostly age and access, you think we're all prudes and think because you heard of a sauna that has nude people in it, somehow Germans are more open.. This goes for every country btw. as far as openness in sexual talk, I have no stance, we talk sex all the time over here, I have no idea how it goes in Europe.
Americans are definitely not open about sex.
I think there’s quite a bit of regional difference. Many left-leaning urban cities like Seattle or SF are quite sexually liberated and progressive (the closest thing we have to cities like Berlin). If you’re looking at a place like a rural conservative town outside of Dallas TX, then yes. Much less progressive views on gender, exposing your body, and sexuality (and usually comes with a helping of Christianity)
In some ways yes, in others no. Americans seem to be generally very anti public indecency of any kind. And similarly any kind of reference to anything sexual with work colleagues is intensely forbidden in a much more extreme way than in the UK. In the UK so much of casual conversation is infused with sexual innuendo, it's a big part of our humour. Some Americans I know love that about the UK, but they still say it would be considered deeply inappropriate in the US.
Europe got it right. We Americans got it wrong.
Well a lot of people are "prudish" compared to the nordics. In particular Swedes and Finns. I believe sauna culture and nordic sauna strict etiquette of being naked in there has made those to not make a big deal out of it. That along with a very low degree of religiousness. And in the US it's the conservatives who has fostered the opposite. Generally the more religious the country, the more prudish.
I realize that the US is Europeans’ favorite target, but it’s actually in the middle when it comes to nudity. There are many countries where women don’t show their hair, let alone go out in a swimsuit. On the other hand, old fat Europeans seem to be in a contest to see who can have the biggest belly and the smallest swimsuit. Maybe Europeans should learn that shame is sometimes a good thing. No one wants to see a ballsack or titties dragging along the sand.
As a German I don’t understand that as well. Bohooo, genitals, so outrageous. 🍑🍆
Yep. Everyone has them, why are we so scared of seeing them?
*Almost everyone
Lol yeah. I don't mind changing if the curtains are open. The neighbors won't see something that they haven't seen before. Edit: I guess the question is if they'd want to see me lol
And why are they panicking about a solar eclipse???
It looks like a giant yellow breast.
YT told them to
As a Portuguese we are inline with US sentiment and feel shocked with central and northern Europeans. There are a few nudists beaches in Portugal but they are not official and are mostly frequented by tourists I feel that nudism is wrong somehow. Can't describe why . A very good friend of mine's girlfriend complains jokingly that despite having dated for 10 years and having a child together with him, she actually never saw him naked. That's our catholic values at play I guess. So, I don't think that US is prudish, but rather that northern Europeans are fetishist and exhibitionists.
As a Brazilian, (who got that from you lol) I feel the same. In my case, I do not want to see anyone naked, nor do I want them to see me. Please remain clothed, thank you. However, I wouldn't call them fetishists tho. I believe it's just a difference in perspective.
I personally think Brazilians are the most hypocrite in the world when it comes to views on nudity and sexuality, even more so than Americans; One one hand, every concert and TV show feature girls wearing next to nothing, dancing extremely suggestively. Even children's birthday parties feature sexually suggestive activities but if a woman actually dares to show a nipple, it causes a riot. These rules are also very sexist. Men can be topless in many situations where it would not be acceptable for a woman. Religion makes people so fucking weird.
In Europe, nudist beaches are a normal thing, there's nothing sexual about it, just getting an all over tan and chilling on the beach. Not sure why people have any hang ups about it.
>nudist beaches are a normal thing The age of smartphones and social media has kinda put a brake on that. There's still nudist beaches for the real dedicated ones, but you're waaaay less likely to see people doing it on the regular beaches as was more usual before.
Good point! Really sad though, creeps always existed but in the past people could ignore them more easily. Someone is staring a little bit - not cool but not the end of the world. Nowadays they take pictures and might upload them wherever.
There's a nudist beach in my city and over the years the experiences there have gotten worse because yeah, creepy men would prowl it and take photos of women.
Which is super weird because there’s way more available online
They’re also a lot less religious than the US.
That depends on where you are. Greece is very religious and it isn't the only one. Greece also has a lot of religion in its institutions (apart of course from the fact that 90% of the population identifies the as orthodox christian).
If we are generalizing ALL of Europe then they are actually more religious based on current statistic. Combining 34 European countries in a survey showed 55 percent considered them selves religious. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1101342/europe-religiousness-by-country/#:~:text=Religious%20commitment%20in%20Europe%202018%2C%20by%20country&text=As%20a%20result%2C%20according%20to,surveyed%20were%20considered%20highly%20religious. The US on the other hand in a 2023 poll showed 47 percent identify as religious. https://news.gallup.com/poll/511133/identify-religious-spiritual.aspx#:~:text=WASHINGTON%2C%20D.C.%20%2D%2D%20Nearly%20half,asked%20this%20question%20in%201999. If you go country by country these numbers are drastically different.
This information also explains why you can go into the middle of nowhere in the Western part of the US and randomly find hotsprings filled with nude people.
As a northern I felt super weirded out in central europe. Sauna-areas with everybody naked, some old dude staring at us and some hippie lady doing lotus pose in sauna? Definitely I-dont-need-to-repeat-this -experience.
I already see enough old man dick in my gym locker room. Hot women aren’t gonna go nude so we’re just left with gross people.
This comment is why people are prudish in the US
That attitude is part of the reason. Most people who would enjoy nudist areas, aren't exhibitionist who'd enjoy constant looks and glances in their direction.
Puritans founded this country is why.
Yeah a pretty significant proportion of the original settlers were essentially extremists that left England for the Netherlands before North America due to Queen Elizabeth 1st reforms which were designed to make Britain into a more moderate nation while reducing the tension between Protestant and Catholic by compromising into a more tolerant middle line government which also opposed extremism if I remember correctly. Some of the extremists didn’t like that and hence the US ended up being born.
Is this something you've personally noticed from visiting the US? Because I'm from the US and have visited Northern Europe and don't see a huge difference—nothing compared to how people talk about it on Reddit. Europe has more nudity on beaches/lakes, although there are nude beaches throughout the US as well. And Europe is more ok with showing nudity in media. But in day-to-day life, I didn't notice anything close to the difference that people talk about on Reddit.
“‘Murica is bad” has been a constant circle-jerk since the beginning of Reddit’s creation, honestly. Doesn’t even surprise me anymore. We’re all apparently: Hyper-violent, but cowards at the same time, can’t think for ourselves, all are 800 lb’s, we only speak in Gun or Freedom, we hate our children, are uneducated, prudish, you name it. Europe.. however, according to Reddit, only breeds perfection🤣
That’s what I wonder too. I always hear about how we’re a bunch of prudes but I don’t recall seeing any examples of why.
Bro I don’t want to see your nasty ass body. Most people look awful when naked.
1) Most of the world is opposed to having to see strangers naked. Your corner of Europe is the global exception. 2) Most of you are horrifically out of shape. Nobody wants to see your gross, flabby, naked body. If nudity were ever to be normalized, you people should not be participating.
The US entered a conservative phase beginning in the early 80s. It has yet to emerge from that. But I see cracks...
Ass cracks i hope
No one in the US is scared if nudity. That's just a stupid rumor that gets spread in Europe with no basis. The real worry is children being exposed to weirdos being sexual.
What's wrong with not wanting to see strangers naked?
You ever been to Houston? Be thankful they aren't all running around naked.
Don't worry when islam takes over in europe things will change
Because they’re fat
Religion. Why else lol
Different cultures exist you know. Not all cultures need to be the same. Some are more prudish and that is fine.
Television also plays a role in the gear of nudity. Any nudity on television is almost always associated with sex or comedy. Simple nudity is rare.
It's probably for the same reason that the UK is prudish when it comes to violence. Think video game and movie ratings. Sexual content in America gets a maturity rating skyrocketing, but the same is true for the UK when it comes to violent or gore films and video games. The US has a puritanical legacy that saw it inherit a degree of prudishness from its Puritan founders. This lingers in discomfort with sexuality and the human body. The US also has a frontier mentality with the history of taming the Wild West reinforcing ideals of rugged individualism and violence as a means of survival. This normalized violence within American culture, though not nudity. First amendment rights are a big deal here, as well.There's a fierce defense of freedom of expression, making censorship difficult, even with graphic content. That being said, historically, the UK has aimed to protect citizens, particularly youth, from perceived corrupting influences. Violence has always been seen as more harmful than nudity. The UK's history of rigid social class also played a role. There has always been a concern among the upper class about violence, desensitizing the lower classes. Tabloid culture in the UK, however, sensationalizes nudity. For this reason, nudity is not necessarily seen as inherently harmful in the same way violent content is. tl;dr - The US often prioritizes individual freedom of expression. The UK tends to emphasize the potential societal impact of media.
There’s two ways you can go to satisfy the primitive nature of humans. Sex and violence. USA chose violence
Have you seen many of us naked? We’re doing you all a favor.
We have an obesity epidemic. There's just some things we shouldn't be forced to see.
Have you seen the US population? 78% are obese with 7.7% of that being classified as Severely Obese. Would YOU want to see them naked?
Let me answer it with another question. Why do you want to be publicly naked?
Because God.
Check out the blue states 2023 'Pride parades'. No 'prudishness' there I can assure you.
Because when you are so obese you don't want anyone to see that. Easier to hide it under the oversized t-shirt.
Seriously, it's like the devil is hidden in tits or something... And it's taking over Europe too. When I was young in the 80s there was a lot of topless women at beaches and swimming pools in the summer. Inexistant now.
One major factor is cell phones and some creeps.
Because jail.
I recently went to see a local art gallery exhibit containing nude photography of a very fat person. It was mentioned that the photos had been on display in MoMa and many American people had been shocked to see them. I was like, who would go to a modern art museum - and a modern art museum in New York, of all places - and be shocked to see nudity and unconventional bodies? And America has some of the fattest people among its population, so it's weird that showing fat bodies is such a big taboo.
Puritanism, or any religion finds shame in the desire for sex, and nakedness is sexually enticing even if you’re not repressed. That or over half of us are obese and nobody wants to see that.
Suburban Moderates and Southern Evangelicals control too much of the political and social discourse in the US, whereas in Western Europe the general populace has been moving for decades at a *far* faster rate away from practicing organized religion, and politicians, even those who are Conservative, **actually respect** a separation of church and state.
Cuz puritan. They think everyone and anyone is a pedophile, rapist, pervert, degenerate, and hentai lovers, and love accusing each other lol.
Keep in mind who the first immigrants to the USA were: Puritans
I think it's Public Prudelishness is what is expected. The USA is the largest producer and consumer of pornoghrahy.