Taboo

[Martin]

will the green movement actually manage to shift the taboo about nudity/nakedness??
Why does society force us to wear clothes, often unnecessarily?
In the height of summer, what could be more daft than sitting in a hot metal box, and wearing clothes......(and probably switching on air-conditioning to counter the heat), and as for wearing clothing to sunbathe and go swimming.................
Fortunes could be saved on clothing, clothes washing, air conditioning could be switched off..........
Discuss!

[Thomzo]

Oh believe me. Whatever society said, there are just too many parts of my body that I would want to keep private.

I once made the mistake of going topless on a beach in my younger, slimmer days and quite frankly, the looks I got from the guys made me put my top back on really quickly.

On a practical level, there are a lot of people who suffer from problems such a mild incontinence, colostomy bags etc. With clothes they can hide these issues and nobody need ever know. Also clothes can protect against sunburn, insect bites and scratches.

I don't even want to think about where you would carry your wallet

Cheers
Zoe

[red]

all very valid points Zoe

as a red-head with very fair skin i burn in less then 20 minutes in British summer. really clothes are a great idea.

nakid is fine. practical is also fine.

i'm a practical sort of person.

[Andy Hamilton]

I get your point about saving on washing clothes etc but I don't really see nakedness as a green issue. Even in the last year the green movement has made great progress in getting more people to recycle and to at least be aware of the environment. Who would have thought 5 years ago that Persil would ask you to wash your clothes at 30c? But there are still plenty of people flying off on stag nights, town folk in 4x4s and people moaning about using more than one bin so one thing at a time and surley stopping airport expansion and providing decent public transport should be tackled first?

In short the green movement still has a lot more work to be done without starting to champion movements like nakedness. Besides the whole attitude of this country has to change before we can be like some of our European cousins and that will take more than the green movement to sort out. When I was in Germany earlier this year there were plenty of naked bodies in the parks and no one batted an eye. If I was to take off my clothes in my local park then I would probably be banded as a pedophile and thrown in the lake.

[eccentric_emma]

It would be great to be as open minded so that people could wear as many or as little clothes as they like - or even just for people to be allowed to go barefooted. A friend of mine got arrested several times because he preferred to go shoeless. Even though he explained them on many occasions that it wasnt a scheme to tread on glass and sue somebody, that if any injuries occured that he would take responsibility. but the police seemed to think that he needed mental help!

[circlecross]

I would rather not go naked, but if other people want to that's their business. I stick to chairs in shorts and that's painful enough, so I can't imagine how painful other bits would be! We have a cold house, which I always tell dh we don't need the heating on - he can put a jersey on, and also, all 3 males in my household are fascinated by my boobs at the mo (ds2 has an excuse - he is actually feeding from them), so at least I have a fighting chance with them in boulder holders. Plus, they are still quite volatile, and prone to explosive milk spraying 8 months on, so it's for others safety too! People are not safe from my boobs!

[Stonehead]

will the green movement actually manage to shift the taboo about nudity/nakedness??
Why does society force us to wear clothes, often unnecessarily?
In the height of summer, what could be more daft than sitting in a hot metal box, and wearing clothes......(and probably switching on air-conditioning to counter the heat), and as for wearing clothing to sunbathe and go swimming.................
Fortunes could be saved on clothing, clothes washing, air conditioning could be switched off..........
Discuss!

Hmm, sounds okay until you start considering the likes of John Prescott, Ann Widdecombe etc naked and appearing on your TV set.

Sorry, but I'm not going green on this one.

[Stonehead]

A friend of mine got arrested several times because he preferred to go shoeless.

I was showing the Other Half my school photos recently and she was gobsmacked to notice that we didn't wear shoes in the Queensland equivalent of Nursery, P1 and P2 (which were in a separate infants school). That was back in the early 1970s and we were all barefoot. I remember getting the odd bindii stuck in my feet and a splinter or two from climbing the trees in the playground, but no one was bothered by the lack of shoes.

We moved up to footwear when we went to primary school - and were big kids!

[mrsflibble]

loving nekkidness neednt just be about being green. although i did recently realise (cold day) that we must spend an awful lot of time nekkid because Soph was convinced that I'd got her dressed because we were going out. she brought me her shoes and pointed to the door.



we wern't going out, it was just cold and i couldnt see the point in putting the heating on

[Masco&Bongo]

Oh believe me. Whatever society said, there are just too many parts of my body that I would want to keep private.

Me too.... no-one has done anything horrible enough to make me show them me naked....

Plus, I'm also terribly fair and can get sunburn through a t-shirt and total sunblock, so I'd have to stay naked inside rather than out!

[thefriarandme]

I'm all for people going commando in appropriate places if they wish to. I would be worried, however, about the feelings of those who are not so minded, if nakedness was allowed anywhere and everywhere; without restriction.

I suppose it would be fine for those with beautiful/perfectly endowed bodies without ailment, age and/or blemish. What of those who grew up in times when such things were frowned upon? It is not that long ago when showing a little bit of ankle was taboo.

I don't think I'd be buying sausages for too long if Mr. Eight inches was freely swinging around the butcher's shop and carrots would be a 'no, no!'

Would nakedness continue into a British winter? That might shrink a few egos. Jack Frost would become public enemy number one! It would then become a blue issue rather than green!

What about children and some of the insidious people within our society? I can understand that if we lived in a suitable climate where it had been the 'norm' for hundreds of years, nobody would bat an eyelid. But we don't.

The thing is, society - ergo, the general consensus of the populace - does recoil from general nudity for a lot of valid reasons. It does not force people to wear clothes in selected places, but it does have to protect those who choose not to comply with nudity. If it does not, it infringes the rights of those who do not agree. I for one, would not have felt comfortable taking my young daughters to a public beach where nudity was allowed. Everything in its own time and I hope I do not come across as a prude; I am far from it.

[Wombat]

When I was in Germany earlier this year there were plenty of naked bodies in the parks and no one batted an eye.

Serves me right for going there in winter, missed the good bits.

No going naked here - too much skin cancer. Besides I am not willing to share the vista of Mrs Wombat's female bits with the male population at large. I don't think she would either!

nev

[Jack]

Gidday

I was born a white man and want to stay that way. I never even take my shirt off. It may have something to do with when I was abou 10 I got so sunburnt that I was in bed for tow weeks, with nothing on me except a light sheet.

[Annpan]

I was hospitalisied because of sunburn when I was 4 No way would I walk around uncovered in the summer... yes even in Scotland .

Have you ever considered that it could de-sensitise parts of your body? I had a friend who covered her wrists all the time because she found it a senseous part of her body and it was hightened if she kept them covered. I get the same feeling during winter when I wear a scarf all the time So if you go around naked woulodn't your whole body de-sensitise?

[wulf]

It would cut down on washing clothes, I suppose, but there would be a lot of other cleaning to do - for example, do nudists carry towels or cloths to put on the things they sit on?

One thing that would be good about a greater level of public nudity - at least people would see what real people with no clothes look like, which might stop so many thinking of themselves as ugly or abnormal just because they don't match the airbrushed looks of media celebrities (caught on a good day with a kind art editor).

Wulf