Do you believe Americans are prudes when it comes to social nudity? Read details please.?

Question

We have many events in many cities that allow or encourage casual nudity:

1. San Francsisco's Folsom Street Fair
2. Dore Alley Fair (SF)
3. Bare 2 Breakers Bike Ride (SF)
4. Burning Man Festival in the desert
5. Testicle Festival in Montana
6. Biker's Week -Myrtle Beach, South
Carolina
7. Key West's Fantasy Fest
8. Mardi Gras in New Oreans, Galveston,
and other cities
9. Halstead Days in Chicago

Also, in San Francisco and other cities, atheletes and performance actors are routinely tolerated by police. Skinny dipping and nude college traditions are also generally tolerated by most folks.

Answer 1

i'm100% in favor of total nudity. it's great that the police dept. is somewhat tolerant.

i have belonged to a nudist resort for 23 years. my wife and i spend our summer weekends there. at home, we live in a rural section of ny, our back yard is completely surrounded by a loced privacy fence. our nearest neighbor is about a mile away. consequently, i spend late spring, all summer, and early fall----totally in the nude while in the house or yard. we have a pool where we unwind with a drink or two. i enjoy do the yard work and sunning in the nude. it brings me inner peace and tranquility.
society still needs to build tolerance for us nudies. at the resort we frequent, the motto is----IT'S NOT RUDE OR CRUDE TO BE NUDE.

atp

however, this resort does not permit the wearing of any body piercings in the genital region. that's 5 of my piercings and i'm fighting for their acceptance.

Answer 2

As an Englishman who worked for an American company for a long time, and so I've been to the States quite often, I think things are improving but they're still a long way from how things are in Europe. The reality is that, even today, a woman sunbathing topless on the vast majority of American beaches would face arrest.

Even here in England, which is often portrayed, rather unfairly, as being prudish, it is perfectly legal for women to sunbathe topless on any beach or public area. Indeed a recent survey showed that some 75% of British people would happily strip off if they came across a nude beach whilst they were on holiday abroad, I think that number would be significantly lower in America!

Answer 3

For Europeans, the US morals are quite weird and hard to understand. Here it's absolutely normal for girls and women to go topless at the Mediterrenean beaches - no matter if Italy, France, Spain or Greece. And in the former communist states, even nudism has some tradition. Really nudes can be found many places, but usually nowhere with people around who are fully dressed - rather at separate or mixed beaches and specially at inland lakes and rivers.

In Europe, young people are more informed about sex, and for many parents it's quite normal, that their children have the first sexual experience at 16 or even earlier. They even would provide condoms - and so the amount of teeny pregnancies is quite low in Europe (except the lower class girls in the UK).

And, of course, here in Europe there are full rights to individuals from the age of 18, including alcohol and driving a car - in the US, these two points go apart extremely...

Answer 4

My daughter and were discussing this very subject this morning, and comparing the US' attitudes towards sex and nudity to Europe's.
If we could ever get over our Puritanical ideology here in the States, we'd be so much better off, and there'd be so fewer problems with nudity and sexuality. Sex crimes would fall off, and just think how nice it would be to look at a magazine and see people of all sizes, colors and persuasions enjoying healthy sex.
Great post!
We also have a Testicle festival here in New Mexico and some of my friends cross the border into AZ every year for the "Burning Man".
Good luck.

Answer 5

There's no denying that Americans have come a long way toward accepting social nudity.

National opinion polls in 1983 and 1990 revealed that 72% of Americans approve of designated clothing optional beaches. To date, over 30 million Americans have experienced mixed social nudity.

Nudist resorts and communities in the U.S., reported a 300% increase in the whopping $400 million nude vacationing industry over the past 14 years.

The American Association for Nude Recreation includes nearly 50,000 members and 267 affiliated clubs, RV campgrounds, bed & breakfasts and resorts in the U.S., Canada and Jamaica.

The problem that will forever "plague" social nudity is that too many people relate to it (nudity) only when they either bathe/shower or have sex.

They simply cannot alter their perception to understand that nude does not = lewd. If you're not bathing, it must automatically be about sex.

Any person who has experienced the relaxation of social nudity would tell them that - like sex - it's just a state of mind. A person is not doomed to think erotic thoughts just because he/she is naked.

But, alas, it's like trying to explain color to a blind person.

Some people get it, and some never will.

Answer 6

Good Question, I am Australian but have lived in various parts of the States for the past 5yrs. What struck me as odd is the fact that Americans are infact very prudish about nudity but so decensitized when it comes to guns or murder. It is a whole different way of life in the US, compared to Europe and Australia who I think both willingly accept nudity in the main stream of society.

Apart from Madi Gra in New Orleans I think the other ones you listed arn't attended by every day people but rather people who are into specifically public nudity and they are looked down upon by main stream people in the States.

Answer 7

This is an interesting observation. Unfortunately, I believe that most Americans are definitely more prudish than not when it comes to social, non-sexual nudity. The examples you cite are wonderful, and there are more of them taking place every year. However, they're only a small portion of the events that tolerate absolutely no nudity at all.

I love being naked in appropriate places, whether indoors or out, alone or with others (whether they're naked or not, guys or girls, etc.) I spend many summer days at the nude beach here on Long Island, swim naked in friends' pools, and lie out naked on my parent's deck (when they're not at home...they're truly conservative and definitely not comfortable with nudity).

I truly feel that it's up to those of us who enjoy social nudity in appropriate places and for appropriate reasons to take advantage of every opportunity to get naked and demonstrate that simple nudity has nothing to do with sexuality, isn't perverted or obscene, and that our society needs to become more tolerant of such activities.

Answer 8

Actually, the key difference between European social nudity and American social nudity is that in Europe, it is very widely accepted in natural settings, like beaches and parks, whereas in America, the natural setting nudity is usually limited to designated areas. But you have a good point - we in the States are not all prudes, and you have developed quite the list there to illustrate that.

Answer 9

Well, there is also a surge in nude resorts and traveling by people in the US. Tampa has a large concentration of nude resorts (a red state), and many of the nude resorts in the caribbean/mexico are mostly frequented by US citizens.

There is a very vocal minority who are prudes, but I don't think they represent the majority. Most people just shrug at nudity.

Answer 10

I think we (in the U.S.) are slowly becoming more tolerant of public nudity at beaches, even where there is no sign that says "nude beach." For example, I have been nude at a
non-nude public beach in Galveston in the evening, and people were around and saw me. Nothing bad happened. I think also that here most parents for some reason equate nudity with sex, and I probably get away with nudity at non-nude beaches because I am there when there are fewer people, and they are adults.