Why is it not okay to be nude in public?

[AqD]

Since being nude couldn't possibly hurt anyone, why is it not allowed in most societies?

Is it even rational to forbid nudity in public? If not, why don't we just abandon it? Why do the majority of people continue to follow such meaningless morals that were set centuries ago and offer no benefit to anyone? It seems to me that forcing everyone to wear clothes is just as ridiculous as forcing women to wear hijab

[Vanoi]

Because society says so.

[Enzo]

Because Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge.

[Humble Warrior]

Ah... this one. And one of my biggest bug bears. There`s no reason that why basic nudity should be illegal. Of course, to keep from being cold, it`s wise to wear clothes, but nudity should not be an arrestable offense. I heard a police officer once say, "Think of the children."

Children don`t care. They just get taught to `care` by adults thinking crap.

Anyway, as an artist, this subject is somewhat close to me and my views.

[AqD]

Ah... this one. And one of my biggest bug bears. There`s no reason that why basic nudity should be illegal. Of course, to keep from being cold, it`s wise to wear clothes, but nudity should not be an arrestable offense. I heard a police officer once say, "Think of the children."

Most parents here always say the same thing, except they have no idea how watching nudity can hurt kids - kids are born naked themselves!

[Hobbes]

Ah... this one. And one of my biggest bug bears. There`s no reason that why basic nudity should be illegal. Of course, to keep from being cold, it`s wise to wear clothes, but nudity should not be an arrestable offense. I heard a police officer once say, "Think of the children."

Children don`t care. They just get taught to `care` by adults thinking crap.

Anyway, as an artist, this subject is somewhat close to me and my views.

The naked body is something to be admired and respected. I see no reason why it should be punishable. Viewing it as offensive is a ed up opinion to have, imo.

[Humble Warrior]

The naked body is something to be admired and respected.

You must appreciate art.

[removeduser_4536284751384]

In some places it's legal. In Los Angeles it's legal so long as you bring a towl to sit on (even if you don't plan on sitting down) so you don't spread germs from your naked ass, taint and genitals to the seat.

[Himster]

Well there's an aesthetic distinction between being "nude" and "naked". Being naked is perfectly fine, natural, healthy, to be nude implies being seen, or the desire to be seen. Naked is simply to be deprived of clothes, nude is a performance by definition.*

*typed while naked.

[Humble Warrior]

Well there's an aesthetic distinction between being "nude" and "naked". Being naked is perfectly fine, natural, healthy, to be nude implies being seen, or the desire to be seen. Naked is simply to be deprived of clothes, nude is a performance by definition.*

*typed while naked.

I don`t agree. Sometimes talking to someone using the word `naked` makes people more uncomfortable than saying `nude` even though it`s the same thing. At least round my neck of the woods.

[Himster]

I don`t agree. Sometimes talking to someone using the word `naked` makes people more uncomfortable than saying `nude` even though it`s the same thing. At least round my neck of the woods.

Of course it makes them more uncomfortable, being naked is a vulnerable position. To be nude has a connotation of empowerment, or a fulfillment of certain aesthetic criteria. The conservative art historian Kenneth Clarke defined the distinction like this: "being naked is simply being without clothes, the nude is a form of art", more recently the writer/art-critic John Berger put it like this: "To be naked is to be oneself, to be nude is to be seen naked by other and yet not recognized as oneself, a nude has to be seen as an object in order to be a nude."
The reason why naturists don't like to be called nudists (usually) is because the word nude carries with it a historic and artistic connotation, that is the desire to be seen and the performance associated with being seen.

[trance]

Hygiene, and the fact that the human naked body has became highly sexualized in most societies. It should remain an offense, I have no wish to involuntarily see yours or anyone elses genitals tbh. That simple. Some people are also very smelly with clothes, now think how horribly they would smell without them - huwwwww.

[AqD]

Hygiene, and the fact that the human naked body has became highly sexualized in most societies. It should remain an offense, I have no wish to involuntarily see yours or anyone elses genitals tbh. That simple.

Of course it's sexualized!

Please explain how can a young, beautiful woman getting herself naked in public pose an offense to you? Do you have to stare at her genitals just because they're exposed? Do you hate women?

[trance]

Of course it's sexualized!

Please explain how can a young, beautiful woman getting herself naked in public pose an offense to you? Do you have to stare at her genitals just because they're exposed? Do you hate women?

Hahaha, it's not the young, beautiful females that are an offense to me, it's the old, smelly, saggy ones who actually like to be naked who I find offensive.

[Aeneas Veneratio]

I don't want to see the majority of the mankind naked, either due to age, gender or BMI. Keep your clothes on or you are in for an infinity amount of nibble twisting!

Morales or not, your rear end is not art!

[Humble Warrior]

That smiley is the only expression I could find to reflect the oh so obvious reactions I expected to see.

[Vizvii]

Only good-looking people should be allowed to be nude in public.

[Claudius Gothicus]

The identification of nudeness with sexuality and most societies necessity to keep sexuality within the realm of the individual's Private Life, create and reinforce the normative orientations which induce a generality of individuals against ''nudeness''.

[Claudius Gothicus]

The identification of nudeness with sexuality and most societies necessity to keep sexuality within the realm of the individual's Private Life, create and reinforce the normative orientations which induce a generality of individuals against ''nudeness''.

Ok. Modern societies still identify nudeness with a particular sphere of life, the private one, and as a result consider the introduction of ''Private'' activities(like nudity) into Public Areas a serious deviance in relationship to the Cultural Values and Normative Orientations that the ''deviant'' Subject was supposed to ''internalize'' through education and aculturation.

Cultural Systems tend to resist changes in their Value Set, Social Systems tend to resist unproper role-behavior. Let's put it this way, "the Cultural System set's the value-framework into the Individual's mind and the Social System interactively responds to that value-framework by the generation of certain norms whose function is to determine the proper adjustment of Social Roles to expectations''.

That's because the Cultural System is crucial in adjusting the Personality of it's individuals, in kinda ''programming it'' to a certain extent in relationship to ''what it's good'' and ''what's desirable'', while the process of socialization also molds our Personality into accepting the appropiate ''configuration of behaviors'' that come attached to each Social Role(parent, professional, doctor, student, son, citizen etc.).

The Private Sphere is a place in the Collective Imaginary(Cultural System) where the citizen, the subject, is allowed to indulge in those activities which are not proper for the Public spaces. What is proper and what is not proper is then determined by a series of Norms(delimitation to the correct acting of Social Roles) which when violated by Deviant Behavior will retort to a series of Control Mechanisms like:

Public Reprobation.
Ostracism.
Instilling of Guilt.
Law Enforcement.

Examples set in a non-hierarchical order.

All human behavior is a constant dynamic between the internalization of values and the acceptance of norms that regulate a ''personality framework'' also formed by biological and cognitive impulses of those ''interactive actors''. That's why, in any case, the Social System(deriving norms from the values of the Cultural One) determines that ''being nude in public'' is not only rare but deviant and indecent(threatens the Cultural System since enough deviant activities can force to change the Cultural Values): it's an unproper acting of the Social Role ''citizen'' within the Public Sphere and a direct confrontation to the Cultural Values that more or less ''separate'' the Public Actions from Private Ones.

There's a ton of Aesthetic, Utilitarian and Functional reasons for the existence of clothes and the ''undesirable'' state of nudity. But in the end the Modern ''Dignification'' of the Public Sphere is the most important force to stop people from walking around naked.

EDIT: I agree strongly with Elfdude's point in regards to Psychological Deviancy: Psychological Deviancy(as in behaviors and mind sets that correspond to antisocial activity and personality) are a product of sexual repression(what the Cultural and Social Systems of the Victorian Era did to humans was forcing into them ideals that were wll beyond many's biological possibilities of restraint). But from the Sociocultural System's PoV, the idea is that Deviancy is not ''isolated attacks of Antisocial Behavior derived of Repressed Personalities'', the Deviancy is not adapting to it's values and norms(no matter how strong these might seem to a great deal of individuals).

In a shorter version of things: Society and Culture are not concerned with Psychological Deviancy(behaviors and mind set's that diverge from normal brain and cognitive functions), ''they'' are concerned with Social Deviancy(actions and behaviors that systematically and statistically defy the established framework of Values and Norms).

In Functional Analysis(Robert K. Merton's view): ''The Manifest Social Functions of Clothing and Modesty generate Latent Psychological Dysfunctions of sexual repression and frustration''.

Sociology is concerned with the mechanisms that regulate and explain the processes that happen in society. Psychology is concerned with the mechanisms that regulate and explain the processes that happen in the individual. You guys(Elfdude and Vanoi) are reaching differente but correct conclusions, only in different levels of Analysis.

Another Example only in this case it's turned around: stealing out of starvation is an absolutely rational and ''Psychologically Normal'' reaction to a hostile situation, in terms of ''The Social System'' however it still represents an action who defies cultural values and proper role acting and must, in any case, be ''repressed or contained'' so that it doesn't expand. In this case Social Deviancy would still happen with a Psychologically Normal Subject.

[Humble Warrior]

Yea! Let`s look a very simple, innocent issue such as nakedness and then it tear it to pieces with over-complicated analysis.

Why, God, did you let them eat that blasted fruit???