Society & Nudity

Why does Western society deem that nudity is taboo?  Why are we convinced to believe that we should be ashamed of our bodies and be ashamed to be nude?  In today's world, one is considered perverted if they watch anything on TV that contains nudity.  One is a deviant if they subscribe to pornographic magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse.  One can even be arrested for indecency for walking around their house nude if someone (even if they are trespassing) see them naked through a window.  What is so wrong with the naked body?  Stores ban mothers for exposing their breast to breastfeed their baby.  Why?  What is so wrong with seeing someone nude?  What is so wrong with someone wanting to be nude?

We as a society needs to stop being such prudes and just get over it.  We are born naked, why can't we be naked?  I firmly believe if nudity was more acceptable, sexual assaults, rape, teen pregnancy, and other sex related incidents would drop.  I'm not saying they would go away, but if more people were accustomed to seeing someone nude, their would less desire to act on the taboo.  More "normal" people do something because they can't ("I know I'm not supposed to, it's just so tempting, I must") then they do when they can.  I believe more woman would be appreciated in society if they were seen less as sexual objects.  If people grew up seeing more people naked, they would be less ashamed of themselves and would have less deviant sexual thoughts.  Curiosity can stem many bad behaviors.  For example, if you never saw a girl nude before, curiosity could result in peeping/voyeurism.  Then you want to see more which could result in obsession.  Then you get in trouble for looking and it becomes taboo which turns into sexual fantasies, etc.  If more people were comfortable seeing others nude, there would be less issues.

As a guy, I was told by society that seeing someone naked was taboo.  You should never look upon a naked body.  That peeked my curiosity more.  I started fantasizing what a girl looked like naked.  Then testosterone took over (damn you) and made it a turn on if I saw a girl nude (whether it was in a magazine or on late night cable).  Luckily I was involved in theater which exposed me to seeing other people change.  The more I saw, the more comfortable I became and the less sexual it was to see a girl naked. When I was in college we did a production of Hair.  I was the stage manager so I was surrounded by nudity as the show called for it.  As rehearsals went on, we got to the nude scene.  To make everyone comfortable, we had a special rehearsal on a Sunday.  All the cast, the director, and myself locked ourselves in the theater and stripped down to nothing.  We just hung out in the theater in the nude with each other.  We were a bit apprehensive at first, but within minutes we were all comfortable walking around with each other being naked.  No one was obviously aroused by being around each other naked.  It was at this point that I realized that there is no big deal about nudity.  It did not change how any of us looked at each other.  It was like "Oh ok you're naked, no big deal"  It was the same feeling when I worked at an outdoor theatre.  There were a few times when we did "e" that we ended up either being naked at the beach or running naked at the theater.  Again everyone was comfortable and there were no issues.  No sexual abuse arose, nothing.  It was just a bunch of naked people hanging out together.  Was it interesting finally seeing certain people naked, of course, but it was more like "So that's what they look like nude, or so that's what her breasts look like, or oh so that's what his penis looks like".  There was no OMG she's / he's naked, I'm so turned on.  It was like any other day.  Instead of curiosity turning into something sexual, it just stayed curiosity.  Nothing sexual behind it.  No turn on.

So this then begs a question:  Should friends just let other friends see each other naked to just get the curiosity out of the way and move on?  Would anyone have issues with that?  How would spouses feel knowing that their spouses friends have seen their spouses nude?  I know that it is usually ok that girls see girls naked and sort of ok that guys see guys naked, but what about guys seeing girls naked and vice versa?  Nothing would be shock anymore.  Everyone would "hypothetically" be more comfortable with each other.  For instance, a friend of mine showing her tattoos off.  Biggest pet peeve is someone saying they have a tattoo, but you can't see it because it will expose more of their body.  Hello, I'm your friend.  I've known you for like 15+ years.  I'm not gonna drool over seeing you exposed.  I'm not gonna get all turned on and attack you.  I just want to see the f'n tattoo.  Calm down, we are friends.  Why should we be embarrassed to see our friends naked or have our friends see ourselves naked?  To me, big whoop, you're naked, okay, you're my friend, this changes nothing.  I'm not gonna look at you in a sexual way now.  Nothings changed.  Maybe this is what friends need.  Just see each other naked and that may help each other be more comfortable with themselves.  True friends won't make jokes, or run screaming, or look at you any different.  I think some of this tangent is spawned from when I took photos of a friend's back for her tattoo.  I think both of us were a little shy and hesitant of it.  She made sure to cover her front so I didn't see anything.  Also she was a little reluctant of pulling her pants down farther exposing her crack to see more of the butterfly tattoo.  I was a little shy and apprehensive too.  WTF.  We are friends.  Why did we have to feel that way?  Why did society brainwash us to feel that way?  We need to break free of the prudish society ways.  If we don't we will continue to be ashamed of ourselves and hate our thoughts and feel bad about our self image.