I was talking to my mom this morning, and happen to mention that on a boat excursion a few weeks ago the German guy with us changed into his swim trunks in front of everybody (including one woman), which I doubt any of us Americans on the boat might have done.
I also mentioned that we might be more prudish because of our Puritan origins, but then I thought that theory seemed kind of weak. I think the vast majority of Americans today come from post-puritan European immigrants, wouldn’t that have wiped out the Puritan influence over a century or two?
I’m guessing it’s the influence of religion, which is much more predominant in America than in the vast majority of European states. America is also much more socially conservative generally, not just in terms of nudity and sex, but also stuff like drugs and homosexuality.
Some observations on what seem to be somewhat differing perceptions on nudity (not just a differing degree of tolerance to it)
The OP’s title mentions “nudity/sex”, apparently implying these are closely related. There seem to be somewhat different perceptions on that - a lot of people here seem to take the approach that nudity is only sexual if you want it to be.
For instance in the case of nude sunbathing - that’s not supposed to be sexual. I have read several American novels where protagonists spend time in Munich, Germany, and the author mentions (by way of local colour) them walking through the Englischer Garten and passing by nude sunbathers. In two cases the author also threw in couples having sex - which shows they completely misunderstood the relevant mores, perhaps regarding the latter as a natural progression from the former.
Another difference might be what the expected behaviour towards (partly) nude people is. I have read accounts of American travel writers on visiting German spa baths where the dress code was “nude”. They referred to their initial uneasiness with that (entirely understandable) but what amazed me was that they then referred to the sight of the other bathers - one lady writer even wrote something to the effect of “Any son of mine will be circumcised.”
No that’s a faux pas on the writers’ part - you are supposed to ignore the others’ nudity, which includes not later revealing that you did not in fact ignore it. When a naked man introduces himself to you you are supposed to look him in the eyes and shake his hand.
The German guy on the boat excursion mentioned in the OP probably expected the others’ not-noticing reflex automatically kicking in on his changing into his swim trunks.
Let me hazard that Europeans are just better looking. Well I am. …emm
Generally (perhaps just not with regard to nudity) Americans are considered less self-conscious and less constrained by social conventions and more extrovert that Scandinavians.
Really? Maybe the Danes are, but tell that to all the hot topless Swedish and Norwegian chicks I met last year…
Anyway, there’s a fantastically cynical and scurrilous, but brilliantly written, free weekly newsletter I get called The Friday Thing, that has this to say, WRT the Tamara Hoover case:
IMO it’s this puritanism, allied to the extreme reliance of US broadcast media on advertisers, who in turn are in thrall to puritannical lobbying and boycotts for fear of losing market share, that perpetuates it.
I dunno about the Puritan or religious angle so much. It just seems to me that America has a much more utilitarian view of clothing than fashionable view.
Americans, to my mind, wear clothing that covers you up because that’s what clothing is for. Many Americans think little of going out to the theater in sweat pants and a tank top, or to the grocery store in spandex, or whatever. Clothing serves a purpose in America, and the purpose is coverage.
From what little I’ve seen of European dress, having never been there, is there’s a greater emphasis on appropriateness to time and place, to appearance as well as to form.
Maybe. It’s hard to see from here what you guys are wearing.
I’ve always thought that the current prudishness about nudity goes back to the Victorian era, not the Puritan era. After all, in the Victorian era women used to put little skirts on table legs.
Anecdotaly…
I just got back fro ma trip to El Salvador and Costa Rica. It was a fact finding trip for possible partnerships with my church.
One ministry we visited was a place where a lovely woman named Rebecca works with abused women. She offers them shelter, job training and counseling. Part of her counseling is convincing them that they have value, and that they do not deserve to be abused. They need to become “new women” with new attitudes.
A poster she has in her office says “una nuevo mujer” which mean simply "a new woman. It shows a drawing of a nude woman breaking out of an eggshell.
I showed my mother the slide presentation I was putting together for my church, which included this poster. She was aghast. “You can’t show that in church!”
But it unnoticed in Costa Rica. Whne it was notcied, it was favorably so.
The latino culture is definitely more passionate about life, and that means food, games, sex, work, than we are. IMHO.
I believe that may be an urban (historical?) legend.
Anyway, the Victorians were British, yet now we’ve got smut and nudity everywhere. Though nothing compared to the continentals - they have billboards on bus stops with topless women, while the cosmetics ad in the UK about 10 years ago that showed a lady’s nipple did get banned. But we certainly don’t blur out buttocks like the US networks do.
And while we do have obese Europeans (Scotland I believe is now the most obese country per head of population on earth), we are hardly in the same league in terms of individuals’ weight. Scottish obese people are fat, but few of them are US-style humongous.
Depends what you mean by US-style humongous, though. The obesity epidemic as it exists here is the collective total of “ten or twenty pounds” that so many here do need to lose. You see very few people who are hugely overweight, though my experience may be limited by location (Southern California) and socioeconomic class (I live in what’s considered an affluent district; affluent people are less likely to be fat).
Last time I was in Boston, in my first day I saw seven or eight people who made my jaw drop by their vastness. Last time I was in Tennessee I saw people every day who needed to lose one or two hundred pounds rather than 10 or 20. When I was in Vegas, they were providing electric wheelchairs for people who are so big they can’t walk.
Really, we have lots of fat people here, but the incidence of the above is negligible. That’s what I mean by US-style.
Tubbiness issues aside, I think it’s fair to say that Europeans (in general) are far more relaxed, on the whole, about sex and nudity than are Americans. Continental Europeans are yet more relaxed than Brits I think; and the further north you go in Europe the more it’s about “none of your business” and the less it’s about sexual/religious moral codes.
Though it varies somewhat in both places of course.
But I am having trouble getting a handle on talking about it. Bodily modesty is different from broadcast standards; nude beaches are not really the same as sex in public; public nursing of babies is in a different category than is teen sex. Though in this case the latter may lead to the former.
Still I have to say that in my experience Europeans are more relaxed on all these fronts than are Americans.
