Some people make a ‘yes’ last all day…
Seriously, the questions are:
I don’t really know, though I would have guessed that Britain (where I am) is USier than some other countries in Europe. But ask someone who’s been to some of them…
Well, I lived in Italy for a while. They had a game show on which the lovely female assistants flashed their bare breasts before each commercial break, and contestants had to strip to increase their score (I think, my Italian wasn’t too great). This was one of the most popular shows on TV, and was considered a family show - women enjoyed it as much as men, and the kids watched, too. I wouldn’t say this nudity was “non-sexual”, tho - it was clearly intended to be titillating. (FWIW, I never saw any nudity on Italian beaches. 
)
Here in the US, guys would watch that kind of show alone or with their buddies, but never in mixed company. It’s my impression that US women are opposed to nudity & pornography more than men. In addition to the historical Puritanism, we have to deal with the “Porn is violence against women” creed of the radical feminists. So neither conservative guys nor liberals can express an interest in nekkid bodies without getting scolded by the wimmenfolk.
I have been trying to respond to this for god knows how long, but I keep getting timed out. I hope this works now.
I am an American woman and I have no problem with nudity - partiucarly with non-sexual nudity. But you get into the sexual and it gets shady. I have no moral problem with it, but it makes me uncomfortable because when I see it, I compare myself to the pulled and tucked bodies I see on the screen. They have gorgeous bodies, airbrushed smiles and are completely blemish-free. How can I possibly compare to that? I’d be happy to watch porn with my husband - it’d be fun. But, even after having run a marathon, I’m still a size 8 and not a size 4 or less. So, yeah, I feel inadequate. And I have no problem with women making porn. Lots of them enjoy it, so why the heck not do it?
First of all, thanks for taking the time, when you quoted me, to fix my badly botched vB coding.
I don’t think I can really argue this point with you, since you seem to have a problem seeing people in bathing suits, let alone in the altogether. You don’t like going to the beach because you might be exposed to unattractive people showing a little skin? Then I can’t expect to make much headway in advocating clothes-free recreation to you.
As for why no nude beach has been established, there’s always someone who objects to the idea and kills it. L.A. County is a crowded place, especially along the coastline. There have been beaches that were officially clothing optional at one time, but changed back to clothing-required. I don’t know the details of why that happened.
However, if anyone can possibly see the beach from a house, or a road, that’s usually enough reason to prevent there being a nude beach. It makes no difference how far away the house is. And there are houses and roads within a shout of nearly every beach in the county. As for establishing a nude beach, yeah, I’ll think about that the next time I have enough money to buy some beach, and buy out the surrounding houses, so no one can live in them and be offended by nudity.
“Opting out” is fine, but we could sure use some more places to opt in.
In Europe it isn’t a big deal from childhood. There is nudity on television, billboards at the beach etc…and it is the norm. It is only a big deal for Americans who have to sneak to see it until they are old enough to have sex .
mipiace, infatti 
in Italy, naked or topless women sell us everything from mineral water,proscuitto crudo and shampoo to silicon caulking. they grace our magazines - as well, in fact L’espresso one of the political/culture mags is offering weekly an edition of masters of erotic photography, yes, available on every newstand.
a beautiful body, in itself, is appreciated by all
If it’s Christianity’s influance that causes prudishness, how do you explain the middle East? They’re not Christians, it’s not a historical influance there, and they show far far less skin then us God-fearing Americans.
But it’s definitely a religious influence in the Middle East, only the religion there is Islam. Undoubtedly their moral strictures go way beyond ours, but the source of it, or at least a large part of it, is religion.
OMG FriendRob, I’ve seen that show!
(It was in a hostel in Rome, the guy in charge was watching it. He was Lebanese and kept trying to tickle me, BTW)
However the British one-off show “The Naked Jungle” was even more bizarre. Random punters, doing a gameshow, naked. A physical gameshow, involving running, jumping, swinging and climbing.
It was sort of like a car accident, you couldn’t drag your eyes away, even though you knew it was REALLY REALLY WRONG to watch.
And Keith Chegwin.
I’m still in therapy.
Oh, and I think that Italian show was on a UK cable channel a few years back. They dubbed the voices into English like Eurotrash does.
Can’t remember the channel though - Could have been Men and Motors or L!ve.
*originally posted by * Shade
BTW, “Europe” holds totally different countries. **Chattywine ** mentioned the Italian shows on channel RAI-UNO by tycoon Berlusconi. The Dutch were mildly enraged and bazzled by RAI Uno. The Dutch are still very PC about feminist issues, far more then on racial of social issues. We were shocked by the RAI-UNO Italian flimsy excuses to show 1.80 tall gorgious models on TV-shows. Imagine a shameful excuse fo a quiz-show, where the contestants have to guess something about a strawberry (the Italian word for it, I guess, it was that intellectual level). The strawberry is brought in by a model in a clingy fire-red dress, who holds a strawberry on a little plate in front of her deep cleavage. The camera zooms in on the strawberry.
That could never in a million years be a Dutch show!
Good analysis, Maastricht. Do you remember that show Tutti Frutti on the German station RTL Plus in the late 80’s/early 90’s? About the same premise as that RAI Uno show, only fully topless. I guess that tells us that Italians have slightly more style, but the Germans walk the walk. 
I find it curious how people will label Americans w/ their broadbrush as being prudish and puritancal. Yet in other cases we are decadent and immoral.
I suppose some folks don’t get it…you can’t put a label on the people here. There is too much diversity. Both extremes and every level in between for practically anything you can imagine, both legal and illegal. Still we somehow manage to make it work, for the most part.
There are nude beaches, communities, resorts, associations, magazines, etc… Freedom to do whatever, also means freedom to not HAVE to be exposed to whatever. (ie. smoking in public)
Do European men like to look at nude women? Was that the question, seriously?
It doesn’t matter where the hell the man is from.
Generally speaking, YES, men like to look at nude women.
I’ll grant you “slightly”. I always thought it was in poor taste that the RAI-Uno presenters themselves were sweaty men of such short stature they could stick their nose in the cleavage of both high-heeled models flanking them without bending over.
Tutti Frutti was *surreal! * In my memory it was just like any other show, with contestants descending down big steps, and prizes to win, and show-ballets in between, exept all the girls were topless and had really really frozen smiles, and everybody tried not to notice the girls were topless.
But back to the OP, every country has its oddities. FI, I wonder if something like the Dutch show "Sex voor the Buch " would be possible in the USA?
It’s sort of a Jerry Springer, (named Menno Buch) who makes house-calls. He’ll visit some dudes home, (the home is clearly recognizably filmed) gets a tour of this dudes pervert collection “Nice cockrings you got there!” and rounds off with a demonstration. “So will you show our viewers how you prefer to jack off with a bag over your head while muttering obsceneties about your mothers dog?” “I’d be happy to. Just let me get my favourite bag.” :eek:
Interestingly, most Dutch were angry Menno Buch had not protected his victims from themselves. Some of them were actually surprised the cashier at the local supermarket looked oddly at them after the show had een on TV. And of course, everybody watched the show. Except me, of course, I didn’t. No, I really didn’t!
Ah, Sex voor de Buch, the Dutch version of… actually, it was such bad taste, it only could have originated here. Honestly. Yes, I did watch it a few times. I’ll admit it. But MAN, did that make me feel uncomfortable. And that’s coming from a pretty open-minded guy. Remember the guy with the blow-up doll??
OK, enough about that.
t-keela, you’re very right about the US population being too diverse to label as “puritan”. But I think a large part of the US image abroad comes from either politicians who drop the words “God” and “Family Values” every two seconds, or one of those 10,000 Wholesome White Family Sitcoms Where Nothing Ever Goes Wrong. I mean, seriously, if you ask a 16 year old Dutch kid what American life is like, they’ll likely answer that it’s all one big road to the Prom. 
Of course it doesn’t describe Americans as a whole. But it’s what we see on our screens. Just like the Dutch are probably known for weed and hookers more than they are for, say, their renowned universities and many multinational firms.
Coldfire says:
Coldfire, you’ve hit the problem on the head. Most (if not all) foreigners assume that the entire population of the U.S. behaves the same way the performers do in television shows and the movies. Either people thought that all americans lived in Southfork and threw money around like drunken sailors (ala Dallas) or every american wore wife-beaters and cheated on their spouses with the local tranvestite hooker with 5 kids from 5 different men who was busy seducing the local junior high school (ala Jerry Springer).
The U.S. population is way too big and diverse to generalize about.
quote: “Just like the Dutch are probably known for weed and hookers more than they are for, say, their renowned universities and many multinational firms.”
Coldfire you’re right on target w/ that one…seems like everyone from there is bragging about the dope or trying to sell me pornography. While I’m sure the dope is probably just as excellent as the claims and the sex is just as wild as depicted, I realize that doesn’t describe everyone…does it?
Yes, it’s a damned shame that WE THE PEOPLE don’t find a way to do away w/ the assholes that “run” this world. Because I believe most folks would get along if they actually got to know one another.
look at nude women…yep me too