Why always stay dressed-2

There is no fundamental human reason to stay dressed at all times, there is nothing "in your biology" that makes people desire to be covered at all times. There is the clear need to be warm, to be protected from the environment and to decorate the body for various reasons but none of these provide a compelling reason to hide specific body parts in public. Societies both ancient and modern have treated nudity as normal without any detrimental effect. In the West, seeing a live nude body in public would at the very least cause comment and at the worst, cause legal action to be taken, but this attitude is learned, not innate.

There are several reasons cited for always staying dressed in a social setting, perhaps the most compelling is because everyone else does. When confronted with the possibility of going nude, perhaps on a holiday beach far from home, many people will find reasons to stay dressed even if they are attracted to the idea.

The most common would be embarrassment. This can be powerful reason to stay dressed, but embarrassment is learnt, it is not innate. Most people are not embarrassed about body parts such as hands, feet, arms etc., so this begs the question, why are people embarrassed about their penis or their breasts? What particular aspect of these parts should lead to this feeling? Study of human behaviour shows there is no fundamental, biological reason for this, many go naked in a social setting without detriment. Embarrassment is learned and can be unlearned. Having once encountered a social nude environment, most people are amazed to find that embarrassment disappears.

Western religions do not generally have direct prohibition of social nudity as a core belief. Protestations against nudity have been made by a few of the religious hierarchy and sadly followed by the many. There is often a huge difference in the core beliefs of a religion and what is taught by those who feel they should teach it. It is quite easy to find a given religious text and then to find a range of mutually opposing interpretations of that same text. A good example is the use of the word “shame” in the Christian story of Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Some Christian teachers will take it to mean that nakedness is shameful, others will take it to mean that nakedness is good, at least that is the position taken by the Christian naturist movement. In their view, how could their God have made something shameful? Would you dare suggest that the handiwork of their God is so flawed it must be covered all the time? Did He make very a serious mistake? As I do not believe in a God, things are much easier, to me, the good or bad about nudity is what is in your heart, your intentions, the reasons you go naked, not the nudity itself.