Immodesty

I was reading a blog post* where someone was very offended by the fact that people walk around with very little clothing on, namely women showing cleavage or wearing bikinis.

If everyone just stopped dressing like a street walker we’d be one step closer to fixing what’s wrong with this country.

For some reason this really got my goat. Maybe because I think people shouldn't be allowed to forbid things just because they are offended by them. Or maybe because our country has a lot of other huge frigging problems that need solving besides this person's discomfort at seeing a breast. How very typical of conservative-types (and I'm making an assumption here about their political affiliation which I doubt is inaccurate) to think that the biggest problems in our society have to do with sex instead of the fact that our schools suck, people don't get health care and meanwhile in other countries around the world people are suffering and dying in terrible, degrading ways.

There is only one way that I can partly sympathize with this, and it is that I feel women are overly-objectified and feel they need to show their bodies while men do not.

However, I do not think that women should be forced to cover up. I think people should wear whatever they like as long as it does not endanger people around them. And that does not include hurting your feelings or making you feel squeamish.

I was raised Baptist and also am from the U.S. so I understand the gut reaction of squeamishness. I still experience it sometimes at the sight of a naked body or something sexual. But I now realize it is unnatural to feel such shame about something so natural!

Just last weekend I was visiting the Baltic Coast and saw my first nude bather. As an American and a former prude I was initially shocked by it. But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed completely natural and the more my feelings seemed to be ignorant.

I suppose if you are unwilling to accept to the fact that we are animals then you may not agree with this point, but what could be more natural than the human body and why should it be hidden? Why should we be offended at the very sight of it?

If we were exposed to more nudity we would not have such shame surrounding our bodies. If we were exposed to average people nude we would not have such unnatural and unrealistic expectations about beauty, instead of only being exposed to airbrushed and surgically enhanced bodies. We would see all shapes and sizes, and stop feeling such shame about our own.

So to respond to this blog post, I would like to say that if everyone started walking around nude and getting used to the sight of the naked human body we’d be one step closer to fixing what’s wrong with this country.



*At the end of this post the blogger stated "Am I out of line here?" seemingly inviting responses, and so I responded in a comment to the effect of "Not everybody thinks that the human body is shameful and should be covered up. Since you asked, yes I do think it is out of line to try to dictate what others should wear because you are offended by it."

Apparently encountering somebody on her blog who did not share her world views was too much for this blogger and she quickly made another post apologizing for "ruffling feathers" because she got one comment politely disagreeing with her.

I seem to have ruffled some feathers with my last post. Sorry "me" but I don't think that if I'm sitting you down at my counter and putting makeup on you that I should have to look at your breasts. I agree with you that the human body is beautiful but there is a time and a place and we seem to be forgetting that. I wear shorts and tank tops just like everybody else but I make sure that I have my personal belongings inside my outfit. Sorry if that offends anyone....was just blogging my feelings on the day after seeing way too much.

And now, her blog is inaccessible. Deleted? Address changed? I have no idea.