Could Society be Clothing Optional?
Well yes, with sufficient will and tolerance. But we’re quite a long way from that nude-tolerant utopia it seems!
This is an expansion to a question I answered on Quora: “Do you think clothed and unclothed people should coexist in society?”
The start of my original answer is short and simple, but a bit of a dream: Absolutely, being naked should be as valid and available a choice of outfit as any other chosen style.
So why isn’t it? Well in some places, it kind of is. It’s just that not many of us take up the right to choose to be undressed that is available. The social pressure of a default-clothed society is very strong, as is the risk of that same society painting you as seeking to commit sexual misdeeds by labelling nudity as always something sexual.
For context, I’m writing this from the point of view of someone living in the UK. Here, technically at least, it is in fact already possible to choose to be naked in public. It is in several other countries too, but most of these places also have laws which try and balance the rights of personal expression and choice, via nudity, with how some people use nudity as a form of sexual harassment (ie flashing). As I outline below, nudity while acceptable in some contexts can feel out of place in others, as determined by social convention, and so can in those contexts be interpreted by others as anti-social or even threatening.
A few bold nudist pioneers have been testing the waters on public nudity in the UK more and more in recent years, with regular nude hikes occurring across the land. A handful of individuals have even been taking nudity into urban and routine social settings: The Free Wilders, a couple and friends who have cycled naked across the country, and routinely hang out in pubs and other venues with tolerant hosts, are a true inspiration, and set a beautiful example of how normalised everyday nudity could be.
Yet even with a buoyant community of nudists in the UK, it’s far from commonplace for us to push the boundaries of the clothed world most of society expects. Is nudity just a step away in a society where people do often wear very little? Or is it a final hurdle that most of society will not tolerate?
The UK is fairly liberal in body presentation in public. It’s not unusual to see people wearing very minimal outfits. At the same time, there is also a lingering judgment by many others against those who do go out wearing little.
There are definitely constraints on where people feel it is “appropriate” to wear little. Be it exposing arms, legs, midriff, buttocks, breasts and chests, or genitalia, there are places where these are all possible and commonly accepted. Yet even someone comfortable and confident walking around on a nude beach, or in a bikini on other beaches, would probably not (un)dress like that on the street. Hot pants and crop tops would be fine on most high streets, but not in most workplaces, or more formal settings. Even a hint of ankle, arm, or cleavage can still be seen with Victorian-style horror in some of the most formal contexts; how much time do teachers waste body shaming young girls in particular for such apparent horrors, for example?
The partially exposed body is seen as casual, and the more exposed seen by many as private, or even shameful, and at the very least as not suitable in most settings.
Women can go topless on beaches in the UK with relatively little fuss, but it’s far from common (certainly compared to other parts of Europe). My friend Jayne wrote about her own experience testing the waters in this area recently, and it was fine, and liberating, but atypical and attention-grabbing. I don’t think many people would brave going that tiny step further and removing bottoms. Outside of a nude beach that’s just seen as something not done; especially for men with our rather more obvious signs of being bottomless!
Even in places in the world where it’s not illegal to be naked in public, in most places these days it is socially and institutionally enforced to be unacceptable. It takes some brave and bold pioneers to push back at that!
But all this judgement and restriction needn’t exist, and benefits no one. Really, what difference does it make to you if someone else chooses to wear (or not wear at all) an outfit you do not like? There are fashions I enjoy, and fashions I don’t; fashions I find unappealing, unimaginative, unexpressive, boring, or outright ugly. But what I think of someone else’s style is my problem, not theirs!
We should all be free to dress as we please, to dress to be comfortable, to dress to express ourselves, to dress to reflect our cultural values, our interests, our passions and preferences. If you don’t like the look, be it fashion you find unappealing, being covered head to toe, nudity, or anything else, then no one is forcing you to look at the other people! Just look away, let people be themselves and get on with your own life being yourself too!
What further harm is caused to even the most prudish person by seeing breasts, penises or vulvas in addition to the rest of the body we can often see in public spaces? Nothing, because they’re just a few more bits of skin! The idea any harm will be done by a fleeting glimpse of another body part is purest nonsense. Even if you think it an evil or distasteful choice by the other person, it is but a fleeting image, not something you are forced to adopt yourself.
So could society be clothing optional? Well obviously yes, it could. But first society needs to become more tolerant of difference in any form. Moreover, society needs to get over the silly idea that “private parts” are a thing, and let people decide for themselves what they want to cover or not.
The simplest things hold us back from body freedom, but they are huge simple things, so hard-wired into many people, built in by culture, tradition, upbringing, and habit. All very hard things to unpick, but all quite possible to work around if we could all just open our minds to the idea that not everyone thinks and feels the same way we do. You can retain those beliefs and habits if you like, but that doesn’t mean they need to be imposed on others. In that world, being nude is just another outfit, your choice to make, and no one else’s to take away from you.
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