Or: people can be bat-shit crazy and totally inconsistent.
A few days ago on MeWe I followed a post that was copied from a Dutch newspaper. Granted, it is a newspaper that thrives on sensational content, but the background of the article made me shake my head.
The “problem” of the lady who was interviewed in the news paper article was that she found it ‘distasteful’ to see men with bare upper bodies outside, despite the heat. She mentions ‘men with double B breasts, hair everywhere and beer bellies‘.
In the same article, however, she says: ‘This all is fine up to a point‘ (what? First it’s distasteful and then it is ‘fine up to a point’?).
The first valid claim in the article: ‘Can I do the same, being a woman? I don’t think so.’ … ‘This is discrimination.‘ Even though I suspect she would never actually do that, this is the only point in the entire article I can get behind. This is indeed discrimination and it should stop.
This kind of discrimination is a blemish on the freedom of people. Women should be allowed to be topless just as well. As it is the case in many places in, surprisingly enough, the United States. The ‘Free the nipple‘ movement has played a part in that too.
I keep hammering on the problem that religion slipped into ‘our culture’ that nudity is a bad thing. It’s not. It’s a way of religion to control the masses, and it’s been so successful that the idea has become mainstream. And the brainwashing has become so successful that people into that mindset aren’t even aware of it. They, like the lady with the complaint, prefer to take away even more freedom, unaware of the many things that have already been taken away from them (and us).
As this picture shows, nude is not rude. It’s perfectly fine, liberating. People are having fun, and it’s something that should be allowed for everyone. But as long as mainstream thinking is convinced of the opposite, we’re fighting a battle. Most of the time it’s an uphill one, but I think we have to keep it up. Otherwise the ‘mainstream’ will wash over us and take the few rights we have (beaches, resorts, parks) away. We can’t allow that.
It’s bad enough that women are discriminated against in many parts of the world. Let’s try and turn that tide, not make it seize control over everything.
I agree with your comments completely, especially the part religion play in keeping control over the masses. Yet religious people love to look at The David’s penis. Talk about a double-standard.
Religion is the weirdest animal. Celibacy is the most absurd and unhealthy idea of all, and the condemnation of gay people is inexplicable, given how many priests like(d) to play with little boys…
I agree with you and BILL GUALTIERI, and wonder if any of this would assist you in your blog ( “stolen” from TRIPTRIVIA.com ). It’s a tad old but not moldy yet !
https://www.triptrivia.com/what-is-forest-bathing-and-why-you-should-try-it/X9k1yrnODQAGebR1?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1301153456
Hello Pete,
Thank you for that link. I had to fire up the VPN and pretend to be from the US to see it, but that’s indeed a great thing. Forest bathing.
I will have a good read there and use it for a future post. Anything natural might be old, but never moldy. Because of the fresh air in all the right places. 🙂
I agree with your comments Paul. Nudity and homosexuality seem to be items that in religions seem to have to be banned. Inspite of certain texts in the bible, but only because certain people have their own interpretation.
I hope that more people can say like me : I am a protestant, gay, nudist. And I stand for that.
hans
Dear Hans,
I hope you find a lot of support in your way of life. Surround yourself with the right people. I do that too; there is ‘right people’ for everyone of us. Finding them might be a stretch, but locating them is a treasure.
Be well!
Holy shit, there’s a lot to unpack here!
First off, what is ‘up to a point’? More importantly who is the definer of said point? How was it determined. Second, despite the seeming detail, the phrase ‘men with double B breasts, hair everywhere and beer bellies‘ really doesn’t tell an artist what to draw…..
Religion: Sometimes I wonder if sex and nudity were not actually singled out, but rather were just two items of many in the tool belt of religious structures to employ in order to control their population. Religions (like many institutions) have a tendency to present their own constructs as having been delivered to them from without, usually from some sort of ‘higher power’. They do that because they’ve found it works far more often than not.
2 examples: 1. Most Christians (in the worldwide meaning of the word) in the US have no idea that the date of December 25th to celebrate Christmas started being used for reasons that had no connection to theology. 2. An embarrassingly high number of people think that the freezing point of water is a social construct. No, water was freezing at 32F long before humans evolved. The social constructs are our human measuring systems for measuring that freezing point: 32F, 0C, & 273K .
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As far as the sex & nudity issue goes, I’m one of those who has a great deal of trouble with the notion that cognitively intact, psychologically healthy people (read: MEN) seriously thought that all these strictures on sexual behavior and nudity were good ideas. Why would anyone set up rules/policies/practices that run so contrary to the human body? Sometimes I wonder if it might be really so simple as men who (for whatever reason) were not getting the sex they wanted/needed decided, “If I can’t get laid, nobody’s getting laid!”
I’ve been accused of being reductionist, but frequently the tenor of these faux outrages (like woman commenting about shirtless men) makes me wonder if the real issue is that the ‘outraged’ people actually WANT to join the picnickers in the photo above but feel they ‘can’t’ or ‘shouldn’t’ for some reason.
What feeds my suspicions about the underlying simplicity is that people who’re against anything and everything even vaguely connected with social nudity and/or anything non cis-het is they almost universally CANNOT explain what the problem is. They seldom have a problem pontificating on the supposed evils, but they never actually state what the problem is OR how social nudity, being gay, etc. actually effects them. Please note that the people most vocal about these issues are MEN who are only concerned with the behavior of OTHER MEN. For all their supposed straightness, women rarely seem to be on their radar.
The whole thing is so ridiculous that I swear one day I won’t be able to hold my tongue and I’ll come back with something like, “It sounds like you think all nudists and all gay men are incredibly well endowed AND are having huge amounts of hot sex. YOU can’t tick either of those boxes so you’re just jealous!”
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I’ve another 15 years before retirement, but events of the past 5 years have made me curmudgeonly WAY past my chronological age.