
Show a man with a gunâŚÂ itâs called action. Show a man with a dickâŚÂ itâs called indecent.
Thereâs something wrong with the way Americans have come to accept almost every aspect of the human condition except for the most natural one. Weâve accepted guns, drugs and violence, yet refuse to accept bare breasts and genitalia.
Put a man killing and raping women in a movie and it may go on to win an Oscar. Put a naked woman on the screen, and it wonât be allowed a nomination (take âBlue is the Warmest Colorâ for example).
Weâve become so desensitized to everything, but the one thing that makes us human. Weâve come to accept almost every negative aspect of human nature, yet refuse to condone the most natural state a human being can be â the nude.
With the recent craze of the health benefits of sleeping naked, I couldnât help but wonder if there were more benefits weâre missing out on by always covering up.
Are nudists colonies onto something? Are we depriving ourselves of essential nutrients and benefits due to our perversion to the human body?
What would happen if we accepted our bodies the same way we accepted everything else? What would happen if we stopped covering up and started stripping down? What would happen if we all just let our bodies hang out in the open and didnât hide them in dark worlds of porn, indecency and fetishes?
According to Matthew Westra, a psychology professor at Longview Community College in Missouri, âNudity is a taboo in America because we primarily equate nudity or nakedness with sexuality and we have taboos about sexuality.â
This association between nudity and sex is exacerbated by the use of strip clubs and pornography that have come to represent a wrongful or sinful type of behavior that is only achieved in the nude.
Thereâs no denying Americans are prudish by nature. Thereâs also no denying, however, that if we could get past our childish perversions and accept nudity as a basic and natural human form, there would be a lot less âdeviousnessâ and fewer obsessions with the human body â and we could all just stop caring so much about it.
When clothes come off, so do the stigmas
Things are only taboo because we make them that way. People only go searching for something they canât have because its âillicitâ status makes it intriguing.
If men, however, were exposed to nudity on a normal, everyday basis, they wouldnât fantasize and obsess over it the way 14-year-olds do at the sight of their first breast.
According to Dr. Conrad Manning in his paper âVirtues of Nakedness: Physical & Psychological Health,â âBy making nakedness an ordinary, matter-of-fact, common experience, unassociated with sexuality, the unhealthy prurient interest in pornography would be considerably lessened.â
Imagine if men were desensitized to the female body. Imagine if they didnât feel the need to rip a womanâs clothes off to fulfill some fantasy theyâve created in their minds.
Imagine if men stopped putting all their time and energy into seeing women naked and just learned to live side-by-side with them?
Fewer clothes, fewer problems
Imagine if we lived in a world where bodies werenât hidden under layers while models with âperfect bodiesâ ran around half naked? Imagine if we all just looked at each other the way God made us without any implications or idealized notions of the perfect body?
According to Manning, itâs our clothing that creates our insecurities and inability to accept and love each other the way we should.
We put materialistic value on the human form and itâs created mental illness along with body dismorphia and an undesirable environment for humans to live and communicate within.
Early exposure means early acceptance
Like anything, most of our neuroses and phobias form during childhood. But what if weâd grown up in a nude household? What if weâd been taught from a young age nudity is natural and the human body is beautiful?
Studying these effects in their book, âThe Naked Child: Growing Up Without Shame,â Dennis Craig Smith and William Sparks found that children exposed to nudity from a young age became either unfazed by the human body later in life and sometimes, psychologically stronger because of it.
More studies were done on this topic. One study published in the Journal of Social Psychology by Marilyn D. Story examined 264 children and their parents. The results proved children raised around nudity grew up with a higher body self-concept.
According to Story, âcoming from a nudist family played a more significant role in the childrenâs positive self body-image than their race, gender, or area of the country in which they lived.â
Baring your body means banning bacteria
In another paradox, humans donned clothing to keep away parasites and filth, yet only created breeding grounds for different types of infections and disease.
While clothes may seem like a way to keep the dirt off, weâre really only harming ourselves more.
In the study âA Naked Ape Would Have Fewer Parasitesâ published by the University of Reading, âLyme Disease deer ticks can grab onto our sweaters and sea lice can sneak into our bathing suit crotches.
Cinched-up belts, ties, and clothes impede breathing. Menâs snug pants raise testicle temperature, lowering sperm count and fertility.â
Along with infertility rates and Lyme disease, clothes also contribute to yeast infections and UTIs in women. They are creating problems by trying to eradicate them.
Naked today, alive tomorrow
What if I told you shoes were causing you to lose brain function? What if not wearing shoes meant decreasing your risk for Alzheimerâs? What if stripping down the clothes meant adding up the years?
According to  Dr. Norman Doidge, âGoing shoeless is now recognized as an anti-Alzheimerâs, brain-boosting activity because the sole sensation entices your brain into growing extra, efficient neuron connections.â
It seems arbitrary, but walking around barefoot increases brain flexibility. It doesnât just make you feel young again, it makes your brain feel young again.