I’m Japanese and currently studying abroad in the US. Recently I was telling some classmates about onsens and how my family are enthusiasts and they were so weirded out by the concept especially when I told them that my father & brother go together the most (people are fully naked in onsens if you’re unaware). Non-sexual nudity was never a big deal to me and in Japan where bathtubs are the norm instead of showers it’s not even unusual for same-sex family members to bathe together (one at each end). Where does this prudishness come from? Especially in a country that’s known worldwide for its hyper sexuality (Hollywood, celebs, porn industry, etc.)?
I think you answered your own question: there is no non-sexual nudity in such a hyper-sexual society.
But the US is also weirdly prudish about sex.
The religious prudes think that any nudity must be sexual. Best to cover up and avoid temptation. They are the hyper sexual ones, in a way.
They are the hyper sexual ones, in a way.
Another example is how the think way more about trans-people’s genitals than trans-people do. The most religious areas also consume the most transgender pornography.
Their repression makes them think about it non-stop. It’s why so many of them want to ban transgender people entirely. They can’t stop themselves, so instead they want to completely remove the “temptation.”
15 years ago I had a trans friend who was in love with this on again off again Christian dude who was so into her but would have emotional breakdowns and cut her off after each time they had sex. That he needed to atone for his sins and couldn’t be close to her anymore… and like clockwork, months later he’d be back for more, only to repeat the same stupid cycle where he couldn’t face his own desires because of his unhealthy relationship with religion.
Anyway, instead of being adults, these fucking babies just want to remove the temptation at all through societal control, because they can’t control themselves.
They can’t stop themselves, so instead they want to completely remove the “temptation.”
DING DING DING
That’s actually normal in sexually repressed societies.
Similar stuff happens in Iran, where young people get down to crazy freaky sex because they’re so sheltered from it in everyday life.
The more people are told “no,” but the only reasons are religious reasons, the more will rebel against it.
So while it seems backward, the US is hyper-sexual because of it’s prudish history. This was a country colonized by people who thought dancing was a sin.
There’s a state you can own a maximum of 6 sex toys, in law.
They don’t got their stuff figured out yet.
That’s Texas for you.
It’s probably so you can have one toy for every day of the week, except Sunday…
The prudity and hypersexuality are two sides of the same coin. In a culture where you are not allowed to discuss, portray, or explore sexuality, the only outlets for people’s base sexual desires become unhealthy ones.
It’s because a lot of social norms about that kind of thing tend to be set by religion, and the US has been heavily influenced by a particularly puritanical strain of evangelical protestantism that cares a lot about impropriety and sex.
I’m sure the more cultural anthropologist types will have a more eloquent way of stating it, but the US has a hard time escaping it’s religious background, which views nudity as a gateway to sexuality, so people “must remained covered”.
And in the same way, if men are naked around each other, people are afraid of it being seen as a sexual thing. I mean non sexual nudity doesn’t really exist in “standard spaces” in my part of the country anyway.
And man, if an adult and young person were naked near each other, someone would call the cops!
I think Hollywood sexuality is exactly that, escapist fiction. The US is actually a pretty sexually repressed place.
You can sit around any bar and say “oh that girl is hot, I’d love to fuck her!” But you would get looks you’d get if you said “oh that girl is hot, I’d love if she pegged me!”
Maybe it’s changing, but it doesn’t really feel like it to me.
You’re just going to the wrong bars.
I think Hollywood sexuality is exactly that, escapist fiction.
Even Hollywood has to bend to the ratings agency though.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Association#Film_rating_system
The film This Is Not Yet Rated covered a lot of the issues with this rating system.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Film_Is_Not_Yet_Rated
- That the board seems to treat homosexual material much more harshly than heterosexual material (this assertion is supported by an MPAA spokesperson’s statement in USA Today that “We don’t create standards; we just follow them”)
- That some sexual activities are frequently treated more harshly when it involves female orgasm or nontraditional sexual activities
- That the board’s raters receive no training and are deliberately chosen because of their lack of expertise in media literacy or child development
- That the appeals board includes two members of the clergy, one Catholic priest (Father Dave) and one Protestant (James Wall), who may or may not have voting power
In the years before the US existed, when the land was colonized by European powers, Europe had a lot of really annoying, prudish types who were a major downer.
Someone had the bright idea to encourage them to move to the colonies where they could live their prudish existence free from the naked bodies of Europe.
We ended up with all of Europe’s biggest prudes. Europe’s prudes have been trying to reestablish themselves, but they are at a serious disadvantage. Meanwhile, we in America have to deal with an overwhelming population of prudes that we’ve struggled for centuries to extinguish.
While we’re on the subject, Europe also found it convenient to dump their criminals here. So we end up with a culture in which full frontal nudity is unacceptable, but gun violence is just fun entertainment.
I say that as someone who loves some good violence. Nothing quite so enjoyable as living vicariously through some bad ass beating the snot out of the bad guys in a movie.
I never would have thought of myself as a prude, but recently stopped watching the series Banshee because the amount of gratuitous sex in the show was exceeding the amount of gratuitous violence to such a degree that I began to feel uncomfortable.
Scandinavian here. I’ve noticed the same thing with Saunas. Not just Americans, though, but brits too.
Because having any articles of clothing on in a sauna is stupid. (I’ll defer to the Finns for a final judgement on that statement, but that’s my firm opinion, at least).
Short story: Once upon a time, a bunch of coworkers and I had to spend 24 hours in a Rio de Janeiro hotel for a medical exam the day after. And of course we did what any self-respicting doodlebugger would do: we went to the roof bar. After way too much beer vodka and whisky we realized that there was also a sauna there. So we did the only thing appropriate; undressed and chilled in the steam. And for us scandinavians that meant nudity. For anyone else it meant prudity. And we were an eclectic mix of nationalities.
Brit: “Uh, what are we doing here”
Swede: “We’re bonding”
Septic: “This is kinda gay…”
Norwegian: “SHUT UP, WE’RE BONDING!”Septic?
Septic tank -> Yank. A brit slang for American I picked up somewhere.
That’s a brand new Cockney rhyme to me, thanks for the giggles!
In Australia it’s shortened to “Sepo”.
Rhyming slang.
It’s not just them. I live in Sweden and I can’t understand why those from the middle east-area in the (men only) dressing room wrap themselves tightly i a towel and hide in the toilet to change clothes.
Was it? In Syria it seems pretty open.
Does Japan still censor their pornography? I heard that was a thing, wondered if they still do.
As for the Americans, it’s my understanding that the conservatives like to publicly pretend they’re chaste and pure because religious sexual repression, yet harbor the largest number of pedophiles and other affiliated degenerates, while the progressives aren’t nearly as backward and see sexual expression as natural.
For roughly one half of the population, they’re unfortunately internationally defined by the shittier other half that gets nearly all of the (very well deserved) infamy.
puritans. you know the people so uptight that the english told them to get the fuck out (or rather they left to practice their uber conservative religion without consequences from the rest of the people).
for whatever reason to our extreme detriment the super conservative religions grow in this country and we’ve all (in general) been taught to not call that oppressive lifestyle out to be polite. it explains why evangelical christianity isn’t really much of a thing outside this country.
Protestantism.
