Why is public nudity illegal?

Shouldn't we be allowed to wear or not wear whatever we want and not be judged? And don't say it's offensive or kids shouldn't be exposed to it. It's just somebody's body. I can think of a lot of people who find couples snogging in public to be offensive. I doubt that's illegal too.

It's immoral to walk around naked silly. But if that's your bag, there's nudist colonies for that sort of thing.

@softwaregeek: okay not like I personally want to go nude. But I'm trying to understand why it's wrong. Who is to define it as immoral?

Society as a whole defines it. For the USA, it likely goes back to the Pilgrims and Puritans that established a settlements on the east coast. They were religious people wanting religious freedom. I'm not a historian but that's my hunch. Regardless of the religiosity, It makes sense to have clothing laws because there's certain people (a lot of them) that I don't ever want to see naked. There's certain people that I do want to see naked. That's discriminatory. So in order to avoid discrimination, the USA has clothing laws.

Also, imagine someone at random just coming up to you and SCREEEAMING in your ear as loud as possible. Would that not hurt your ears. So as it goes with ugly naked people. Hurts your eyes.

i'm sure you're trying to make a joke. But screaming in someone's ear can actually damage their ears, seeing an ugly person doesn't actually damage your eyes

Because we're only steps away from becoming cavemen once again thanks to liberals.

This was somehow comical.

Most of those I've seen who go bare are those who should keep themselves covered up.....Nasty.

Clothes make us more attractive and keep us warm. Let the hairy nipples be a mystery for the future wifey.

Because we're not animals, period.

Well many of us may be animals after all so I guess its only natural that we have places for them around the world.

i loafed :D

On-topic: Humans discovered clothes. They needed them. It was in the genes that our survival will become more probable if we wear an external skin.

That's probably why through the course of time clothes became moral .

Gotta think of the children. They aren't allowed to even look at their own bodies until they are 21.

Hygiene might have something to do with it. Next time you have to push your way through a crowd, imagine that the people are all pantsless and you're accidentally rubbing against their bare penises and poopy butts.

no, it damages your mind though. some things cannot be unseen.

this!

Explaining why public nudity is frowned upon is like explaining why defecating in public isn't celebrated. Chances are, if you haven't already worked that one out on your own no amount of convincing will achieve that end.

Modesty and won't-somebody-think-of-the-children aside, I'd say health and hygiene reasons should be enough.

For the most part culture. I wouldn't want to walk around naked or see other people walking around naked, but that's because I was raised in a culture that looks down on that. There are cultures where people do walk around naked, nothing really wrong with it.

It's probably more hygienic as well.

Ugh I do NOT want to see a vast majority of people unclothed.

Also hygiene.....

It's legally classified as an obscenity in the States, same as swearing. It serves no purpose, and it offends people. It's not illegal just because it's offensive, it's illegal because it's offensive and it serves no purpose.

For comparison, those Westboro Baptist jerkoffs holding up signs saying "God hates fags" at a soldier's funeral is far more offensive, but it's peaceful protesting and it serves a (messed-up) purpose so that is fine (it's not fine to me, but whatever).

Imagine seeing fat people naked with their pubic hair:-\

That is visual pollution that I would rather avoid.

Imagine seeing fat people naked with their pubic hair:-\

That is visual pollution that I would rather avoid.

Carbon-based, check. Warm-blooded, check. Does not photosynthesize, check. I'd like to hear this one explained.

But on topic, most people do not wipe properly considering what I've seen at laundry mats in my time, and I don't want to be anywhere someones brown eye has been plastered on.

Well that was certainly graphic.....

B/C it's cold out... now if the weather 130 degrees all year round bet no one wants to wear anything. maybe just shorts.

Um, yes we are.

Sorry about that, but you get the point so it worked.

I agree with all your points about it being uncivilized, immoral or hygienic. But... I don't think that justifies as illegal though. People should be able to wear or not wear whatever they want right? Actually sometimes when I see what women wear nowadays it's like there's no difference between them being nude and them being clothed XD

I have just as much not to see your sack as you do of showing it off. It's about respecting other peoples rights. Society is millions of people, not just one.

My thoughts as well. Underwear was invented for a reason.

It isn't.

I can't believe I agree with GazaAli.

Somebody shoot me.

The actual reason: Because people consider it to be immoral/offensive.

The only reason for it to remain illegal:

Also, try coming and living in Manitoba/Saskatchewan/Alberta. With -40 degree (C and F) temperatures in the winter, you won't be spending much time outside, or you'll die of hypothermia when you do go out.

Why is it wrong? Do you live in the USA? People don't care for themselves. We're the most obese country in the world.

@JustPlainLucas: what do people not use water along with tp to clean their butts?

Bidets are not a universal commodity.

The U.SA. is actually the 8th most obese country in the world.

Kuwait is the 1st most obese country in the world.

I wasn't sure to be honest but I knew the US was up there.

My first instinct was to say "I wouldn't really give a damn if everyone were to walk around naked" then I thought of jam-packed subway rides and how gross it is in there even when everyone has their clothes on...

@korvus: yeah ik what you mean. And i feel bad for the harrassment women face in these places. Things would get a lot worse if everyone was nude.

@BboyStatix: Also very true.

I don't want to be offensive right off the bat, but that's kind of a pedantic asininity. When it comes down to it, nothing is a strictly singular entity; everything is many. However, there's always a single level of being that is most relevant and pertinent in a given context or settings. As such, it supersedes every other attribution or level of being. Humans are animals, animals are organic life, organic life is matter, matter is being. In the context of this topic, the quality of being human or the human condition supersedes all. In case of conflict, disparity or dispute it has precedence and priority above anything else. That's like a defense attorney defending a defendant accused of rape getting up in court and saying "Your honor my client is an animal; he shouldn't be held responsible for answering one of his most primitive biological functions".

I find it quite absurd that many posters in this topic do feel the necessity to provide an entirely rational or utilitarian/practical justification for why public nudity is not something we'd want in our societies. I guess if it was not for hygiene we'd be staring at our mothers' tits at dinner.

Let me formally initiate you into the intelligent side.

I don't believe anybody is trying to say we're not responsible for our actions because we're animal members of the Great Ape species, only that we are, in fact, animals. We may be of significantly higher intelligence than the rest of the animal kingdom, but we're animals none the less.

You kind of missed the point. I wasn't referring to accountability or responsibility and either's relationship to the fact that we're animals. What I was referring to however is the notion that this fact is nullified and annulled when the argument in consideration is moral, social...etc in nature. What do you think the judge's reaction would be in that hypothetical scenario I described? In general, how relevant and applicable do you think the fact that we're animals to contexts of higher nature?

This is a GREAT WAY to spread diseases... Yeah no thanks

do you think if it were made legal to walk around naked all the time all of the sudden the people you would want to see walk around naked would start doing it? of course not. those people have something to gain from getting naked. they're not going to give it away for free.