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Why Are Americans Afraid of Being Naked?

Amsterdam Tourist Information • Posted: April 20, 2007

Spencer Tunick is an artist who captures nude figures through film and video. He is coming to Amsterdam, but the event is not creating the waves it does is most other countries.

It is generating hits, though. The recently posted Spencer Tunick: Amsterdam Nude items is among the most visited pages on our web site — and according to our statistics software, most of those visits come from people located in the USA.

That’s why this article caught our eye:

In the Netherlands people can be naked in their gardens, the beach and recently the gym. But in America, even chocolate sculptures can’t be without clothes. What gives?

When Catholic protesters recently shut down a New York exhibit displaying a naked, life-sized Jesus sculpted from chocolate, the outcry wasn’t totally unexpected. Labeled offensive by critics, the artwork touched an angry nerve by pushing religion and nudity — two substances that historically don’t mix — into the limelight. While the media was quick to exploit the story, it also expressed surprising modesty when it came to the naked Christ, avoiding the full frontal and opting for photos of the Lord’s backside.

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But in Europe, and particularly the Netherlands, where bakeries display anatomically correct marzipan nudes in their front windows right next to chocolate bunnies and chicks, such furor over confectionary draws a complete blank. On this side of the Atlantic, when it comes to nudity, Europeans happily assert they’ve got absolutely nothing to hide.

“The Netherlands is a liberal country where public nakedness is allowed, and that’s the way it should be — that’s why there’s a law for it,” says Ragna Verwer of the Dutch Naturist Federation (NFN), a 70,000-member-strong organization established to expand naturist activities.
[...]

“Nudity is definitely not shocking or even arousing,” says Mandy Servais, a customer at Amsterdam’s Sauna Deco, in a robe wrapped loosely around her body, which for all intents and purposes, was naked, as Dutch saunas are visited in the buff. Says Servais, who has frequented saunas since she was a teen, “I think as a society we’re very simple and take a practical approach to sex and nudity. We think that everything that exists is normal so there’s no need to make a fuss. We’re not really occupied with what others think.”
[...]

While the Dutch seem to accept that underneath their clothing everyone’s naked, the same laissez-faire attitude doesn’t apply in the States, where the public has been schooled in the cultural ideology that “nude is naughty,” and nudity is regarded as sexual.
[...]

Another, perhaps sobering, reality: America has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the industrialized world, according to the American Association of Pediatrics, and a rate that exceeds the Dutch by nine-fold. A healthy attitude to nudity as well as sex, something the Dutch are regaled for, might have a positive impact as more exposure typically leads to greater information.
- Source: Dara Colwell, Why Are Americans Afraid of Being Naked?, AlterNet, Apr. 19, 2007