Nudity in Culture By Courtney Good
72
Beginning in a world where nudity was an art form, nudity has transformed into a topic of controversy. Today, nudity is widely seen in mass media outlets such as movies, magazines, and pornography. But even today, some countries freely express the beauty of nudity where others criticize those who expose too much skin. Europe reigns praise upon those who share their bodies with the world while America casts sideways glances and reprimands people who want to display their physical beauty. Why is nudity in America so scandalous in comparison to Europe? As someone who has been to multiple European countries, I’ve found that Europeans tend to be more comfortable with their bodies. Laying on nude beaches, publicly breast-feeding children. These things don’t seem to faze the minds of Europeans, but if they were done in America? That would be a whole other story. In our culture, a celebrity wearing a dress that’s just a bit too revealing, a woman breastfeeding her child in public, or even a character on television who is partially naked. These are the things that we focus on in media and instead of them fading away after a day, they last for a week, maybe even two. It even goes to the extreme of some American towns broadcasting shows that contain any sort of nudity, whether it be that of a person or a statue, after ten o’clock at night.