Nakedness on the beach Posted by Katja on Oct 19, 2010 in Culture
In Sweden children can run around on the beach completely naked until about the age of 6 or 7. This is fully encouraged and accepted by everybody on the beach, it is not seen as something bad, on the contrary as something good and nice. Parents don’t want their children to feel embarrassed about being naked, so nakedness in encouraged both for young boys and girls. You will also see adults (mostly women) sunning or walking around on beaches without bikini-tops. This can be somewhat of a shock for people who aren’t expecting naked people just walking around like they don’t have a care in the world, which they might not.
Some people think it is outrageous that especially children should be allowed to walk around naked on beaches. There are stark contrasts to this carefreeness about being naked in the States and several other countries, where you would never see children or any other people for that matter running around naked unless it was on a nude beach.
What’s the view on nakedness on the the beach in your country?
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Comments:
Christian:
I personally feel like there’s really no problem with nudity; it’s more natural than anything else. It’s just that different societies tell people that it’s wrong, and they absorb those ideas.
Shari:
Typical prudish views here in the US. 🙂 I don’t think it’s fully penetrated that nudity does not necessarily equal sexuality. I’m married to a Swede and definitely notice (and like) this cultural difference in Sweden.
An:
No problem with nudity, It is fun. And natural. So lets have more of it.
Tess:
In England it used to be quite common for young children to be nude on the beach but in the last 10 years or so this happens a lot less, I assume this because of all the media coverage about cases of paedophilia making parents much more cautious.
trololo:
pedos
CK:
American here, and I think that if we were raised with it, we’d think it was ok. but since we really aren’t (myself included) I think its pretty strange. Really strange actually.
Mandi:
I personally don’t have a problem with the nudity on the beach. In the US, growing up on a small NC island however, even wearing a skimpy swimsuit is frowned upon. Going out of the country it is not uncommon to see and to be topless at the beach. Even for children it is not weird to be naked; however there is a fear and trust issue in the states that we must worry about. There are sexual predators around every corner (luckily we can search websites to see who is around us). Because of this I would not be nude or let my child go nude on the beaches here (outside of the states is a different story).
Andrew:
Dutch here…:-) Let the children play and be free, give them this joy of innocence of being nude on a beach. They are carefree and think of the sun, the sand, the water. They don’t have the thoughts of adults, and it’s most certainly not dirty, sinful or whatever. It is in the forbidding of it that the thought rises that there could be something wrong with it. It is the forbidding of it that makes it all crippled.
Rastik:
You should link this article to other two by Marcus in July 🙂 There were both about nudity and views from around the world.
Se E Dubelyoo:
I am a nudist, and of the Christian Faith! I also wrote THE NUDIST BIBLE, For The Christian and Non-Christian Alike. My whole family are nudist.