In Oregon many years ago, an Oregon State Supreme Court ruling ruled that nudity was a right under the state's constitution. People won't get arrested for indecent exposure, but can get arrested for creating a public disturbance. However, if being nude is a part of a protest, such as the Portland World Naked Bike Ride (which attracts over 10,000 participants each year), then it takes more than just nudity to be arrested.

Anyway, my point is that although it is technically legal to be nude, peopel use discretion about using that freedom.

If public nhudity were legal, and seeign nude persons were nto so uncommon, then it wodl no longer be distracting for drivers.

It is true that not everyone woudl be fitowever, I think it is more of a question of beign free to choose whether or nto to wear clothing, and not for the entertainment of other people when one chooses not to.

To say you can't do that because of MY discomfort, means you want to limit the freedoms of others based on your own hang ups. I am nto tryign to make any acusions here, but just trying to turn things a bit so you might see things from a different perspective.

We are taught to feel guilt fear and shame associated with nudity, and most of that teaching originally was based in religious dogma. Few peopel have actually questioned if there is any actual reasoning behind the cultural norm of always being clothed in public at all times. As everyone knows what everyoen else has under their clothes, why do we go to such great lengths to hideit from each other?

I agree with you. Not only do clothes protect the wearer from the elements, clothing on others can protect us from them. What if they didnt wipe well and sit in public. So the next person sits in feces. Or you have a bladder leak? And clothing also helps conceal smells. Keep your clothes on??

LOL... I am not sure if that line of reasoning is (completely) sound, but I like the approach.

who made the law about this in the first place

@Hercules3000 no but they can blast your genitals right off! melt them, actually.

so it's all about genitals (and fitness)?

is a person just all about his or her genitals?
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@Hercules3000 i'm not the one who brought up nukes. i do not associate nudes with nukes. i was just responding to what you said about them.

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@Hercules3000 we only get one body. why hide it? what's so horrible about having a body? do we have to be perfect before being allowed to free it?

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@Hercules3000 perhaps not ... but neither is it all about nudes, And nudes are far less dangerous than nukes... Just look the other way and nudes are no problem.

@genessa I thought nukes and nudes were too good to be missed because of the spelling ... and of course the fact the USA has a rather unhealthy relationship to military violence but shies away from nudity.

@PontifexMarximus i liked the play on words.

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@PontifexMarximus, @Hercules3000 i am not venessa, i do not respect comments that, rather than being sincere, are meant to get someone off your back -- it decreases your credibility -- and i am therefore not off your back. you bid me farwell nicely but this statement was NOT nice.

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@genessa an nuke sounds cute.

@PontifexMarximus given what some people think nudism is about, maybe it should be spelled nookie!

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I can totally agree with that!

The World Naked Bi9ke Ride in Portland Oregon attracts over 10,000 participants each year. It takes about two hours for all the riders to pass by.

Most people don't bat an eye, but there are always those few (usually the fanatically religious) who react badly.

LOL...

I've ridden in the Portland oregon World naked Bike ride several times, and it is a lot of fun. The Portlan dride attracts over 10,000 riders each year and is one of world's largest.

What we can't handle are men's groping eyes and hands.

I don't have kids, but I do see kids at nude beaches and nudist clubs when I go. Parents and grandparents tell me that the kids love to visit places where thay can run around naked.

There have been studies, and kids raised in nudist families are happier and have more confidence and higher self esteem. The conclusions of the studies is that when you dont' teach kids to be ashamed of their bodies they like who they are much mor eoften.

@snytiger6 Im not sure why happier, more confidence, or more self esteem are considered benefits. Humans arent the best while happy and comfortable. as a species we strive and thrive under pressure and adversity. Now of course that should be tempered with care, but this make my child perfectly happy trend has really gotten out of control, don't you think?

@dellik I think beign over permissive with children can get out of hand, yes. Chidren need to learn to do for the4mselves and learn the value of things, instead of havign things just given to them.

The idea of being happy as not beign at one's best, I don't agree with. Peopel who aren't happy will procrastinate and expend only the minimum effort to do a job and often leave a job half done for extended periods of time.

Persons who are happy and have high self esteem tend to more often finish wah they satrt and dont' procrastinate as much or as often, an dare more likely t9o look forward to a challenge.

@snytiger6 Fair. I personally find the happier I am, the less productive I become. Maybe its just a personality defect on my part.

@dellik I think it is just that when peopel are by nature more productive, that some people are awre enough to just stop and enjoy themselves when they are happy. Considering that l;ife is finite, I'd say takign time to enjoy happiness is a good thing and nto a defect at all.

I took my son to a nudist camp when he was prepubescent (can’t remember the exact age). He had a blast! My wife at the time, not so much. ? We only went twice.

@snytiger6 kids raised as nudists are harder to molest because they don't have that shame about their bodies.

I think I get your point there.

As another respondent pointed out, each person should be free to choose. Laws agains tnudity are mor eaobut controlling people than they are abbout providing any actual benefit to society.

One of my favorite T-Shirts reads "If we were meant to be naked, we'd have been born that way."

Do a Google search for World Naked Bike Ride and your nearest major city and chances are you will find one. In Portland Oregon, they have over 10,000 participants each year, but I am told that Portland has one of the worlds largest. London's first ride had between two and three hundred.

Anyway, The World Naked Bike Rides are protests about the continuing dependence on fossil fuels. That message usually gets lost in the news coverage though, but that is the original purpose of the rides.

In the U.S. the largest nudist organization is AANR (American Association for Nude Recreation). However, there should be similar national organization in Canada, the UK, Australia, etc... tht organize and promote platonic nude recreational activities.

Of course there wold have to be some regulation for hygienic purposes.

It really isn't about "seeing" people, so much as it is about personal freedom.

@snytiger6 No, it is definitely about seeing people.

Technically, in some states, but not all, just beign naked can put you on a sex offenders list. In Washington State is specifically beign naked in front of children. Evidently the law makers of various states ,made the presumption, in their small perverted minds, that if you are naked then you must be wanting to do something sexual.

As many people only get naked for either bathing or sex, for many it is hard to imagine beign naked outside of one of those two contexts. Feeling ashmaed of nudity and of your body is a learned behavior, which seems to go unquestioned as to whether or not it is healthy or reasonable. Many states in the U.S. reflect the nonthinking, and blind acceptance of presumptions which are rooted in religion and religious ideas.

In the U.S. a lot of our culture still carries the religious idea that authority is nto to be questioned, especially with conservatives, and religion teaches or rather demands that people do not question their authority.

So, people are taught to feel shame about nudity and to be ashamed of their bodies, and they seldom question whether or not they actually should feel ashamed.

It's a form of cultural dysfunction.

Not strictly true these days - although it was more tolerated 40 years ago, at the end of the Franco era. Nowadays, certain beaches are designated OK for nudity, but there must be signs informing the public of the fact. That way one can choose whether to rush on to the beach or shun it.

Yeah, the nudity laws are a lto harder on women than men... except in Arkansas, where I am told it is also illegal for men to go shirtless also. I seriously doubt such a lw is actually enforced though, so even there, women have it harder.

This could be argued with the chicken or the egg type of argument. Can cultural attitudes change first without allowing more nudity in society first, or will allowing more nudity in society change public attitudes to where it would be as accepted as it is in many parts of Europe? Either way, nothing would change all that quickly.

The real question as i see it, is should people have the freedom to be nude if they so choose, and my answer would be yet. So, although nothing will happen over night, I'd like to see our society and culture move in the direction where nudity is more acceptable. Especially so, because most of our taboos against nudity are based in religious dogmas.

Yes, pervs do go to the nude beaches, but natruists/nudists either ignore tham or laugh at them, and they are no more than a minor annoyance at the beach. The big annoyance is that the general public get a warped view of naturists/nudists in general beign sexual in purpose from the very few and infrequent pervs.

So nudge them gradually. Cultural attitudes do change. It used to be a crime to engage in sexual behavior with someone of the same sex and the idea of a same sex marriage was risible. Today, it's the law of the land. But it didn't happen all at once, it took a lot of hard work making incremental changes until the concept of tolerance gained a critical mass of social acceptance. Maybe naturism can walk a similar path.

If the religious hate was untaught and nature considered natural, a lot of twisted sex attitudes would go away. Bodies could be just bodies. Cultures have perverted sex and the body and it could be untaught. But, nudity would be choice, like wearing shorts in the snow or pajamas when shopping. Who cares if no one is hurt?