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Not sure why I thought of this but nudity and the laws surrounding it are always interesting. Personally I have no problem with the current laws in my country (USA) but if they got a bit more relaxed I wouldn't be that upset either since I'm mostly indifferent to the subject. (My indifference is mostly due to the fact that either way I'm going to keep my clothes on)

I doubt full nudity anywhere would ever be allowed but for a while toplessness for everyone has been discussed plenty and is pretty valid with at least some chance of happening and already has in many places. There are many points brought up on toplessness such as male breasts are pretty sexual and can cause distraction and turn people on so why is male toplessness allowed but not for women? There's also men who do happen to have abnormally large breasts and women who are completely flat. What about public breast-feeding?

What about trans and/or gender non-conforming people which introduces a whole other grey area? With trans men who look basically like men but still have female breasts or trans women who aren't on hormones and have a male anatomy and male breasts but otherwise with their clothes on could look practically female? Not sure if this is relevant or not but as a trans chick who is still completely male in terms of looks I've gotten so deep into my identity that I feel like my chest is that of a woman's and I try to shield it as much as possible and wear swimming shirts when I need to get into the water, but if people saw me shirtless in public they wouldn't even blink even though I would feel deeply exposed. Hell lots of cis men feel the same way about exposing their chests for different reasons and some women would be proud showing off their tits.

What do you guys think about the subject? Does it make you uncomfortable, do you think the laws should change for being stricter or looser, are you indifferent too? Discuss.

I don't want to see male or female titties or asses or fat disgusting guts unless I am on the beach, thank you. & if you're at the beach and you would rather wear a t-shirt for whatever reason, by all means.

I do think it's hilarious when people get offended over breastfeeding or say to take it to the bathroom. I don't think you should whip out your tit or anything but unbuttoning your shirt to feed your baby (who would probably be screaming if not attached to said tit) and possibly letting a nip slip is not something that should cause alarm among the general public. I don't know why it even attracts the attention of the general public besides bros pretending not to check out a milf.

Breastfeeding in public should be allowed but for those who don't want to make other people uncomfortable you could cover the baby and chest with an piece of cloth during breastfeeding like some mothers here in Cape Verde but i think it would make the baby fell hot.
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About the topless men vs topless women,our social construct trough the ages taught us that the female body (breasts in this case) are a private matter(also concerns breastfeeding) therefore not very well seen in eyes of the society when in public.

About the trans people i don't have a say because i am not very familiar yet with anything related to them.

The laws around here(Cape Verde) if am not mistaken prohibits nudity excluding shirtless men and breastfeeding,i have no problem with them .

I am much more lax about how I see nudity than most people. Nudity means practically nothing to me, so I would definitely like laws about nudity to be a little less strict in America.

Particularly in the states, the public I feel is waaaaaay too sensitive about any sort of revealed skin. Not to bring in a debate on dress codes, but I feel a lot of us can agree that school and some work dress codes can tend to be unnecessarily strict in some cases. As if seeing a shoulder or a thigh is going to bring down the whole system, some schools seem to spend more time and energy monitoring their student's outfits than they do actually teaching their students.

I would like the laws to at least allow women to be shirtless in any area that a man is (mostly public outdoor places). Many European countries allow this, and their society hasn't exactly plummeted into hell for allowing such sexually deviant things. I think the public can deal with seeing a nipple once in a while. Especially when it comes to breastfeeding. It's like people don't realize that the human body isn't there for sexual purposes 24/7.

I'm not disturbed by the human body. I've seen enough people of nearly any kind of shape naked that little surprises me. So I personally wouldn't give a damn if other people are allowed to show it off. But looking from the perspectives of others, I understand why the laws exist

For one thing, not everyone is pretty. I know that if nudity was made legal on all forms: The only people that would strip naked down the street would be the trashy underclass who have no shame to lose. The normal and pretty people would most certainly keep their clothes on because the average person has a sense of dignity (or bodily shame, or fear of being hounded) that will insist them to stay covered up. It would not turn into a bro paradise with boobs hanging out everywhere

That above sounds a bit dickish right? Arguing against nudity based on "who is pretty" is to argue purely on an aesthetic and judgmental level. But lets be honest yourselves. I bet that's one of the biggest reason people oppose more relaxed laws on nudity. Why other reason other than aesthetics and peer judging is there to react to someone's bare skin? But even so, this seems to be the majority wants

Secondly, the setting matters.

Situations that involve physical contact like in a dense crowd really should require at least some pants. Nobody likes to accidentally rub gonads on each other.

Overall I don't think nudity laws around here (at least in NZ) are broken and need fixing. There's other legal matters to worry about.

But public breastfeeding should be allowed. C'mon, it's only a nipple. Get over it.

Honestly women have enough trouble getting catcalled without having their tits showing, I don't know why people think the whole free the nipple thing is a good idea. And I don't know why men would want to walk around nude either, it's hard enough to hide a boner as it is.

As for the whole "society won't collapse" thing, if women walk around shirtless we're going to have an increase in car accidents.

The laws around female breasts in America (or at least the attitudes) do seem too strict. I'm not sure if that will change in time given how serious people take their Puritan guidelines here.

Another topic I'd say has problems is nudity in fiction. Nudity is, in my opinion, far too heavily restricted in fictional media then it should be. You can get away with a lot more violence, which is probably more horrific in every sense of the word, then nudity in America.

Honestly women have enough trouble getting catcalled without having their tits showing, I don’t know why people think the whole free the nipple thing is a good idea.

It's more about giving them the choice to do so rather then making it the norm. Some chicks are gonna want to do it no matter what for some reason, so why make it illegal?

This video (although quite brash) is pretty relevant.

I'm kinda weird since I think Public Breastfeeding should be allowed but Female toplessness shouldn't. I also think males shouldn't be topless unless it's certain situations like the Beach. It's called obscenity laws for a reason, some people who would walk around naked would make people barf, there is a reason why I avoid Nude beaches.

That being said, I'm with @jarbox, the laws about nudity in fiction is way too ridiculous. While Nudity may not be what a lot of people want to see, and would gross people out based on attractiveness, it's not going to scar children for life if they see a female nipple or a penis. You can get away with having someones guts spilled out but a nipple must be censored. This is most ridiculous in the Alien movie where they come across mutant Ripley's that are deformed and quite disturbing and nightmare inducing but OMG IS THAT A NIPPLE ON ONE OF THEM? BLUR IT OUT IMMEDIATELY!! WE CAN'T LET KIDS SEE THAT!!! Deformed humans? Okay. Female Nipple? Obscene. (and before you say anything, that scene is supposed to be disturbing so point A doesn't matter)

I have a question: does disgust against nudity come naturally or are we taught to hate public nudity?

More of later, because of our social construct to treat nudity ( the female body in western society or any naked body in a Muslim majority country) as private matter.

I forgot to add in my earlier post that some tribes in Africa and America (mostly south) have no problem with nudity in children and topless woman.

It's pretty obviously taught; many cultures, even western cultures, don't give a half of a shit.

I personally support (tasteful) top nudity in women just because holy shit it gets so fucking hot in the summer sometimes. I honestly really wish I could rip off my shirt like a guy could but nope, that's illegal here. You guys don't get what it feels like to have sweat picking up in your damn bra or even if you don't wear one it still picks up and honestly it gets hot, muggy and shitty. Kind of sucks, and sucks when you're in the summer especially. Wouldn't really call it oppression though.

I can't really understand why there would be any reason to need to go completely buck naked though.

I don't think general nudity disgusts anyone, I think the general public does. Even for purposes of it being hot in the summer, think of public transportation (some guys do this already) your bare skin is touching/sweating all over a seat someone else has to sit in next, like no. I don't even want to think about it tbh, as someone who takes the train everywhere. There are legitimate hygiene reasons for not going around naked.

If you don't have anything to add to the thread other than a joke, then please keep it to yourself.

Personally I think public nudity is something that should be a bit taboo. People shouldn't really be able to bare it all in public place like a beach where plenty of children are at. However, if, for example, a woman takes off her top to sunbathe for a minute of two, I don't really think that deserves to be punished.

I know that in plenty of European nations, nudity laws are much more lax than in other parts of the world, and they don't seem to be having any real moral crisis (well I suppose that depends on who you talk to).

People shouldn’t really be able to bare it all in public place like a beach where plenty of children are at.

I find it interesting how we often this argument is made in favor of children

Children do get grossed-out when they see porn. But porn and nudity aren't always the same thing. Sunbathing on the beach topless is not porn. It's simply nudity in a casual environment. What I would like to know is; is there evidence that they are truly harmed at the sight of other peoples junks in casual environments?

Couple things to note:
- Most of you probably wandered into the opposite sex changing room a couple times as a toddler and saw plenty of nudity.
- Most of you may have had a mother that quite comfortably stripped around you when you were a baby
- Most of you didn't know nudity was wrong until the taboo was forced into your young mind during school (school is the first point where gender distinctions are made in your life). If that taboo wasn't enforced, would you have ever thought it was wrong?
- In school you still saw plenty of nudity belonging to your fellow students in the school changing rooms
- If you ever saw breasts in public as a kid. Were you mortified? Did you become a sex offender later in life?
- They're going to go through sex-ed eventually

I'd like to see more research that shows that whipping off your bra on the beach so you can tan your bra line is really going to hurt the kids around you. Until then I still think we oppose nudity more on our own disgust, rather than others.

Children do get grossed-out when they see porn. But porn and nudity aren’t always the same thing. Sunbathing on the beach topless is not porn. It’s simply nudity in a casual environment. What I would like to know is; is there evidence that they are truly harmed at the sight of other peoples junks in casual environments?

When I was still a kid I used to go on vacation with my parents near beaches. At certain beaches women going topless is pretty common when they're sunbathing. Even my mom did it.

I was at no point grossed out by the boobies. Sure dude, boobs everywhere, so that got little me his attention. But when you see them everywhere and nobody really cares, it loses its appeal quickly.

Nobody went full on naked there, but at the sight of someone's junk I probably wouldn't have cared much. Kids are innocent, they don't see nudity as a taboo yet. Sure, sex is icky, but basic nudity is just that, nudity. Kids don't care about it.

Teenagers is probably a bigger issue in that regard lol.

I believe that both sexes should be allowed to take off their tops on or around the beach/pool and maybe if it's really hot outside. With the only exception to this being breastfeeding, since babies need to eat. Besides that, I really wouldn't like to see anyone naked. Please keep your clothes on.

Fucking this. I can't count the number of times it was sweltering hot out and I saw guys walking around shirtless and thought "damn, I wish I could do that"

@Lisa:
Of course, you do bring up the good point of it's not always sanitary to have nudity allowed. Even I wouldn't argue that people should be allowed to be in the buff in closed, crowded, public spaces. I really think if the nudity laws were to become more lax then they should only be allowed in open areas where people aren't forced to rub against anyone.

@BSoD:
I too hate it when people bring up the "think of the children" argument. Children aren't going to particularly care, trust me. Some parents still say that their children are scarred by Janet Jackson's exposed boob at the super bowl and it's ridiculous. As you've mentioned, there are more than plenty of instanced where children are exposed to nudity and it doesn't seem to be a problem for them until society tells them it's a problem. Anecdotal evidence, but my mother used to change clothes in front of me and my siblings, my little brother and I used to bathe in the bathub together and when I got a little older I would bathe him. Hell, I used to come into the bathroom when my mother was using it because I just didn't understand the concept of personal space. My little brother would follow our mom into public bathrooms, the examples go on. I think one's sensitivity to nudity is a nurture over nature type of thing, and it's really not that hard to get used to seeing nudity if you are in the situation often enough. In my case, staring at naked old men 6 hours a week for two semesters did wonders for destroying my sensitivity to nudity

I'm not being sarcastic or dismissive when I ask this, this is something I am legitimately ignorant about.

Is it really that much hotter to wear a bikini top than it is to be topless? To me, it seems such little amount of cloth would not make that much of a difference, and in the summer, I doubt people are gonna complain about a girl wearing a bikini top when it's a hundred degrees out (50 or whatever you Celsius plebs use)

Also, how we react to Nudity is of course the product of culture. The less you see something and the more wrong you are told it is, the more shocking seeing it is to see it. If you were to allow public toplessness of women, people will be less shocked when they see a female boob. Although someone with a particularly ugly body would gross a fair amount of people out.

@Ryumaru

I don't wear bras and never have (tfw flat ;_;) but from what people have told me and reading in this thread alone the sweat is the problem. Sure that much cloth won't hold in heat but it does hold in sweat and can chafe depending on the fabric.

Is that just Bra's? I'm talking about Swimsuits here, things that are suppose to get wet. Does sweat cause the same problem to them?

Oh yeah swimsuits are different. I have no experience so I can't answer you there you'll have to wait for an experienced boob owner. I'd posit a "yes" though because I don't see how swimsuits would deal with sweat any different even though the fabric is more water resistant. Hell that might just mean they absorb the sweat less and just help it pool up more. I don't know clothes chemistry and haven't tested any of this though so don't quote me on anything.

I don't care about nudity at all, male or female. Simple as.

I guess I should've been a bit more clear when I said "children". I meant 6-12. And I think that around that time (6-7) kids begin to get uncomfortable around naked bodies. Yes it is ingrained into our minds, and no there is nothing wrong with nudity on its own, but the way our society is structured we can't just say "Everyone get naked" without there being some consequences. But yes, in a perfect world, people should be allowed to non-sexually be nude in places where it would be deemed normal, like a beach.

Swimsuits, bras, tops in general are all a pain in the ass when you have tits. My cleavage area where my boobs rub together gets a hell of a lot more itchy/gross when it's hot than anywhere else no matter what I'm wearing, and I suspect it would still happen even I wasn't wearing a bra/whatever because it's the skin that's aggravating itself, not the fabric. No bra definitely feels better though, because then your boobs aren't as close together and can breathe a bit more, but it still gets itchy eventually. I sleep in just a light t-shirt or tank top most nights and I still sometimes wake up itching because of the boob sweat.

You know, that kinda sound like what happens with guys and their balls, although then you can wear tight underwear to stop the rubbing, but that comes with it's own problems. I have a feeling boobs would get freed a lot sooner than balls though.