<p>Have you ever noticed that the whole concept of bathing suits makes absolutely zero sense whatsoever. Outside of random, culturally imposed obsessions about the taboo of nudity, why is it so brazen for someone to <em>not</em> wear bathing suits? There's no physical benefit to wearing clothes while swimming (it's actually detrimental) and they cause unnecessary tan lines.
People pay a lot of money for a piece of cloth that can only be used in a specific setting, that does you no good. That's like an arctic dog shedding its fur in the winter.
And don't even get me started on bikinis. It's okay and completely normal for males to expose their breasts, but if someone sees a females then she's a slut and it's a MORAL OUTRAGE if a child were to see them.
I swear, humans are retards.</p>
<p>This is one of the weirdest posts I have read… Well of course it’s inappropriate for a female to expose her BOOBS in front of the whole world, is it socially acceptable for a guy to leave his dick hanging out?!</p>
<p>Personally, i agree with the OP, and that’s why there’s this thing called NUDE BEACHES. </p>
<p>I’m generally pretty okay with nudity. It’s not like it’s inherently sexual and if your kid sees boobs OMG THEY ARE SCARRED FOR LIFE.</p>
<p>^^ I’m asking WHY it’s considered ‘inappropriate’ for her breasts to be seen, but it’s okay for a man’s to be seen. Precisely what is the difference that is worthy of it being illegal for a woman’s chest to be seen?</p>
<p>i hate tan lines. and i’ve thought the same thing ^</p>
<p>It’s actually not in a lot of states… I mean, if it’s considered “indecent” [sexual or weird] it can lead to fines, but otherwise it’s just up to whatever store or establishment you’re in.</p>
<p>Toplessness is okay in: coastal california, colorado, hawaii, maine, new york, ohio and texas.
Also Eugene, OR [oregon county fair]; Lucy Vincent Beach [martha’s vineyard]; Portland, OR; South Beach, Miami; Key West; New Orleans[mardi gras]; Washington, DC</p>
<p>Iizzy- that’s exactly it. Kids only become ‘scared’ and ‘scarred by’ nudity when they’re told by everyone and their parents that seeing a body is evil and they should be embarrassed. </p>
<p>You could take anything (let’s say eating ice cream)and if you had everyone telling a little kid that what they were doing was terrible and immoral, they would quickly think eating ice cream was terrible and immoral, regardless of the veracity of the statement. But where we run into problems is when we tell every single person in a society that eating ice cream is terrible and immoral, then it becomes illegal and taboo to even look at ice cream, you start to see shady ice cream eating-clubs pop up, families being destroyed because one of them was caught eating ice cream, etc.</p>
<p>Actually, I think that full-body speedos actually help you swim faster. If you rocked the birthday swimsuit then your hair + other dangling stuff would get in the way :P</p>
<p>^^ i don’t think they’re talking about competetive swimming, just going to the beach. lol</p>
<p>Well I think this answer is pretty obvious. Female breast are an object of sexual fantasy, therefore it is considered indecent to expose them to strangers. I mean your question really is rooted in cultural traditionalism more than anything else. Until we tear down our traditional values of gendertyping (gender plus stereotyping) what you are speaking of will never go away. I mean in many ways, there is nothing wrong with female nudity. BUT our society frowns on female nudity because of our traditional and “christian” values.</p>
<p>^Men’s upper bodies can also be the subject of sexual fantasy [read: hugh jackman]. Moreover, that’s completely subjective- there are plenty of sets of boobs that I doubt anyone’s fantasizing about…</p>
<p>As people have said, the entire thing is subjective, as far as nudity taboos. From a Christian point of view, you shouldn’t act in such a way as to incite lust in another person. What would be acting in such a way is entirely a societal thing.</p>
<p>However, in the society we have here and now what is acceptable falls some distance on the covered up side of nude, even when swimming. Therefore we don’t do it, and we try to discourage others from doing it.</p>
<p>On a more practical note, some of us swim in areas where there are fish. Just sayin.</p>
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<p>Shouldn’t the title of this thread be simply “Why is nudity in public settings taboo?” And it could probably be the entire message of the post too.</p>
<p>How weird, I literally just had this conversation with my three closest friends. </p>
<p>I would never go to a topless beach because I would get such a bad sunburn somewhere I do not want a sunburn, ever.</p>
<p>I think it’s an American thing, people in Europe (for the most part) are much more comfortable with nudity.</p>
<p>I don’t know, I thought it was pretty gross when some homeless guy was openly peeing when I was walking home from school.</p>
<p>Maybe we should just walk around naked all of the time.</p>
<p>Good ole puritan moral values. :D</p>
<p>Hmmmm, while I personally find nudity to be not such a big deal, there are practical applications to this. Female breasts are hormonal related, while male breasts aren’t. You can practically see a girl’s boobs with most bikini tops anyways or wet t-shirts. Yet males cannot wear thongs, while a girl is expected to show off her assets. </p>
<p>If girls were to go naked everywhere, that is if we changed the law…then there would be many more rapes and sexual harassment, touching and squeezing. I personally don’t think guys can control themselves, 
Maybe we shouldn’t allow guys out at night? Lol,</p>
<p>Bathing suits are fine. The emphasize your body and the fruitions of exercise. All’s well as long as girls don’t wear ridiculously skimpy bikinis.</p>