AH challenge: Female nudity

NapoleonXIV

Banned
What sort of changes in culture, fashion etc might be necessary to make female nudity (whole or partial) a widely acceptable practice in Western culture in the present? The baring of breasts was widely done throughout most of Mycenean culture, Egyptian women frequently wore nothing but decorative belts, 18thc French women often wore only bustiers up top etc. It is acceptable, of course, in many other cultures.

I don't mean just the occasional incidence a la Madonna, nor do I mean nude beaches, I mean completely acceptable, as in any mall on saturday with no heads turning. (Well maybe some ;) )
 
Predominately there has to be changes in religion, and for Christianity that has to go back as far as the early Church - or even to Eve and the Original Sin. Good weather is also very important, but then by the 21st century clothing will be necessary again to ward of skin cancer. Hollywood at least would have to be willing to accept the idea that actresses age.

However, unless very woman was going to continually visiting the gym or her plastic surgeon (or both) one will eventually find that it is cheaper to by clothes than tummy tucks. Clothing covers the flaws of flesh.
 

NapoleonXIV

Banned
Do you really think it would take that much? Women commonly dress in a way that is revealing and suggestive right now, it seems a short step on to show what they infer. And I'm sure that modern clothiers could figure ways to make support garments they could incorporate into clothing that would still reveal the center of attention. (think of the Cretan dresses with a wonderbra built in, or pushup leggings)
 
Cults

I've wondered about a Cult that takes the Genisis story about the Fig Leaf and promotes Nudity as a sign of returning to obeying gods commands, and Disrobe when entering Church. If it started During the Sixties It may be puching for expanded areas of :Worship"
 
Hmmm...Paul wrote in one of the letters to the Corinthians that women should dress modestly (presumably this is to avoid tempting men). The nudity-in-church thing might be a way to wriggle around that; there are already "Christian nudist camps" where people do everything nude except dance (supposedly dancing is more lust-inducing than other things).
 

Straha

Banned
how about we have an alternate calvinist movement: hard work stressed but no moral strictness....
 
I suspect that one reason why a culture that was based on European roots developed 'modesty' was because it is just so damn cold up north.
 
Nudity and pornography

NapoleonXIV said:
What sort of changes in culture, fashion etc might be necessary to make female nudity (whole or partial) a widely acceptable practice in Western culture in the present? The baring of breasts was widely done throughout most of Mycenean culture, Egyptian women frequently wore nothing but decorative belts, 18thc French women often wore only bustiers up top etc. It is acceptable, of course, in many other cultures.

I don't mean just the occasional incidence a la Madonna, nor do I mean nude beaches, I mean completely acceptable, as in any mall on saturday with no heads turning. (Well maybe some ;) )

We are already in a society wherein it is increasingly acceptable for women to dress in revealing garments, so I don't see how this is alternate history. Thanks in part to the internet, pornography is also becoming so widespread that it will be practically mainstream media within a generation or so. I suspect that, within a century or so, pornography will be such a public statement that its novelty will wear off, and the industry will fade into an obscurity of its own making.
 
I agree with the environmental determinists.

It is just too cold most of the year in much of Europe for women (or men for that matter) to habitually go about in their birthday suits. Late stone age and bronze age burials suggest that people tended to wear lots of clothes before the spread of christianity, so that isn't the main reason - but religious precepts certainly helped reinforce this pattern when Europeans setled in tropical areas.
 
Modern Day Nude Cultures

Hot weather and expensive textiles. Say, no linen or cotton, just wool or silk. Throw in global warming because of methane emission from submarine landslides, and we've got it.
 
Last edited:
Warmer climate combined with increased clouds? Warmer weather would minimize need for clothing, clouds would minimize need for solar protection.
 
Top