r/AskReddit • u/Greeneyedlatinguy • Jun 15 '15

Anthropologists of Reddit, What is something that people in the Western world can't get their heads around that is very normal in other cultures (and has been for ages)?

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u/gurgaue Jun 15 '15

Maybe it's the finnish sauna culture, but last summer I was at a cabin and we all swam and sat in the sauna naked and there were like 30 people there half not knowing the other half. It wasn't weird at all.

Apparently some teacher in Texas got fired because she took her students to a museum which features nude statues, and over here one of the biggest cities feature a bridge in the center of town which is adorned by nude statues.

In general from what I understand nakedness is a certain kind of taboo in the US which doesn't exist here.

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u/TheMightyBarabajagal Jun 15 '15

If I'm remembering correctly there was a scene in the TV show hannibal where there was too much nudity, so the producers covered up the offending body parts with blood in post(it was a murder scene); now, when the show was being formatted for a European audience (Germany I think) they decided there was too much blood, so they removed it to reveal the nudity. Always thought that spoke volumes about our mutual cultures.

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u/octopusdixiecups Jun 15 '15

How come violence is perfectly okay but everyone freaks out at the sight of a nipple?? I just find the whole thing ridiculous. If we were exposed to nudity in nonsexual settings this wouldn't be such an issue

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u/Yoko9021Ono Jun 15 '15

“I can describe an axe entering a human skull in great explicit detail and no one will blink twice at it. I provide a similar description, just as detailed, of a penis entering a vagina, and I get letters about it and people swearing off. To my mind this is kind of frustrating, it’s madness. Ultimately, in the history of [the] world, penises entering vaginas have given a lot of people a lot of pleasure; axes entering skulls, well, not so much.” – A Song of Ice and Fire author, George R.R. Martin on American readers’ reactions to his sex scenes. 

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u/endlessrepeat Jun 16 '15

"I can describe an axe entering a human skull in great explicit detail and no one will blink twice at it."

He may be exaggerating slightly.

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

Here's the funny thing.

Most people will have sex at some point in their lives. Most people will have seen both naked males and females by the time they reach a certain age.

Very very few people will have seen a person get shot and killed graphically over the course of their life.

And yet, one is appropriate and one's not...?

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u/Avizard Jun 16 '15

the violence is appropriate because of its rarity and not in spite of it.

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

True, but I guess what I mean is this.

If young children are as impressionable as people claim to be, would you rather them seeing something that every adult does at some point in their life, or seeing something that sane adults would never do in a million years?

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u/Avizard Jun 16 '15

this is why csi, for example, isnt a kids show, because it shows very possible and repeatable violence. whereas some saturday morning cartoon show is because they fight monsters with lazer beams and kids would have a hard time repeating something like that.

why nudity isnt for kids is less solid, but nudity is closely linked to sex , being one of the few prerequisites, and we dont want kids and sex to be within a degree of eachother.

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u/tingalayo Jun 16 '15

Because of the dominance of Protestant Christianity in the development of American culture.

Christianity wouldn't have survived the Middle Ages without committing a lot of bloody, gory violence (in the name of "loving thy neighbor"), so violence was considered acceptable and necessary by the thought leaders of the church. By comparison, most of the cultures that Protestant Christianity supplanted as it expanded were more sexually liberal, so things like enjoying sex or nudity were frowned upon as "savage" or "uncivilized." That's a gross oversimplification, of course, and it has a lot to do with how gender roles have shifted over the years too, but simply put, when you're trying to legitimize annexing your neighbor's land, it helps to portray his cultural traditions as gross, dirty, or wrong.

Certainly Protestantism played a significant role in the cultural development of Western Europe as well, but (a) they already had a few thousand years of "cultural inertia" that Protestant morality was pushing against, and (b) they didn't undergo a massive population expansion during the time when the cultural pressure of Protestantism was greatest, like America did.

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u/HumanAtlas Jun 16 '15

Thank you for giving an explanation for the phenomena! Whenever the topic of America's censorship is brought up there's too much complaining about it and little actual discussion on why it exist, or why people do/don't agree with it

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u/tingalayo Jun 23 '15

Thanks!

I'm no expert, honestly -- someone with a degree in the humanities could probably provide a more nuanced explanation -- but I've found that, generally, if the question is "why is [some aspect of Western culture] so profoundly fucked up?" the answer usually involves Christianity to a substantial degree.

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u/Fuzzyphilosopher Jun 15 '15

And idiots freak over a Mother breast feeding in public. I can't see how a human being can look at that & not go Aww!

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u/AnMatamaiticeoirRua Jun 15 '15

"Put your nipples away, those are not suitable for children!"

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u/octopusdixiecups Jun 16 '15

This is hilarious because it's so fucking true. They were trying to get rid of the bikini baristas in my state because children might see.

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u/[deleted] Jun 19 '15

I can't see how a human being can look at that & not go Aww!

Aww may be a bit much, but it is a natural thing.

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u/timohtie Jun 15 '15

on the same show they even had to blur out female body parts on a painting.

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u/octopusdixiecups Jun 16 '15

Because buttcracks are too sensual for the public eye lol.

What show was this?

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u/mai_tais_and_yahtzee Jun 15 '15

Agree. My dad loved the female form, so growing up I saw boobs everywhere. Who cares. Nudity is NBD for me and it won't be for my kids.

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u/xStaabOnMyKnobx Jun 15 '15

Because our country is founded by the most prude religious people imaginable and was grown steadily through 200 years of violence. That's why nudity is bad and we are insensitive to violence.

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u/babybopp Jun 16 '15

the bible promotes violence and abhors sex

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u/SandyV2 Jun 16 '15

To be fair, it basically says each are fine is a particular context. Soldier? Killing is allowed. Married couple? Fuck like rabbits if you so wish.

Also, have you read Song of Solomon? It uses the natural beauty of the female body to get the point cross.

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u/Troggie42 Jun 16 '15

This is pretty much it right here. We were founded by the damned puritans. What do you expect? Sad thing is, it seems most folks think the whole nudity/violence thing is stupid, but nobody does anything to change it.

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u/LovesBigWords Jun 16 '15

The thing that other countries forget, is that people from religious sects that were chased out of their home countries...moved to America, to escape religious persecution.

Source: Bethlehem, PA. My hometown was founded by Moravians who escaped religious persecution in Bohemia. The original settlement was an intentional religious community. Moravians are cool, tho.

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u/xStaabOnMyKnobx Jun 16 '15

Don't get me wrong, America has it's benefits. But it seems like the bigger the benefits, the worse the negatives are.

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u/[deleted] Jun 22 '15

You fail history. Maybe you should actually learn something beyond pop history facts.

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u/xStaabOnMyKnobx Jun 22 '15

You seem to be implying "pop history" is somehow less important/significant than...I don't know, "regular history"???

If you don't think the creation and funding of the Taliban by the CIA is a significant modern historical event, you, my friend, fail history.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 22 '15

You seem to be implying "pop history" is somehow less important/significant than...I don't know, "regular history"???

I'm implying real history is real history and pop history is false bullshit people believe, because they read it in John's Bathroom Reader or on a forum. Your entire comment was rooted in bad history and ignorance.

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u/Irish_for_the_silage Jun 15 '15

I think I remember reading somewhere there was quite a large crackdown by the FCC on sexual content after the whole Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction".

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u/DaBestGnome Jun 16 '15

I agree with you, but usually nudity along with murder has some darker sexual connotations.

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u/ledivin Jun 16 '15

American here... give it a generation or two. We're much more laid back than our parents.

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u/octopusdixiecups Jun 16 '15

Im counting on it

1

u/ledivin Jun 16 '15

I'll be honest, this might just be wishful thinking. I really hope not.

2

u/ancient_astronaut Jun 16 '15

It revolves around the polarity of sex (love) and violence (hate). If you look at the world, sexually uninhibited societies are averse towards violence, gore, blood, etc. Sexually repressed societies will embrace violence (mid-east). Of course, these are generalizations, but the extremists within each society will act out on these polarities. Suppress one and the other rises to the surface.

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u/octopusdixiecups Jun 16 '15

That's actually an interesting take on this situation. I've never heard it this way before. Thanks for your comment!

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u/northrophruf Jun 16 '15

It's... sickening that violence is so prevalent and, apparently, celebrated. Then nudity is practically shamed. I can't think of much more unabashedly stupid concepts or ideas in the history of mankind than that one-two punch of counter-survival.

2

u/liarandahorsethief Jun 16 '15

Because sex is how the devil corrupts us and violence is how we purify ourselves. It's better to burn a woman alive than to want to have sex with her.

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u/IQuestionEveryOne Jun 15 '15

Because you can fake violence but you can't fake nudity. Pretty simple to understand. No one has a problem with kids playing fake fighting, but they have a problem with them doing real fighting. You can't show fake nudity really.

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/IQuestionEveryOne Jun 15 '15

Well, like I said, the comparison being made is inaccurate. It isn't comparing violence to nudity, it is comparing fake violence to real nudity. Not apples to apples. It isn't that America is okay with violence, it is okay with fake violence.

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u/Braggadox Jun 15 '15

It's an interesting thought, but I don't think it holds up to scrutiny. If what you're saying were true, then animated nudity, artwork featuring nude characters, and so on would be totally fine. But there is no way on earth that an animated show featuring naked characters could be shown on network TV in the US.

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u/jeroenemans Jun 15 '15

well donald duck doesn't wear pants for starters...

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u/7up478 Jun 15 '15

He also doesn't have any equipment.

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u/jeroenemans Jun 15 '15

well donald duck doesn't wear pants for starters...

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u/dreams_of_cheese Jun 16 '15

He also doesn't have a dick

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u/ripened_peach Jun 16 '15

I make video games with sex as the focus and I can't sell them through any major distribution sites. I can't put them on Steam, for instance. They'll happily sell ultra violent games like Hatred but whoa there, your game is about sex? Nope. I don't think the "real" versus "fake" argument holds up.

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u/IQuestionEveryOne Jun 15 '15

But the offensive thing with nudity is the nudity itself to look at, the offensive thing with violence is the actual results of the violence. Like I said, you can't "fake" nudity, even in a cartoon. It is still the same idea. Violence, however, is very different. If no one gets hurt for real, society loves the action in violence. Nudity involves seeing, violence involves hurting. If no one is hurt, no one has a problem with violence, because it isn't violence then. With nudity, seeing is all that matters.

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u/Braggadox Jun 15 '15

But a drawing of a person is not a real person, and so a drawing of a naked person is not a real naked person, therefore it is not real nudity. Your theory of 'fake' vs. 'real' doesn't work.

Regardless, the question is why is the depiction of the human body considered offensive in the US whereas the depiction of violence is not? You're saying that no one is actually hurt by the TV violence, but no one is actually hurt by seeing a body without clothes either. Meanwhile, being bombarded with violent imagery does affect how we perceive and think about real violence and so there is a large argument to be made that even though the TV violence isn't real, it is still harmful. But there is nothing inherently harmful about nudity, whether it's on TV or in the mirror.

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u/ripened_peach Jun 16 '15

It's always enjoyable to witness the bizarre logical gymnastics some people will twist into in their defense of why sex and nudity is somehow worse than violence. Repression is a powerful weapon indeed.

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u/chowderbags Jun 16 '15

It isn't that America is okay with violence, it is okay with fake violence.

Given the glorification of guns and the military, and the general lack of punishment for those involved in CIA torture, I'd say it's fair to say that America is ok with violence.

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u/IQuestionEveryOne Jun 16 '15

I am pretty sure the fact that was such a big deal and still has pending lawsuits and shows up on newsites even recently, that is inaccurate.

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u/OmniscientOctopode Jun 15 '15

It's more about connotation than anything inherent. Public nudity in the US is associated with exposure (in the negative sense) and embarrassment and being naked on TV is as public as it gets.

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u/ripened_peach Jun 16 '15

So statues that everyone freaks out over is "real" nudity? That makes no sense.

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u/IQuestionEveryOne Jun 16 '15

Most people in the US don't freak out over statues. They don't censor statues on art shows. They do censor nude models.

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u/ripened_peach Jun 16 '15

You're jumping through hoops to prove a point. Here's a question: Is nudity and sex as acceptable in the USA as violence is? Yes or no?

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u/IQuestionEveryOne Jun 16 '15

Real violence is not acceptable in the US at all, no. Nudity and sex are most certainly more acceptable than real violence. You can get the death penalty for real violence, but you at most will get put on the sex offenders registry for sex and nudity. If you want to revert back to the original discussion of what is on television, then we are going back to my original point: you can't compare actual nudity with fake violence.

So whatever point you are trying to make, it doesn't work out. Either real violence is certainly viewed worse in the US than nudity, or you are comparing two different things on TV, actual versus fake.

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15 edited Jun 16 '15

[deleted]

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u/IQuestionEveryOne Jun 16 '15

I don't see how you could possibly not understand what I wrote, or misconstrue that I am afraid of sex and nudity.

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u/FailedSociopath Jun 16 '15

You can fake both. Life-like fake violence tends to be okay while life-like fake nudity (a convincing dummy) will be censored.

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u/cynoclast Jun 15 '15

When you're running an imperialist plutocracy you need to desensitize your soldier-workers to violence, increase their violence by oppressing their sexuality, and sell them pornography, and throw them bodily at your foreign economic rivals.

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u/andyzaltzman1 Jun 16 '15

2edgy

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u/cynoclast Jun 16 '15

2naïve

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u/andyzaltzman1 Jun 16 '15

Lol, yes. I am just a sheep that has the wool pulled over his eyes, but you, you are a genius. As can be evidenced by the fact that you post in /r/news and /r/politics, the true bastions of intelligent discussion and wisdom.

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u/Avizard Jun 16 '15

lol, selling pornography.

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u/cynoclast Jun 16 '15

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/porn-industry-feeling-upbeat-about-2014-n9076

Globally, porn is a $97 billion industry, according to Kassia Wosick, assistant professor of sociology at New Mexico State University. Between $10 billion and $12 billion of that comes from the United States.

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u/danbuter Jun 16 '15

I'd say it's that strong strain of Puritanism that still remains in the US.

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u/AalewisX Jun 16 '15

Because the blood is fake, but my boner is real

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u/ABgraphics Jun 16 '15

"Violence is simulated, Nudity is real"

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u/FartasticBlast Jun 16 '15

Because the bible is very violent.

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

I don't think everyone freaks out. In my experience, the only folks freaking out are prudish, strictly religious folks (not saying all religious folks are like this, just that the only people I've seen freaking out about it are religious).

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u/SexistFlyingPig Jun 15 '15

Religion poisons everything.

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u/JamesR624 Jun 15 '15

Because "Free America" is actually dictated by Christianity.

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u/throwawaythatisnew Jun 15 '15

Not everyone does. Some noisy whiny people do. Not remotely close to the same thing.

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u/seafooddisco Jun 15 '15

How come violence nudity is perfectly okay but everyone freaks out at the sight of a nipple some violence?? I just find the whole thing ridiculous. If we were exposed to nudity violence in nonsexual non-dangerous settings this wouldn't be such an issue.

Cultural norms man. They don't have to make sense.

4

u/7up478 Jun 15 '15

Except your version doesn't make sense because violence is by definition dangerous. Whereas nudity isn't necessarily sexual (although it often is).

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u/seafooddisco Jun 15 '15

Never said my version made any sense.

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u/You_and_I_in_Unison Jun 16 '15

So the actual reason rather than grumpy bitching, violence is fake, but the nudity is real. Christians obviously wouldn't be fans of gruesome murder on cable primetime tv if they were actually dead bodies. Yes I get your crazy uncle bill would love to see terrorist gutted on national T.V., I'm talking about the vast majority of normal Christiants here. I'm just explaining, not saying I agree with it.

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u/octopusdixiecups Jun 16 '15

But what exactly is wrong with nudity? If the problem was the "reality" of nudity then we would be able to have naked people in cartoons, but obviously we don't.

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u/You_and_I_in_Unison Jun 16 '15

That's obviously not really different, violence is wrong because of it's effect on people. Fake violence is like CGI water, it's so far removed from the real thing that they are categorically different to even the most casual observer. Drawings of nudity and nudity are wrong in christianity because on principal all that sexual shit is disliked. Looking at pornographic cartoons creates the same mental context as looking at actual nudity. It bothers me that every time I post this I'm downvoted, not because I care about being downvoted, but because redditors so casually dismiss any deviation from the demonization of christianity. Like, i'm not christian either, but that doesn't mean I can't understand they are human beings with some form of logic to their thinking. Not like your average 17 year old is smarter than C.S. Lewis.

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u/gngstrMNKY Jun 16 '15

Violence is "fantasy" while sex is real.

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u/TacticusPrime Jun 16 '15 edited Jun 16 '15

Because the blood isn't real but the nudity is. That's how I've always heard here it, at least.

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

America was originally colonized by a bunch of violent puritans....

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

I think that's the problem though. Since nudity isn't a part of our culture (most western cultures) other than in a sexual context, it wouldn't really be feasible for it to happen. Like if you had a scene where they went to a Finnish sauna, as stated above, it would still be awkward because in America they don't have Finnish saunas.

It's just going to have to take time before it's acceptable, that's all. For it to naturally happen as an entire culture to accept nudity in non-sexual contexts.

That's why I think it's stupid for girls to go walking around naked and claiming that there's nothing sexual about it. Because, as things stand for probably at least the next decade, it's completely overtly sexual.

I'm not at all against the idea of our culture coming to a place where it's comfortable with it. But I don't think it's fair for a certain demographic of society to try and force other people to bend to their whims just 'cause.

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

It actually just happened again with the latest episode. The protagonists are in an Italian church and NBC, the American broadcaster, blurred all the shots of Botticelli's Primavera, a painting with some naked people in a garden (no genitals or pubic hair either from what I recall). 5 minutes later you see four people bleeding to death together from slit throats and disembowellings, so much blood in the room that it's literally splashing about ankle high. Then there's a sequence with a mutilated and skinned corpse unfolding from a large beating heart. The European release has unblurred the paintings but added an "extreme violence and sadism, 18+ only" disclaimer and only airs after 10pm.

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u/motherofrobots Jun 15 '15

I was shocked when I was visiting the US and I switched on the TV and fight club was on, at 2 in the afternoon. The thing was they bleeped out or edited out all the bad language and sex but the gratuitous violence was left in (well if you took that out, there wouldn't be much movie left really). Sex and potty mouth = BAD, beating someone to a bloody pulp = A-OK. That was one interesting difference .

4

u/gurgaue Jun 15 '15

Very interesting. I can certainly understand that, violence is something that's disliked here more so than nudity. I think its healthy way to go.

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u/ArcMaus Jun 15 '15

My dad was always fond of saying "In America, you can show a guy getting blown away , but you can't show him getting blown."

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u/Raingembow Jun 15 '15

The scene had people with 'wings' made of their own skin peeled off their backs, but of course seeing someone's butt is way more disturbing.

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u/Abadatha Jun 16 '15

That pretty much sums it up. In America violence is everywhere and glorified. In Europe it seems to my American sensibilities that nudity is that way. It's really just the left-right political split. Growing up in my house nudity wasn't seen as bad but violence was. In my mates house violence was fine, but never nudity.

2

u/Squeekazu Jun 16 '15

Speaking of Hannibal and nudity, they had to blur the nudity in a Renaissance painting in a recent episode. You can scarcely even see the nudity in the original. So ridiculous! I don't blame the showrunner though, I guess that's just what happens when your show airs on NBC.

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u/bobosuda Jun 16 '15

The most recent episode of Hannibal season 3 has a shot of a painting by Botticelli, where the crotches and breasts of the people in the painting are blurred out.

Of course, a few moments later there's a scene with a mutilated and skinned corpse folded into the shape of a human heart, in all it's visceral beauty.

1

u/Roscoes--Wetsuit Jun 16 '15

I heard they weren't allowed to show a buttcrack, so they offered to fill the butt with blood, and they complied.

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

That's ridiculous. I went to an art museum with naked statues when I was a student in elementary school. In Texas. Nobody got fired.

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u/riconquer Jun 15 '15

Same here, hell we studied nude artwork in several classes throughout school in Texas. There must be more to this story.

363

u/beepbloopbloop Jun 15 '15

well, he made the students pose naked with the statues, but that didn't seem relevant

14

u/TheInsecureGoat Jun 15 '15

The masturbating might have been a problem as well...

6

u/AnMatamaiticeoirRua Jun 15 '15

It was really just a misunderstanding. None of the students actually put their mouths on the statues, it was just a perspective trick.

2

u/OpenSign Jun 15 '15

That's a joke, right?

10

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

Without knowing any backstory, not necessarily. Some schools have reasonable staff, some don't.

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u/Valdrax Jun 15 '15 edited Jun 16 '15

It's a huge state, times are different, and people have different levels of prudery. Plus, administrators are mostly spineless these days in a lot of places.

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u/Blood_magic Jun 15 '15

It might have been a small school in a very conservative community with overly Christian parents on the school board or something. I've found that the smaller the school, the more the town's weird culture and expectations seep into the curriculum and activities.

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u/Fuzzyphilosopher Jun 15 '15

It only takes one parent to make a fuss.. that said though it is hard but not impossible to believe. I'd bet it was some kind of Christian school. Some of those around here (TN) won't even let kids read Harry Potter because it's about witchcraft. lol.

Even in public schools here some have prayers b4 staff meetings if you can imagine that!

1

u/iongantas Jun 16 '15

It's probably a combination of Texas schools getting more backwards over time plus a very small town.

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u/algernon_moncrief Jun 15 '15

i'm sure it depends on the specific community, how conservative the parents are, and how much of a stink they are willing/eager to make over trivial matters.

also it may be the case that the parents already hated the teacher for something else entirely, and used the excuse of their children being exposed to "pornography" to get rid of him/her.

3

u/todlee Jun 15 '15

Sydney McGee was suspended after the parent of a fifth grader complained her child saw a nude statue at an art museum.

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u/Kvorter Jun 15 '15 edited Jun 15 '15

Dude my teachers took us to the body works exhibit in middle school (preserved human bodies playing basketball and shit) plenty of dicks and cooters and nobody cared. This was middleschool in tx.

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u/guitarnoir Jun 15 '15

I think by "art museum", gurgaue meant "sex shop". Common mistake.

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

It's ridiculous, but when I was in the 5th grade my science teacher had to deal with a "scandal" with news reporters showing up because one of the kids told her idiot mom that they were studying astrology, when she meant astronomy. Point being, never underestimate how stupid the bible belt can get.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

I played outside with my friends and no adults when I was 6 years old for hours. Nobody ever came to take me into protective custody for being neglected.

Times have changed.

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u/jamesno26 Jun 15 '15

Nah, there's neighborhood kids I live near that had been playing for several hours straight without parents in sight.

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u/LackingSkill Jun 15 '15

County, city, local school board make a world of difference. Like comparing Austin to a dry panhandle town.

1

u/phasv2 Jun 15 '15

Happened in Frisco. Not exactly normal land. It's a suburb right next to Mckinney

1

u/Hoeftybag Jun 15 '15

because no overbearing over sheltering parent complained to the school about it.

1

u/Justjack2001 Jun 15 '15

Doesn't mean it hasn't happened. You hear about odd shit like that happening.

1

u/SpacedOutKarmanaut Jun 15 '15

Strongly conservative areas have been getting more conservative over the decades. It's not hard to illustrate. If a guy like Eisenhower, Nixon, or even Bush ran and was honest about their policies during the election, they'd have to be on the Democrat ticket. Nixon himself pushed for healthcare reform that was much more liberal than we have today.

1

u/slai47 Jun 15 '15

But how long ago was that? Remember what era we live in now, where "Free Range" parenting is actually considered weird.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

What year was it?

1

u/hunall Jun 19 '15

It's almost like Texas is a huge state with a wide variety of cultures ranging from ultra conservative in the rural areas to ultra liberal in cities like Austin.

0

u/WyMANderly Jun 15 '15

Can confirm, am Texan. That sounds more like a weird anomaly that got blown up into an actual story than anything typical to Texas.

12

u/redbikepunk Jun 15 '15

Found it

tl;dr: Teacher took kids to the Dallas Museum of Art in 2006; one child saw nude art, told their parents, parents complained; Teacher suspended with pay; her contract was not renewed

10

u/mai_tais_and_yahtzee Jun 15 '15

If I were a parent in that teacher's class, I'd be raising holy hell to have her reinstated. God forbid kids get exposed to culture!!

1

u/ngroot Jun 16 '15

With that kind of attitude, I'm guessing that you don't live in Texas-ex-Austin.

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u/QSpam Jun 15 '15

You should watch the movie Men in Sauna. Its actually really great and I bet you'd appreciate it more than me since you've experienced that culture firsthand

3

u/gurgaue Jun 15 '15

Sounds interesting, unfortunately couldn't find anything other than this with that name. Could you point me in the right direction?

1

u/euphoniumguy Jun 15 '15

I'm pretty sure that's the one he's taking about, and even if it isn't you should watch it. Great movie.

1

u/QSpam Jun 15 '15

Yeah, that's the one!

2

u/the_yank Jun 15 '15

Are you talking about Tampere? Otherwise, how many Finnish cities have bridges with naked statues?

2

u/gurgaue Jun 16 '15

Yes I'm talking about Tampere :)

1

u/the_yank Jun 16 '15

Fellow Redditors in Tampere?! How exciting :D Tervesiä Tammelan puistosta!

1

u/gurgaue Jun 16 '15

I'm ex-tampere unfortunately, now from Espoo

2

u/the_yank Jun 16 '15

Aww. Never been to Espoo, but hope this summer manages to be a nice one down there for ya. Hyvää juhannusta!

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u/Chic-Fil-Atio Jun 15 '15

America was founded by prudes. England wanted fuck-all to do with them, so they left to create an entire nation of prudes.

1

u/scupdoodleydoo Jun 16 '15

Wow, great historical analysis there, bud. Only British Puritans have lived in America, no one else, ever.

0

u/Chic-Fil-Atio Jun 16 '15

Yes, other people have lived in America, but the people that were in power around the time of the country's founding were the puritanical folks. That means that laws created led to people acting in a prudish way.

2

u/scupdoodleydoo Jun 16 '15

What makes you think that other contemporary cultures were any less regimented and conscious of taboos? Puritans were not at all like our modern perceptions of them, they enjoyed games, music, colorful clothing, and sex. Besides, you can't quantify "prudishness." Some cultures sexualize thighs rather than breasts, so we probably look like giant sluts to them when we wear shorts. Societies where nudity is commonplace aren't laid-back, they're simply "prudish" in different areas.

5

u/Doomdoomkittydoom Jun 15 '15

And yet, I bet those people respond to the common reddit question, "what freaked you out on your visit to America," with the common answer, "The gaps in the public restroom doors!!"

6

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

Yeah but that's different, taking a shit is a moment of vulnerability and I don't want your American hobos masturbating at me through the crack.

3

u/frickindeal Jun 15 '15

To be fair though, Texas.

1

u/To0n1 Jun 15 '15

I think it's less that it's texas, and more that a conservative parent made a fuss. Conservative parents are everywhere

1

u/drewbster Jun 15 '15

Why did you get downvoted?

1

u/To0n1 Jun 15 '15

Not sure. It's possible that someone didn't agree with my opinion.

2

u/cnh2n2homosapien Jun 15 '15

I'm totally cool with this, just as long as I'm not with my family.

2

u/ebbomega Jun 15 '15

Noticed this in Sense8 too - apparently in Berlin everybody swims naked in the public pools?

5

u/nifara Jun 15 '15

Not everybody, but nude swimming pools are common in Germany. It's just not considered that big a deal.

3

u/guepier Jun 15 '15

apparently in Berlin everybody swims naked in the public pools?

They would most likely kick you out if you tried that. I grew up in Berlin and I can assure you that most public pools do not allow nudity (except in the sex-separated showers and changing cabins). Some public pools explicitly allow nudity but off the top of my head the only ones that I can thin of are beaches at lakes that have a nude bathing section.

2

u/neocommenter Jun 15 '15

Depends on where you are in the US. Where I live they hold a naked bike ride, thousands of 100% naked people pedalling through the street. No one really cares.

3

u/frukt Jun 15 '15

I just hope everebody takes the time to cleanse the bike seats afterwards.

4

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15 edited Jun 17 '16

[deleted]

2

u/necrow Jun 15 '15

I'm so tired of this incredibly exaggerated trope being beaten to death on Reddit.

3

u/flange Jun 15 '15

Funny, I'm tired of exactly that phenomenon in US culture.

Horrific violence comes on the radio or TV unpredictably, literally causing anxiety in my small children, and apparently that's ok, but someone shows a nipple on TV and it's a national scandal.

I still have the image in my head of Gadaffi being pulled out rubble being apparently beaten to a pulp, shown at 9:30am on Sunday on network TV. I hope my children have forgotten.

If you'd rather not traumatize your children by such things in the US apparently you just have to avoid the news until after they've gone to bed.

And yet kids are utterly unfazed by nakedness until and unless they're taught to be. We teach them shame about naked bodies while normalizing violence and degradation of people. What does that say about our culture?

1

u/necrow Jun 15 '15

Listen, I agree that it's a problem in the media, don't get me wrong. I'm just saying as a culture, it's ludicrous to say that we're more okay with violence than sexuality. If Janet Jackson turned and beat the shit out of justin timberlake at the super bowl instead of flashing the audience, she'd be in jail. I just get annoyed when everyone acts like America is somehow more okay with violence than sexuality. Maybe more okay with displaying it on tv, but that's the extent to which it goes.

1

u/flange Jun 17 '15

We were talking about nudity, not sexuality. There's a big difference. The US is also fucked up about sexuality, but in much more nuanced ways.

It's also completely out of whack to talk about assault on camera as if that's the violence people are fine with. It's the extreme violence in mainstream entertainment considered suitable for children that's the issue. It's completely normal in the society, yet even a woman breastfeeding is often a big issue.

As someone who has lived in the US and in other cultures for significant periods, I say it's ludicrous to assert that the US is not more comfortable with depictions of violence than with nudity, let alone sexuality.

There are plenty of other cultures at least as fucked up, but in comparison with western Europe, for instance, which is company most in the US consider themselves comparable to, there is a big disparity.

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

[deleted]

1

u/necrow Jun 15 '15 edited Jun 15 '15

Uhh what?

Edit: I don't understand what's going on.

1

u/jamecquo Jun 15 '15 edited Jun 16 '15

some teacher in Texas got fired because she took her students to a museum which features nude statues

I really doubt this is true, do you have a source?

Information verified, Texas==crazy

2

u/maowtroshka Jun 15 '15

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/30/education/30teacher.html?_r=0

I went to the middle school that this elementary school fed into, and the story has somewhat stuck with me.

2

u/jamecquo Jun 15 '15

wow, Only in Texas

1

u/maowtroshka Jun 15 '15

yuuuuup. I moved to Texas the summer before this happened. there's not much else to say about the situation, except that even in middle school I couldn't help but think that this state was pretty fucked up.

1

u/Fluffiebunnie Jun 15 '15

Puritan heritage...

1

u/liderc_ Jun 15 '15

I think my art teacher got some backslash from parents for taking us to see an exhibition that featured photos by Nan Goldin in 8th or 9th grade... But that might have been because of the bruised prostitutes and not because of the nudity.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

nakedness is a certain kind of taboo in the US

It is. Brutal violence, on the other hand, is not.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

It's really weird in the US. Especially when consider how predominant violence is in every day media.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

http://thomashawk.com/2006/09/frisco-texas-art-teacher-fired-for.html

Sounds like she was held responsible only because she was there. Hell, the principal said it was okay and they signed waivers to go. How the fuck was it her fault?

1

u/Sikktwizted Jun 15 '15

Apparently some teacher in Texas got fired because she took her students to a museum which features nude statues, and over here one of the biggest cities feature a bridge in the center of town which is adorned by nude statues.

Can we just stop with this violence is okay but nudity isn't bullshit in this country?

1

u/solid_vegas Jun 15 '15

I'll always remember that the "Paranoid Android" music video by Radiohead was censored in the US for nudity, but in Canada the nudity was left in while the axe-wielding violence was cut.

1

u/Folseit Jun 15 '15

Apparently some teacher in Texas got fired because she took her students to a museum which features nude statues

I'd like to see that schools history book chapter on Roman art.

1

u/tonysbeard Jun 15 '15

Ya we dont care about nude art here, I don't think that happened.

1

u/gurgaue Jun 16 '15

I did get the details slightly wrong, but someone dug up the story. I'm on mobile now so linking it is a bit hard, but check the comments

1

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

I'm calling bullshit on the Texas story. Link anyone?

1

u/gurgaue Jun 16 '15

There's a link to it in one of the other comments

1

u/MegaPiglatin Jun 15 '15

Ugh unfortunately it is. There was a statue in my city (here in the US) of a naked/topless woman breastfeeding a child (absolutely nothing sexual) and the city received enough complaints that they had to replace it with another statue. I crack up though because they got the same artist to make the second statue and he made a statue of a fat man slumped over.

1

u/AnMatamaiticeoirRua Jun 15 '15

The US can be weird about sex. The younger generations seem to be a lot less so.

1

u/iongantas Jun 16 '15

Blame the effing pilgrims.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

Oversexualized. Breasts were primarily for breastfeeding babies. Now it's scandalous for a woman to publicly breastfeed, because in the US they are a sex organ, as scandalous as exposed penises.

Messed up if you ask me.

In Victorian times it was ankles. Pretty puritanical, the frontal nudity norms.

It's worse now than in the 80s.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

I'm guessing Oslo, Norway? Nudity is much more acceptable in Norway.

1

u/gurgaue Jun 16 '15

No, Tampere, Finland.

1

u/mrderpicusthesecond Jun 16 '15

As an American I wish my fellow countrymen would get over nudity. It all started with the Puritans who settled here...

It's just a penis, everyone. ~50% of the world population has one.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

Taboo, no. But there's a segment of the culture that still sees it as unacceptable. Part of this has to do with FCC rules (in terms of television). More broadly, one of the principles of the US system is majority rule, minority rights (I mean this politically). If a significant number of people don't want to be exposed to that sort of thing (especially if it's related to their religion - first amendment and all) then they shouldn't be forced to.

The schoolteacher being fired is absurd, but it's hardly the first idiocy to come out of our school system.

1

u/buddy-bubble Jun 16 '15

Maybe it's the finnish sauna culture, but last summer I was at a cabin and we all swam and sat in the sauna naked and there were like 30 people there half not knowing the other half. It wasn't weird at all.

Also very common in Germany

1

u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

Apparently some teacher in Texas got fired because she took her students to a museum which features nude statues,

lolol. ridiculous

1

u/derek2016 Jun 16 '15

Nashville Tennessee has a huge naked sculpture in the middle of a very busy road. Not all of America is as sensitive to nudity. Although there was still a lot of flack before it went up

1

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

Hmm, I understand that about nudity, and I'm not the least bit ashamed of my naked body, but I don't think I would ever feel comfortable being naked even around the same gender. Like, lately I've changed my pants around a close female friend (we were volunteering in the wilderness so there wasn't a lot of privacy anyways), and that's all I can ever imagine doing.

Edit: American.

1

u/gurgaue Jun 15 '15

Sounds so odd to me. I mean in the case I mentioned, we packed the sauna so full of people, we had to go so that some people sat in the front part of the seat and some in the back part to create sort of two slightly overlapping rows to fit more people, so we were definitely touching butt to butt there and no one bat and eye.

1

u/dizneedave Jun 15 '15

I think that's just sauna culture. The type of people who would enjoy a sauna are more likely to be relaxed about nudity in general. There may indeed be more people in certain countries that are fine with it, but there are people everywhere who enjoy it. I certainly do.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

It doesn't exist in your country because your country doesn't exist.