Debating Clothes...

Nudity: What's Wrong with it?

  For those who don't really know me, or haven't spent a lot of time around me: Allow me to point out the obvious. I'm a straight man in my late thirties (Duh). If an attractive woman walks past, I WILL look (Duh). I am a perv, in a way that was once an affectation but now is to the point of being so much a part of me that even I'm not sure where it leaves off and I start (Duh). The last in the sense of making dirty jokes and innuendoes. If something a person has said can be interpreted as or have dirty thought attached to it…chances are my mind will go there. At least silently. :-)
  Let us put me aside for the moment. At least as much as possible. Especially since I'm looking to stir up the pot here and hopefully get a few things riled up. Also, while I am again looking for comment and discussion, if all you can do is be over-critical then don't bother. I hope to get insights, honest opinion, discussion points and the like. Not told how bad a person I am just because I don't think the human body is dirty and/or something to be hidden or ashamed of just for the sake of such. Now onward…
  What is wrong with nudity? In general. Putting aside our individual, or societal definitions of physical beauty. Our society, in the U.S., for example has taken it to the point of enacting laws (Whether enforced or as page fillers in some legal text) which dictate what we can do in the privacy of our own back yards or homes. Which can be both good and bad.
  Now I have talked to many who share similar views to mine. That is, that there is nothing wrong with the human body or nudity. Yet there is still a big difference between me or any other man walking down the street with our shirt off and "Jane Doe" doing the same thing. "Jane Doe" would probably get arrested, simply because she has a rounder, softer chest then I do.
  Now, I'm not saying that comfort shouldn't be tempered with a little brains. As a species, we Humans are a hardy stock. Proven by the simple fact that we haven't died out in the last few thousand years, and that we can (and usually do) inhabit just about every form of region on Earth. Yet most of us would agree that it wouldn't be pleasant in -20 degree weather without wrapping up. Nor would it be healthy, hypothermia being the major concern beyond comfort. As well as dehydration and other problems in high heat. We have also all heard the problems that can arise from to much exposure to the sun. Tanning is cool, but taken in extreme can cause many a problem and malady for the skin. Hence, I will/would promote common sense. (Or what I and I would think many of you would consider common sense.)
  At the same time, look at young children, or even ourselves at a young age. One (only one mind you) complaint I have heard from any Mother is that she has a problem keeping clothes on her youngest at some point. (The youngest usually being under the age of 5 or 6, corrections more then welcome.) Yet that is the way most of us first learned about such things. Our Mothers chasing us down and/or putting us back in our clothes that they spent half an hour picking out and putting us in to begin with.
  At what point though does that subtle shift take place between 'protection from the elements' and the 'need to cover up' for proprieties sake (Or any other such reason)?
  I like to think of myself as a relatively intelligent person, who is in charge and responsible for his own actions. Who, despite how I might (or might seem) to interact with my friends and associates, is not so sex crazed that if I saw an attractive woman sunning herself topless or nude I would be able to control any urges I may have. In other words that I wouldn't just go over and want to jump her. Am I the rarity for this form of self-control? Or is it something that is so taken for granted that is virtually forgotten?
  I wont lie, if I see a woman I feel is attractive, I will most likely admire her beauty. Even go so far as to try and talk to her. Like most men, and even women for that matter. It's a baser instinct thing, propagation of the species and the like. Yet we are more than our baser urges needs and instincts aren't we? And yet seem to be the only species on the planet that seems to have, for the most part, a societal problem with its form. Why? Even if at some point there may have been a reason, does that reason still exist?
  If I as a man need not worry about walking down the street or working in my yard without a shirt, why should a woman? Honestly, besides having bigger breasts then a man (Yes guys they're called breasts, even if we prefer to call them Pecks on a man) what is the difference? Where do our inhibitions come from, why, and should they still be such an influence on us?
  (By the way, I'm not actually trying to say I'm against clothes, I'm not. Beyond the reasons put forth for the elements, clothes can be very nice. Besides redheads, I've always been a sucker for the light peasant dresses and off-the-shoulder tops. No reason that I can figure out, just am.:-) )