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Re:Don't touch me, I'm British by tomn on Saturday March 12, 2011 @08:58PM (#2318067)
Oddly, in Britain this kind of thing happens quite a lot -- most older men certainly aren't shy about showering naked in public after swimming, for example.

Thinking rationally, being shy about our bodies doesn't really make sense -- are there any logical reasons why nudity isn't ok?

Re:Don't touch me, I'm British by hieronymusN on Saturday March 12, 2011 @09:00PM (#2318069)
No it doesn't make sense, but its somehow culturally ingrained. Asia has a very different view, such as Japanese Onsen where everyone is naked in the big group pool, but you don't put your head underwater, no sir.
Re:Don't touch me, I'm British by teyc on Monday March 14, 2011 @02:28AM (#2321537)
Public baths are segregated by gender.
Re:Don't touch me, I'm British by sliverstorm on Monday March 14, 2011 @01:56PM (#2323580)
They weren't before Western culture got involved.
Re:Don't touch me, I'm British by sliverstorm on Sunday March 13, 2011 @12:54AM (#2318489)
I personally suspect prudishness about clothing is related to how important clothing was, historically, in a given country. For example, Britain is very cold, very wet, and the British used to sail all over the stormy oceans in wooden boats. Consequentially, clothing would have been extremely valuable for warmth.
Re:Don't touch me, I'm British by gaius on Sunday March 13, 2011 @04:22AM (#2318678)
Same for the Swedes, but they get naked at the drop of a hat.
Re:Don't touch me, I'm British by CallMeV on Sunday March 13, 2011 @09:01AM (#2319087)
I just heard an echo in my mind of Tasha Yar in Star Trek: The Next Generation saying "Any. Hat." What is it about colder environments that the colder they are, the less clothing the natives wear? :D And I agree wholeheartedly with many of the assertions in the original post. Particularly the assertion that alcohol was distilled so that we Brits could build up the courage to reproduce. :)
Re:Don't touch me, I'm British by sliverstorm on Sunday March 13, 2011 @05:02AM (#2318743)
Time to move to Sweden
Re:Don't touch me, I'm British by teyc on Monday March 14, 2011 @01:06AM (#2321381)
I don't see naked people in Saudi Arabia.
Re:Don't touch me, I'm British by sliverstorm on Monday March 14, 2011 @01:52PM (#2323560)
That's because clothes are important in the desert. It's not intuitively obvious at first, but the right clothes shield you from the sand & sun, combat dehydration, and actually keep you cooler while also keeping you warm during cold desert nights.
Re:Don't touch me, I'm British by teyc on Monday March 14, 2011 @06:14PM (#2324744)
Yes you are right. Apologies for snarkiness.

One observation though, even the aborigines in Papua would cover up their privates in little tubes or bits of hide. I thought this surprising.

Re:Don't touch me, I'm British by heyitsnick on Sunday March 13, 2011 @06:17AM (#2318882)
I like this theory and shall adopt it as a perfect explanation until i hear otherwise.
Re:Don't touch me, I'm British by seanalltogether on Sunday March 13, 2011 @12:00AM (#2318378)
For a long time humans have been using their intelligence to bypass evolution pressures. Nudity isn't necessarily the 'natural' state of being for most humans.
Re:Don't touch me, I'm British by gaius on Sunday March 13, 2011 @07:07AM (#2318952)
You can't "bypass" it, you can only redirect it. Natural selection always applies, you merely get to influence the environment in which it happens a bit (and in practice, almost always forget to account for second-order effects).