Are you comfortable being seen naked?

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Not uncomfortable under normal circumstances ... the Army tends to grind unimportant things like nudity taboos off pretty quickly. When you have to take a sponge bath in the middle of the desert ...

Now, I think I might feel pretty uncomfortable stripping down and dancing on a pole. Nudity is one thing; exhibitionism is something else.

 

[Umbran]

Which is irrelevant. If shame is a natural feeling, than some animals could have it in their genes, whether they could make clothes or not (they could hide from each other, roll themselves in mud, etc.

As you said, this is a question of culture, something that is taught, acquired and not natural.

Ah. I don't believe "learned" equates to "unnatural". "Natural" behaviors are merely those that arise in the otherwise un-manipulated natural world, in the wild - learned or genetically programmed. The whole point of genes producing more complex brains is to allow for more flexible and complex behaviors to naturally arise in the system.

So, if I take a gorilla into a lab and teach it sign language, that's not really a natural behavior for the gorilla. If the gorilla develops language skills all on its own without my directly trying to impose them, then it becomes a natural behavior for the gorilla.

And, to step back a bit from the word "shame" - there are certainly creatures who have aversion to being in the open, or otherwise clearly visible. All sorts of bugs scramble when exposed to bright light, for example. So, some humans have an aversion to being unclothed in public. Maybe this is implemented through the human feeling of shame, but that doesn't make it any more "unnatural" than the millipede's desire to be back under a log.

 

[Kramodlog]

Pigs wear clothes all the time. It's just people that steal them. Who do you think makes clothes? Pigs!

Dude, some Chinese people will be offended by what you said.

 

[PigKnight]

Everyone knows it's a cover-up so that humans can take the glory and honor from my porcine bretheren.

 

[Kramodlog]

Ah. I don't believe "learned" equates to "unnatural".

That is not the distinction I was trying to make by using the words nurture and nature. By nature I mean innate or genetic, as opposed to something that is taught or acquired (nurtured). Like cats will naturally chase small moving things. That is innate, their genes program them to do that.

If each time you bring a cat food you say "num num" he might might learn that num num means food is coming and will go where you usually place his food bowl. That is acquired, as it was not in his genes and other cats will not react to the words num num.

Shame about nakedness is the same, acquired, and some people will acquire that feeling and others won't. That is the distinction I was trying to make in response to the OP.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

For those who are uncomfortable with their own public nakedness: are you also uncomfortable being in the presence of others who are naked?

Hm.

Now that you ask, generally no. Though I do avert my gaze out of politeness.

 

[EscherEnigma]

Hrm... well, I've cosplayed at the character Franky from the anime One Piece†, and also take fully nude photos of myself as a birthday present for my husband. Not much problem changing clothes in public (first started that habit in marching band) and of course when I was going to the gym it was either be naked or be awkward. I mean really, if an overweight 50+ man was comfortable stripping down lockerroom, I wasn't gonna be the wuss that was obsessively careful with my towel so I was never fully naked.

So I'd say I'm fairly shameless and would be dandy as candy at some sort of nudist colony, though I have no real desire to do such. Though I will admit half the appeal of cosplay (for me) is the exhibitionism, the "look at me!" factor, especially if I get to dress in drag or go shirtless‡. So I guess I'm just a late-blooming exhibitionist. That or I'm an introvert that's purposefully subverting my own personality and inclinations at time to not let myself get in the way of having fun.

________
†If you don't know, he runs around in an open Hawaiian shirt, a blue speedo, and a pair of sunglasses.
‡To date, all my cosplays have either had me with fake boobs or baring my chest.

 

[Umbran]

That is not the distinction I was trying to make by using the words nurture and nature.

Fair enough - I was reacting not to nurture, but to "not natural", which has some common extra connotations.

But, we do have to be pretty careful here. I submit that the ability to feel shame is the entirely natural (in the sense you've been using it - hard coded, a direct consequence of how our brains are structured) mechanism for enforcing social rules. No human culture lacks shame entirely, which suggests that we don't have to teach folks to feel shame, in general, only what they are supposed to feel shame about. In one culture, perhaps being naked will be shameful. Another culture may not care about nakedness, but failure to bring a gift to the host of a gathering maybe shameful.

The precise rules may be nurtured, but if you don't feel shame at all, you're probably what a layman would call a sociopath.

 

[Kramodlog]

Indeed, feeling shame is more than probably something that is in our genes. What I would want to know is how that fits in a natural selection setting. If we start by accepting that helping other members of our tribe/species gives us, on the long term, a survival advantage, than I would postulate that shame comes from this. Not helping an other makes you feel shameful and that happens because helping others increases your chances of survival. I grant you that this is pure speculation, but what are you going to do, this is the internetz.

In this case, wouldn't a sociopath be a mutant or potentially a manifestation of a competitive gene? Someone who is not really human or not has human as we are, he does not have the same social genes, thus behaves differently and probably must be isolated or eliminated. Yet, that can give that individual an advantage in various situations. It is like humanity is thorn between two sets of genes. Aren't we thorn between ideologies that reflect such behaviors?

 

[Roadkill101]

Can't say that being naked makes me particularly uncomfortable. Not that I make a habit running around that way. Anyway, underneath these clothes, I'm Naked!