Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hi, everyone. Let's talk about sex.
[00:00:02] I'm Dr. Laura Prescott, Associate professor for the Clinical PsyD Program at the Chicago School of Los Angeles.
[00:00:12] Nudity and sex often go hand in hand or hand and penis, or hand and vagina, as the case may be. But nudity is a noise about sex. And sometimes throughout the course of society and throughout history, there have been times like now, where there is a taboo with regards to nudity. Lots of shame and stigma. For example, in our current Western US Society, nudity is very taboo. I couldn't, for example, just open this door and run streaking down the hallway without getting fired.
[00:00:41] So there is a taboo. It exists. Let's explore why. People sometimes wonder, when did we first start wearing clothes?
[00:00:49] And it seems like right after the end of the Neolithic era, when modern humans first started appearing climate, clothes started appearing as ways to protect from the elements, such as extreme heat or extreme cold. And it also became kind of a symbolic status thing. Sometimes there were rituals or things one would wear as symbols or as tokens to denote that they were a certain status in society.
[00:01:13] People who were higher rank or higher status had more clothes or fancier clothes, while those who were lower rank in society, like slaves, for example, sometimes had to go naked or with very little clothes at all. Nudity. It wasn't always negative, though. The ancient Greeks are infamous for having entertaining times when they were nude. For example, the Olympics. I bet many people don't realize that the Olympics used to be done in the nude. People competed completely naked. And also in ancient Greece, there were things called symposia, kind of like little philosophy parties where you would sit and get drunk and talk about philosophy. Oftentimes people just were naked during the symposia.
[00:01:57] The ancient Celts went to warn nude. Can you imagine how scary that must be? To the other side, people like, hey, I don't care if I'm naked, I don't have armor. Let me come at you. That's got to be pretty intimidating.
[00:02:09] They're so brave that they don't need armor. Some societies have things like public baths. The Japanese were famous, for example, for having public baths in certain eras.
[00:02:21] Also, there's societies like hunter gatherer societies, not just ancient ones, but even some modern ones where there's little to no clothes being worn. So where does that taboo come from?
[00:02:32] A lot of it came from religion. So societies where there are certain Judeo Christian values and influences, there's that association where, okay, Adam and Eve sinned and they became aware of their nakedness when they sinned. And they had to cover themselves up. A lot of that stems from that particular religion. And there's been a taboo and association with sin with regards to that. Also the Victorian era. It's interesting to note that erotic art was kind of a thing for quite some time throughout history. If you dig up ancient grave sites, you'll see that there's completely naked carved idols of gods or goddesses, sometimes a fertility goddess, for example.
[00:03:13] But erotic art was just kind of there. And then around the Victorian era, they started changing the view of erotic art to porn. They started seeing it as this is pornographic. And that distinction, people probably wonder, okay, how do I know if something is erotic art or if something is porn? That kind of that argument, that debate kind of came around in the Victorian era. So now we're dealing with a lot of the taboo with nudity. But there are groups who don't really care and live their lives completely or mostly naked. A lot of these people, so they can be called nudists or naturists, and some of them live in nudist communities.
[00:03:54] When they're in their little community, they can go to any kind of social event naked. They can get the mail naked, they can walk the dog naked, they can just hang out with their buddies and play cards naked. But there's also some resorts out there. So even if you're not a 247 living nude kind of a person, you can still go to a resort and just hang out naked a lot of the time. Many people who practice being nudists or naturists say that there's many benefits to nudity. There's of course, increased self esteem after you get over that first initial hurdle of I'm breaking the societal norms, what am I doing? Oh my gosh, everyone's seeing me. You eventually get used to it and you eventually increase your self esteem and are more confident in your own body.
[00:04:36] That can also lead to more acceptance of others too. Once you accept yourself more, it's easier to accept others more. Just coming as they are.
[00:04:45] It can actually help you sleep better. When you sleep, you want to have a little bit of a lower body temperature. And being naked can help you cool off.
[00:04:54] Also blood circulation. Sometimes clothes are uncomfortable. They pinch in certain spots or constrict in certain spots. And being naked can help you not have that discomfort.
[00:05:04] Even things like increasing vitamin D. The more skin you've got to expose to the sun, the more chances for vitamin D to get exposed through your skin.
[00:05:14] All of those things. Being more comfortable in one's own body can help you in your sex life, too. If you're more comfortable just hanging out naked, then you can be more comfortable having sex and doing other things with your body.
[00:05:27] It certainly leaves a lot of food for thought and a lot of reason to question why societal norms are there and why taboo is there and how it first arrived. Once Again, this is Dr. Laura Prescott, Associate professor for the Clinical PsyD Program at the Chicago School, Los Angeles. Thanks for tuning in.
