Have you ever seen a naked person?

If you have somehow reached an age at which you can read these words but have not yet seen someone in the buff, you are either visually impaired or you have somehow managed to avoid mirrors, bathing, and a variety of other everyday objects and activities that would certainly bring about the experience. Human nudity is a natural part of our lives. There is nothing wrong with it. There is nothing inherently naughty about our naughty bits. We are only conditioned to think so by our puritanical traditions that have little use in today’s world.

Turn on broadcast television in the middle of any day and you can see a variety of terrible acts being portrayed. People get shot. They lie, they steal, and they cheat. They do terrible things to the world and one another. But if someone flashes a breast, some group of people who apparently find physical reality offensive will flood the FCC with complaints, and whatever station committed such an awful transgression will be slapped with a deliberately excessive fine. How can we sit back and think that this is anything other than ludicrous?

What is it that we find so offensive about human nudity that we place it above murder on the list of things that should not be shown? How can a person be damaged by seeing a breast or a penis or a vulva? If you were walking down the street and someone passed by you with no clothes on, what harm would come to you?

There are no “victims of nudity”. The very idea is absurd. This is not even about public sexuality, which is itself arguably victimless. That is a whole different argument, one which deserves its own article. Nudity and sexuality are equated only in the most repressed and puritanical minds. In fact, I would argue, the reason so many people link the two at all is that both are taboo. If we could purge our collective minds of outdated traditions, we could spend our time focusing on actual problems - education, poverty, economic woes (there are many from which to choose) - rather than putting so much mental energy into maintaining structures that no longer benefit anyone, if they ever did.

There may once have been a time when it made sense to avoid nudity. It is likely that in some Neolithic past, nudity was an indicator of weakness. Those with the strength to kill an animal and take its hide were higher in the social pecking order than those who were not. It is easy to see how this would, in turn, lead to embarrassment for those without clothing. And, since society generally comes to regard those at the bottom as vulgar, it is easy to see how nudity would be banned.

We are no longer living in those times, however. Several eons have passed, and there is no longer any reason to keep those old biases in place. So, whether you want to drop your knickers or not, stop being offended by those who do. Go find some real issues to ignite your ire or your passion.