What causes people to be modest about nudity or exposing their bodies?

Of course it is all cultural conditioning and also for hygenic purposes. I wouldn’t want half the people I know plopping down on my furniture naked! Eeew!!

Me I would be naked 24/7 if it wasn’t so darn cold out!

I have always been embarassed about my body because I am overweight. So I have always hated swimming in public, or doing anything where my belly and man-boobs showed. But when it comes to intimacy, I have never been selfconscious about my body. I am very comfortable getting naked with my girlfriend. I would say we are conditioned from our early childhood to feel one way or another about our bodies.

With the right person I’m not modest but generally I do feel modest. I put it down to weight issues but I’m dealing with that…slowly…. I also think your upbringing has a lot to answer for but that ultimately it’s our responsibility to love and accept ourselves and then choose people that respect that x

I guess some of it has to do with body image, but mostly it is cultural conditioning. Not too many years ago (and for all I know, still today) the baths in Japan, while maybe not unisex, were within sight of each other. I suppose where there wasn’t enough resources to separate men and women, they didn’t. This article will probably tell you all you ever wanted to know about attitudes towards nudity around the world. And more.

Me? I’m modest. But I’ll do what the local culture does. So I’ve been skinny dipping and nude bathing in hot springs. I prefer to be without clothes, so long as it is acceptable. Although I haven’t sought out a nudist camp.

I do have one observation. At the hot baths, it didn’t seem like anyone had any hesitancy about being nude. And they all seemed beautiful once they had shed their clothes, no matter how good or ugly they might have looked when clothed.

I was comfortable when I was in shape. But I don’t want to see your stuff unless it’s going to bed with me now. I was raised in a house where we all covered our bits but it wasn’t an issue, just everyone got dressed in the morning.

Modesty develops as a result of upbringing and personal wiring, I think, but it can be overcome with a patient and loving partner.

I am modest to the extent that I don’t wear bikinis, I don’t go skinny dipping with loads of people and you’d never catch me dancing in the altogether at some outdoor music festival. It’s my body to show to whom I want to show it to.

With the man I love and trust, then no, not a big deal.

Maybe it’s small dick saggy tits syndrome. I’m completely comfortable with my own nakedness, just not when the football’s on :¬)

I suffer from “never-nude” syndrome, which forces me to wear denim cutt-offs at all times even when I’m wearing other pieces of clothing.

I was pretty sheltered as a kid. Even in my teen years, I didn’t rebel a hell of a lot (I was afraid of both parents. Especially, my Mom). At 21, I realized that I was gay. I come from a strict, Catholic family, so, coming out at the time (back then) was a no-go. After my Mom passed away, I didn’t quite care what people thought of me any more. I am much less inhibited now.

I am really, very comfortable being nude. I love my body. I will lay on a beach topless. No problem. I have also been asked to pose nude for drawings (someone other than my partner) and I am completely comfortable with it.

Although, now, out of respect for my partner (other than being nude for the sake of art), we tend to keep it (our nakedness) for each other.

I am uncomfortable with showing my body because it’s just wrong. If my body matched the gender I feel that I am, I wouldn’t be afraid of being naked. As it is, well I’m a bloke with tits (and I’m not talking manboobs here). Nobody wants to see that.

I am not, but I spent a lot of time around stage people. I am choosy about being unclothed, but at one time in my youth, I wanted to be a strip dancer.

Can’t figure it out. It is, after all, your natural state. One thing you should NOT be uncomfortable about. One more thing to blame on the Church IMHO.

One’s attitudes about nudity are strongly influenced by how family members behaved and what they expected. Society’s oppressive dictates about what kinds of bodies are attractive enough to be seen in public messes with many peoples self-esteem and comfort with their own bodies.

Everyone, thanks for your answers. I asked this question because I have always been fascinated with how some people can be so unself-conscious about walking around in the nude, like in a locker room or in a roommate situation, while others, like myself, for instance, feel like undressing as quickly and unobtrusively as possible. I am not as modest as I used to be when I was in high school. Funny, I had this whole way of undressing for gym class where I would keep my shirt on over my shoulders and slip my gymsuit up under it so no one could see me. And that wasn’t even about being naked! If I had had to go to the showers naked like the sports teams, horror! I would have been absolutely mortified at that. And I am not exaggerating. Even in 6th grade when I broke my arm I dreaded going to the doctor so much (because I would have had to undress for him) that I tried to hide it from my Mom. I think part of it has to do with a general shyness more than shame. I don’t think it is completely learned. My parents didn’t make me feel ashamed of my body and I have always had a good body image. The other strange thing is that in a private situation, an intimate situation, I am not shy or modest at all. I am actually quite uninhibited.
I was thinking about this because I’m reading the biography of Maire Antoinette. There was a tradition in France where any foreign born bride-to-be coming into the French royal family would go through the process called a “remise”. At the handover she had to be stripped of any vestiges of her home country. This involved what amounted to a public stripping. So, as a 14 year old future dauphine, with the whole of the Austrian and French entourage watching, she was ritually stripped of all her clothes and redressed in French attire. (Ironically her mother Maria Theresa of Austria had, at enormous expense,had her entire trousseau made from French fabrics, designed by French designers and made by French seamstresses. Still, not good enough) I found this fact quite astonishing. And the author, Caroline Weber, notes that Marie was known to have been quite modest.

I have a certain amount of modesty, but sometimes I like to let it all hang out so to speak.

I have no fear of being naked and I believe it is because I am very comfortable with my body. I like the way I look naked and feel I have nothing to be ashamed of. I wish everyone (especially other women) felt the same way that I do about their bodies. I think body issues and nudity issues often stem from childhood. My mother was very laid back and thought nothing about walking around naked in front of my brother and I. I believe this is the reason that being nude doesn’t bother me. I think people that are encouraged to stay covered up at all times in front of others from a young age are more likely to have issues as they get older.

Leanne1986 I think you’re right about the parental influence. Kids start out being so unselfconscious and yet surprisingly they can become modest in no time, even as young as 4 years old. I had a college roommate who used to walk around all the time in our room with no clothes on. We were always like, “Geez Molly, put some clothes on for Chrissakes!!! ” She told us that her Dad used to walk around naked in their house all the time and think nothing of it. I could not imagine either of my parents doing that in a million years!! She said that one time their dog had run away and her father scoped him running around outside with a pack of wild dogs. (They lived out in the country, obviously)
He didn’t have any clothes on but he runs out stark naked chasing the dog!! LOL.

Nancy Friday writes a book about the influence of mothers when it comes to this sort of thing. Never read it but this sound like the same thing the reviews describe. I think its Mother/My Self.

Season of Fall I read that book but it was a long time ago. Maybe I need to revisit it. Thanks for your suggestion!