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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!decwrl!kent
From: kent@decwrl.UUCP (Chris Kent)
Newsgroups: net.rec.nude
Subject: Re: Children and Social Nudity Revisited
Message-ID: <2856@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 19-Aug-83 00:22:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: decwrl.2856
Posted: Fri Aug 19 00:22:30 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 13-Aug-83 04:54:36 EDT
References: <202@houxh.UUCP>
Organization: DEC Western Research Lab, Los Altos, CA
Lines: 23

I was raised in a family where casual nudity was the norm, and social
nudity wasn't practiced -- not that it was frowned upon, we just never
did. Had the occasion arisen, I'm sure we would have.

I found that it didn't take me long to learn from my peers that what
we practiced at home was different; I learned to shut up about it, and
just pitied them -- I thought their setup was weird; they probably thought
the same of me (all this during thos important (?) years of 9-13).

I fully intend to raise my child(ren) (whenever I have some) the same way
I was raised. I would tend to agree that being on a clothed beach is
usually more arousing than on a nude beach, exactly because the mystery
is gone. It would seem to me that most women have learned that what
a garment covers can be more arousing than what it reveals (this from a
decidedly male observer -- it holds true for me, at least).

The viewpoints you quoted (Spock, Brothers, et al) were, to my mind, 
singularly North American. I don't think you'd find any Middle European
child psychologists spouting such nonsense, and it seems much healthier
to me.

Cheers,
Chris Kent