I find that Europeans are, compared to Americans, more comfortable with their bodies and with sex. (In fact, I imagine even bringing up this topic here might offend some Americans.) Thinking through my travels, the examples are plentiful.
My Dutch friends had a copy of a graphic, government-produced magazine promoting safe sex on their coffee table. I was sitting on the toilet at an airport in Poland and the cleaning lady asked me to lift my legs so she could sweep. I’ve learned that I can measure the after-dark romantic appeal of scenic pull-outs along Italy’s Amalfi Coast drive by how many used condoms litter the asphalt. Soap ads on huge billboards overlooking major city intersections in Belgium come with lathered-up breasts. The logo of a German friend’s travel guidebook publishing company is a stick figure of a traveler on a tropical paradise islet leaning up against its only palm tree, hands behind his head, reading a book that’s supported by his erect penis. Children play naked in fountains in Norway. A busty porn star is elected to parliament in Italy. Coppertoned grandmothers in the south of France have no tan lines. The student tourist center in Copenhagen welcomes visitors with a bowl of free condoms at the info desk. Accountants in Munich fold their suits neatly on the grass as every inch of their body soaks up the sun while taking a lunch break in the park.
I’m not comfortable with all of it. In Barcelona during a construction industry convention, locals laughed that they had to actually bus in extra prostitutes from France for this gang. I find the crude sexual postcards sold on racks all over the Continent gross, the Benny Hill-style T&A that inundates TV throughout Mediterranean Europe boorish, and the topless models strewn across page two of so many British newspapers insulting to women. And I’ll never forget the time I had to physically remove the TV from my children’s hotel room in Austria after seeing a couple slamming away on the free channel 7 (and the hotelier looked at me like I was crazy).
Comparisons with America are striking. In our culture, a popular children’s TV host is routed into obscurity after being seen in an adult theater. A pop star dominates the news media for days after revealing a partially obscured breast for a fleeting moment during a football halftime show. During one particularly moralistic time, statues of classical goddesses gracing our nation’s Capitol were robed. And, because my travel show includes naked statues, it actually has to be shown only after 10 p.m. in some American towns.
I’m not saying we should all run around naked and have Playboys lying around in the doctor’s waiting room. But I have a hunch that children raised in America, where sex is “dirty,” are more likely to have problems with sex and their bodies than those in Europe. I suspect there is more violence associated with sex here than there. I have a hunch that the French, who have as many words for a kiss as Eskimos have for snow, enjoy making love more than we Americans do. I like a continent where sexual misconduct won’t doom a politician with anyone other than his family and friends, and where the human body is considered a divine work of art worth admiring openly.
An early edition of my art-for-travelers guidebook featured a camera-toting David— full frontal nudity, Michelangelo-style — on the cover. My publisher said sales reps complained that in more conservative parts of the USA, bookstores were uncomfortable stocking it. A fig leaf would help sales.
When it comes to great art, I don’t like fig leafs. But I proposed, just for fun, that we put a peel-able fig leaf on the cover so people could have the book cover the way they preferred. My publisher said that would be too expensive. I offered to pay half (10 cents per book times 10,000). He went for it, and I had the fun experience of writing “for fig leafs” on a $500 check. Perhaps that needless expense just adds to my wish that Americans were more European in their comfort level with nakedness.
Am I off-base? What’s behind all this, anyway?
Nudity in Europe is almost blasé. Young boys play on topless beaches without gawking. There are more depictions of women’s naked breasts in the Louvre than you will find in 20 years of Playboys. Nudity need not be dirty and I believe most Europeans have accepted that. That attitude is less prevalent in the US.
Excellent article Mr. Steves! I’ve been lucky enough to live in Germany twice, and have always been at least amused by the differences in ideology regarding sex and nudity. I agree that Americans tend to be ridiculously uptight…but hypocritically so as sex is used to sell anything you can think of. Nobody wants to see a female nipple, but a major underwear retailer has fashion shows a social event. I far prefer the European sensibility, and their more no-nonsense, tongue-in-cheek approach. Indeed, who wants tan lines? Whilst sunning myself on the beach in Nice years ago, the only time I felt uncomfortable was when a group of American college-aged boys catcalled. Sigh. Thanks again for your smart, timely writing!
Rick,
Right on! You hit the nail on the head.
Americans are the prudes of the world. The Europeans have it right. I’m not a dirty old man but since my elementary school days I’ve visited many art museums and admired the beauty of the human form. To me it’s something very special worth celebrating.
Thanks for writing those $500 checks so we could see David as Michelangelo sculpted him. Our prudish ways are probably why there is so much sexual violence and sexual slavery here.
On another current issue: Americans also need to know how much gun violence there is here.
We are “one nation, divisible” on racial, political, religious, social and other issues. We make Belgium look good at getting along.
I love Europe for dealing with things rationally.
Cheers,
Jeff Doppelganger
Tampa
We have a huge problem in America with computer pornography that encourages sex trafficking. More nude art displayed more often sounds more respectful and moral. Sandra M Boletchek Anti-porngraphy Advocate…
Immoral computer pornography is a huge moral issue in America. Pornography promotes sex trafficking. Another serious issue we Americans have to fight against. Beautiful nude art vs pornography is indeed a moral issue we need to bring out into the open and address as responsible citizens. Moral art display to fight porngraphy. Sandra M Boletchek
Bravely put, Mr. Steves. We are a nation of hypocrites, particularly regarding sexual mores. Thanks for raising the subject.
Interesting article, Rick.
I have to say, though, I don’t agree with your benign description of two of your “American” examples of prudery. Pee-Wee Herman’s crime was for an act he was performing in public (while at an adult theater), not the fact that he happened to BE at an adult theater. Do any of us–American or European–condone THAT?
And the Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake fracas had more to do, in my opinion, with the “violent” way Justin ripped at Janet’s top, exposing her, presumably, without asking first. All of it phony, of course. I always wondered why Jackson seemed to take the brunt of that controversy, instead of Timberlake. Since when is it acceptable–in America or Europe–for people to go around tearing clothes off other people without permission?
In any case, there are interesting points made in your article, but I don’t know that there is any harm that comes from the American sensibility as opposed to the European one. If given a choice, I choose to err on the side of relative modesty–it just seems to be the safer, more aesthetic choice.
Michelangelo’s sculpture of Christ in Santa Maria Sopra Minerva has a goofy looking bronze ‘cloth’ over the nether regions that was NOT part of the original piece. It’s sort of amusing as it’s such a jarring contrast to all that white marble that it has exactly the opposite effect; it’s hard to look anywhere else!
And the naughty bits of his figures in the Sistine’s “Last Judgement” were painted over with drapery by one of his former students after his death.
Mike would have a cow.
I have seen a number of groups of school kids on field trips in museums in European cities. My favourite scene was in the Musée D’Orsay, where a line of chidren maybe 10 years old sat in front of Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe, while their teacher explained in detail the social context of the painting. These kids don’t give a second thought to nudity in art, and I suspect they will grow up comfortable in their own skin. Seems pretty healthy to me.
America is SO hypocritical regarding sex. They’d rather see wanton slaughter by guns than a man’s penis. (It IS okay to objectify women’s nudity…except when a mother is nursing a child….I mean, talk about loose morals!!)
We are even behind the Victorians!!
By the way…are there more places to have safe sex besides just a coffee table??? (My Dutch friends had a copy of a graphic, government-produced magazine promoting safe sex on their coffee table. ) ;)
I agree with you Rick! The problem is that not all do. It is not just America. Our lack of modisty is seen as a disrespecting women. A Pew study showed that Muslim women, even in Europe, believe that women are better respected in Muslim than Christian countries
As a elementary kid in Europe a dutch man exposed himself to my brother and I. I don’t feel dutch culture took such a crime very serious at the time.
Page 3, not 2. ;)
Steve, I love your article on sexual expression. This is about freedom. And your article begs the question, WHY are we Americans so very very uptight, repressive,& moralistic, re. sex? Why does American culture have a vice-grip on the sexuality of millions of people? I know there are TONS & TONS of registered sexual offenders near-by here in FL. Again, WHY so many sexual “deviants” in our criminal justice system? We Americans are so messed up sexually, that we find it offensive to see a woman’s breast while she is nursing a baby!! This isn’t about modesty, it’s about shame, and “sin” & most importantly, it’s about the control of others. Sex between consenting adults should be a constitutional right, EVEN if it involves the exchange of money!! The churches need to get their political, righteous noses out of the private business of sex, birth control, reproduction, and erotica. (And, shush, let’s overlook the ongoing problem of sexual abuse against kids in some churches. OMG! Could the predators be sexually repressed adults, acting out with children?) What else could transform something so incredibly perfect & beautiful, the body, into something to scorn & debase?
I think this is a good article, but it could emphasise the key point a bit more: in much of Europe, sex and nudity have nothing to do with each other. Sexualisation is a social process. Nudity is just natural and normal. Especially in Northern Europe.
Great post, but “What’s behind all this?” What could it be…hmm…oh, what’s always behind it: religion.