I have been to Europe once before when I was eleven. One thing I remember is going to a public pool in Germany. Woman swam topless, all the men were in Speedos, and the locker room was unisex. It was the weirdest concept for me and I could not comprehend why the sexes were not separated. Granted I was only eleven at the time, but I was, at the age, self conscience of body image. I had a member of my family hold up a towel for me while I changed out of my swimsuit into my clothes. This probably gained more attention from third parties than my just stripping down without all the worry of “peekers.”
I have been in Europe now for over three months now and I must say it is definitely starting to faze me anymore. I’m not going to go so far as to say that I’m exactly comfortable with it, but at least I don’t gape in surprise anymore at the openness of nudity for Europeans (generally speaking of course).
I believe I stated in a previous blog post about how my Swiss friend’s softball team would just change on the field—boys and girls, from shirts to cups.
Since I have been traveling around, as a “backpacker with a limited budget” I stay at the cheapest possible accommodations I can find: hostels. Hostels were a very foreign idea for me. I knew they were cheap places to stay at that were more like dorms than private hotel rooms, but as an American, I had no clue what I was getting myself into. The first time I stayed at a hostel was in Edinburgh Scotland. The room consisted of about 16 bunk beds in a huge cold room with one little heater that was covered by someone trying to dry their towel. I got one flat pillow, a fitted cover, one sheet, and a duvet (comforter) that smelled pretty weird. The room is occupied by both sexes and generally between the ages 18-35, but I have seen older single men in hostels before as well, which I find rather creepy and weird. At this hostel the bathrooms were separated by gender, but they were rather gross and the plumping was rather questionable and the toilets didn’t like to always flush for you. Showers were awkward as they consisted of two shower curtains for doors more than often. I haven’t discovered the art of keeping both the previous clothes I was wearing the clothes I plan to change into without getting them damp. Plus you have to carry your towel, shampoo, conditioner, soap, etc. It’s a bit of a challenge if I do say so myself. In another hostel I stayed at, the toilet/shower room was unisex. The first thing I noticed in the bathroom was a rather large painting of a naked woman on the wall, bush included. Anyways, so I’ve seen all sorts of various men and woman of different nationalities in their underwear. We just change. In front of people. In the room, in the bathroom. Where ever, it doesn’t matter. It’s part of European culture.
Another note on the openness of the body image was when I picked up a free weekly newspaper at the metro stop about a month or so ago. Here I am flipping through the pages of the newspaper and BAM! Naked woman. In a public newspaper! I’ve even noticed they don’t really bleep out bad words on the radio either. For example, the song is originally “Sexy Bitch” but I knew it as the radio version/title “Sexy Chick.” Well here, the original version is also the radio version. No edits. Even the day time radio hosts I’ve heard use bad words. Nothing really bad, but it definitely isn’t as offensive here as it is in the states. And today, for example, for one of my classes we were looking at magazine adverts for semiotics analysis and there is a cologne ad with a man and woman on the beach naked, obviously about to make love. Well, sounds pretty typical for a fragrance ad right? Well normally, hair and normal body parts always conveniently cover the naughty bits in the states. But here, well let’s just say I could see her nipple and his crack.
So what is the point of this post you might be asking? Well, I just want to point out how prudish the American culture is. We’re always complaining and suing about how this and that is always offending us. Blah, blah, blah. “Drinking is bad for you! The legal age is 21!” Well, here it’s 18 and it’s totally typical for people to go out and drink normally. We discuss drinking all the time in my classes, it’s completely a part of life. Even during my first week of university, the school sponsored drinking events and encouraged students to attend every night. “Smoking is bad for you! It gives you cancer and it’s so gross!” Well, here a LOT of people smoke. Sure the packs say that smoking can kill you or give you lung cancer, but it’s totally normal for the majority of the population to be smokers. You just get use to it. “Don’t use bad language or inappropriate content during day time hours on radio and television! Etc.” Well, here they do not really seem to care about how much sex references there are or if a bad word was used before 9PM. It’s part of life. So why NOT have it on there? I think the more the Americans nag about how all these things are offensive and they should not expose to daytime audiences to such material because it tarnishes the “innocent,” the more rebellious the population will continue to be.
