Them and Us.

Why is it that humans are ashamed of their own bodies?

Why are so many of us frightened that our naked bodies or those of our wives or family might be seen by someone else?

We are all the same in a general way, for the most part we all have heads, bodies, arms and legs. We all eat, drink and go to the toilet. We all must sleep at sometime.

Our internal organs are pretty much the same, gender differences aside and we all came into this world from the womb.

What is there left, we all have skin. It might come in different colours and some might be smoother than others, but it is all made the same.

Thanks to Nick and Sue for these two photos of the beautiful Sue

We all have nipples, the surrounding areola might vary in size and on average women's are larger than men's, but some women have small ones as well. The same applies to breasts the range of women's breasts is far greater than men's, starting at the almost non existent and reaching a size that causes back problems for those who have to support them.

Men have a range too, again it starts at nothing and reaches the size that some women would be proud to have. Men's breasts seem to have had some long forgotten use and other than one thing, which I will cover later, are pretty much cosmetic.

Women's breasts are there to produce milk for our off-spring, that is the main reason for their existence and a good reason it is, mothers milk makes babies grow and be more resistant to infection. Like men's breasts there is another use, but again I will come to that later.

So far we are physiologically all the same, with some minor differences and two major ones. The skin around your breasts is the same skin that covers your arm, there is nothing special about it. Both gender's nipples and breasts are similar.

So why are men able to be topless in the street or on the beach and nobody complains, whereas women going topless in public have others, usually hysterical women running to the nearest policeman to complain "think about the children" seeming to have forgotten the primary role of the breast.

Before the feminists start calling me a sexist pig etc. I should explain that there are far more complaints about topless women from other women, than from men. Few men will complain, unless they are forced by an irate wife or are very uptight.

The usual complaint is "I don't want my child seeing them, it could scar them for life!" So I guess we must assume those complaining did not do the best they could for their children by breast feeding them.

Lower down the human body we come to, what is known as the belly button (navel). Actually the place where we were attached to our mothers when we were in the womb. You might have an 'innie' or an 'outie' but other than that they are the same for every one.

Further down we come to the Pubic Hair, most of us grow it. Some shave it off and others think it is a beautiful display of adulthood, particularly on women. But again we all have it, or had it. So no difference there.

Now we have reached the major difference, the difference to end all differences, vive la difference. Just below the pubic bone the approach to a woman's difference begins with a fold in the skin, but note at this point it is still just skin, same as covers your arm, breasts etc.

At the same point on a man is the start of the root of his Penis, it might be big or small erect or flaccid, but there it stands and of course this is where the difference and in some opinions the problems lie.

To those who don't understand, because they have never had one, the male penis is usually quite well behaved. But there are times when it appears to have a mind of its own. Sometimes, particularly in younger men it can become unexpectedly erect and even surprise its owner. Sometimes with no stimuli it can suddenly rise, even when a man is alone with nothing to trigger it off. Women are lucky in that respect, when they suddenly and inexplicably become aroused, it doesn't always show.

If we continue down the female body we will come to the clitoral hood, beneath this hood is the erogenous zone par excellence, the Clitoris (or as sometimes called, the love bean) and it is outside the woman's body. Below this is the entrance through her labial lips to her vagina, the moist cave that men dream about.

Below the man's Penis is his scrotum containing his testicles and inside them his sperm, the whitish liquid he hopes to deposit inside the woman, when she is receptive. If that sounds base, it's because it is. Like all the other animals our main reason for existence is procreation.

Carry on round and there is the anus, it is pretty much the same for both sexes. So doesn't come into the differences, but it is where we eject waste food from and some people use it for other things.

Having touched on erogenous zones (ooh! pun intended ). I should now say that both male and female nipples can give sexual pleasure if teased in the right way. Some men don't like it and unfortunately some women feel the same way, but for most it is a powerful erogenous zone.
The area of skin between the scrotum and the anus on a man and between the vagina and the anus on a woman is called the Perineum and is a powerful erogenous zone if treated carefully and stoked lightly.

A final point on the location of erogenous zones, they can be almost anywhere and in this people differ. While the nape of the neck might be effective for some women, it rarely works on most men and some women. Stroking a woman's naked back or fluttering your hand over her stomach might put her on cloud nine, but on other women it'll either not work or have the opposite effect. You have to find your partners zones by trial and error.

Okay that is a quick tour, now back to the questions. There is so little difference in the make up of our bodies, why are we afraid of them?

A woman's genitals are pretty well hidden. If she were to walk naked along a public road, her genitals would be all but hidden. It would take a definite effort on her part to make them clearly visible and if she is unshaven there, it would be harder to get even a glimpse. Her breasts would be visible, but no more than a man's and apart from the milk delivery, ostensibly no different. Although they do offer an attraction to men.

With a man it becomes more difficult, his genitals are on show all the time, there is no way to hide them if he is naked. The question is, how much of a problem is that?

He might get an erection, showing he is aroused. The naked woman could be equally aroused but it is barely noticeable.

If you were to explore naturism, you would soon see that very few men have erections and if someone gets one it is ignored. Most male naturists occasionally get an unwanted erection, naturists are not sexless, they enjoy active sex lives when the environment permits. In fact they probably have better control of their bodies, there is nowhere to hide when you are naked. It should also be said that most male textiles also get unwanted erections occasionally.

Penis' of course come in different sizes, from the small to the enormous with the average size being around six and a half inches. To compare them with another visual characteristic there is probably as much variety in size as there is in the size of a woman's breasts.

I can imagine that there are still some women who might be frightened at the sight of a large penis, even if it is flaccid. If the penis was being deliberately flaunted in a way to cause distress, she has a right to be concerned and to complain to the police about it. But it is similar to someone using threatening behaviour, waving their fists around with intent to cause injury. They can be arrested as well, but you wouldn't want a law compelling everyone to keep their hand covered in public, that would be silly. Instead the law should deal with the individual miscreant.

In short social nudity should be commonplace, everyone should be allowed to be naked whenever they want to be, erections should be ignored as should erect nipples, but nobody should be forced to be naked. It should be every individuals choice. Conversely no-one should be forced to be clothed. A clothes optional society, would be a much better adjusted society.

Thanks again to Nick and Sue from "in the buff" naturist website. If anyone else would like to contribute please contact me, either through "In the Buff" or by leaving a comment on this blog. Or by email.