Lisa C. sent in this AT&T video that shows a family from the U.S. vacationing in Spain:
Lisa says, “I think that this is a prime example of how different cultures and societies react to nudity and the nude form,” some viewing nudity as “taboo or even pornography (note how the mother in the commercial covers the children’s eyes),” while “other cultures (Spain, in this commercial) embrace and celebrate the nude body.”
It would be useful for a discussion of bodies and attitudes of nudity, obviously, but I think I’m going to use it in my Intro to Soc courses when I talk about culture shock.
Thanks, Lisa!
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You can find women sunbathing top-less everywhere here in Spain, but there are nudist beaches and resorts for those who want to go naked all the way. And they’re marked as such, because nudists are polite and don’t really enjoy shocking people
It’s also pretty usual to see little kids play naked in the “normal” beaches, by the way.
This is also an example of how fast societal attitudes can change — censorship in the Franco era was heavy even on innocent things like low necklines and short skirts, and after his death there was a sort of backlash period called the destape when everyone would put nude scenes in movies or whatever just because they could. Nowadays people are mostly meh about this issue and you can still find nudity everywhere in the media.
Interestingly, this beach is actually in Hawaii. As a Hawaii resident, I am not sure whether to find it refreshing that for once exotic topless women are being “found” elsewhere in the world or annoying that such an easily identifiable beach is being mislabeled as being in Spain.
As an aside, this particular beach does not allow nudity, so I suspect these actors are clothed