Why do we wear clothes??

I understand clothes are used to stay warm, and also for artistic expression, but I want to look deeper into the concept of wearing clothes.

Why is it unlawful to not wear clothes in public? What are we so ashamed of? Regardless of your beliefs, consider the following:

"And Jehovah God calleth unto the man, and saith to him, `Where [art] thou?'

and he saith, `Thy sound I have heard in the garden, and I am afraid, for I am naked, and I hide myself.'"


Clothes are symbolic of our shame and alienation with nature (God). Clothes are a barrier to our true nature.


" His disciples said, "When will you appear to us, and when will we see you?"

Jesus said, "When you strip without being ashamed, and you take your clothes and put them under your feet like little children and trample them, then [you] will see the son of the living one and you will not be afraid."" (Thomas 37)

Thoughts? I can't help but conclude that humankind is lost.

a reply to: cooperton

Saying "Jesus said" and then quoting the book of Thomas is a bit of a stretch.

Although I do agree with your last sentence.

a reply to: cooperton

Some people look good naked and most of us don't!

Sanitary reasons, for one.

I don't want to use a public seat after a 400 lb un- showered, non-wiping obese man sits there.

Then, I don't want to watch him walk away.

a reply to: mamabeth

Regardless of us looking good naked, I think the OP is advocating it should be our choice to wear clothes or not. I'm sure I will be corrected if I have incorrectly understood the opening post.

originally posted by: randomtangentsrme
a reply to: mamabeth

Regardless of us looking good naked, I think the OP is advocating it should be our choice to wear clothes or not.

I was just about to say that.

But more importantly, why do we feel shame when we are naked? Naked is our natural state, but we are ashamed of it.

I can agree with what the quote from the Book of Thomas to some degree if you take it and look at our culture.

We are being trained to think of sex in everything. There are places where Kindergarten kids are being taught basic sex ed, and the excuse we get is we want them to be comfortable in their sexuality. But the side effect is that then everything is more or less in the context of sex. How can you then expect people to want to walk innocently around in the buff? It doesn't happen. People are walking around in a culture steeped in sex and then walking around naked and it all goes right back to sex, sex, sex.

If you want to have people walking innocently around in the buff, then you need to lay off the sex and let people be innocent.

originally posted by: cooperton

originally posted by: randomtangentsrme
a reply to: mamabeth

Regardless of us looking good naked, I think the OP is advocating it should be our choice to wear clothes or not.

I was just about to say that.

But more importantly, why do we feel shame when we are naked? Naked is our natural state, but we are ashamed of it.

Because we have a shallow, narcissistic, mean-spirited society.

originally posted by: ketsuko

If you want to have people walking innocently around in the buff, then you need to lay off the sex and let people be innocent.

It is interesting to note that innocent young toddlers have no problem stomping around naked.

originally posted by: cooperton
Clothes are symbolic of our shame and alienation with nature (God). Clothes are a barrier to our true nature.

Cultural mores aside, most human beings, most of the time, live in environments which - outdoors, at least - would be much more uncomfortable without clothes. Humans, apart from some people with genetic abnormalities like hypertrichosis, lack the thick hair/fur of most other mammals. Clothes protect us wind, rain, too much sunlight, insect bites, etc.

originally posted by: PhloydPhan
Clothes protect us wind, rain, too much sunlight, insect bites, etc.

Wouldn't we have evolved mechanisms to deal with these issues? Or, if you believe in an intelligent source to creation, wouldn't that intelligent creator encode us with protection from these issues? Why are we so disharmonious with nature?

originally posted by: cooperton" His disciples said, "When will you appear to us, and when will we see you?"

Jesus said, "When you strip without being ashamed, and you take your clothes and put them under your feet like little children and trample them, then [you] will see the son of the living one and you will not be afraid."" (Thomas 37)

Thoughts? I can't help but conclude that humankind is lost.

There are many more examples in the bible of shame being associated with nakedness.

God, however, chose skins to cover Adam and Eve (Gen 3:21). "And the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them."

When Noah became drunk and Canaan saw him passed out and naked: "24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. 25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be..."

Entering the tabernacle:

Exodus 20:26
Neither shall you go up by steps unto my altar, that your nakedness be not exposed on it.

Exodus 28:42-43
"Make linen undergarments as a covering for the body, reaching from the waist to the thigh. 43 Aaron and his sons must wear them whenever they enter the tent of meeting or approach the altar to minister in the Holy Place, so that they will not incur guilt and die. "This is to be a lasting ordinance for Aaron and his descendants.

Seems nakedness has been shameful for a long time. We enter the world naked and no sin in that, can't figure out why there's shame but there is. Even tribes with no outside worldly exposure cover themselves, at least the groin areas on male and female.

It's a good question. When I really sit and think about it I tend to think of our ego's being the problem. But than again, I tend to think we literally need them to make some environmental situations more....bearable?

One thing that crossed my mind is what if the biblical writing's we interpret as being clothes or some type of vegetation covering us was actually at one time our fur or much thicker hair, and we lost it at some point so when they said I'm naked and afraid it would be fitting if they lost their body's natural fur?

Get naked and run into some bushes, you will find an explanation there of why our ancestors started to wear clothes and its not shame



If not get naked near a field of mosquitoes and see what happens

Sometimes we do things for utility and not vanity but whatever floats your boat, philosophy away!

A lot of the less contacted tribes around the world still wear little or no clothing, they also happen to be in pretty warm climates. I'm sure the tribes of Northern locations were just as connected to "god" and nature as a human can be, but they probably still wore clothes to avoid having their bits freezing off. And they would have been wearing those clothes long long before anybody wrote about Jesus or anyone in the rest of the world cared about the religions of the mid-east.

So no, I don't think wearing clothes started as any sort of shame, but from completely practical purposes. Assuming temperatures even allow you to be survive naked, you don't want branches or dirt getting lodged up your butt (or for ladies even worse places) and as a man you don't want things whacking your crotch on a constant basis while walking around. Genitals are extremely sensitive parts of the human body so it would make perfect sense that we would cover them up early on because of self-protection.

However I would agree that our current views of nudity are pretty off-base and show a sick culture. I don't think there should be anything wrong with nudity, but definitely feel the same embarrassment as most people when confronted with a situation where you're going to be naked in front of others.

My belief is that after covering up for practical purposes so long nudity became a fetish. There shouldn't be anything inherently sexual about a naked person, but there is, because the only time we see naked people is in sexual situations. So most of our minds cannot separate sex from nudity and all of the dysfunction and sexual issues arise from this twisted sexuality that most people have which stems from their inability to separate nudity from sex.

People feel ashamed of their bodies, of who they are, and cannot have a healthy sexual life. Since naked bodies are just sex objects, and we know everyone around us is a naked body in a thin civilian covering, that means everyone is just a sex object with a wrapper.

Then there is the possibility that by wearing clothes we learned the art of disguise, that we don't actually have to be our true selves, that we can present a facade to everyone else and be in control of how others perceive you.

I think you're right on the money that our relationship with clothing does say a lot about us, but I don't think clothing started as a means to hide shame or anything like that, just a practical tool that changed/warped us by overusing it.

a reply to: cooperton

Jesus said, "When you strip without being ashamed, and you take your clothes and put them under your feet like little children and trample them, then [you] will see the son of the living one and you will not be afraid."" (Thomas 37)

Apparently Jesus has never walked through a Walmart. If he had then he would be afraid very afraid.

I've often wondered this myself. The shame in being naked certainly isn't natural. A young child clearly has no problem having his diaper changed in public. I think a lot of it comes from the shame of going to the bathroom, cause well.. It's smelly and messy lol. And sanitation reasons as another post has pointed it out. Funny though, my grandparents joke about how when I was young I used to hide and that's how they knew I had to go to the bathroom. Maybe there's something to that.

originally posted by: cooperton

It is interesting to note that innocent young toddlers have no problem stomping around naked.

The key word here is 'innocent'. Until they are introduced to carnal knowledge, there is no shame. Heck they don't even understand basic body functions or relate to it such as continence. Our children saw us naked and even showered with us sometimes. After that comes modeling, such as when they see us put on clothes to answer the door. Some of us have to teach them that excrement is not an artistic tool, and gradually they become introduced to things, hopefully.

Because sex has let the bedroom and moved into the street, movies, the internet and ads everywhere, we must wear clothing for protection from predators as well.

Uhhh... No offense, but I really don't want to see most of you naked. And I'm pretty picky with who I let see my naked body, as well. And I really don't want to see my parents or elders naked, much less my siblings. And I'd lose all respect for our political & business leaders if I saw them naked, furry, flabby, crusty, and the such. Especially if the unwanted visual proved they didn't believe in good hygiene, if you get my drift. And if I saw some naked adults ogling at the naked kids in my community, I'd probably snap on them.

If you want to be naked or believe we should be naked, go to a nudist camp/colony. There are plenty of them around the world (relatively speaking). There are also many nude beaches. And some cities allow public nudity (I think Europe has quite a few). But I don't want to see that crap & I doubt most people do. No offense, of course.

We wear clothes because it has been socially engineered into us by our life fiber overlords from a long time ago. For the purpose using us for their life force, or food if you will.

On a serious note, it is my belief that garments were invented to protect us from the elements. Not necessarily meaning that full outfits were used at first. It very well could have been just a cover for the head, that in time, developed into more.