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Comment by daenz | Hacker News Reader

Your choice to swim nude in a public lake outweighing the choice to be more prudish is destigmatizing.

Of course, but that’s not why I’m swimming nude.

Sorry but I just don't buy it. There's no functional difference between swimming in undergarments or swimming nude, so if you choose nude, it's because you don't think it should be stigmatized.

If you think it feels so much nicer, consider that it's because it's a mild rebellion against a social norm.

Or it could be because it feels good.

Not everything has to be making a point against society. In places where being nude is normal, it isn't considered a weird thing.

Why is being nude normal in some places, but not others? That suggests that a stigma exists in one but not the other, and so participating in one or the other is implicitly supporting that.

No one is arguing against that

Then why do people do this in cultures where it's not stigmatized?

Which cultures are we talking about?

East German, as I mentioned above

It's nice to get an even tan and some exercise and feel the sun and wind and water all over your body. Daenz... have you tried it?

Yes. I've probably spent more time tanning at nude beaches than most people.

Purely as a political demonstration?

Look mr prudent, you don't get the motivation why folks do it, fine, but show some respect. And yes there is huge difference between swimming naked and in some swim shorts. I couldn't care less about rebelling against something, and I am definitely not any kind of exhibitionist.

Done it cca twice if I don't count swimming during night, second time got sting on the shoulder from medusa that left burn scar for years and hurt like hell back then. The idea of getting something similar on my johnson makes me shudder even now.

>And yes there is huge difference between swimming naked and in some swim shorts

I didn't say "swim shorts", I said underwear, which tend to be tight fitting and not baggy. And there really isn't a "huge difference."

How can it be so difficult to comprehend, that people might want to be nude with other people but not have it shared with the entire world for all eternity?

How can you not comprehend there are stages between "complete and total privacy with one person for a moment" and "film this and display it for all time to everyone"?

That's not difficult to comprehend at all. It sounds like you're not comprehending my point.

You shifted the goalposts into a false dichotomy about "public vs. private" and the concept of de-stigmatization. I am saying the entire premise is bunk, there is not only "private" and "public".

There is clearly a definition of "public" that involves a limited, semi-unrestricted number of like-minded people in a safe setting without tools to record behavior for eternal and unlimited rebroadcast. You do not acknowledge this; you are talking in binary.

> There's no functional difference between swimming in undergarments or swimming nude,

I can tell you haven't been backpacking.

What does hiking with a pack have to do with swimming in water

Not specific to backpacking, but bathing nude and having dry clothes is very preferable to walking around in a wet bathing suit or wet underwear.

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