Our Nudity Is Different

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

In olden days a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking...

—"Anything Goes"

Different cultures have different ideas about what parts of the body should or should not be shown, or even discussed. For some people on this Earth, a woman's face or hair must not be exposed. For others, you can be topless as long as you keep your shins covered; a girl has to have modesty, after all! Then there's the characters in Fantasy / Sci Fi settings who are outright scandalized if they discover their orthoblaxer is showing.

Basically, this trope is for those characters that have a notably different definition of "private parts" than most of the audience.

May Overlap with Fantastic Arousal. A subtrope of Fully-Clothed Nudity and Your Normal Is Our Taboo.

Please do not add real life examples unless historical or otherwise well-documented.


Examples of Our Nudity Is Different include:

Comic Books

Film

  • In The Great Race (set in 1908), Maggie DuBois daringly exposes her stocking to the newspaper editor, Mr. Goodbody.
  • In Star Wars continuity, the Tusken Raiders of Tatooine have a taboo about showing any part of their unclothed bodies to anyone except their mates (and even then, it's done in private), or some midwives when they're born (parents don't even see their children naked). If anyone else ever sees a Tusken Raider's face, he will make it his lifelong quest to kill that person, and not stop until he has succeeded or he himself is dead.

Literature

  • In The Night Angel Trilogy, Sethi consider showing ankles to be obscene but have no problem showing breasts. In fact, Sethi wedding dresses are almost more like wedding skirts from the description. Sethi who spend too long living away from home often have trouble readjusting their standards of modesty.
  • The cultures based on the Vorin religion in The Stormlight Archive consider a woman with her left hand bare to be provocative. Commoner women wear a glove to cover it while noblewomen wear dresses with left sleeves that cover the entire arm and hand and button shut.
  • At one point in the Belgariad the fanatic zealot Relg rants about how Ulgo women try to entice him by showing their calves and forearms. (Or at least He thinks so).
    • Relg's idea of modesty isn't different so much as it is extreme. Ulgos have the same standards of modesty as the rest of the setting, and are already quite modest by that standard (no doubt assisted in this by living in caves, which are probably quite cold). That's just not enough for Relg.
  • The classic SF story The Wheels of If has a scene on an alternate Earth where belly buttons are considered obscene...but nothing else is, resulting in Barely-There Swimwear of an unusual sort.
  • Discworld:
    • In The Last Hero, we're told there is a religion in Ankh-Morpork which prohibits women from showing their ears, lest they inflame the passions of men.
    • In Unseen Academicals, the wizards are adamant they can't wear shorts that expose their knees, for fear of the effect this might have on women. The one woman who hears this has trouble keeping a straight face.
    • This prudishness seems to be entirely confined to the presence of women, however—in Night Watch, the Archchancellor is completely oblivious as to why another wizard thinks he's "inappropriately dressed" after hurriedly getting out of the bath—he's wearing his hat, after all, and that's what matters.
    • In Making Money, the University's golem-expert is titillated by the prospect of relocating to a place where he'll actually be able to see women's ankles. Presumably it's lucky that he's already a ghost, else he'd have keeled over with heart failure upon actually entering the Pink Pussycat Club....
    • Trolls consider near-nudity to be the norm; it's when a troll woman starts putting clothes on that she's singled out as provocatively-dressed. Troll "robers" from the Strippers' Guild actually put on layer after layer of clothing during their acts.
  • In one of AP Herbert's More Misleading Cases in the Common Law, when a man is charged with indecency for entering the sea wearing the "wrong" sort of swimsuit, a judge goes into a bit of a rant about this, contrasting the 19th century definition of "indecency" used by the municipal council with a more liberal 1920s definition:

Mr Justice Wool: Stuff and nonsense, constable! The male torso is not indecent. If it is hairy it may be unattractive: but so is the male foot. So is your face; but the Council cannot compel you to drape it. A lady's back is not indecent: it may be attractive, but so are a lady's eyes. The act says "indecency" not "allure". My father wore nothing but drawers. So did I.

  • In Jack Vance's short story "The Moon Moth", everybody keeps their faces covered at all times by stylized masks that show the wearer's current social standing. Not even spouses ever see each other's naked faces.
  • Similarly, there's another Golden Age SF story which explicitly cites the progression of erotic interest in the female body over the centuries from the hips to the breasts and then carries it forward (upward?) to the face, so that in the era of the story women can be all but nude as long as their faces are covered.
  • Played for Deliberate Values Dissonance in The Poisonwood Bible. Kilanga women hide their legs under long skirts and think nothing of going topless. Missionary Nathan Price is shocked by their indecency; the Kilanga are similarly shocked by Mrs. Price wearing pants.
  • In Stephen King's The Stand, 108-year-old Abagail Freemantle remembers appearing on a talent show back in 1902. Before her, a woman performed a "racy French dance", showing her ankles.
  • In Memoirs of a Geisha, Sayuri explains that geisha generally do not go out without their makeup on, so to leave just a little bit of bare skin unpainted at the hairline is a very suggestive thing indeed, hinting at what lies beneath. Additionally, necks are considered very attractive and a geisha will wear a kimono with a low collar in the back in the same way a Western woman would wear a short skirt.
  • In the Mr. Men books, most of the title characters are living shapes that rarely wear much except hats; however, in Little Miss Naughty's book, Mr. Bump is clearly very embarrassed when she swipes his bandages.

Live-Action TV

  • In the Cops episode of My Name Is Earl, a foreign Sikh neighbor denies spying on Joy in her trailer and says "Look at the way she dresses! I can see her elbows any time I want to!".
  • In the short-lived Something Is Out There, we find that Ta'ra's culture had a different definition of nudity than humans.

Ta'ra: We've already seen each other's hands, what more is there?

  • Star Trek:
  • One regular feature of blooper and out-take shows comes from the American version of The Price Is Right, where an over-excited woman contestant called down from the audience to participate in the show whoops, hollers and dances her way down the aisle, bouncing so hard that her breasts bounce right out of her skimpy strapless top. And for a moment or two she does not even notice... when this aired in "blooper" shows in the USA, this segment was censored by the classic black band. Exported to Britain, it was uncensored and screened in all its dubious glory. When several months later a censored version was shown on a British show, possibly because that was lifted directly from an American edition, people rang and wrote to the TV station to ask why they were bothering to censor the clip after it had been screened uncensored for so long.
  • An episode of Quantum Leap had a WWII GI's Japanese bride hanging her laundry out to dry in the air, then stripping to the waist to continue the laundry, unaware of her mother-in-law's horror at the nudity.
  • Played for laughs in Topsy Turvy, when one of the cast objects to wearing a kimono that leaves his ankles exposed, feeling this is an inappropriate level of nudity.

Newspaper Comics

  • Back in the sixties, Mort Walker was told he wasn't allowed to show bellybuttons in Hi and Lois. He protested by featuring a box of navel oranges.

Tabletop Games

  • Reeves are a race of mercenaries and warriors in the Planescape setting who are averse to anyone seeing their faces, including other reeves, keeping their faces hidden by helmets or veils. If anyone sees a reeve's face, the reeve becomes obsessed with finding and killing that person. Although, enough dead reeves have been examined for their looks to be documented; they have four eyes, no hair, and pebbly skin.

Theatre

  • In olden days, a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking, now heaven knows... Anything Goes.

Video Games

Web Comics

Web Original

Western Animation

  • The Simpsons
    • Skinner is horrified when his mother goes on a date in an outfit that reveals her... figure.
    • There's also an episode set in the 1800s, where the buy-your-photo section of a log flume ride has to deal with a shot of a lady "flashing her private parts". It's her ankle, and the man running the shop claims he'll take care of it before shiftily stowing it in his pocket as if it were porn.
  • In one episode of American Dad, Stan sets up a deal with Ikea to refurnish all of Iraq so it looks like "your first apartment". This cues a Cutaway Gag of a citizen appreciating how his new home looks, before being appalled at his wife's blatant display of nudity and telling her to put some clothes on. She's fully clothed except for her eyes so she covers up her eyes and immediately trips over a table.
  • On The Muppet Show, Kermit is considered indecently naked when he loses his collar.
  • Donald Duck is always embarrassed if he loses his clothes for whatever reason, even though he never wears pants anyway.
  • He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Trollians (as in, Orko's species) keep their faces hidden from everyone except their betrothed and spouses; they reveal their faces as part of a marriage proposal. To anyone else they conceal their faces behind veils or - as Orko does - a huge hat that shades over the face.
  • The Dulainians from the Star Trek: Lower Decks episode "Hunting the Least Dangerous Game" are Nubile Savage types who wear skimpy outfits to emphasize their well-toned, incredibly fit, and tanned bodies. All of them wear midriff-baring shirts, as their faith claims the navel is sort of a spiritual "third eye", and while friendly to visitors overall, they consider it a blasphemy for someone to enter one of their temples with their navel covered.

Real Life

  • Throughout the Victorian Era, the sight of a woman's ankle was considered outright scandalous.
  • Kimono Fanservice mentions in passing a fetish for the nape of the neck. There was never a taboo against showing them, however.
  • The "CAP" Alert Christian movie review website, frequently deprecates movies where females wear "form-revealing tops".
  • Burqas.
  • In some African cultures, thighs are considered indecent to show, yet breasts are A-OK, hence you'll see women wearing skirts long enough to cover their thighs and nothing on top. In fact, people of these cultures will find it hilarious when they are told of the Western fetishization of breasts, believing those who buy into this to be like babies.
  • The Mormons' idea of dressing modestly is that which will cover their temple garments, which are basically a white T-shirt and white shorts with special symbols embroidered on them. Showing any part of their temple garments in public (especially to a non-Mormon) is considered a taboo in the LDS Church. So any strapless or tank tops are automatically out, as well as anything too short to cover the bottom part.
  • Ancient Minoan artwork depicts women walking around in outfits that cover their legs, but leave their breasts exposed.
  • Men of the Kapauku tribes of Papua New Guinea often wear nothing but penis-sheaths, which will cover the penis but leave the testicles exposed.
  • Discussed by Cindy Crawford in an interview that she gave to Playboy where she talks about being topless during a business lunch with a Pepsi representative:

Crawford: One day my girlfriend, her boyfriend and I were sunbathing topless because that's Barbados - you can wear nothing if you want. And the Pepsi guy walks up and with my agent to meet us for lunch}. I saw him coming and I wondered should I put on my top because I having a business relationship with him? I didn't want him to get offended because the rest of the beach had seen me with my top off. Meanwhile, as he's walking toward me he's saying to my agent "I hope she puts on her top." He wasn't even being a schmuck, like wanting to see. He wanted to keep our relationship professional.
Playboy: Did you or didn't yoy?
Crawford: I left it off and it was fine with everyone.

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