Welcome to America, the country that frowns on nudity but leads the world with its porn production and breast implant surgeries. For centuries, the US held to high moral standards. Has the 21st century overcome the nation’s Puritan heritage?
When my daughter Pauline was 4, I was summoned to her daycare office to discuss an unspeakable outrage: she’d taken off her bathing suit in public.
Nobody was harmed by the event, but the daycare staff was horrified at the brief sight of a child’s bottom. I was speechless at their reaction. The staff explained that Pauline and her friends had spent an hour outside, enjoying water play. When it was time to go inside, she took off her bathing suit instead of walking back into the building to change.
In the principal’s office, I was told firmly that showing nudity sends the wrong signals, even if it’s the innocent body of a 4-year-old girl. At the time, I must confess that I was too eager to blend into my new American environment. So, I nodded and promised to talk to her.
Today, I strongly disagree with my initial reaction. What is wrong with you, America, if a 4-year-old child can be considered a sexual object? I agree that nudity is a personal matter and should be kept within the privacy of a safe environment. But, modesty is a natural reaction that develops over time, and 4-year-old children don’t have this feeling yet. Instead this event taught my daughter to be ashamed of her body.
America’s nudity paradox
Since 2013, I’ve lived in the US—the world’s largest producer of adult movies. In L.A. or Miami beach beauties exhibit their assets, barely covered by fabric, while men jog shirtless around the country. The US also led the world in plastic surgeries with 4.2 million treatments in 2016. According to Insider, the US takes “the top spot in surgical breast procedures.”
Nakedness is frowned upon as a sign of shamelessness, but there is a hypersexualized body culture in this country. A blatant contradiction to the lecture I received three years ago about my daughter.
In Du Sexe en Amérique (About Sex in America), French historian and political scientist Nicole Bacharan exposed these contradictions. Bacharan is great at pointing out the duplicity of American actions, which were and still are rarely in agreement with popular morals. Confronted with the quasi-naked native Americans, the first settlers stressed purity and the search for moral perfection. Since the 17th century, many Americans have wrestled with this Puritan heritage, as their supposedly high moral standards haven’t always conformed with their behavior.
Are Europeans immune to body shaming?
Having lived both in France and in Germany for 20 years, and after spending many vacations in Southern Europe, I can attest to major differences. Generally speaking, for Germans (or those of Nordic heritage), being naked in public is not a big deal. Take mixed-gender saunas, for example! (Check out my post on “Saunas in Germany: taboos you should break or not” for more details.) However, countries with stronger Catholic ties are more uptight when it comes to nudity.
America’s adultery paradox
In a 2016 PEW Research Center survey, 84% of American respondents stated that adultery is unacceptable. In contrast, 40% of French respondents believed that it’s not a moral issue (compared to only 10% of Americans).
Are the French more eager to commit adultery? Probably not, as I’ve explained in “Everything you always wanted to know about adultery in France.”
According to a survey conducted by the French Institute of Public Opinion (Institut français d’opinion publique or IFOP), 55% of French men and 32% of women acknowledged cheating on their partner; these figures are roughly comparable to results in other Europeans countries.
However, they are significantly higher than reported statistics on the subject in the United States. Although they don’t compare to the figures from the IFOP, according to the Institute for Family Studies, only 16% of American respondents reported having sex with someone other than their spouse.
I do wonder about the unreported cases. Since only 4% agreed that having an affair is morally acceptable, I suspect that the actual figures are higher. After spending time with my American friends, acquaintances, and colleagues, I never got the feeling that they were more or less faithful than those in my French or German life.
Sexuality and Nudity: An American Paradox
Professor Mokhtar Ben Barka teaches American civilization at the French university of Valenciennes. In his publication “Sexe et Pouvoir aux Etats-Unis“ (Sex and Authority in the US), Ben Barka explains that American public persons, especially politicians, are facing a scrutiny that has no equivalent in France.
Indeed, I can’t remember any similar outrage about politicians’ romantic lives during my years spent in Europe. Rumors, yes. Allusions, yes. But, basically, nobody cared. When former French president François Hollande’s affair was exposed in a tabloid, 77% of French respondents agreed this was “a private affair that was only Francois Hollande’s business.”
Are morality standards changing in the US?
Before the 2016 presidential campaign, American politicians’ private life was deeply connected to public perceptions of their integrity. For example, in 1988, Democrat frontrunner Gary Hart dropped out of the primary over allegations of an extramarital affair. Then, along came the Access Hollywood tape where candidate Trump could be heard speaking in a shockingly graphic way about women.
Candidate Trump didn’t quit. He survived the media tsunami and got elected to the highest federal function in the country.
At the same time, moral standards for local elections seem to be standing solid.
In Kentucky, Dan Johnson—a right-wing Republican—killed himself last December after being accused of sexual assault on a 17-year-old. In Minnesota, Democrat Senator Al Franken resigned due to sexual harassment allegations. In Pennsylvania, Republican Tim Murphy, a strong anti-abortion conservative, resigned after he got caught urging his lover to have an abortion.
Does a presidential title absolve missteps?
It’s been 20 years since the Clinton-Lewinski affair. President Clinton denied everything, was then impeached, but survived the sex scandal.
Lately, porn-film actress Stormy Daniels revealed having an affair with Mr. Trump and receiving a payout of $130,000 to keep the situation a secret. Playboy model Karen McDougal allegedly had a 10-month affair with Mr. Trump and has filed a lawsuit in California seeking release from a non-disclosure agreement.
If we believe the PEW figures presented before, the majority of Americans should disapprove of these discoveries. However, in a recent poll conducted by Gallup, over 80% of American respondents rated moral values in the US as fair or poor, and 77% said the state of moral values will continue to get worse.
The Germans and the French likewise wonder how long the President of the United States will continue to make headlines for misconduct without any electoral consequences. Only time will tell if the reality of the 21st century can overcome America’s Puritan heritage: nobody is perfect, even a president.
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