Imagine my surprise during my first Danish triathlon when, emerging from the ice-cold water, I passed naked butt after naked butt lined up in the transition area where you get ready for the bike part of the race. Unlike American triathletes who tend to keep their clothes on during the race, many Danes simply drop their suits after the swim to change into dry biking shorts, without bothering to cover up. Why waste crucial transition time by fooling around with a towel?
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Let me add that despite this public display of athletic nudity, spectators do not have much to stare at. Unless there is the rare heat wave, the old Danish saying holds true: “He went into the water as a king, and he emerged from it as a queen.” Cold water does indeed send any penis into hiding.
Here’s another thing: When nature calls during the race, it’s perfectly acceptable for men and women to discretely use a tree instead of a Porta-John. It’s not that Danes are exhibitionists. It’s simply not a big deal to show a little (or a lot) of flesh in public.
Obviously, whether public nudity is acceptable varies widely from culture to culture, and even within one country there can be great differences between regions. I don’t know of any other places in the U.S. than South Beach, Miami, where you can get away with taking off your bikini top on a public beach without a trip to the police department.
Most European countries have a very relaxed attitude towards nudity. Having lived in the U.S. for well over a decade now, I notice this every time I visit my old home country, Denmark. Spotting the first nudist on the beach each summer has become a tradition, but after that, ubiquitous naturalists hardly get anyone’s attention. And often, it’s not that pretty a sight. Beer bellies are far more frequent than well-toned abs, and the topless “Greetings from Denmark” post card beauties are often few and far between.
Freikörperkultur (FKK, meaning Free Body Culture) was a movement that started in Germany in the late 1800s and gained popularity in the 1960s and ’70s. The naked body was no longer viewed as shameful, and the joy of being nude was considered unrelated to sexuality. Anyone who has ever skinny-dipped in a lake or an ocean will understand that it has little to do with sex, but rather is a sublime all-body sensation, just as a professional massage can feel great without being sexual.
I clearly remember the first German FKK nudists in the mid-’70s, causing us teens to chuckle. Until then nudity had been restricted to only selected beach areas. But it didn’t take long until beachgoers felt free to do whatever they liked—keep their bathing suits on, take their tops off, or expose their entire bodies to the sun and waves. This trend slowly spread throughout most of Europe, and today topless sunbathing is commonplace even in Catholic countries such as Italy, Portugal and Spain.
All in all, there is a much more relaxed, natural attitude to nudity in many European countries compared to here. Nudity is not viewed as an overt expression of sexuality, but rather as what it is, a display of the simple suit you were born in.
