The Story

Double Exposure

Oct. 26, 2004 | By Hadyn Rickett, DSJ Staff Reporter

When it gets to be sweater weather here in the US, I start pining away for those countries that are just heading into summer right now. While in Brazil and Argentina, I celebrated New Year’s by taking a dip in the pool and sitting down for a nice barbecue, or running into the ocean after clubbing all night. Now, I’m not one to travel the world and then try to force foreign customs on Americans ... oh wait, yes I am.

Jon Stewart, in his best-selling book America, describes Brazil as the hemisphere’s biggest exporter of jiggling buttcheeks. Now this is partially true, at least for one week in February. What should be exported along with the buttcheeks (ahem) is the healthy body image that all Brazilian women seem to have. No one is too old or too heavy to wear the fio dental, or dental floss, which is Brazil’s cheeky name for its famous bikini.

In the United States, we equate skin with indecency and sex. This is probably no surprise to you, but what are we so afraid of?

Toplessness and breasts do not have sexual connotations in all cultures. It’s only too evident that “Girls Gone Wild” was created by an American. Bodies are so repressed in American culture that movies have fetishized body parts whose only real purpose is to nourish infants.

Nudity is only human. In fact it’s the most natural state of man on earth. I think that the naked body is seen in a healthier way in Brazil than in the US. This is most evident on Brazilian beaches.

Americans are initially fascinated and repulsed the first time they set foot on a Brazilian beach, but they quickly assimilate. Skin loses its sinfulness when it is treated as just another part of the human body. Streaking the Sunken Garden would lose its appeal if the titillation factor was gone. Or else it might become a nice midday stroll between classes.

But what about the children? Should they be subjected to such filth? Nudity will degenerate into an ugly, degrading thing unless it is first taught as a beautiful, natural thing. Children don’t care about seeing naked people: they saw their parents naked and hopefully were allowed to run around naked when they were younger.

Some might say that I’m putting my own American ideals of positive body image on these women who are forced to pander to men’s sexual fantasies. But the most difficult thing for me to get used to while on the beach was not the fio dentais of the women but the sungas of the men. Men wear tiny speedos while swimming, tanning, even jogging (just throw on some Adidas and you’re ready to go!). After only seeing the calves and feet of American men in their oversized swimtrunks, the sungas were quite a shock! So my theory of being more comfortable with the human body still holds.

And the older people who still insist on walking around in their fio dental? I say, more power to them! It’s part of the culture that very few people wear one-piece bathing suits. Although the tropical climate might have something to do with the unofficial uniform of the woman from Ipanema (a thin wrap skirt and bikini), the courage to wear this is a testament to the positive body consciousness of these women. Plus, life is short! Why not wear a string bikini and not care what anyone else thinks?

While I’m not advocating the College to become the first bastion of nudist higher learning, I think it is important to consider cultural differences. As citizens of our own country, we tend to take our cultural value system and apply it when we travel abroad. The use of these “blue sunglasses” in viewing a “yellow culture” is limiting and prevents your understanding of that other culture (hint: you view everything as green because the yellow is filtered through a blue lens).

Sometimes we have to remember that while we might see green initially, it takes time and understanding to let those blue sunglasses go and appreciate the yellow reality. You might find you like things better that way.