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I have been to nude beaches. Not by choice, I might add.
More than twenty years ago, during our honeymoon in Greece, Vincent and I accidentally stumbled upon one.
The beach was beautiful—clear, turquoise Mediterranean Sea waters and crystal white sand. It was just like you see in the magazines. Breath-taking!
Then, our gaze fell upon flesh—lots and lots of flesh! Breath-taking in another way—shocking! It certainly took our breath away!
I think we both even gasped out loud!
Differences
Everyone has different tastes, values, beliefs, etc. The Cultural Story-Weaver is all about awareness, understanding, and appreciation of our differences—cultural, racial, linguistic, religious, etc.
I respect those differences and people with different tastes, values, and beliefs than my own.
However, that doesn’t mean that I have to accept it and participate in it!
Vincent and I turned around and ran back to our rental car as fast as we could! Nude beaches were not a part of our honeymoon plans!
Our Christian faith is central in the life of our family, and we believe that our naked bodies are not to be shared and exposed to the public eye. Call us conservative, call us religious—it doesn’t matter. Our belief is that our bodies are private and intimate.
Is it Cultural?
When it comes to nudity, much of it is cultural.
I can remember my first day on the beach in Europe. It was during the summer when I was a nanny for a family in Vincent’s little village in the north of France. (Read “My Story.”) We went on a three-week summer vacation in August on the Mediterranean coast. Pure bliss!
Perhaps I didn’t read my France tourist books well enough, or perhaps my high school French teacher failed to teach me about the topless women on European beaches.
In any case, I was not prepared. I was not ready to see exposed breasts, breasts everywhere!
Yes, it was shocking for me as a young, 19-year-old American girl from Missouri. However, what was even more shocking was that no one seemed to care. No one seemed uncomfortable having their breasts exposed, and no one seemed to be looking and gawking. I was perhaps the only one who was shocked.
Yes, it was serious culture shock!
I can also remember seeing all the little children playing in the sand on the edge of the water. Many of them were completely naked, and some were only wearing small bikinis or underwear. Some of the children were a bit older—maybe even 10 years of age.
This was something that I had never seen before.
Yes, it was serious culture shock!
Who’s Uncomfortable?
Again, I was uncomfortable with it, but they were not. For them, it was natural and normal. It was just how they did things.
I was the foreigner. I was the one who had entered their world, their space. It was up to me to adapt to them and accept their cultural ways. It was not up to them to adapt to me and change their cultural ways.
It took me some time to adapt, to ignore, to stop looking and gawking in awe and shock.
I adjusted, but that didn’t mean that I had to accept the European customs or partake in them. I just had to be aware of them, try to understand them . . . and well . . . try to appreciate them.
I confess . . . I still have a hard time appreciating nude and topless beaches!!!!
Culture Shock—Again!
In any case, I was confronted once again with culture shock on my birthday last week. Actually, I wasn’t the only one—so were my children and some of those around us.
Our family joined some friends for five days on a coastal city in the south of Spain. For the first four days, we hit the beach near our rental apartment. It was full of tourists—like us, and we saw very few topless women. We weren’t exactly looking or counting, but . . . it’s usually pretty obvious.
On the other hand, on our last day of vacation—my birthday—we decided to try another beach a bit further away. We loaded up the car and hit the road for about 20 minutes, driving down the coast.
Our hope was to find a quieter, more isolated, beach for our families to enjoy.
Many of the beaches we wanted to visit had no parking space or were full.
With the new Covid-19 restrictions for Spanish beaches, you often have to reserve in advance. They only have a certain number of spaces (“squares”) on the beach to comply with the regulations for proper social distancing.
We managed to find a beach that didn’t require reservations. It was packed, but it would have to make do.
Our friends found a parking spot before we did and grabbed a few “squares” on the beach for our two families.
Culture Clash!
My friend sent me a text as soon as they arrived.
“There are definitely more topless women on this beach,” she wrote.
Then she sent me the funniest picture—the epitome of “culture clash.”
Three topless women sat facing two completely covered Muslim women. All on vacation. All on the beach.
All together; yet, worlds apart.
Culture shock! Culture clash!
Our family finally found a parking space and made our way to the beach to join our friends.
You didn’t have to look far. There were topless women everywhere! Breasts, breasts everywhere. I laughed, remembering my first days on the beach in France as a 19-year-old girl.
Boys on the Beach
This time, I had my four boys with me—ages 22, 20, 14, and 7. My three older boys could be discreet. They looked—you couldn’t help but look—but they were quiet about it.
My 7-year-old son, Pierre, on the other hand, was loud and vocal.
“Mom, those women don’t have swimsuits on!” he screamed.
I tried to explain to him that in some countries, like Spain and France, not all women wear the tops of their swimsuits to the beach and the swimming pool.
“It’s just different than what Mommy does and what women do in America,” I told him.
Pierre seemed to accept what I said, but it didn’t keep him from staring wildly at the women. At one point in the water, an elderly woman with large sagging breasts walked right up to him.
So much for social distancing and so much for protecting my son from exposure to nude women! I want to open my kids to the world—but not like this!
Upon leaving the beach, we all remarked that we had obviously discovered a “local Spanish beach.” At the tourist beach near our apartment, there were people from all over the world visiting—many who don’t culturally go “topless” to the beach.
This beach definitely had a different feel.
Acceptance
If I’m totally honest, I don’t like nude and topless beaches, and I don’t really want my four boys going to the nude and topless beaches.
I loved raising my four boys in Morocco—in an Arab culture—where women dress conservatively and modestly. That’s more my taste.
However, our family no longer lives in Morocco. We now live in Spain, and we have to grow in our cultural awareness, understanding, and appreciation of all aspects of this local culture—even the parts we don’t like.
Yes, even its nudity!
—THE CULTURAL STORY-WEAVER
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LET’S WEAVE CULTURES!
Have you ever been shocked about something in a foreign culture—nude beaches or something else? How did you react? How did you adjust . . . or not?
We invite you to tell us your own cultural stories and global adventures . . . as you engage with the world, breaking down barriers, building bridges, and “weaving cultures”! Write about them in the comment box below.
Wow! What a story ! Yes that would be very difficult with four young boys ! oh