Wow, this post is fantastic. Everyone here had put forth interesting points. Although I had pondered over this question since my childhood, I never found so many points. I really had to disagree with puberty because other primates also go through it and they don’t feel the need to cover themselves. Kudos to Mesosmagnet for managing this topic well and making sure people stayed with the agenda.

Since school days they say we clothe ourselves to protect ourselves and to cover our shyness. I had always disagreed with cover our shyness. Like Mesosmagnet, I felt that human had no reasons to be shy about their genitals. In the western world people have no qualms about being in the nude in public baths. In Malaysia we see some who don’t care too much about being in the nude but some would be more comfortable with a towel wrapped around. Nonetheless the famous prehistoric loincloth could prove that covering the genitals was a reason for clothing.

Of late I was convinced that it was a biological need to clothe ourselves. A full meal can last 6 hours but I doubt we can stay under the sun for that long without feeling the itch when it begins to scorch our skins. I began to see clothing as portable shelter. Unlike other animals we are not blessed with furs to protect our skins. Like us pigs don’t have fur to protect themselves. This explains why they splash themselves in mud when expose to the sun. Pigs in sheltered commercial farms don’t “play” with mud.

In due time humans figured out that they needed fur to protect their skin. Of all places, our genital is the most sensitive part. Lo and behold, the loincloth became one of the first inventions. Over the span of time culture, religion, status and all the other points mentioned here became part of the reason why we wear clothes.

Well, I believe it's the basic concept of what is taboo to a specific society. Places like Africa still have tribes of females and males who are half naked in public and are considered vulgarly clad to conservative societies, like Malaysia.

It's part of the evolution of culture and etiquette, what is right and what is wrong.

This post has been edited by Saaaweeet: Apr 2 2010, 04:03 PM

it really really goes back to the stone age. What drives humans to invent clothes is because of climate, not because of the shy or shame. The theory is that for such emotions to occur, you need cognitive reference to previous experiences (too much hassle to explain about experience). Humans learn to adapt and change, for them to survive in the cold weather, they crack their brains and learnt how to make clothes. Ever since then, parents will teach the young to wear clothes to protect themselves from the climate. But how did it turned into perception of shyness or embarrassment that drives us to wear clothes? rather than just to protect ourselves

Maybe some of us have not notice, lets put a scenario as an example. If we go to places like maybe....North Pole, and you are wearing a T shirt while the eskimos (i dont know if there are eskimos in north pole LOL just an example) are wearing thick thick clothing. They will look at you saying "What the?!" as if you are looking at a nude guy on the streets. It really has evolved into a general culture over the years. For embarrassment to drive us into wearing clothes, its pretty much the same cultural and education progression like... erm ... preventing ourselves from doing unhygienic things like digging the nose in public. There is a trigger point in purpose-evolution of wearing clothes where we wore clothes to protect ourselves, to parents saying
' OMG you are not wearing clothes! Shame on YOU!" <----trigger point
rather them having said the conventional, "Wear clothes to protect yourself, NOW, or you will die of frostbite"
its the same as teaching a child not to eat poison as it will kill your, except it does not evolved (at least not yet) into "OMG you eat poison! You should be ashamed!"

Name any famous artists, most of them will perceive human nudity as an art. It is a kind of beauty beyond description of words, which can only be expressed through paintings.

Anyhow dont go running around on the streets nude after reading the post , after all it is a norm now

Walauuuuuuu......... So many version...

The ultimate objective of human wearing cloths is due to coldness....
And slowly evolve to fashion...
And slowly evolve to protection on hazard/war (as said by Joey Christensen)
And now slowly back to nude beach/camp/etc...

If everybody is naked, then erection will be a rare view as we've grown up seeing naked which is normal... and touch here and there would means nothing as it's normal.

The only not normal is when a grown up adult that wears nothing since childhood suddenly walk into crowd that wears something. And vice-versa..

do you wear clothes while you are taking a shower?i do,because if got robber breaks into my house while i am taking a shower?i can runaway from him in a second<< pretty logic^.~

This post has been edited by m1ck3y3mon: Apr 8 2010, 11:10 PM

clothes = identity.

change your clothes and you change your identity.

This post has been edited by teongpeng: Apr 8 2010, 11:18 PM

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Added on April 9, 2010, 4:34 pm

u dun even need to wash ur clothes then..


clothing is a type of identity. Without clothing, we are all the same. With clothing, everyone is different. That's why we are all in 1 society but we are all different. Coz, deep down, we are actually the same.

This post has been edited by cassiemissy: Apr 9 2010, 04:34 PM

basically for protection against the sun, heat

and it looks good XD

interesting topic, though I don't really agree with some. Since you demand an opinion, I will tell you what I know.

According to Bible (yes Christian), human are shy looking at each other naked, so that's why they clothed themselves.

Okay, let's put it in a very simple test.

you're born in this world in 2010, nobody is polluting your mind demanding that you must be clothed otherwise you will feel shy.

no, you'll naturally feel shy looking at each naked body out there.

So what is this, human nature not explained by science? I agree that cloth is used to keep warm etc, but unless your private part is covered, you even feel shy to walk out to the street. partly due to culture in the place you're staying, and partly due to your nature as a human.

Read bible, it answers many questions.

we feel shy because the society's norms have changed,it has nothing to do with the bible,there are certain people in africa who do not properly cloth themselves but yet they don't feel shy to expose their genitals.

This post has been edited by CleverDick: Apr 10 2010, 04:11 PM

babies don't born feeling shy , obviously they will go through a stage which we would call education. Lets say this in bible context. Adam and Eve do not feel shy initially, only after they sin upon eating the fruit. They obtain knowledge of man, therefore they start to feel shy as they understand certain things.

1)even stone age ppl put somethin to cover that "lower place"

2)human feel shame of their obesiti and selulit... if slim and has nice body (gurl) & 6 pax and "big thing" they will show

Alex Kos,

If you read the first post, TS said to keep religion out of the issue. We are using reason to explore why we clothes ourselves.

I am sure TS will not disput that we wear clothes because the bible say so. You find in other threads that the TS does bible study with family. TS want to explore the logic for wearinng clothes. I hope you read before you post next time.

First and foremost, human commenced to cloth themselves has nothing to do with religion. There are still savages who inhabited the Amazonian and Papuan jungles that go around naked despite having some sort of animistic religious belief. Clothing has to do with moral value of a society. A clothing style from 2000 years ago might not be applicable in modern 21st century. The society determined the level of modesty and acceptability as norms, a human merely goes parallel with the norms and abide by it.

It is determined by majority of ancient as well as present human that it's vulgar, immodest and shameful to expose beneath our belly or waist. Therefore, we are sort of morally obliged to "fit" into the cultural predetermination. Though the nudists camps in the West are quite well known, it's still repulsive for them to walk around on the street and doing that will cause them to end up behind bars.

Why do humans clothe themselves?

Not attempting to give a super duper intellectualized answer and my answer is quite cliched: mostly it's because of the basic instinctual need to protect one's sensitivity (skin) to an environment or a surrounding.

But in a world where we *now* are living in, as some of you had pointed out -- clothes have *now* evolved into a subtle (sometimes not so subtle) way of showing who/what you are or become. Fashion. A brandname that is so cleverly hidden behind one's neck doesn't tell much but it does to the wearer. After all, he or she knows what he or she is wearing! If you know how much exactly that freaking cute top has cost you, and if you know that you can in fact afford it, will it be something that 'makes' you? Great, you have just been 'labelled'.

This post has been edited by flore: Apr 13 2010, 01:13 PM

Adam and Eve eat the fruit and they become intelligent and they know they are naked and they are shy~

That's a myth. LOL.

xD wat they shy?? bout themself?

I think it is the way that humans have conditioned ourselves. Humans are very peer-influenced, as in we are easily influenced by the people and the environment around us.

Quoting an earlier example, if you wear a suit to a nudist beach, you're gonna be looked at as a weirdo. If you go naked at a wedding, you're also gonna be looked at as a weirdo.

This is a variation question of the OP & hope u dun mind - why do humans wear underwear? Ok, guy's underwear and women's bra serve a practical function, to support that part against the effects of gravity. So why do girls wear panties when there is nothing for gravity to effect?

Secondly, many guys and girls spend a lot of time browsing the underwear section before they buy. Question: why spend so much time buying a piece of clothing that you are only going to conceal from everyone?