[Vision2020] Public Nudity and Other Abominations

[Nicholas Gier]

Hi Visionaries,

I'm still not caught up on all the postings, but I had to stop and respond to Jackie Woolf.

I was married to a Danish woman for 16 years and I spent four years (off and on) in Denmark.  When I first arrived in 1966, the shopping street was cramped with porno shops.  (Denmark was one of the first country to legalize pornography.)  What an eye-full and what a charge for a young, red-blooded, sex-starved American male of 21!

But an interesting thing happened.  First, sexual predators in Denmark appeared to have found an innocent alternative release, because sexual crimes actually went down and are still lower than ours.  Second, when I walked down the shopping street in 1985-86 (my last time there), all the porno shops were gone.  The Danes got bored with it; in fact, even in 1966 most of people in shops were foreigners like me!

Now for those beautiful Danish breasts!  Yes, they go topless on the beaches and even one day at the lunch room at the University of Odense, where I was teaching in 1970-71.  When I nudged my Danish male friends and asked "Are they going to get away with this?" they just yawned and thought I was weird.  Then that summer it happened: some of the women took everything off at the beach!!!!!!  The response: just more smug yawns.

Last time I checked Denmark was still there with many Danes laughing at our uptightness, our self-righteousness, our violence, our military adventures, our crude ways, and our fanatic Christians.

Nick Gier