Vamos A La Playa

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Spanish Beaches: A Unique Experience

Personal Empowerment

I have always been one to love the beach, especially European beaches. However, this week was my first encounter with a "nude" beach, two nude beaches actually, talk about a culture shock. In America, I believe we hyper-sexualize the female body specifically, but we also slut shame anyone looking remotely scandalous. I absolutely loved that the beaches in Spain allow nudity because I feel as a woman that it is empowering and taking a step forward from the slut-shaming culture that I am used to at home. I know that the concept of public nudity is not modest and doesn't necessarily fit in with Christian traditions, so I am a bit conflicted in that way.

Look, I'm A Tourist

In terms of a relational context, talking about the beach is difficult because it's not the norm to interact with strangers. At the beach, you relax and spend time with your friends and family and you keep to yourself. One observation I was able to make was that in Spain and on the nude beaches specifically, there is far less "cat-calling" towards women, even women without bathing suit tops. Everyone minds their own business and pays no attention to the nude bodies surrounding them. In the US, I believe it would be much more intense and maybe even uncomfortable for a woman to be topless in public.

Social Norm

The social implications of this topic are pretty much things I have already discussed, but I can go more in depth. The fact that it is a social norm in this culture to allow and accept any sort of nudity on the public beaches is mind-blowing to someone like me from a more conservative place like Messiah College, and a more judgmental society like the US. From what I've gathered, Spain is a more free-spirited society and much less likely to slut-shame than the society of the US (aside from places like California and New York). The cultural society here seems much more open and accepting of others and respective of women's bodies than what I am used to, and I LOVE it.

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