Nudism, bottomless beach-goers not erotic!

Reuters
Rome, July 11, 2005

Most Italians think nude sunbathing is perfectly natural and don't mind crossing paths with bottomless beach-goers -- even when those bottoms are unsightly, survey results released on Sunday said.

While topless sunbathing is widely practiced in Italy, bottoms are usually required and nudists can face fines of more than 500 euros ($595) on some beaches, the Italian Naturalist Federation said.

But the federation said a poll it commissioned from a mainstream media outlet found nearly 70 per cent of those surveyed said they would sunbath nude if everyone else did it. More than 80 per cent said nudism was not erotic, but natural.

Women were more frequently bothered by nude sunbathing than men. Just over 40 per cent of women said they did not like seeing other naked females on the beach, while just 5 per cent of men shared their opinion about nude women.

The survey found nearly two-thirds of men said they weren't bothered by nude male sunbathers.

When it came to unattractive or "brutto" sunbathers, most of those surveyed in the country that champions physical beauty said they didn't object to seeing them naked either.

Only about 16 per cent said they were vexed by unattractive women nudists and 9.7 per cent objected to unsightly men.

The Federation said the survey would bolster their hopes of getting more beaches set aside for nude sunbathing.