Postcard: Paris in the August 17 issue of Time magazine reports there is a new trend among young French women: prudishness. For decades, the French have viewed Americans as puritanical while nudity and toplessness prevailed on French beaches. These days, young women in France are more apt to cover up than their American counterparts, Time reports.
A survey titled Women and Nudity by polling agency Ifop found that young French women are proud to call themselves prudish. Eighty-eight percent of the women surveyed thought of themselves as “prudique”–a word that translates as anything from modest to prudish. Fifty-nine percent avoid being nude around their children, 63% refuse to undress around female friends and 22% consider a woman naked if she’s in her underwear.
Some consider the new trend a response to concerns about skin cancer or possibly a return to conservative values among young women. The majority of nude female sun worshippers seen on French beaches these days are older women. Young women–mostly those ages 18-24–have strong opinions and consider themselves very prudique, rejecting their mothers’ and grandmothers’ lack of inhibitions regarding nudity.
The difference is pronounced between these young French women and American women who visit French beaches. Many American women have no problem going topless and enjoy the freedom to do so. With this growing trend, maybe Americans might not seem so prudish after all.
Tags: naked, nude, nudity, sunbathing, topless
This study was done with only 1000 women readers a conservative magazine.