Future perfect Can a clothing-optional policy teach her young girls to be comfortable as women?

The Boston Globe ^ | June 29, 2009 | Jennifer Mattern

[buccaneer81]

Future perfect Can a clothing-optional policy teach her young girls to be comfortable as women? By Jennifer Mattern June 28, 2009

I ain’t what I used to be.

But my daughters don’t know that. They can’t imagine me any other way -- this soft, paunchy creature they have come to refer to as “Mom.” I tell them to take a good look, that someday they are likely to look much like I do now. They laugh. Preposterous!

I grew up in a household where everyone’s jiggly bits were kept under wraps. Only once, when I was very young, do I remember taking a shower with my mother. I recall being shocked at the fullness of her breasts, the curves of her belly and thighs.

[End Times Sentinel]

If she has such a strong desire to show her body, she can show it to me.

Nudity in this Owl’s house has a three word policy: “Hide Your Shame”

[Lurker]

Don't try to inject common sense around here.

L

[WVNan]

I was raised in a very conservative modest environment. Modesty was mandatory. I did not get pregnant, nor did I have “carnal” knowledge before marriage. Why? I knew my Dad would kill me.

[Radl]

I don’t know about that. How big is her butt?

[robertwalker62]

she is Guilty..........

of BEING HOT!

[skimbell]

You're right! This Jennifer Mattern is NOT GUILTY. She also is not the Jennifer Mattern of the Boston Globe who wrote this piece.

Here's the Jennifer Mattern who wrote the article:

[buccaneer81]

Holy crap!

[Bushwacker777]

Eviedence?

[Old Professer]

Does this explain your screen name?

[MissDairyGoodnessVT]

oh pleeeease have this woman put her clothes back on

[MissDairyGoodnessVT]

oh pleeeease have this woman put her clothes back on - what she NEEDS to do is explain WHY human beings wear clothing especially in the bibilical sense.

[huldah1776]

My son made his own time to make sure I didn’t see him while he was changing. Around 7, I think. Probably the time they change from Mom, to Dad, in most things.

[Petronski]

...jiggly bits?

I don't know anything about the author, but that turn of phrase sounds British.

[oblomov]

There will come a time when everybody
Who is lonely will be free
To sing & dance & love

There will come a time when every evil
That we know will be an evil
That we can rise above

Who cares if hair is long or short
or sprayed or partly grayed
We know that hair ain’t where it’s at

There will come a time when you won’t
even be ashamed if you are fat!

WAH WAH-WAH WAH

There will come a time when everybody
Who is lonely will be free
To sing & dance & love (dance and love)

There will come a time when every evil
that we know will be an evil
That we can rise above (rise above)

Who cares if you’re so poor you can’t afford
To buy a pair of Mod-a-Go-Go stretch elastic pants
THERE WILL COME A TIME WHEN YOU CAN EVEN
TAKE YOUR CLOTHES OFF WHEN YOU DANCE

[my_pointy_head_is_sharp]

I see that the liberals, libertarians, and progressives are outing themselves on this thread.

[right way right]

So wheres the perfect Can?

[flash2368]

“Does this explain your screen name?”

No.. I was tortured as “Flash Gordon” during my childhood..:o)

[MichiganConservative]

Is this what women consider to be one of the pressing issues of the day?

[fr_freak]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news for the modest among us, however children raised in clothing optional or nudist environments have fewer hangups and a more positive body image. More importantly however the “mystery” is removed about the body and the teenage pregnancy rate is practically zip among girls raised in such environments.

I'm going to have to call BS on this, because I remember what it was like to be a teenager, and the urge to have sex had nothing to do with the "mystery" of the body. Hormones don't give a damn if a girl's body is a mystery to you or if you can name every part in alphabetical order. If there is any correlation between nudists and low teenage pregnancy rate, it has nothing to do with the actual casual nudity. For example, did it ever occur to you that the kind of people who would drag their kids to nudist events, or practice open nudity at home for all ages might also be the same kind of people who hand out birth control to their kids like candy? Or who would take their girls to the abortion clinic without hesitation (and never report the pregnancy)?

[GovernmentShrinker]

Well, it’s certainly true that up through at least the early 1960s, “respectable” women were routinely packed up like sausages in heavy-duty bras and girdles (some of which came up to the bottom of the bra and went down to the tops of the knees) that made sure that no matter how fat and flabby the real woman underneath, NOTHING “jiggled”. That was pretty insane, but I think the writer of this article has pretty much gone insane on the other end of the spectrum.