Girls Showering Together

Yes, the title of this post is a bit titillating, but this is about body acceptance, not a Playboy photo shoot.

Dr. Jean Kilbourne, author of "So Sexy So Soon", believes that today's culture is shifting towards more body acceptance in teenage girls.

“It’s not sexual,” she says in a phone conversation. “It’s part of a culture in which there is more widespread acceptance of nudity than most of us, as parents, remember from that age. Girls today sleep in the same bed when they sleep over, they take showers with each other – they are just extremely comfortable with each other’s bodies.”

In fact, Kilbourne says it could actually be healthy for girls to see each other naked. “Girls today are surrounded by idealized images of women and girls. To see real bodies, to realize the range of real bodies, that’s not dangerous, it’s good.”

Psychologist Sharon Lamb also chimes in.

...there is a long, ancient and rich history of women bathing together in public bathhouses. “It’s an intimacy but not really sexual,” she wrote in an email. “For seventh grade girls to feel OK enough about their bodies to accept being nude and to accept each other – that sounds like a good thing to me.”

Perhaps the younger generation is more ready and willing to shed the shame imposed upon them by their parents and grandparents. Whether of not this translates into a new boom for nudism and naturism remains to be seen.