Why do People Wear Clothes?

Abstract

The theory of evolution has done much to undermine the general acceptance of the Genesis story, and naturist and nudist groups have attempted to challenge the notion that the naked human body is sinful, or something to be ashamed of. The modesty theory has been attacked from another point of view. Clothing does not draw attention away from the body, or reduce an awareness of it as is implied in the term ‘modesty’. Clothing actually serves to display the body and exhibit it in order to gain admiration. The implications of B. Rudofsky’s argument is that clothing is necessary for the maintenance of sexual interest and therefore, implicitly, to the future of the human species. The dress of women in strict Islamic societies is not a form of sexual display; it is not intended to provoke desire. J. Laver contends that the dominant function of women’s clothing is that of sexual attraction.

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