Basic Trope: A native culture does not have the same nudity taboos Western culture does. Compare Innocent Fanservice Girl, applied to a whole culture.
- Straight: Bob encounters a tribe in which both men and women wear only tiny loincloths.
- Exaggerated:
- After a week of living with them, Bob is seen wearing a tiny loincloth as well, and is no longer shocked by the sight of women going about their business completely topless.
- The entire tribe wears literally nothing at all, even in situations where clothes would be more practical, such as in a cold climate.
- Downplayed: The native men go topless and the women bare their midriffs, but the amount of skin exposed would be considered fairly conservative if they were on the beach in a Western society, although some other cultures would find the tribe's clothing scandalous.
- Justified:
- Bob is shocked because of Culture Clash; nudity is taboo in his culture.
- The tribe does not believe that the human body is inherently bad, dirty, disgusting, or evil; it just is what it is.
- The tribe lives in a hot climate making wearing clothes uncomfortable and unnecessary from a practical standpoint.
- Making clothing and keeping them clean to western standards would be massively impractical without at least industrial revolution technology, and even when they have it went without for so long that it comes across as a gratuitous waste.
- Inverted:
- Bob has somehow lost all his clothes, and encounters a tribe where showing more than just your hands and face is treated as taboo.
- Bob encounters a culture with even more conservative clothing norms than his own where only a person's eyes are allowed to be visible.
- Subverted:
- Although nudity is not considered "bad," people generally choose to wear clothes.
- Or the lack of nudity taboo only applies to small children; anyone over a certain age is expected to be fully clothed.
- It turns out only nursing mothers and small children who grow too often to be considered worth clothing are exempt from the taboo. Alice going topless offends the natives.
- Double Subverted:
- But some women choose to go topless.
- Or nudity is part of the tribe's Rite of Passage or other ritual, not an everyday thing.
- Parodied:
- Bob takes his clothes off too ("When in Rome..."), and all the natives cover their eyes and scream in horror.
- Poor Man's Porn.
- Exposed Extraterrestrials.
- The tribe wears fig leaves (Or Censor Bars that stay in place even when there's nothing holding them in place.
- Scenery Censor.
- The natives decide to make their own documentary about western civilizations. Censor Bars appear over clothed naughty bits. They even disappear at wardrobe malfunctions.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted:
- Bob and the native people are wearing clothes with a similar level of coverage.
- Bob never ventures outside of his homeland.
- Enforced:
- "We need to show the obvious Culture Clash."
- "This is the only way they'll let us show boobies and keep the rating at PG-13!"
- Foreign Fanservice
- Lampshaded: "Hey, put a shirt on, you're being filmed!" "Going topless is part of my culture. We're fine."
- Implied: A prudish society mentions that the conduct of the native tribes being 'unsuitable for description in polite society'.
- Invoked: Bob likes wearing a loincloth and letting his dingle dangle, so he pretends to be from a less-advanced society.
- Exploited: Bob takes pictures to sell to perverts back home.
- Defied: Realizing that Westerners think their lack of clothing is uncivilized, the native people feel embarrassed and cover up.
- Discussed: "Next time we meet a native tribe, I hope it's the kind where the women have no shirts on, instead of the kind that tries to kill us."
- Conversed: "Are you just watching this documentary to look at boobs?"
- Implied: The tribe is never shown onscreen, but Bob mentions that they don't wear very much clothing.
- Played For Laughs:
- Bob can't control himself. Cue Black Comedy Rape.
- Or on a lighter note, it could try to run with a Naked People Are Funny.
- Played For Drama:
- Bob can't control himself. Cue Rape as Drama
- Bob finds it difficult to communicate with the tribe due to their differences in clothing.
Back to National Geographic Nudity.
