Taking a bath with children while nude
WTF is wrong with that father
tradition or not, thats weird
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MovieChat Forums > Tonari no Totoro (1990) Discussion > Taking a bath with children while nude
WTF is wrong with you?
kobe fan or not, you're weird.
There's nothing weird about. It's a harmless, innocent scene. If you interpret in a weird way, then that says more about your mind than anything.
shareWell said, Theowne. This discussion comes up again and again, started I suspect by American teen boys who think it makes them sound sophisticated. Nobody else thinks it anything out of the ordinary.
shareYes...and I realize this reply is 3 years late, I just watched the movie...because there is no reason why an American, particularly an American male, who have largely been taught not to be nude with their daughters...are the real perverts because they're slightly freaked by this scene.
Damion Crowley
All complaints about my post go to Helen Waite.
Yes, so I understand. Seems very sad to me.
shareGreat movie, though.
Damion Crowley
All complaints about my post go to Helen Waite.
I just watched a similar scene in Grave of the Fireflies, and because of the closer proximity in age of the children, the scene is less unnerving. Plus there is just some way the scene is drawn(angle of shot?) that just makes the whole thing look less appropriate in this movie.
Damion Crowley
All complaints about my post go to Helen Waite.
Why do you continue to think that every time someone says they have a problem with the "nude scene" you automatically think it's an American? Nobody knows the nationality of anyone on here since IMDB is worldwide. For all you know, someone who complains about it could be some random person from Moldova or whatever. Or someone from Canada. Don't just assume it's someone from the States. I'm American and that scene did not bother me in the slightest. I know other Americans that didn't care about the scene at all, and found it quite normal.
Certainly, I agree about the international users; somewhere on here we had a 'where are you?' thread, and it was great fun reading the answers - Brazil, Israel, Ireland, the Philippines... Might have been in the Sherlock area.
No, my conversations with the 'nude scene' protesters started with a very specific post from somebody 'here in the West', meaning the USA. It's probably lost down the boards by now, that was ages ago.
I apologise, ejs, you're right, nobody should make generalisations. As I've also said somewhere on here, you can find as many social attitudes as you could possibly imagine all, in the one place. Hooray for diversity.
Fact is, in the West nudity is still seen as being sexual no matter the context and therefore it's wrong for parents to do this with their kids.
Back in Japan, when our first child was still young, it wasn't uncommon for her to bathe with either my wife of myself. As time went on and she got older, she'd still bathe with her mother but not with me. This had to do more so with how big I am and how small our furo was. The times that my wife and I would do this with each other was rare because honestly it was a tight fit. Not that I minded because it always led to foreplay but that's another story.
No, once she was about 7 it was just too much of a tight fit and since my wife is smaller than I am, she took over. But my son and I would still occasionally do so since he was several years younger and didn't take up much room yet.
Then since we've left, there's been very little in the way of taking a hot soak for anybody and we just take showers, alone. Although my wife will join me sometimes. Not as often as I like but you can't have everything.
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Okay, explain to this pervert: is there any age when it's inappropriate for a man to bathe with his daughters? The oldest one here is 10. So...11? 12? 13? 17? I have a daughter who just turned 11, and...just...no.
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Because I don't want to bathe nude with my daughter when she is a tween or teen? Yeah, ok.
You just don't want to answer the question: when is too old?
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Ok. :)
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How in hell is she 10? She's like 7. Chihiro is 9 and she looks older than Satsuki. Where did you get age 10? That's just stupid.
shareI agree with this statement really. Its only weird or sexual because you enter that stage in your mind when you start thinking these things.
Some people really take this scene at a different level.
Just a personal example, I am the eldest in the family. When my brothers and I were growing up, (I was age 7) sometimes I'd wash them/ bath them. Nothing weird about this because that sort of thing have never even entered my mind. I was just doing this as it was my responsibility and because I was the eldest. (Obviously, there is no need for me to do that anymore for years now because we are all older).
When the youngsters on this board finally have a kid of their own, they will understand that's there's no weird thing about it.
Btw, I am still young and do not have a kid at the moment.
Well said fun niji.
shareJapanese culture does not have the same attitude toward nudity that Western cultures do. It is not that rare for families to bathe together and nobody sees anything weird about it.
American culture has just ridiculously over-sexualized children in general, which is why it might seem "inappropriate" for an American parent to take a bath with their own children, which in actuality is a completely innocent activity unless you really are messed-up pedophile who is attracted to your own children in that way.
In Finland there's nothing wrong with that either or in the Nordic Countries in general. It's the Americans who're the weird ones regarding bathing with your kids.
shareNor here in Britain, either; perfectly normal and usual. Some Americans (not all, I'm sure) have a lot of weird hang-ups, possibly due to too much Bible reading. St Paul has a lot to answer for, IMO.
It was really more Paul's followers who wrote a lot of the letter that got attributed to him (Corinthians for example, just google "deutero-paul" if you want the articles about it).
But yea, homophobia, misogyny, those letters are full of nonsense that Jesus never said anything of the sort.
Well, I think most people have taken baths with their parents when they were younger here in the US. I think it's just as common here as anywhere else. I just believe that people are having an issue with this scene simply because it's DEPICTED, and that is not something that we as a society are used to. Like someone else said, there is definitely a pedophile hysteria here.
I personally don't have an issue with the scene, but I will admit that it was a little bit strange at first simply because scenes like that are left out in the US, especially with how much skin the father was showing, rofl.
"How much skin"? "Taking a bath while nude"?
Tell me, do you folks bathe with clothes on?
Wow you're so clever bro.
shareHeh heh. This is a fun thread. Anyone remember Sam, the American Eagle? Talking so earnestly about 'noodity in the world today'. 'And it's not just animals! No! We birds, too! Beneath our fine feathers, absolutely naked!'
Got to love the Muppets. I'm a sis, btw, not a bro.
One of my favorite Muppet Show clips.
Damion Crowley
All complaints about my post go to Helen Waite.
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"Some Americans (not all, I'm sure)"
Well when you say "some", obviously you are not talking about "all". And sure we have weird hang-ups but guess what, so do a lot of other countries. And thanks for generalizing about us and our so called "bible-reading", considering there's like 300+ million of us. Kind of hard to believe we would all be the same.
American agnostic here, with many other American family and friends who are either atheists or agnostic. (or pagans)
See also the posts above from Felonius Punk, Frequency and Imbd9802, all of whom are Americans and are bringing interesting and rational views to the discussion.
Whoops - edit - you have already told me that the family bathing scene doesn't bother you. Good.
LOL...I'm a liberal atheist who was raised by liberal agnostics, no Bible thumping in my life. And I still find it icky.
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It's not *all* Americans. When my brother and I were toddlers she'd put us all in the bathtub together just because it was faster in the morning trying to get everyone bathed, dressed and out the door. Nobody cared.
shareBut you were toddlers. I bathed with my daughters when they were toddlers too. One of these girls was TEN. Completely different.
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See a list of my favourite films here: http://www.flickchart.com/slackerinc
I grew up in Vietnam (Eastern culture). That scene is perfectly normal, I bathed with my mom and my sister all the time. My mom washed the back and hair for me. I only started bathing alone since 8.
shareOk i admit I thought it was a little weird for the 10 year old to be there with her father taking a bath. I didn't really see anything wrong with it and got over the weirdness in a couple seconds.
However, Mei is just 4 years old and that bathtub is big and deep. If she had been taking a bath by herself I am sure you would have complained about the negligence of the father.
Its a harmless scene
OMG! The father saw his OWN KIDS naked? Someone lock up that sick paedo. Actually, prison's too good for him. Shoot him. Actually, shooting too good for him. Hurl him into the sun.
shareSaid a Japanese teacher of mine:
"In Japan it is customary for the child to bathe with the adult. Here, however, I s'ink you might go to jail."
I first saw this film when I was three years old, and I didn't see anything wrong with that sequence. I still don't (actually, it's probably one of my favorite scenes in the film).
...modern popular culture is inferior to such a degree that it should be renamed "cultural flaws".
I love this scene too. It reminds me of when i was little and me and my big sister used to take baths with our parents. It's comforting to see that innocence and familial bond depicted in a film for once.
shareAn 8 year-old and a 4 year old? What wrong with you? I'm American. There is nothing abnormal about this in our culture.
Illusions Micheal..illusions...tricks are something that a whore does for money.....or Cocaine
nothing against this scene but Miyazaki clearly has a fixation with young girls across his movies, society/instinct sexualizes kids simply by favoring attractive ones
share@nothrowdown1009
It's not that he has a fixation on young girls. Miyazaki is actually very feminist.
And i suppose the fact that the kids bathrooms in most child care places not only have no doors but are sometimes even unisex! makes all kindy teachers pervs to? Oh wait it's an OH&S thing (the safety laws in australia) THAT MEANS THE GOVERNMENT are pervs!
I remember bathing with my mum as a little kid i don't see anything wird about it.
"He said I looked like Boris Karloff"
Look at the scene of Perseus' childhood in Clash of the Titans (1981).
shareMiyazaki does not have a "fixation with young girls." He has an inherent appreciation for the innocence of childhood, in general, which is the very element that makes his films so magical. I would suggest that you try watching some of his movies again, and perhaps you will view things differently.
share"nothing against this scene but Miyazaki clearly has a fixation with young girls across his movies, society/instinct sexualizes kids simply by favoring attractive ones"
That was definitely the first thing I thought of when I saw Howl's Moving Castle. </sarcasm>
if anything, miyazaki has a fixation with wrinkly old ladies in his films. have you noticed the amount of cute grannies that keep showing up?
shareHe favours female protagonists, so what?
shareYeah, I'm an American, and I don't think there's anything wrong with it. When I was a little girl, I took baths with my parents, my brother, my friends, even my friend's little sisters. It was no big deal. It saved water and time. It made it more fun, having someone to play with (like, we had a toy boat and a couple of barbie mermaids, and the boat was always trying to capture the mermaids, for example). There is nothing innately sexual about simply taking a bath.
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It's so stimulating being your hat!
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The real question here is when this thing is appropriate and when it starts to become weird or uncomfortable? I mean, its OK for the younger children to bath with the parents but until what age? I mean would it be weird if a father took a bath with his developed 13 old daughter? What about his 15 year old daughter? We live in a society where nudity is connected with sex whether we like it or not. If you don't agree then you must be a nudist (which is fine by the way).
shareWe live in a society where nudity is connected with sex whether we like it or not.
You mean you do. We don't. share
"We don't"
Since when Amazon tribes have internet connections?
I live in a very large and multi-cultural city. There are all sorts of different versions of "we" living here - some have hang-ups about the natural human body, some don't.
Where do you live, im_gema? Let me guess...
You guessed wrong. I live in Europe. Like i said, i don't find anything wrong with parents and kids having bath together. I was referring to kids that are close to puberty, developed etc. Do you believe there's an age limit? That's what i'm asking.
shareWell, of course. My children are young adults, I no longer take baths with them. Nor do I help them with their homework, urge them to eat their vegetables or ask them if they've brushed their teeth. Not because any of these behaviours are "inappropriate" but just because they're no longer necessary.
But that wasn't really what we were discussing, or at least what I was discussing. I was interested in discussing the idea that society automatically equates nakedness with sexuality. I just don't think that's so, at least in the society in which I live.
This raises the whole question of what we mean by "society" of course. TV pundits? Legislators? Your old Mum? The next-door neighbours? Facebook? Who's making these assumptions?
Here's a nice image - warning, don't open the link if you will die of horror on seeing the natural human form.
http://www.asianoffbeat.com/default.asp?display=1910
Ok, i agree with what you say. But let me ask you a question. What if there's a friend of yours in your house (a pretty one and of the opposite sex) and then he/she takes off the clothes in front of you and asks you to take a shower together because you were both jogging a few minutes ago or something similar (so he/she have a proper reason to have a shower and asks you to be together because that way is faster and more practical). What would be the first thing to come to your mind? Could you do it without thinking of sex every single second?
Those bathhouses in Japan are just something similar to the nudist beaches in other countries. Its an "appropriate" place to take your clothes off. Everyone around you is naked so, hey. That's what the human brain thinks. I could go to a nudist beach, no problems with that. But even there, if there was a certain girl that i know around me (a certain friend of mine), i couldn't stand seeing her naked without thinking of sex. Its quite different with people you don't know, but that's not the case with everyone i guess.
I would think that that was an invitation of a different sort, certainly!
Yes, your nudist beach comparison is a good one; like the bathhouse or the changing rooms at the gym, people are just naked, no bother. Which brings us back to the family bathing together, does it not?
It does. With this comparison i mostly refer to the fact that the society has connected nudity with sex (excluding nudity in appropriate places mentioned), which is correct.
The family bathing together is ok (i mentioned it before), but i don't really have an opinion about an age limit. Personally, i would find it inappropriate and weird if a father takes a bath with his 14-15 year old daughter (unless someone informs me they are nudists so it reflects their lifestyle), but that's just how i feel, i don't really think about it rationally.