Is discomfort the penalty of protection
Naturists regard all clothing as an unnecessary impediment to the enjoyment of life and freedom of expression. All clothing has mass and bulk, so it inevitably impedes movements and the free exchange of energy with the environment. In a hot humid climate any clothing is a burden and we would be better off wearing none. However, when the sun shines clothing is a beneficial barrier against radiant heating and ultraviolet burning.
An individual’s choice of what regular clothing to wear depends on its availability and cost, changing fashions, cultural conditioning, desire to project a particular image, and perception of comfort. Comfort is a person’s subjective evaluation of satisfaction with prevailing conditions, including external physical factors, internal physiological responses, and psychological and emotional state. It is well known that a lot of physical discomfort is acceptable if the right image can be projected. On the other hand, desire for comfort may well have led people to develop clothing that provided a high level of protection long before such a concept was coined. The Inuits’ traditional caribou skin garments protect against severe cold, and a cowboy’s chaps protect against thorny vegetation.
Protective clothing is primarily developed to prevent a particular hazard causing harm to the person in the clothing. Developers seek materials and construction methods expected to resist the hazard. They consider which parts of the body are most at risk and seek to cover these. If the hazard is a dust or gas they may have to design for total enclosure. Consideration of the wearer’s comfort, mobility, dexterity, and level of physiological stress tends to come after the desired protection level has been achieved. Not surprisingly, users complain that this is the wrong way round.
Discomfort is the major unsolved problem with protective clothing. As greater mass and bulk are added to provide specific protection, discomfort escalates. Soldiers may be quite comfortable in a range of conditions wearing under-clothing providing soft skin contact and a battle dress designed to keep them dry, warm, clean, and inconspicuous. However, they soon become very uncomfortable wearing a flak jacket and ballistic helmet as well. Add an NCB coverall (nuclear, chemical, and biological protection) and a respirator, and major physiological strain occurs on exercise. Add climatic conditions such as those in Saudi Arabia and it is obvious that the essential protective clothing is going to become a very big problem to its wearer.
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