According to a recent study in USA Today, clothing originated about 50,000 years ago, as humans migrated out of Africa into areas with colder climates.

We now live most of our lives indoors where it is warm. Nonetheless, because of tradition and personal modesty, we still wear clothing today. But tradition can be broken, and we can overcome our modesty. So what is it that makes us feel the need to cover ourselves?

You guessed it, the fashion industry.

That industry has kept us clothed for the sake of its own economic survival since the days when Homo sapiens communicated with a series of elaborate hand gestures and grunts.

The fashion traders started out small, clothing us in animal skins. Of course, that required a great many hunters and gatherers, so they cut costs by herding sheep and dressing us up in wool.

Still unable to sustain the economic growth they were looking for, the industry’s minions began producing cotton. This started the first great fashion boom, and it was clear clothing was here to stay.

But the questions remains, do we really need clothes? They seem like an unnecessary expenditure most of the time. All we really require are heavy robes to keep us warm as we walk between buildings. So why not make UE a nudist colony?

Sure, you are probably thinking about that 60-year-old professor who is always dropping chalk during class. No doubt nudity in the classroom would be distracting. Instead, the best solution might be to turn Hughes Hall into a clothes-optional building for those who feel clothes are an unnecessary burden.

People our age are filled with hormones and already spend a lot of time objectifying one another. Nudism would streamline this process and make social interaction a little more honest. We would be free to be what we are, and we would learn to accept both others and ourselves in this way.

We have been exploited by the influential fashion industry for far too long. By gaining our freedom from their grasp, we have nothing to lose but our clothes.