From the various news outlets I patronise, I've run across a few reports of what is whimsically referred to in the States as the "Right to Dry" movement. Basically, this phrase describes people who are asserting their desire, and right (natch) to hang their laundry up to dry in the outdoor sun instead of tumbling it in a clothes dryer indoors.

I realised just how much I'd assimilated to Romanian (and, in the larger sense, European) culture when I found myself surprised that this was even an issue. I have yet to see a clothes dryer anywhere here; EVERYONE either hangs their washing up outside, has a line strung over the bathtub, or a little folding drying rack that gets pulled out after a wash. It's not even entirely uncommon for people to not have washing machines at all; to do all of their washing by hand.
Having made several visits to family in Iceland, I was familiar with this phenomena, though I'd been introduced to it early enough in life to have not really given it much thought. When I arrived here, it was more of a "huh ... they do this here as well" sort of reaction. At times it was slightly annoying--stiffer fabrics have a tendency to come off the line with a certain ... crunchy ... quality (jeans are a good example; the first post-wash wearing eliminates the need for exfoliation), and if the weather is damp or there's a lack of sun it can take a couple of days for stuff to dry. But I adapted to it pretty quickly, and now I can't imagine ever feeling a need for a clothes dryer, though there is the occasional piece of clothing I might toss in there for the sake of convenience.

This approach makes even more sense to me now, after taking into consideration the inherent advantages of line-drying. Being a child who grew up with a clothes dryer, there were times when I couldn't imagine life without one; when it seemed like deprivation, or an untenable set of circumstances, to not be able to toss your clothing in the dryer and retrieve it 45 minutes later. But in the past year I've come to see it as just the opposite, as something limiting, a way to make people less adaptable through ubiquitous convenience. It's a huge expense to buy one of these things and install a hookup in your house if you don't have one. It's an immense waste of energy to run. And it's damaging to clothing, in the long run, as the heat breaks down the fabric fibres and wears them thin and weak much sooner. (This also brings up the fact that the European-style washing machine, with its gentle, 2-hour washing cycle, is vastly better at both cleaning and preserving clothing--but that's a rant for another day.) Not to mention that drying clothing in sunlight allows the UV rays to help break down bacteria, mould, and odours that are otherwise dealt with by things like excessive heat and perfumed dryer sheets. Observing this behaviour from the other side of the looking glass, as it were, makes it seem absurd. Why go to all this time, expense and hassle when there's free sunlight out in the yard/window/balcony for the taking?

So hearing that there are people back home who are adamantly opposed to this was somewhat surprising. Booting myself briefly back into the American suburban mentality, though, it makes complete sense: people find laundry, flapping in the afternoon breeze, to be 'unsightly'. They feel it ruins the appearance of a neighbourhood, of their views out their kitchen windows, that it drives down property values, and who knows what else. That having to look at someone's underwear drying outside is offensive. That it's low-rent, to have washing out on a line in a yard, because anyone who could afford one wouldn't NOT want to dry their clothing inside, in a dryer. Essentially, that they have a right to dictate what their neighbours do on their property, and that the subjective judgement of 'unsightly' is reason enough to banish the humble washing line from the suburban neighbourhood. Pretty in line with a whole host of American attitudes when it comes to energy--that wasting energy is a right, and that not only do people have the right to burn through energy in whatever way they see fit, without a thought to long-term concerns, but that others' attempts to save energy should be subsumed for the sake of appearances. YOU have to spend more money in order to facilitate MY happiness and comfort with my environment.
Happily, it seems that the Right-to-Driers are getting some footholds, be it with members of their communities or lawmakers who decide whether such a thing is allowable or not. I can't help but think that this is one of the times when the US needs to take a cue from outside, and though it might offend some Americans to hear it, this is one of the things that Romania is doing right.