Portal:Nudity
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Introduction
Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. While estimates vary, for the first 90,000 years of pre-history, anatomically modern humans were naked, having lost their body hair and living in hospitable climates. As humans became behaviorally modern, body adornments such as jewelry, tattoos, body paint and scarification became part of non-verbal communications, indicating a person's social and individual characteristics. Indigenous peoples in warm climates used clothing for decorative, symbolic or ceremonial purposes but were often nude, having neither the need to protect the body from the elements nor any conception of nakedness being shameful. In many societies, both ancient and contemporary, children might be naked until the beginning of puberty. Women may not cover their breasts, being associated with nursing babies more than with sexuality.
In the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean, from Mesopotamia to the Roman Empire, proper attire was required to maintain social standing. The lower classes might possess a single piece of cloth that was wrapped or tied to cover the lower body; the lowest classes including slaves might be naked. However, through much of Western history until the late modern period, people of any status were also unclothed by necessity or convenience when engaged in labor and athletics; or when bathing or swimming. Such functional nudity occurred in groups that were usually but not always segregated by sex. Although improper dress might be socially embarrassing, the association of nudity with sin regarding sexuality began with Judeo-Christian societies, spreading through Europe in the post-classical period. Traditional clothing in temperate regions worldwide also reflect concerns for maintaining social status and order, as well as by necessity due to the colder climate. However, societies such as Japan and Finland maintain traditions of communal nudity based upon the use of baths and saunas that provided alternatives to sexualization.
The spread of Western concepts of modest dress was part of colonialism, and continues today with globalization. Contemporary social norms regarding nudity reflect cultural ambiguity towards the body and sexuality, and differing conceptions of what constitutes public versus private spaces. Norms relating to nudity are different for men than they are for women. Individuals may intentionally violate norms relating to nudity; those without power may use nudity as a form of protest, and those with power may impose nakedness on others as a form of punishment. (Full article...)
Selected general article
Toplessness refers to the state in which a woman's breasts, including her areolas and nipples, are exposed, especially in a public place or in a visual medium. The male equivalent is known as barechestedness.
Exposed breasts are normal in many indigenous societies. However, many countries have social norms around female modesty, often enforced by legal statutes, that require women to cover their breasts in public. In many jurisdictions, women who expose their breasts can be prosecuted for indecent exposure, although public breastfeeding is often exempted from public indecency laws.
Social norms around toplessness vary by context and location. Throughout history, women's breasts have been featured in art and visual media, from painting and sculpture to film and photography, and such representations are generally defended on the grounds of artistic merit. Toplessness may also be deemed acceptable on educational, medical, or political grounds. At many beaches and resort destinations, especially in Europe and Australia, women are either formally or informally permitted to sunbathe topless. However, societies tend to view breast exposure unfavorably, and subject it to stringent regulations or prohibitions. (Full article...)
Did you know...
- ... that Ettore Sottsass's design of the Olivetti Valentine typewriter was inspired by the pop-art nudes of Tom Wesselmann?
- ... that Loud LDN co-founder Maisi came joint last in the 2022 Maldon mud race, behind a naked runner who had been forced to start after everyone else?
- ... that Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, caused outrage in 1784 when he ordered that people be buried naked in reusable coffins from which the body fell into the grave via a trapdoor?
- ... that vampire amoebae are naked?
- ... that the destroyed plinth of Gürdal Duyar's nude sculpture Güzel İstanbul contained reliefs of a fig, a pomegranate, a honeysuckle and a bee to represent different aspects of Istanbul?
- ... that Chris Ernst stripped naked in 1976 with her Yale University teammates to protest the lack of showers for the women's rowing crew?
- ... that former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said that she would swim in Loch Ness naked if the SNP won more than 50 seats at the 2019 United Kingdom general election?
- ... that film critic and censor D. I. Suchianu wanted Romanian moviegoers to cease "falling asleep whenever they're not shown a naked breast [or] a hip that's getting some action"?
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General images
- Image 1Ariadne Asleep on the Island of Naxos (1808–1812) by John Vanderlyn. The painting was initially considered too sexual for display in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. "Although nudity in art was publicly protested by Americans, Vanderlyn observed that they would pay to see pictures of which they disapproved." (from Nude (art))
- Image 2Nudist couple at Terra Cotta Inn, Palm Springs, California, US (from Naturism)
- Image 7David (1504)
"What spirit is so empty and blind, that it cannot recognize the fact that the foot is more noble than the shoe, and skin more beautiful than the garment with which it is clothed?"
— Michelangelo (from Nude (art)) - Image 10Using birch branches in a Finnish sauna, 1967 (from Nudity)
- Image 12Families bathing nude at a hot spring in Taiwan (from Naturism)
- Image 13Naturist swimmers in Australia (from Naturism)
- Image 16Zoë Mozert was one of the Earl Moran's first nude models in the 1930s. (from Nude photography)
- Image 19A necklace reconstructed from perforated sea snail shells from Upper Palaeolithic Europe, dated between 39,000 and 25,000 BCE. The practice of body adornment is associated with the emergence of behavioral modernity. (from Nudity)
- Image 21Naked participant at Burning Man 2016 posing as Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man (from Naturism)
- Image 22A publicity photo showing a mature naturist couple making tea. North America (from Naturism)
- Image 23Signpost at Mpenjati Naturist Beach (from Naturism)
- Image 24Susanna and the Elders, 1610, Artemisia Gentileschi. This work may be compared with male depictions of the same tale. (from Nude (art))
- Image 27One of the photographs of the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal: a naked prisoner being forced to crawl and bark like a dog on a leash. (from Nudity)
- Image 28Crayon-style print by Gilles Demarteau with a nude man after original drawing by Edmé Bouchardon was acquired by Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw as a teaching material (from Nude (art))
- Image 30In many European countries women may sunbathe without covering their breasts. (from Nudity)
- Image 31Couple walking naked in the streets of Barcelona, Spain (from Naturism)
- Image 33Public naturist recreation area at Lake Unterbach; Strandbad Süd, Düsseldorf-Unterbach, Germany (from Naturism)
- Image 37A woman naked on the beach at Valalta, Croatia (from Naturism)
- Image 39The Barricade (1918), oil on canvas, by George Bellows. A painting inspired by an incident in August 1914 in which German soldiers used Belgian townspeople as human shields. (from Nude (art))
- Image 40Naturists in a river, 2014 (from Nudity)
- Image 42Florida naturists (from Naturism)
- Image 43The far west end of Zipolite Beach, Oaxaca, Mexico (from Naturism)
- Image 46Nudist hiker in British Columbia (from Naturism)
- Image 48Photograph by Jean Louis Marie Eugène Durieu, part of a series made with Eugène Delacroix (from Nude photography)
- Image 50Finnish Sauna (1802) (from Naturism)
In the news
- 17 May 2024 –
- Iranian police arrest more than 260 people, including three European citizens, on suspicion of spreading Satanism and nudity in Iran. (ABC News)
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