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 is 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
A nude beach, sometimes called a clothing-optional or free beach, is a beach where users are at liberty to be nude. Nude beaches usually have mixed bathing. Such beaches are usually on public lands, and any member of the public is allowed to use the facilities without membership in any movement or subscription to any personal belief. The use of the beach facilities is normally anonymous. Unlike a naturist resort or facility, there is normally no membership or vetting requirement for the use of a nude beach. The use of nude beach facilities is usually casual, not requiring pre-booking. Nude beaches may be official (legally sanctioned), unofficial (tolerated by residents and law enforcement), or illegal.
The number of nude beaches in some countries is relatively low, and they are generally located some distance away from the city. Access is at times more difficult than at a regular beach and the facilities at these beaches tend to be very basic with a few notable exceptions. In other countries, like Denmark, most beaches are clothing-optional. Nude swimming is one of the most common forms of nudity in public. A nude beach should not be confused with a topless beach (or top-free beach), where upper body clothing is not required for women or men, although a swimming costume covering the genital area is required for both men and women. A nude beach should be considered as a clothes-free beach.
Nude beaches tend to be separate or isolated physically from non-nude bathing areas. In other instances people maintain a comfortable space between beach users. Signage is often used to warn unfamiliar beach users about the specially designated areas on the beach. This accommodates people who are not comfortable with nudity, as well as nude beach users who do not like to be watched by clothed individuals, particularly those engaged in voyeurism. (Full article...)
Did you know...
- ... that according to one Turkish artist, a nude sculpture by Gürdal Duyar almost dissolved the 37th government of Turkey?
- ... 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"?
- ... that after women's suffrage in Switzerland was approved in a referendum in 1971, the tabloid Blick sported a cover with a naked blonde and the headline "Thank you for the Roses"?
- ... 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 vampire amoebae are naked?
- ... that Ettore Sottsass's design of the Olivetti Valentine typewriter was inspired by the pop-art nudes of Tom Wesselmann?
- ... that two nude bathers in Arnold Comes of Age were "nearly obliterated"?
- ... that Meghan Trainor was inspired to write "Made You Look" after her therapist asked her to look at herself naked for five minutes?
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General images
- Image 1A publicity photo showing a mature naturist couple making tea. North America (from Naturism)
- Image 3In many European countries women may sunbathe without covering their breasts. (from Nudity)
- Image 4Naked participant at Burning Man 2016 posing as Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man (from Naturism)
- Image 5A woman naked on the beach at Valalta, Croatia (from Naturism)
- Image 8Families bathing nude at a hot spring in Taiwan (from Naturism)
- Image 10A 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 11Signpost at Mpenjati Naturist Beach (from Naturism)
- Image 12Susanna and the Elders, 1610, Artemisia Gentileschi. This work may be compared with male depictions of the same tale. (from Nude (art))
- Image 15Using birch branches in a Finnish sauna, 1967 (from Nudity)
- Image 18Nudist hiker in British Columbia (from Naturism)
- Image 19Photograph by Jean Louis Marie Eugène Durieu, part of a series made with Eugène Delacroix (from Nude photography)
- Image 22Finnish Sauna (1802) (from Naturism)
- Image 23Couple walking naked in the streets of Barcelona, Spain (from Naturism)
- Image 24Ariadne 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 25The far west end of Zipolite Beach, Oaxaca, Mexico (from Naturism)
- Image 28Nudist couple at Terra Cotta Inn, Palm Springs, California, US (from Naturism)
- Image 32Naturist swimmers in Australia (from Naturism)
- Image 35David (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 37One 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 39Naturists in a river, 2014 (from Nudity)
- Image 40Florida naturists (from Naturism)
- Image 42Crayon-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 43Zoë Mozert was one of the Earl Moran's first nude models in the 1930s. (from Nude photography)
- Image 47Public naturist recreation area at Lake Unterbach; Strandbad Süd, Düsseldorf-Unterbach, Germany (from Naturism)
- Image 49The 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))
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