Nudity

Line art depictions of a man and a woman designed to educate extraterrestrials about the appearance of the human body. Images are currently on display on the plaques of the unmanned spacecrafts Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 currently located in outer space as the first human-made objects to leave our solar system.

"Nude" and "naked" redirect here. For other uses, see Nudity (disambiguation), Nude (disambiguation), and Naked (film)

Nudity or nakedness is the state of wearing no clothing. It is sometimes used to refer to wearing significantly less clothing than expected by the conventions of a particular culture and situation, and in particular exposing the bare skin of intimate parts.

Terminology

Photograph of the torso of a nude woman.

Although nude and naked have the same objective meaning (i.e. not covered by clothing) and a common origin, they have differing subjective connotations, which partly match their differing etymologies ("nude" originally had a meaning of "plain, bare, unadorned" in a broader sense when introduced into English from Latin "nudus", while "naked" derives from the common early English word for "unclothed" that is cognate with "nudus"). Some consider one term more appropriate than the other. The book Nude, Naked, Stripped suggests that these three terms define a continuum ranging from artistic or tasteful absence of clothing by choice at one end, to a forced or mandatory condition of being without clothes (e.g. strip search) at the other.

Another euphemism for the embarrassing nudity is 'exposed' to glances, no less then to the elements; not only the expression 'to show skin' refers to nudity in terms of the dermis, in Manx Gaelic jiarg-rooisht and Scottish Gaelic dearg rùisgte 'stark naked' is literally 'red' naked as either exposure makes one 'blush'.

Partial nudity

As the concept of nudity often refers more to perception by the observer than the mere description whether someone's body is covered or not, there can be a grey area, known as partial nudity. Thus, while someone exposing 'private parts' is often called 'naked' regardless of garments on other body parts (indeed, an 'undressed' state is even considered by some more sexually arousing than full nudity) hence the terms half-naked and, a fortiori, near-naked refer to a body that is not completely exposed, but showing more than is customary or considered quite acceptable, at least in a given context.

Wilhelm von Gloeden, Youth in a classical pose.

In the Old testament (Leviticus, Chapter 16) God orders the prophet Mozes, about the high priest: He shall be vested with a linen tunick: he shall cover his nakedness with linen breeches: he shall be girded with a linen girdle, and he shall put a linen mitre upon his head. For these are holy vestments, clearly diffrenetiating between the 'strategical' zone which is the criterion of 'nakedness' and the more preentably part of the human body. Till today even wearing boxer shorts, sufficient to guard the modesty of a shooto fighter, is described as near-naked in Japan because the appropriate kimono-type uniform associated with traditional martial arts is missing. Half-naked is also used for a degree of skin exposure that is not offensive (as no delicate zone is shown) but still barer than 'fully dressed', such as a man in bare torso.

As the exposure of specific, usually intimate, skin zones suffices to be offensive and/or sensual, it is not surprising that specific terms are commonly used for such cases. More specifically:

• Terms like bare-butt and bare-arse or kaalgat in Afrikaans (literally 'bald [arse-]hole', also an illustration that one's own dense body hair is considered to undo or at least mitigate nudity; animal furs are probably the oldest form of warm clothing) focus only on the buttocks.
• Terms like bare balls and bollock-naked are used to explicitly emphasize the naked exposure of the most private parts, often as a dysphemism for total male nudity, even in a context where another part of the anatomy is functionally more relevant.
• The term topfree or topless is sometimes used — especially in reference to females — to describe the lack of clothing covering the breasts.
• See also cleavage (breasts) and cleavage (buttocks)
• Even a term referring to an apparently less revealing skin zone can sometimes have strong associations, as with barefoot.

Full Nudity

As a counterpart, some expressions specifically express total nudity.

A special case is stark naked or starkers, as these terms were erroneously changed from 'start naked' (start is an old Germanic word for tail, as above fixating on the buttocks) to 'stark', an old Germanic word meaning 'strong' but used as 'utter(ly)'.

Euphemisms may be used, such as birthday suit and au naturel (French for 'in the natural state') or the Dutch terms Adamskostuum ('Adam's suit', i.e. the original naked state in Paradise after Creation), spiernaakt ('muscle naked', since one sees every muscle under bare skin) and poedelnaakt (refers to the often ridiculed shaving of poodle dog breeds). The French à poil "to the hair" emphasizes that human hairgrowth is generally too thin to be less than naked without clothes (while the pubic hair is often thicker, this zone is also most critical in the Christian tradition); still in French, nu comme un ver 'naked as a worm' phrases to absence of visually shielding hair by a disphemistic metaphore.

Full frontal nudity -no clothing and facing the observer- shows the genitals, as opposed to only showing toplessness or bare buttocks. It is usually considered the most far-reaching form of nudity. The distinction "frontal" is meaningful for pictures and movies. Also, sometimes people avoid full frontal nudity by turning their back to other people when changing clothes, or lying on the beach completely nude only when lying on their belly.

Few American films show full frontal nudity. In many cases it is avoided by purposely placing inanimate objects obscuring a view of an actor or actress' genitals. This often makes the actors more comfortable and, in some cases, prevents the film from receiving an NC-17 rating from the MPAA film rating system, which often leads to commercial failure.

Historical overview

Michelangelo's David

Anthropologists logically presume that humans originally lived without clothing as their natural state. They postulate the adaptation of animal skins and vegetation into coverings to protect the wearer from cold, heat and rain, especially as humans migrated to new climates; alternatively, covering may have been invented first for other purposes, such as magic, cult and prestige, and later found to be practical as well.

Some religious cosmogonies exhibit analogous constructs; e.g. the story of Adam and Eve describes the alledged first humans after their transgression against God's rules (the original sin), being ashamed of their nakedness and making aprons of fig leaves. Nudity itself was not the original sin, but some people take it so, perhaps explaining the taboo against it.

In various Ancient cultures nudity was held to be humiliating, as attested for Pharaonic Egypt and the Hebrews by the Old testament: "So shall the king of the Assyrians lead away the prisoners of Egypt, and the captivity of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered to the shame of Egypt". Similar images occur on many bas-reliefs, also from other empires.

In some Mediterranean basin cultures in Antiquity, even well past the hunter-gatherer stage, such as Minoan, athletic and/or cultic nudity of men and boys –and more rarely, of women and girls– was practiced. In ancient Greece, during the Archaic period, an eroticizing athletic and cultic nudity of men and boys–and more rarely, of women and girls– was introduced, in association with pederastic practices. The Greek word gymnasium means "a place to be naked". Athletes commonly competed nude, but many city-states allowed no female participants or even spectators at those events, Sparta being a notable exception. The Greeks were conscious of the exceptional nature of their nudity, noting that "generally in countries which are subject to the barbarians, the custom is held to be dishonourable; loves of youths share the evil repute in which philosophy and naked sports are held, because they are inimical to tyranny;" In both ancient Greece and ancient Rome, public nakedness was also accepted in the context of public bathing. It was also common for a person to be punished by being partially or completely stripped and lashed in public; in some legal systems judicial corporal punishments on the bare buttocks would persist to or even beyond the feudal age, either only for minors or also for adults, even till today but rarely still in public. In Biblical accounts of the Roman Imperial era, prisoners were often stripped naked, as a form of humiliation.

In the 6th century, Benedict of Nurcia advised the monks in his Rule to sleep fully dressed in the dormitory. Until the beginning of the 8th century, Christians in Western Europe were baptised naked, emerging from the water like Adam and Eve before the fall. "The disappearance of baptism by immersion in the Carolingian era gave nudity a sexual connotation that it has previously lacked for Christians" (Rouche 1987 p. 455). About the same time it became common to represent Christ on the Cross wearing a long tunic, the colobium. European men wore long tunics until the 15th century, when codpieces, tights, and tight trousers gradually came into use; these all covered the male genitals but at the same time drew attention to them.

During the Victorian era, public nakedness was considered obscene (though reports that this prudish obsession led to the covering up of piano legs which suggested bare female limbs are fictional exaggerations). In addition to beaches being segregated by gender, bathing machines were also used to conceal the naked body. In the early 20th century, exposure of male nipples was considered indecent at some beaches. Ironically, as in the Middle Ages, the bathing suits worn by men, while covering the genitals, often nonetheless made them quite obvious.

Various modern-era attitudes

As a general rule, public nudity is not considered "proper" in most societies. There are, however, many exceptions and particular circumstances in which nudity is tolerated, accepted, or even encouraged.

In general and across cultures, more restrictions are found for exposure of those parts of the human body that put in evidence sexual arousal. Therefore, sex organs and often women's breasts are covered, even when other parts of the body may be freely uncovered.

Nudity in front of a sexual partner is widely accepted, but there may be restrictions — for example, only at the time and place of sex, or with subdued lighting, or covered by a sheet or blanket.

Western culture

Group nudity is commonly accepted in single-gender showers in European and asian cultures

Nudity in front of strangers of the same gender is often more accepted than in front of those of the other or both genders, for example when bathing, in common changing rooms, etc. Gender-specific changerooms and toilets serve to prevent accidental partial nudity in front of the other gender. Urinals may have partitions between them to avoid the partial nudity of men to be visible by other men. In some cultures, even for people of the same gender to see each other nude is considered inappropriate and embarrassing. Also, the implication of homosexuality among naked members of the same gender can discourage this type of nudity.

Functional nudity for a short time, such as when changing clothes on a beach, is sometimes acceptable when staying nude on the beach is not. However, even this is often avoided or minimized by a towel, going to a changing room, or changing at home before and after going to the beach.

In certain structured settings in which nudity serves a practical purpose — such as providing access to a patient's body during a medical procedure or therapeutic massage, or providing figure drawing students with unobstructed views of the human body — an individual may be naked in front of one or several clothed people. In most such situations, the exposed individual will be given a loose robe or cloth to cover themselves partially, even if their "private parts" must be exposed. Total nudity for the model remains the norm in figure drawing studios, however. Similarly, pornography is typically photographed with the models fully nude and the crew fully dressed. None of these settings is routinely experienced by most members of society, however, so they are not normative.

Although exposure of women's breasts is considered perfectly acceptable in most western countries in appropriate settings, such as while suntanning, in the United States of America exposure of female nipples is still considered criminal by the state and not usually allowed in public; public breastfeeding, since the exposure it involves is functional, may be looked upon more mildly, but still it is sometimes considered problematic. However, courts in some North American jurisdictions—including Ontario and New York State—have legalized the exposure of women's nipples on equal protection grounds (see United States Constitution/Amendment Fourteen). The movement of "topfree equality" promotes equal rights for women to have no clothing above the waist; the term "topfree" rather than "topless" is used to avoid the latter term's sexual connotations. However, there are still extreme reactions on the parts of many to exposure of the full breast, as in Janet Jackson's partial breast exposure during the half-time show of the 2004 Super Bowl.

Nakedness (full or partial) can be part of a corporal punishment or as an imposed humiliation (especially when administered in public). In fact, torture manuals may distinguish between the male and female psychological aversion from self-exposure versus being disrobed.

Nudity is closely associated with sexuality in most cultures where some level of body modesty is expected. This is evidenced by the existence of striptease in these cultures. Sexual dimorphism when depicted in the main stream media of these cultures is often seen as sexually related. As an effect of Catholic cultural heritage, in Latin cultures the common definition of modesty does not generally admit genital nudity, but the definition of what is lewd has changed and women's breasts are now commonly exposed or depicted without scandal.

The trend in some European countries (for instance Germany, Finland, and the Netherlands) is to allow both genders to bathe together naked. Typically, older German bathhouses, such as Bad Burg, remain segregated by gender. On the other hand Finnish saunas can be mixed and are always attended nude. The reverse is true of Japanese sentos. Most of the newer Japanese bathhouses are gender segregated, whereas the older baths in the countryside are mixed gender.

Some people enjoy public nudity in a non-sexual context. Common variants of the clothes free movement are nudism and naturism, and are often practised in reserved places that used to be called "nudist camps" but are now more commonly referred to as naturist resorts, nude beaches, or clubs. Such facilities may be designated topfree, clothing-optional, or fully-nude-only. Public nude recreation is most common in rural areas and outdoors, although it is limited to warm weather. Even in countries with inclement weather much of the year and where public nudity is not restricted, such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and Denmark, public nude recreation indoors remains rare. One example is Starkers Nightclub in London, a monthly nude-only disco party.

Others practise public nudity more casually. Topfree sunbathing is considered acceptable by many on the beaches of France, Spain, and most of the rest of Europe (and even in some outdoor swimming pools); however, exposure of the genitals is restricted to nudist areas in most regions. In the United States, topfree sunbathing and thongs are common in South Miami Beach, Florida. There are a number of nude beaches up and down the West Coast of the U.S., as well.

Children

See: Issues in social nudity

Nudity in Physical Education

In the United States

In the United States, public school students historically have been required to shower communally with classmates of the same gender after physical education class. In the United States, public objections and the threat of lawsuits have caused a number of school districts in recent years to choose to make showers optional for students [1]. However, many US secondary [2] and elementary [3] schools continue to require all students to shower as part of their school's required physical education curriculum.

Several popular television sitcoms [4] [5], as well as children's books [6], have portrayed the embarrassment sometimes caused by compulsory communal showering in a humorous light. Still, many students find the adjustment to school showers to be quite uncomfortable, and some teachers and parents [7] [8] [9] attempt to be understanding while enforcing this often unpopular policy. Most students who did not like the idea of taking a communal shower after class usually become comfortable with the practice after the first couple of days or weeks of classes. Some, however, still do not. Introducing school showers at the early elementary grades is generally a much easier adjustment for children than waiting until middle school, where students are probably more shower shy, as well as having to deal with adolescence for the first time.

Requiring school showers remains controversial. Many naturists and parents who believe that nudity is both physically and emotionally healthy for children, object to required school showers due to their compulsory (rather than voluntary) nature in a government school setting. Instead, many would advocate encouraging, but not requiring, students to shower together after PE class.

The US courts have held that all students, not just student athletes, also have a reduced expectation of personal privacy. All students participate in "communal undress" in the required physical education classes [10]. Notably, a majority of traditionalists who favor continuing required school showers are not known to favor nudity outside this limited situation. Despite this precedent, most schools and teachers prefer to encourage rather than require showers for economic reasons (lack of towels or facilities) and/or concerns over potential parental complaints.

For religious reasons, many Muslim parents strongly object to communal school showers and demand privacy partitions [11]. Other parents have raised objections that the inclusion of compulsory showers in the physical education curriculum conflicts with the privacy beliefs of their families. An increasing number of schools have responded to these complaints by allowing students to shower in swimsuits or by constructing some secluded showers to allow a privacy option for any student who so chooses.

Other school boards, however, have still resolutely declined to provide options for privacy accommodations during PE showers. Four common reasons are used by these schools to justify requiring communal showers as part of the physical education curriculum:

• Some public schools believe that all students should learn to feel comfortable entering open dressing and showering environments [12], and part of the school's mission is to educate the entire child [13].

• Budgetary and logistical constraints often make privacy options too expensive [14] to be managed with available time and funds. Other schools have argued that since adding privacy accommodations involves spending substantial tax money simply to meet the belief systems of particular religious groups, that public schools are prohibited by the establishment clause from making these changes [15].

• A small percentage of students have always objected to communal showers; however, after the first few days of school showers, these students very frequently overcame the initial embarrassment and were fine [16]. In most cases, the objections to school showers are actually from the student's parents, while the student in question does not object to having to take showers [17].

• Students within the school environment have less expectation of privacy than members of the population generally [18]. It is socially acceptable in the United States to be nude in the company of others of the same gender. Requiring school showers within the boundaries of social acceptance is not beyond reason. The fact that a student or a student's parents may be religiously or morally opposed to an open locker room environment does not make that activity socially unacceptable, and schools cannot change every policy according to each student's personal comfort level.

Compulsory communal showering remains a controversial subject for many worldwide. However, throughout much of the world, students in physical education classes undress and shower together on a daily basis. For better or for worse, school showers have been most youths' introduction into communal nudity.

Outside the United States

Europeans have generally been more insistent that all students shower communally [19]. Unlike some western countries, Japanese public schools generally don't have showering facilities, which skips the issue altogether. One exception is cold pool showers, which children generally take in their swimsuits to rinse off chlorine. In certain cultures, nudity in public, such as all male locker rooms or showers, is considered appropriate, and is commonly accepted. In saunas or steam rooms, men may be nude around strangers of the same sex as well. Some people, however, may experience difficulties while being around men in the nude, things such as involuntary erections or sexual attraction. In most Scandinavian countries, erections or other male-related affairs occurring between men are most often considered natural and therefore perfectly normal. However, this is not valid all over the globe. In the United States, for example, teenage boys or children may not feel quite as comfortable around older naked men due to the differences in their sexual organs. Once again, in Finland, it is most common for a young boy to have seen his father’s genitals, and even on a regular basis.

Non-Western attitudes

Attitudes in Western cultures are not all the same as explained above, and likewise attitudes in non-western cultures are many and variant. In almost all cultures, acceptability of nudity depends on the situation.

Cultures usually dictate what is proper and what is not proper by traditions. Many non-western cultures allow women to breast feed in public, while some have very strict laws about showing any bare skin.

In some hunter-gatherer cultures in warm climates, near-complete nudity has been, until the introduction of Western culture, or still is, standard practice for both men and women. In several African tribes, men going completely naked except for a string tied about the waist are considered properly dressed for hunting and other traditional group activities. In a number of tribes in the South Pacific island of New Guinea, the men use hard gourdlike pods as penis sheaths. While obscuring and covering the actual penis, these at a longer distance give the impression of a large, erect phallus. Yet a man without this "covering" could be considered to be in an embarrassing state of nakedness. Among the Chumash native Americans of southern California, men were usually naked, and women were often topless. Native Americans of the Amazon Basin, usually went nude or nearly nude; in many tribes, the only clothing worn was some device worn by men to clamp the foreskin shut. However, other similar cultures have had different standards. For example, other native North Americans generally avoided total nudity, and the native Americans of the mountains and west of South America, such as the Quechua, kept quite covered.

In the ancient culture of Southern Asia, there is a tradition of extreme ascetism (obviously minoritarian) that includes full nudity, from the gymnosophists (philosophers in Antiquity) to certain holy men (who may however cover themselves with ashes) in present Hindu devotion.

In Islam the area of the body not meant to exposed in public is called the awrah, and while referred to in the Qur'an, is addressed in more detail in hadith.

• For men, interpretations differ. Some interpretations state the awrah to be from the navel to the knees. Others state that only the genitals and the anus need to be covered.
• Some strict interpretations of Islam require women to observe purdah, covering their entire bodies, including the face (see burqa), on threat of severe punishment. A perhaps more common interpretation, however, is to cover everything but the hands and face.

Still very different traditions exist among, for example, Sub-Saharan Africans, partially persisting in the post-colonial era. Whereas some tribes and family-groups including some Togolose and Ethiopian (e.g., Suri) tribes still commonly parade fully naked or without any covering below the waist (especially at massively attended stick fighting tournaments, where well-exposed young men can hope to catch the eye of a prospective bride), amongst Bantu people there is often a complete aversion from public nudity— thus, in Botswana when a newspaper printed a photograph seen here: CorPun website on corporal punishments of a thief suffering lashes on the bared buttocks imposed by a traditional chief's court, there was national consternation, not about the flogging (actually extended soon to age 50 and to women) but about the 'peeping tom'. The Ugandan Kavirondo tribes, a mix of Bantu and Nilotic immigrants, traditionally went practically naked, but the men adopted European dress.

In various cultures children can go publicly naked (fully or strategically) while adults don't, usually till an age or ceremony considered the start of adolescence or of adulthood. An example of a rite of passage in a Benin tribe, traditional body scarification on the head is performed on a small child while completely naked, but to a boy being initiated as an adult baring only the torso (where the scars are made).

Attitudes towards nudity vary greatly within East Asia: China and Korea tend toward the conservative side by Confucian tradition, while highly westernized Hong Kong is much more liberal. Gender-segregated communal nudity is acceptable in public baths, in countries including Japan and South Korea. North Korea tends to be more strict compared to other countries when it comes to exposure of skin for women, such the exposure of a shoulder. In Japan, most public baths were mixed gender until the Meiji period. The stricter gender separation rules were introduced during a time when Japan was taking various steps to modernise itself. The popularity of public baths in general have dropped considerably, with mixed baths becoming more rare, existing only in rural areas that still permit it by law. (See also: Sento for more on Japanese public baths.) Despite the relative prevalence of traditional attitudes for adults in China, however, children continue to wear open shorts, permitting them to more easily relieve themselves. In the preparations for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, some have called for the end of the traditional permissiveness for adult males to go shirtless in public during warm weather.

Nudity in public spaces

See public nudity

An artistic photograph of a nude woman

Sexuality and nudity

In softcore pornography, which was originally presented mainly in the form of "straight men's magazines", it was barely acceptable to show a glimpse of nipple in the 1950s. By the 1970s, in such mainstream magazines as Playboy and Hustler, no region of the body was considered off limits. Meanwhile, a growing business of hardcore pornography has developed, including photo magazines and motion pictures, in which total nudity (and any variety of sexual activity) is commonplace.

Originally, nude dancing was mainly presented in the form of the "strip-tease". This was generally a stage show in which the dancer progressively removed his or her clothing while dancing to music. Prominent early- to mid-twentieth century "strip-tease artists" such as Gypsy Rose Lee rarely included total nudity as part of their sometimes quite elaborate acts. Now most "exotic" dancers perform topless (independent of gender, of course), perhaps wearing a thong bottom. In the 1970s, on an official level, men entered the strip club field, performing partially-unclothed dances primarily at clubs (the Chippendales being the most common example). Both genders had been unofficially dancing at clubs for many years (at least since the 1950s), and today at clubs catering to gay, straight, and everything in-between clientele.

Depictions of nudity

See Nudity in art. That article also discusses depictions of nudity in general.

Nudity in combat

The Dying Gaul, sculptor unknown.

Nudity in combat is rare, because apart from the social aspects of nudity, one lacks even the basic protection and practicality (e.g. no pockets) of clothes, e.g. when diving for cover, or crawling. On the other hand, Robert A. Heinlein suggests in Tunnel in the Sky that among scouts, the sense of anxiety and vulnerability created by complete nudity (besides body paint) heightens the scout's senses, thus enhancing his or her ability to avoid detection.

In Julius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico, Celts were reported to charge into battle completely in the nude, only carrying shields and swords. Sometimes the soldiers wore no clothing but were covered in war paint, a custom that allegedly gave the Picts their name.

This practice was maintained up until at least the 18th century in Highland Scotland. Highland soldiers routinely came to battle fully dressed, however coming onto the field, they would discard their heavy woolen plaids, and wore only their leines (shirts). This made them much more agile, and also protected their plaids from damage.

In warmer climates, sparse clothing and even (virtual) nudity was not so uncommon, even among such refined cultures as the Etruscans. While the social elite (and some crack units) would often wear characteristic armour (expensive, so rather exclusive; in some societies the soldier often paid for his own, not the state, so hoplites for examples were from the wealthier classes) the common men in "light" units were often deprived of protective clothing; apparently in other cases tradition saw to equality taking care of the military (dis)advantage.

External Links

• Combat nudity in Ancient Greece

Template:Clothes free/box-header Portal:Clothes free/Clothes free-related topics Portal:Clothes free/box-footer

Further reading

• Storey, Mark Social Nudity, Sexual Attraction, and Respect Nude & Natural magazine, 24.3 Spring 2005.
• Storey, Mark Children, Social Nudity and Academic Research Nude & Natural magazine, 23.4 Summer 2004.

Sources and references

• Rouche, Michel, "Private life conquers state and society," in A History of Private Life vol I, Paul Veyne, editor, Harvard University Press 1987 ISBN 0-674-39974-9
• Brandom, Robert, "Critical Notice of Blind and Worried", Theoria 70:2-3, 2005.
• Etymology OnLine- various lemmate

External links

• Nudity in Ancient to Modern Cultures by Aileen Goodson (This chapter excerpt is from Aileen Goodson's Therapy, Nudity & Joy)
• Steve's Nudes Letter Single nudist's views & observations about nudity in the media.
• Nudity inspired poetry