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
The relationship between nudity and sexuality can be complicated. When people are nude, this often leads to sexual arousal, which is why indecent exposure is often considered a crime. There are also social movements to promote a greater degree of nudity, such as the topfreedom movement to promote female toplessness, as well as the movement to promote breastfeeding in public. Furthermore, some psychiatric disorders that can lead to greater nudity include exhibitionistic disorder, voyeuristic disorder, and gymnophobia. (Full article...)
Did you know...
- ... 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 César Mascetti was reportedly the first Argentine journalist to interview a member of the Beatles when he met a naked George Harrison on a Rio de Janeiro beach?
- ... that sales from Dieux du Stade, a nude calendar produced by the French professional rugby union club Stade Français featuring photos of its players, helped to finance the club for many years?
- ... that according to one Turkish artist, a nude sculpture by Gürdal Duyar almost dissolved the 37th government of Turkey?
- ... that Susanna Hoffs sang on the studio recording of "Eternal Flame" naked after producer Davitt Sigerson pranked her by saying that Olivia Newton-John had done the same thing?
- ... 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 two nude bathers in Arnold Comes of Age were "nearly obliterated"?
- ... that Joachim Werzlau composed the music for the DEFA films Naked Among Wolves and Jacob the Liar?
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General images
- Image 3Families bathing nude at a hot spring in Taiwan (from Naturism)
- Image 4Naturists in a river, 2014 (from Nudity)
- Image 5Ariadne 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 6Finnish Sauna (1802) (from Naturism)
- Image 8Florida naturists (from Naturism)
- Image 11Susanna and the Elders, 1610, Artemisia Gentileschi. This work may be compared with male depictions of the same tale. (from Nude (art))
- Image 13The far west end of Zipolite Beach, Oaxaca, Mexico (from Naturism)
- Image 14Naked participant at Burning Man 2016 posing as Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man (from Naturism)
- Image 15Photograph by Jean Louis Marie Eugène Durieu, part of a series made with Eugène Delacroix (from Nude photography)
- Image 19A woman naked on the beach at Valalta, Croatia (from Naturism)
- Image 20Couple walking naked in the streets of Barcelona, Spain (from Naturism)
- Image 23The 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 25Using birch branches in a Finnish sauna, 1967 (from Nudity)
- Image 27David (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 31Nudist hiker in British Columbia (from Naturism)
- Image 32Signpost at Mpenjati Naturist Beach (from Naturism)
- Image 37In many European countries women may sunbathe without covering their breasts. (from Nudity)
- Image 39One 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 40A 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 41A publicity photo showing a mature naturist couple making tea. North America (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 43Nudist couple at Terra Cotta Inn, Palm Springs, California, US (from Naturism)
- Image 48Public naturist recreation area at Lake Unterbach; Strandbad Süd, Düsseldorf-Unterbach, Germany (from Naturism)
- Image 49Naturist swimmers in Australia (from Naturism)
- Image 50Zoë Mozert was one of the Earl Moran's first nude models in the 1930s. (from Nude photography)
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