Portal:Nudity

Introduction

Naturists in a river, 2014

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

Family in Abricó Beach, Brazil

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 Meghan Trainor was inspired to write "Made You Look" after her therapist asked her to look at herself naked for five minutes?
• ... 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 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 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 the Indian politician Diwan Chaman Lall failed to get rid of the painting Nude of Indira?
• ... that Joachim Werzlau composed the music for the DEFA films Naked Among Wolves and Jacob the Liar?

Need help?

Do you have a question about Nudity that you can't find the answer to?

Consider asking it at the Wikipedia reference desk.

Get involved

For editor resources and to collaborate with other editors on improving Wikipedia's Nudity-related articles, see WikiProject Nudity.

General images

The following are images from various nudity-related articles on Wikipedia.

• 
  Georgia O’Keeffe, Hands and Breasts (1919) by Alfred Stieglitz (from Nude photography)
• 
  Naked participant at Burning Man 2016 posing as Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man (from Naturism)
• 
  Families bathing nude at a hot spring in Taiwan (from Naturism)
• 
  Odalisque (1857) by Eugène Delacroix, a painting with similar pose (from Nude photography)
• 
  In many European countries women may sunbathe without covering their breasts. (from Nudity)
• 
  Naturist swimmers in Australia (from Naturism)
• 
  Couple walking naked in the streets of Barcelona, Spain (from Naturism)
• 
  Susanna and the Elders, 1610, Artemisia Gentileschi. This work may be compared with male depictions of the same tale. (from Nude (art))
• 
  World Naked Bike Ride in London, 2016 (from Naturism)
• 
  The Venus of Willendorf (made between 24,000 and 22,000 BCE) (from Nude (art))
• 
  Florida naturists (from Naturism)
• 
  A Naga Sadhu, or naked Hindu holy man (from Naturism)
• 
  The far west end of Zipolite Beach, Oaxaca, Mexico (from Naturism)
• 
  A woman breastfeeding in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2017 (from Nudity)
• 
  Naturist couple at the Nambassa festival, New Zealand, 1981 (from Naturism)
• 
  Crayon-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))
• 
  Using birch branches in a Finnish sauna, 1967 (from Nudity)
• 
  One 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)
• 
  Marilyn Monroe posing topless for Earl Moran around 1950 (from Nude photography)
• 
  Nudist hiker in British Columbia (from Naturism)
• 
  Photograph by Jean Louis Marie Eugène Durieu, c. 1855 (from Nude photography)
• 
  David (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))
• 
  Nude people at the 2007 Fremont Solstice Parade in Seattle, Washington (from Nudity)
• 
  Ariadne 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))
• 
  Public naturist recreation area at Lake Unterbach; Strandbad Süd, Düsseldorf-Unterbach, Germany (from Naturism)
• 
  Photograph by Jean Louis Marie Eugène Durieu, part of a series made with Eugène Delacroix (from Nude photography)
• 
  The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli, c. 1484–1486 (from Nude (art))
• 
  A publicity photo showing a North American naturist couple making tea (from Naturism)
• 
  Sunbathers at Müggelsee lake beach in East Berlin, 1989. (from Nudity)
• 
  People taking part in the World Naked Bike Ride in London, 2012 (from Nudity)
• 
  Naturist family on Lake Senftenberg in 1983 (from Naturism)
• 
  A woman naked on the beach at Valalta, Croatia (from Naturism)
• 
  Nude men at the Przystanek Woodstock festival, 2014 (from Naturism)
• 
  A 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)
• 
  Naturists in a river, 2014 (from Nudity)
• 
  Finnish Sauna (1802) (from Naturism)
• 
  Bathing in the center of East Berlin, East Germany (1958) (from Nudity)
• 
  Outdoor bathing at Zhiben Hot Spring, Taiwan 2012 (from Nudity)
• 
  A Nude Boy on a Beach (1878) by John Singer Sargent (from Nude (art))
• 
  People bathing naked after the World Naked Bike Ride in Brighton, 2017 (from Naturism)
• 
  The 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))
• 
  Sunrise on the beach, Taitung County, Taiwan (from Naturism)
• 
  Nudist couple at Terra Cotta Inn, Palm Springs, California, US (from Naturism)
• 
  Randonue in Les Concluses, Gard, 2008 (from Naturism)
• 
  Max Koch's Freilicht, ca. 1894/1897 (from Naturism)
• 
  Zoë Mozert was one of the Earl Moran's first nude models in the 1930s. (from Nude photography)
• 
  This year Venuses again... always Venuses!... (1864) by Daumier (from Nude (art))
• 
  WWI era Ivory Soap ad (from Nudity)
• 
  A group of naturists at a nude beach in Crimea, 2008 (from Naturism)
• 
  Signpost at Mpenjati Naturist Beach (from Naturism)

Subcategories

Category puzzle

Select [►] to view subcategories

Nudity

Nude art

Erotic dance

Exhibitionism

Nudity in film

Nudity in mythology

Naturism

Nude recreation

Panhellenic Games

Nudity in religion

Songs about nudity

Streaking

Strip search

Nudity in television

Nudity in theatre and dance

Nudity in the United States

Related portals

Subtopics

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

• 

  Commons
  Free media repository

• 

  Wikibooks
  Free textbooks and manuals

• 

  Wikidata
  Free knowledge base

• 

  Wikinews
  Free-content news

• 

  Wikiquote
  Collection of quotations

• 

  Wikisource
  Free-content library

• 

  Wikiversity
  Free learning tools

• 

  Wiktionary
  Dictionary and thesaurus

Discover Wikipedia using portals

• 

  List of all portals

• 

  The arts portal

• 

  Biography portal

• 

  Current events portal

• 

  Geography portal

• 

  History portal

• 

  Mathematics portal

• 

  Science portal

• 

  Society portal

• 

  Technology portal

• 

  Random portal

• 

  WikiProject Portals