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

Topless woman at the 2008 Oregon Country Fair

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.

Social norms around toplessness vary by context and location. Many indigenous societies consider breast exposure to be normal and uncontroversial. At specific beaches and resort destinations, notably in Europe and Australia, girls and women may sunbathe topless either by statute or by custom. However, in most countries, norms of female modesty require girls and women to cover their breasts in public, and many jurisdictions prosecute public toplessness as indecent exposure. The topfreedom movement opposes such laws on the grounds of gender equality.

Art and visual media throughout history, from painting and sculpture to film and photography, have frequently featured toplessness. Such representations are often defended on the grounds of artistic merit; toplessness may also be defended on educational, medical, or political grounds. Toplessness also features prominently in erotica, pornography, and at adult venues ranging from strip clubs to upmarket cabarets (such as the Moulin Rouge). (Full article...)

Did you know...

• ... 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 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 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 Joachim Werzlau composed the music for the DEFA films Naked Among Wolves and Jacob the Liar?
• ... 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 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"?

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General images

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

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

Subcategories

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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

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