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

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

The nude, as a form of visual art that focuses on the unclothed human figure, is an enduring tradition in Western art. It was a preoccupation of Ancient Greek art, and after a semi-dormant period in the Middle Ages returned to a central position with the Renaissance. Unclothed figures often also play a part in other types of art, such as history painting, including allegorical and religious art, portraiture, or the decorative arts. From prehistory to the earliest civilizations, nude female figures were generally understood to be symbols of fertility or well-being.

In India, the Khajuraho Group of Monuments built between 950 and 1050 CE are known for their nude sculptures, which comprise about 10% of the temple decorations, a minority of them being erotic. Japanese prints are one of the few non-western traditions that can be called nudes, but the activity of communal bathing in Japan is portrayed as just another social activity, without the significance placed upon the lack of clothing that exists in the West. Through each era, the nude has reflected changes in cultural attitudes regarding sexuality, gender roles, and social structure.

One often cited book on the nude in art history is The Nude: a Study in Ideal Form by Lord Kenneth Clark, first published in 1956. The introductory chapter makes (though does not originate) the often-quoted distinction between the naked body and the nude. Clark states that to be naked is to be deprived of clothes, and implies embarrassment and shame, while a nude, as a work of art, has no such connotations. (Full article...)

Did you know...

• ... 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 Chris Ernst stripped naked in 1976 with her Yale University teammates to protest the lack of showers for the women's rowing crew?
• ... 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 the Indian politician Diwan Chaman Lall failed to get rid of the painting Nude of Indira?
• ... 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?
• ... that having painted a domestic scene depicting his nude wife, Robert Ballagh felt that he had to produce a nude painting of himself as a follow-up?

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General images

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

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

Nude art

Erotic dance

Exhibitionism

Nudity in film

Nudity in mythology

Naturism

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Panhellenic Games

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