Preface
THE UNITED STATES LAGS FAR BEHIND most of the rest of Western Civilization
in its negative attitude toward the human body. While most of Europe is
comfortable with the concept of nude recreation on beaches and in vacation
resorts, here in the U.S., conservative political action groups seek to
criminalize even the most innocent exposure of the human body. Often these
groups gain support by purporting to defend "family values" or "Christian
morality."
Although these groups are growing in political power, they represent only
a small portion of the American population. And participation in nude recreation
is also growing. More and more Americans are discovering the pleasures of
skinny-dipping with their families in the local reservoir, or sunbathing
in the buff at the local beach. Membership in nudist organizations is growing
by leaps and bounds.
More than ever, Naturists need powerful arguments to defend their chosen
lifestyle against those who cannot see beyond their own misconceptions and
preconceived notions. We need evidence and testimony to encourage others
to give Naturism a try. For several years, I found myself making claims like
these:
"Actually, Mom, taking the kids to a nudist park is good for them."
"The ideals of Naturism are consistent with the goals of women's rights."
"A lot of famous people don't think skinnydipping's such a bad thing."
"There's nothing in the Bible that says it's wrong to go nude."
"Naturism has some real psychological benefits."
"Not everyone in the world thinks nudity is so bad, you know."
I knew that these statements were true, but when pressed, I could not back
them up with concrete references. And so, this project was born. Here are
all the arguments in support of Naturism, backed up by up-to-date scientific
research and supported by the writings of leading thinkers in psychology,
sociology, history, law, and philosophy. Here also you will find related
musings on subjects including modesty, nudity in art, the history of fashion,
women's rights, the benefits of breast-feeding, and the psychology of clothing.
This compilation draws on sources including nudist and mainstream publications,
scholarly research, and my own thought. Some arguments are stronger than
others. Taken as a whole, I think they make a compelling case in favor of
Naturism. They support a perspective that sees the human body as complete
and good in and of itself, regardless of how--or whether--it is adorned.
They support an honest, open, and accepting attitude toward the human body,
a perspective that is physically, mentally, and spiritually healing, socially
constructive, and thoroughly freeing.
This compilation is by no means complete or comprehensive. All ideas,
suggestions, comments, corrections, additions, references, and insights are
welcome! Many of these quotes and ideas are taken from other sources or excerpted
from larger works. An extensive bibliography and endnotes are included at
the end of the document, and I strongly encourage anyone who is interested
to refer to the original sources for more information.
These ideas should be shared freely. Every mother concerned about "family
values" should know about the extensive scientific research demonstrating
the positive benefits of nudism for children. Every woman concerned about
pornography should know how strongly the philosophy and practice of Naturism
repudiates the objectification of women's bodies. Every lawmaker concerned
about honoring the original intent of our nation's founders should know that
many of them were unabashed skinnydippers. Christians concerned about upholding
sexual morality should know that the earliest Church leaders accepted nudity
as a natural part of life, and not in the least inconsistent with the teachings
of Christ. The world-weary businessman in his urban office and three-piece
suit should know how relaxing and therapeutic a weekend at a nudist park
can be. The mother on the beach with sand in her swimming suit should know
that there are places in the world where she may enjoy the feeling of sun
and water on her body without attracting unwanted attention.
It is my hope that this document may help you to share this good news, and
to speak articulately about the native goodness of the human body in its
natural state.
Nudity is often more comfortable and practical than clothing.
1. There are times when clothing is physically uncomfortable. Nudity, on
the other hand, is often much more comfortable.
2. For many activities, nudity is often far more practical than clothing.
Bernard Rudofsky writes: "The custom of wearing a bathing suit, a desperate
attempt to recapture some of our lost innocence, represents a graphic expression
of white man's hypocrisy. For, obviously, the bathing suit is irrelevant
to any activity in and under water. It neither keeps us dry or warm, nor
is it an aid to swimming. If the purpose of bathing is to get wet, the bathing
suit does not make us wetter. At best, it is a social dress, like the dinner
jacket." Yet Americans spend $900,000,000 each year on bathing costumes.
3. Clothing also restricts movement, and encumbers the athlete. Studies done
by the West German Olympic swim team showed that even swimsuits slow down
a swimmer.
Naturism promotes mental health.
4. A nudist is not a body lacking something (that is, clothing). Rather,
a clothed person is a whole and complete naked body, plus clothes.
5. Many psychologists say that clothing is an extension of ourselves. The
clothes we wear are an expression of who we are. The Naturist's comfort with
casual nudity, therefore, represents an attitude which is comfortable with
the self as it is in its most basic state, without modification or deceit.
6. Clothes-compulsiveness creates insecurity about one's body. Studies show
that nudism, on the other hand, promotes a positive body self-concept.
These effects are especially significant for women. Studies by Daniel DeGoede
in 1984 confirmed research done 16 years earlier, which established that
"of all the groups measured (nudist males, non-nudist males, nudist females,
and non-nudist females), the nudist females scored highest on body concept,
and the non-nudist females scored lowest."
7. Nudism promotes wholeness of body, rather than setting aside parts of
the body as unwholesome and shameful.
8. Clothes-compulsiveness locks us into a constant battle between individuality
and conformity of dress. Nudity frees us from this anxiety, by fostering
a climate of comfortable individuality without pretense.
9. The practice of nudism is, for nudists, an immensely freeing experience.
In freeing oneself to be nude in the presence of others, including members
of the other sex, the nudist also gives up all the social baggage that goes
along with the nudity taboo.
The North American Guide to Nude Recreation notes that "one reason
why a nude lifestyle is so refreshing is that it delivers us temporarily
from the game of clothes. It's hard to imagine how much clothing contributes
to the grip of daily tensions until we see what it's like to socialize without
them. Clothing locks us into a collective unreality that prescribes complex
responses to social status, roles and expected behaviors. In shedding our
daily 'uniforms,' we also shed a weighty burden of anxieties. For a while,
at least, we don't have to play the endless charade of projected images we
call 'daily life.' . . . For once in your life you are part of
a situation where age, occupation and social status don't really count for
much. You'll find yourself relating more on the basis of who you really are
instead of who your clothes say you are." This analysis is borne out
by experience.
10. The sense of "freedom" that comes from the nudist experience is consistently
rated by nudists as one of the main reasons they stay in it.
11. Nudism, by freeing the body, helps free the mind and spirit. An irrational
clothes-compulsiveness may inhibit psychological growth and health.
Dr. Robert Henley Woody writes, "fear of revealing one's body is a defense.
To keep clothing on at all times when it is unnecessary for social protocol
or physical comfort is to armour oneself in a manner that will block new
behaviors that could introduce more healthful and rewarding alternatives;
and promote psychological growth."
12. The nudist, literally, has nothing to hide. He or she therefore has less
stress, a fact supported by research.
In the words of Paul Ableman: "Removing your clothes symbolizes 'taking off'
civilization and its cares. The nudist is stripped not only of garments but
of the need to 'dress a part,' of form and display, of ceremony and all the
constraints of a complex etiquette. . . . Further than this, the
nudist symbolically takes off a great burden of responsibility. By taking
off his clothes, he takes off the pressing issues of his day. For the time
being, he is no longer committed to causes, opposed to this or that trend,
in short a citizen. He becomes . . . a free being once more."
13. Clothing hides the natural diversity of human body shapes and sizes.
When people are never exposed to nudity, they grow up with misunderstandings
and unrealistic expectations about the body based on biased or misinformed
sources--for instance, from advertising or mass media.
As a result, breast augmentation has long been the leading form of cosmetic
surgery in the U.S. In the 1980s, American women had more than 100,000 operations
per year to alter their breasts. Helen Gurley Brown, past editor of
Cosmopolitan, says, "I don't think 80 percent of the women in this
country have any idea what other women's bosoms look like. They have this
idealized idea of how other people's bosoms are. . . . My God,
isn't it ridiculous to be an emancipated woman and not really know what a
woman's body looks like except your own?" Paul Fussell notes, by contrast,
that "a little time spent on Naturist beaches will persuade most women that
their breasts and hips are not, as they may think when alone, appalled by
their mirrors, 'abnormal,' but quite natural, 'abnormal' ones belonging entirely
to the nonexistent creatures depicted in ideal painting and sculpture. The
same with men: if you think nature has been unfair to you in the sexual anatomy
sweepstakes, spend some time among the Naturists. You will learn that every
man looks roughly the same--quite small, that is, and that heroic fixtures
are not just extremely rare, they are deformities."
14. Clothing hides and therefore creates mystery and ignorance about natural
body processes, such as pregnancy, adolescence, and aging. Children (and
even adults) who grow up in a nudist environment have far less anxiety about
these natural processes than those who are never exposed to them.
Margaret Mead writes, "clothes separate us from our own bodies as well as
from the bodies of others. The more society . . . muffles the human
body in clothes . . . camouflages pregnancy . . . and
hides breastfeeding, the more individual and bizarre will be the child's
attempts to understand, to piece together a very imperfect knowledge of the
life-cycle of the two sexes and an understanding of the particular state
of maturity of his or her body."
Some observations on the nature of modesty.
15. Children are not born with any shame about nudity. They learn
to be ashamed of their own nudity.
16. Shame, with respect to nudity, is relative to individual situations and
customs, not absolute.
For example, an Arab woman, encountered in a state of undress, will cover
her face, not her body; she bares her breasts without embarrassment, but
believes the sight of the back of her head to be still more indecent than
exposure of her face. (James Laver notes that "an Arab peasant woman caught
in the fields without her veil will throw her skirt over her head, thereby
exposing what, to the Western mind, is a much more embarrassing part of her
anatomy.") In early Palestine, women were obliged to keep their heads covered;
for a woman, to be surprised outside the house without a head-covering was
a sufficient reason for divorce. In pre-revolutionary China it was shameful
for a woman to show her foot, and in Japan, the back of her neck. In 18th-century
France, while deep décolletage was common, it was improper to expose
the point of the shoulder. Herr Surén, writing in 1924, noted that
Turkish women veiled their faces, Chinese women hid their feet, Arab women
covered the backs of their heads, and Filipino women considered only the
navel indecent.
The relative nature of shame is acknowledged by Pope John Paul II. "There
is a certain relativism in the definition of what is shameless," he writes.
"This relativism may be due to differences in the makeup of particular persons
. . . or to different 'world views.' It may equally be due to
differences in external conditions--in climate for instance . . .
and also in prevailing customs, social habits, etc. . . . In this
matter there is no exact similarity in the behavior of particular people,
even if they live in the same age and the same society. . . . Dress
is always a social question."
17. The dominant idea that clothing is necessary for reasons of modesty is
a cultural assumption. It is an assumption that is not shared by all cultures,
nor by all members of our own culture.
18. There is evidence that modesty is not related to nakedness at all, but
is rather a response to appearing different from the rest of the social
group--for instance, outside the accepted habits of clothing or adornment.
For example, indigenous tribes naked except for ear and lip plugs feel immodest
when the plugs are removed, not when their bodies are exposed. Likewise,
a woman feels immodest if seen in her slip, even though it's far less revealing
than her bikini. This also explains why clothed visitors to nudist parks
feel uncomfortable in their state of dress. Psychologist Emery S. Bogardus
writes: "Nakedness is never shameful when it is unconscious, that is, when
there is no consciousness of a difference between fact and the rule set by
the mores." In other words, for first-time visitors to a nudist park, there
is no hint of embarrassment after an initial reticence, because it is not
contrary to the moral norms.
19. Shame comes from being outside mores, not from specific actions or
conditions. Because nudity is unremarkable in a nudist setting, nudists may
even forget that they are nude--and often do.
20. Psychological studies have shown that modesty need not be related to
one's state of dress at all. For the nudist, modesty is not shed with one's
clothes; it merely takes a different form.
Psychological studies by Martin Weinberg concluded that the basic difference
between nudists and non-nudists lies in their differently-constructed definitions
of the situation. It isn't that nudists are immodest, for, like non-nudists,
they have norms to regulate and control immorality, sexuality, and embarrassment.
Nudists merely accept the human body as natural, rather than as a source
of embarrassment.
21. Many indigenous tribes go completely naked without shame, even today.
It is only through extended contact with the "modern" world that they learn
to be "modest."
Paul Ableman writes: "The missionaries were usually disconcerted to find
that the biblically recommended act of 'clothing the naked', far from producing
an improvement in native morals, almost always resulted in a deterioration.
What the missionaries were inadvertently doing was recreating the Garden
of Eden situation. Naked, the primitive cultures had shown no prurient concern
with the body. . . . the morality was normally geared to the naked
state of the culture. The missionaries, with their cotton shorts and dresses,
disrupted this. Naked people actually feel shame when they are first dressed.
They develop an exaggerated awareness of the body. It is as if Adam and Eve's
'aprons' generated the 'knowledge of good and evil' rather than being its
consequence."
Many Amazon rainforest people still live clothing-optional by choice, even
given an alternative. The same is true of the aborigines of central Australia.
22. Even in North America, nudity was commonplace among many indigenous tribes
prior to the arrival of Europeans.
Lewis and Clark reported nearly-naked natives along the northern Pacific
coast, for example, as did visitors to California. Father Louis Hennepin
in 1698 reported of Milwaukee-area Illinois Indians, "They go stark naked
in Summer-time, wearing only a kind of Shoes made of the Skins of [buffalo]
Bulls." He described several other North American tribes as also generally
living without clothes. The natives of Florida wore only breechclouts and
sashes of Spanish moss, which they removed while hunting or gardening. Columbus
wrote of the Indians he encountered in the Caribbean in 1492, "They all go
around as naked as their mothers bore them; and also the women." The
Polynesian natives of Hawaii wore little clothing, and none at all at the
shore or in the water, until the arrival of Christian missionaries with Captain
Cook in 1776.
23. For some indigenous tribes, nudity or near-nudity is an essential
part of their culture.
Paul Ableman explains, "very few primitives are totally naked. They almost
always have ornamentation or body-modification of some kind, which plays
a central role in their culture. . . . Into this simple but successful
culture comes the missionary, and obliterates the key signs beneath his cheap
Western clothing. Among many primitives, tattooing, scarification and
ornamentation convey highly elaborate information which may, in fact, be
the central regulatory force in the society. The missionary thus, at one
blow, annihilates a culture. It was probably no less traumatic for a primitive
society to be suddenly clothed than it would be for ours to be suddenly stripped
naked."
24. Yet missionaries have consistently sought to impose their own concepts
of "decency" on other cultures, ignoring the elaborate cultural traditions
regarding dress already in place.
Bernard Rudofsky writes: "People [in other cultures] who traditionally do
not have much use for clothes are not amused by the missionary zeal that
prompts us to press our notions of decency upon them while being insensitive
or opposed to theirs." Julian Robinson adds: "Eighteenth and nineteenth
century missionaries and colonial administrators were blissfully blind to
their own religious, cultural and sexual prejudices, and to the symbolism
of their own tribal adornments--their tight-laced corsets, powdered wigs,
constricting shoes and styles of outer garments totally unsuited to colonial
life. These missionaries and administrators nevertheless took it upon themselves
to expunge all those 'pagan, barbaric and savage forms of body packaging'
which did not conform to their body covering standards. . . . Thus
the social and symbolic significance of these traditional forms of body
decoration which had evolved over countless generations were, in many cases,
destroyed forever."
Russell Nansen records that "Henry Morton Stanley, the rescuer of David
Livingstone in the Belgian Congo. . . . from 1847 to 1877 . . .
wandered across Africa suffering every hardship but when he went back to
England he made a notable speech to the Manchester Chamber of Commerce. He
explained to the audience how many natives there were in the Congo, and the
fact that they lived naked. He told the audience that their duty as Christians
was to convert these misguided naked savages to Christianity and to the wearing
of clothes. And when this missionary work had progressed sufficiently to
convince the natives of the need for wearing clothes on Sunday, that would
mean three hundred and twenty million yards of Manchester cotton cloth yearly.
Instantly the audience rose to its feet and cheered him."
25. Most anthropologists consider modesty an unlikely reason for the development
of clothes.
J.C. Flügel writes: "The great majority of scholars . . .
have unhesitatingly regarded decoration as the motive that led, in the first
place, to the adoption of clothing, and consider that the warmth- and
modesty-preserving functions of dress, however important they might later
on become, were only discovered once the wearing of clothes had become habitual
for other reasons. . . . The anthropological evidence consists
chiefly in the fact that among the most primitive races there exist unclothed
but not undecorated peoples." Anthropologists agree nearly unanimously
on this point.
26. Many psychologists and anthropologists believe that modesty about exposure
of the body may well be a result of wearing clothes, rather than its
cause.
27. It is interesting to note that it is only possible to be immodest
once an accepted form of modesty has been established.
28. Modesty with respect to nudity is a social phenomenon, not biologically
instinctive. This is evidenced by the fact that nudity is venerated in art.
Naturism promotes sexual health.
29. Nudity is not, by itself, erotic, and nudity in mixed groups is not
inherently sexual. These are myths propagated by a clothes-obsessed society.
Sexuality is a matter of intent rather than state of dress.
In our culture, a person who exposes their sexual parts for any reason is
considered to be an exhibitionist. It is assumed that they stripped to attract
attention and cause a sexual reaction in others. This is seen as a perversion.
Hypocritically, if someone dresses specifically to arouse sexual interest,
they are considered to have pride in their appearance. Even if they get great
sexual gratification out of the attention others give, there is no suggestion
of perversion or sexual fixation.
30. Nudists, as a group, are healthier sexually than the general population.
Nudists are, as a rule, far more comfortable with their bodies than the general
public, and this contributes to a more relaxed and comfortable attitude toward
sexuality in general.
31. Sexual satisfaction in married couples shows a correlation to their degree
of comfort with nudity.
32. Studies show significantly less incidence of casual premarital and
extramarital sex, group sex, incest, and rape among nudists than among
non-nudists.
33. Studies have demonstrated that countries with fewer hangups about nudity
have lower teen pregnancy and abortion rates.
34. Clothes enhance sexual mystery and the potential for unhealthy sexual
fantasies.
Photographer Jock Sturges says, "our arbitrary demarcations [between clothing
and nudity, sexual and asexual] serve more to confound our collective sexual
identity than to further our social progress. America sells everything with
sex and then recoils when presented with the realities of natural
process." C. Willet Cunnington writes: "We have to thank the Early
Fathers for having, albeit unwillingly, established a mode of thinking from
which men and women have developed an art which has supplied . . .
so many novel means of exciting the sexual appetite. Prudery, it seems, provides
mankind with endless aphrodisiacs, hence, no doubt, the reluctance to abandon
it."
35. Clothing focuses attention on sexuality, not away from it; and in fact
often enhances immature forms of sexuality, rather than promoting healthy
body acceptance.
36. Complete nudity is antithetic to the elaborate semi-pornography of the
fashion industry.
Julian Robinson observes, "modesty is so intertwined with sexual desire and
the need for sexual display--fighting but at the same time re-kindling this
desire--that a self-perpetuating process is inevitably set in motion. In
fact modesty can never really attain its ultimate end except through its
disappearance. Hiding under the cloak of modesty there are to be found many
essential components of the sexual urge itself."
37. Clothing often focuses attention on the genitals and sexual arousal,
rather than away from them.
At various times in Western history different parts of female anatomy have
been eroticized: bellies and thighs in the Renaissance; buttocks, breasts,
and thighs by the late 1800s (and relatively diminutive waists and bellies).
Underwear design has historically emphasized these erogenous body parts:
corsets in the 1800s de-emphasized the midriff and emphasized the breasts--using
materials including whalebone and steel; the crinoline in the mid 1800s
emphasized the waist; and the bustle, appearing in 1868, emphasized the buttocks.
Bathing suit design today focuses attention on the breasts and pubic region.
E.B. Hurlock writes: "When primitive peoples are unaccustomed to wearing
clothing, putting it on for the first time does not decrease their immorality,
as the ladies of missionary societies think it will. It has just the opposite
effect. It draws attention to the body, especially for those parts of it
which are covered for the first time." Rob Boyte notes wryly that "textile
people, when they do strip in front of others, usually do it for passion,
and find the bikini pattern tan-lines attractive. This is reminiscent of
the scarification practiced by primitive societies, and shows how clothing
patterns become a fetish of the body." Havelock Ellis writes: "If the
conquest of sexual desire were the first and last consideration of life it
would be more reasonable to prohibit clothing than to prohibit nakedness."
38. The fashion industry depends on the sex appeal of clothing.
Peter Fryer writes: "The changes in women's fashions are basically determined
by the need to maintain men's sexual interest, and therefore to transfer
the primary zone of erotic display once a given part of the body has been
saturated with attractive power to the point of satiation. . . .
Each new fashion seeks to arouse interest in a new erogenous zone to replace
the zone which, for the time being, is played out."
39. Differences of clothing between the sexes focus attention on sex differences.
Psychologist J.C. Flügel writes: "There seems to be (especially in modern
life) no essential factor in the nature, habits, or functions of the two
sexes that would necessitate a striking difference of costume--other than
the desire to accentuate sex differences themselves; an accentuation that
chiefly serves the end of more easily and frequently arousing sexual
passion."
40. Many psychologists believe that clothing may originally have developed,
in part, as a means of focusing sexual attention.
41. Partial clothing is more sexually stimulating (in often unhealthy ways)
than full nudity.
Anne Hollander writes: "The more significant clothing is, the more meaning
attaches to its absence and the more awareness is generated about any relation
between the two states." Elizabeth B. Hurlock notes that "it is
unquestionably a well-known fact that familiar things arouse no curiosity,
while concealment lends enchantment and stimulates curiosity . . .
a draped figure with just enough covering to suggest the outline, is far
more alluring than a totally naked body." And Lee Baxandall observes,
"the 'almost'-nude beaches, where bikinis and thongs are paraded, are more
sexually titillating than a clothes-optional resort or beach. What is natural
is more fulfilling, though it may not fit the tantalize-and-deliver titillation
of our consumer culture."
42. Modesty--especially enforced modesty--only adds to sexual
interest and desire.
Reena Glazer writes: "Women's breasts are sexually stimulating to (heterosexual)
men, at least in part because they are publicly inaccessible; society further
eroticizes the female breast by tagging it shameful to expose. . . .
This element of the forbidden merely perpetuates the intense male reaction
female exposure allegedly inspires."
43. Topfree inequality (requiring women, but not men, to wear tops) produces
an unhealthy obsession with breasts as sexual objects.
44. The identification of breasts as sexual objects in our culture has led
to the discouragement of breast-feeding, the encouragement of unnecessary
cosmetic surgery for breast augmentation, and avoidance of necessary breast
examinations by women.
Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer write: "When a woman learns to treat
her breasts as objects that enhance appearance, they belong not to the woman,
but to her viewers. Thus, a woman becomes alienated from her own body."
45. Naturism is the antithesis of pornography.
Nudity is often confused with pornography in our society because the pornography
industry has so successfully exploited it. In other words, nudity is often
damned as exploitative precisely because its repression causes many to exploit
it.
46. Pornography has been defined as an attempt to exert power over nature.
In most cases in our culture, it manifests itself as an expression of sexual
power by men over women. Naturism, by contrast, seeks to coexist with nature
and with each other, and to accept each other and the natural world in our
most natural states.
47. Non-acceptance and repression of nudity fuels pornography by teaching
that any form and degree of nudity is inherently sexual and pornographic.
In the words of activist Melissa Farley, "pornography is the antithesis of
freedom for women. . . . to treat the human body as anything less
than normal and beautiful is to promote puritanism and pornography. If the
human body is accepted by society as normal, the pornographers won't be able
to market it."
48. Naturism is innocent, casual, non-exploitative, and non-commercial (and
yet is often suppressed); as opposed to pornography, which is commercialized
and sensationalized (and generally tolerated).
In some American communities it is illegal for a woman to publicly bare her
breasts in order to feed an infant, but it is legal to display Penthouse
on drug-store magazine racks.
49. Many psychologists believe that repression of a healthy sexuality leads
to a greater capacity for, and tendency toward, violence.
Paul Ableman writes: "We have divorced ourselves from our instincts so
conclusively that we are now menaced by their perverted expression. The blocked
erotic instinct turns into destructiveness and, in our age, many thinkers
have perceived that some of the most ghastly manifestations of human culture
are fueled by recycled eroticism. Channelled into pure cerebration, the sexual
instinct may generate nightmares impossible in the animal world. Animals
are casually cruel and are usually, not always, indifferent to the pain of
other animals. Animals kills for food or, rarely, for sport but they do not
torture, gloat over pain or exterminate. We do. What's more, we can tolerate
our own ferocity. What we cannot tolerate is our own sexuality."
Thus extreme violence is tolerated even on television, while the merest glimpse
of sexual anatomy, however innocent, is enough to cause movie ratings to
jump.
Naturism promotes physical health.
50. Clothing limits or defeats many of the natural purposes of skin: for
example, repelling moisture, drying quickly, breathing, protecting without
impeding performance, and especially sensing one's environment.
C. W. Saleeby writes: "This admirable organ, the natural clothing of the
body, which grows continually throughout life, which has at least four absolutely
distinct sets of sensory nerves distributed to it, which is essential in
the regulation of the temperature, which is waterproof from without inwards,
but allows the excretory sweat to escape freely, which, when unbroken, is
microbe-proof, and which can readily absorb sunlight--this most beautiful,
versatile, and wonderful organ is, for the most part, smothered, blanched,
and blinded in clothes and can only gradually be restored to the air and
light which are its natural surroundings. Then, and only then, we learn what
it is capable of."
51. Exposure to the sun, without going overboard, promotes general health.
Research suggests that solar exposure triggers the body's synthesis of Vitamin
D, vital for (among other things) calcium absorption and a strong immune
system. Exposure to the sun is especially essential for the growth of strong
bones in young children.
52. Recent research has suggested an inverse relationship between solar exposure
and osteoporosis, colon cancer, breast cancer, and even the most deadly form
of skin cancer, malignant melanoma.
53. An obsessive sense of modesty about the body often correlates with a
reluctance to share healthy forms of touch with others.
Research has increasingly linked touch-deprivation, especially during childhood
and adolescence, to depression, violence, sexual inhibition, and other antisocial
behaviors. Research has also shown that people who are physically cold toward
adolescents produce hostile, aggressive, and often violent offspring. On
the other hand, children brought up in families where the members touch each
other are healthier, better able to withstand pain and infection, more sociable,
and generally happier than families that don't share touch.
54. Tight clothing may cause health problems by restricting the natural flow
of blood and lymphatic fluid.
Recent research by Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer demonstrated that
women who wear bras more than twelve hours per day, but not to bed, are 21
times more likely to get breast cancer than those who wear bras less than
twelve hours per day. Those who wear bras even to bed are 125 times more
likely to get breast cancer than those who don't wear bras at all. Testicular
cancer, similarly, has been linked to tight briefs. The theory is that tight
clothing impedes the lymph system, which removes cancer-causing toxins from
the body.
55. Clothing can harbor disease-causing bacteria and yeast (especially
underclothing and athletic clothing).
56. Medical research has linked clothing to an increased susceptibility to
bites and stings by animals such as ticks and sea lice, which hide in or
get trapped in clothing.
57. Clothing fashions throughout history, especially for women, have often
been damaging to physical and psychological health.
For instance, the wearing of corsets led to numerous physical ailments in
women in the late 19th century. Men and women both suffered through many
ages of history under hot, burdensome layers of clothing in the name of fashion.
Footwear has been especially notorious for resisting reason and comfort in
the name of fashion.
58. The idea that clothing is necessary for support of the genitals or breasts
is often unwarranted.
For example, research shows that the choice of wearing a bra or not has no
bearing on the tendency of a woman's breasts to "droop" as she ages. Deborah
Franklin writes: "Still, the myth that daily, lifelong bra wearing is crucial
to preserving curves persists, along with other misguided notions about that
fetching bit of binding left over from the days when a wasp waist defined
the contours of a woman's power." Christine Haycock, of the New Jersey Medical
School, says that while exercising without a bra may be uncomfortable for
large-breasted women, "it's not doing any lasting damage to chest muscles
or breast tissue." In fact, given the tendency of sports bras to squash breasts
against the rib cage, her research concluded that "those who wore an A cup
were frequently most comfortable with no bra at all." Complete nudity
presents no difficulties for conditioned male athletes, either; and thus
the athletes of ancient Athens had no trouble performing entirely in the
nude.
59. Clothing hides the natural beauty of the human body, as created by God.
In the words of Michelangelo: "What spirit is so empty and blind, that it
cannot grasp the fact that the human foot is more noble than the shoe and
human skin more beautiful than the garment with which it is clothed?"
60. Clothing makes people look older, and emphasizes rather than hides
unflattering body characteristics.
Paul Fussell writes: "Nude, older people look younger, especially when very
tan, and younger people look even younger. . . . In addition fat
people look far less offensive naked than clothed. Clothes, you realize,
have the effect of sausage casings, severely defining and advertising the
shape of what they contain, pulling it all into an unnatural form which couldn't
fool anyone. . . . The beginning Naturist doesn't take long to
master the paradox that it is stockings that make varicose veins noticeable,
belts that call attention to forty-eight-inch waists, brassieres that emphasize
sagging breasts."
61. Clothing harbors and encourages the growth of odor-causing bacteria.
Naturism is socially constructive.
62. Naturism is a socially constructive philosophy.
As defined by the International Naturist Federation, "Naturism is a way of
life in harmony with nature characterized by the practice of communal nudity,
with the intention of encouraging self-respect, respect for others and for
the environment."
63. Naturism, by philosophy, is tolerant of others and their differences.
It expects only the same in return.
Naturism rejects obstreperous, provocative nudity--but because it is anti-social
effrontery and disorderly conduct, not because it is nudity.
64. Nudity promotes social equality, feelings of unity with others, and more
relaxed social interaction in general. As mentioned earlier, clothing locks
us into a collective unreality that prescribes complex responses to social
status, roles and expected behaviors. As the artificial barrier of clothing
is done away with, social class and status disappear. People begin to relate
to each other as they are, and not as they seem to be.
This is a phenomenon that is intimately familiar to the Finnish people. L.M.
Edelsward writes: "People can relax in the sauna in a way that is difficult
to do in other contexts and with others than one's family, for here the tensions
associated with maintaining one's social mask disappear. . . .
Without their social masks, sauna bathers are able to meet others not in
terms of their social personas, but in terms of their inner personalities.
. . . Sweating together in the sauna, removed from the impinging
demands of ordinary life, Finns can be the people they 'really' are, and
can recreate their relationships with others as they ideally should be--open,
equal, and trusting. . . . Sweating together in the sauna, stripped
of all symbols of rank, wealth or prestige, all are equal; distance and respect
become openness and sincerity."
65. Naturists tend to be especially accepting of other people, just as they
are. This is an attitude that is undoubtedly related to the fact that Naturists
are generally more accepting of their own bodies, just as they are, than
the general public.
66. Socially and demographically, nudists are almost exactly like the rest
of the population, except that they are tolerant of nudity. There are few
other trends, social or psychological, positive or negative, that correlate
to a statistically significant degree with nudists as a demographic group.
67. Naturism rejects blind conformity to cultural mores and assumptions about
the body, which see clothing as a constant necessity, in favor of a more
reasoned, rational approach which recognizes the need for clothing to be
dependent on context.
68. For Americans, non-acceptance and sexualization of their own nudity
encourages a biased or racist attitude contrasting "clothed civilization"
against the "naked savage."
Rob Boyte asks, "Why is it permissible [in National Geographic] to
show the penis and scrotum of an African Surma (Feb. 91) or a Brazilian Urueu-Wau
Wau (Dec. 88) but not a Yugoslav Naturist in his natural setting? Why are
photographs of breasts on Nuba (Feb. 51, Nov. 66), Zulu (Aug. 53), Dyak (May
56), Masai (Feb. 65), Yap Island (May 67, Oct. 86), Turkana (Feb. 69), Adama
Islands (July 75), New Guinea (Aug. 82), Woodabe (Oct. 83), Ndebele (Feb.
69), and Surma (Feb. 91) women shown, yet not one white Canadian can be found
to face the camera at Wreck Beach? Why are the breasts shown of Josephine
Baker (July 89), a black native of East St. Louis, but the breasts of white
native women of Miami Beach are not shown? The unanswered question implies
but one conclusion: that the National Geographic has in fact a Eurocentric
bias (racist) in portraying nudity."
Jeremy Seabrook writes: "The absence of self-consciousness is not some natural
'primitive' impulse to acknowledge the universal truth that sex is the centre
of their world. . . . The nakedness of tradition speaks of a social
order in which sex, although not denied, has its place in the totality of
living and growing things; it speaks of another ordering of the world, one
that is a reproach to, and denial of, those nude westerners [vacationing
on nude beaches far from home], although at the same time, is dismissed,
marginalised, not taken seriously by them."
Naturism is healthy for the family.
69. True nudists emphasize a decent, family atmosphere and morality.
70. Research shows that children who grow up in a nudist setting tend to
be more self-confident, more self-accepting, and more sexually well-adjusted.
They feel better about their bodies, and more comfortable with their sexuality.
Research conducted at the University of Northern Iowa found that nudist children
had body self-concepts that were significantly more positive than those of
non-nudist children--and that the "nudity classification" of a family was
one of the most significant factors associated with positive body self-concept.
Furthermore, nudist children showed a significantly higher acceptance of
their bodies as a whole, rather than feeling ashamed of certain parts. A
study by psychologists Robin Lewis and Louis Janda at Old Damien University
reported that "increased exposure to nudity in the family fosters an atmosphere
of acceptance of sexuality and one's body." They concluded that children
who had seen their parents nude were more comfortable with physical contact
and affection, had higher self-esteem, and showed increased acceptance of
and comfort with their bodies and their sexuality. Research by Marie-Louise
Booth at the California School of Professional Psychology found that "individuals
with less childhood exposure to parental nudity experienced significantly
higher levels of adult sexual anxiety than did the group with more childhood
exposure to parental nudity." Separate research by Diane Lee Wilson
at The Wright Institute reached the same conclusion. Research by Lou Lieberman
of the State University of New York at Albany, in the late 1960s, found that
"those young people who had casually seen both of their parents nude in the
home were far more likely to feel comfortable with their bodies and to also
feel more satisfied with the size and shape of their genitalia and
breasts."
71. In general, "experts" such as Joyce Brothers and Dr. Spock speak out
against family nudity without empirical evidence to back them up. When research
is actually done, it contradicts their dire warnings.
In several years of research at major national research libraries, I have
yet to come across a scientific study which contradicts the premise that
openness about nudity is healthy for children.
72. Most commentators say that it's the context in which family nudity takes
place, not the nudity itself, that determines whether it's problematic. Children
respond far more to parents' attitudes toward nudity than to the nudity
itself, and nudity is only a problem when it is treated as one.
73. Many psychologists argue that the implicit message conveyed by a lack
of nudity in the home is that the body is basically unacceptable or shameful--an
attitude which may carry over into discomfort about nudity in the context
of adult sexual relationships.
74. Children of "primitive" tribes, surrounded by nudity of all forms, suffer
no ill effects. Neither do children who grow up in other societies which
are more open about nudity than our own. Presumptions that exposure to nudity
will lead to problems for children grow out of the preconceptions of our
culture.
Paul Ableman writes: "It is interesting to speculate as to what kind of model
of the human mind Sigmund Freud would have constructed if he had based it
not on clothed Europeans but on, say, a study of the naked Nuer of the Sudan.
Almost all the processes which he discerns as formative for the adult mind
would have been lacking. Freud assumes that children will not normally see
each other naked and that, if they do happen to, the result will be traumatic.
This is not true of naked cultures. . . . Thus great provinces
of Freud's mind-empire would simply be missing. There would be no Oedipus
complex (or not much, anyway), no penis envy or castration complex, probably
no clear-cut phases of sexual development. We are emerging rapidly from the
era of Freudian gospel . . . and can now perceive the extent to
which he himself was the victim of prevailing ideas and prejudices."
75. Children who grow up in a nudist environment witness the natural body
changes brought on by adolescence, pregnancy, and aging. They have far less
anxiety about these natural processes than children who are never exposed
to them except through layers of clothing.
76. Research has demonstrated that countries with fewer reservations about
nudity (and sexuality in general) also have lower teen pregnancy and abortion
rates.
A 1985 study by the Guttmacher Institute found rates of pregnancy and abortion
among teenage girls in America to be more than twice those of Canada, France,
Sweden, England, and The Netherlands. The disparity couldn't be explained
by differences in sexual activity, race, welfare policies, or the availability
of abortion, but only in cultural attitudes toward nudity and sexuality.
The study found American youth to be particularly ignorant of biology and
sexuality, partly due to a climate of moral disapproval for seeking such
knowledge. It found that lower levels of unwanted pregnancy correlated with
factors such as the amount of female nudity presented by public media and
the extent of nudity on public beaches.
77. Clothes-compulsion intimidates millions of mothers from breast-feeding
their children, even though breast-feeding is healthier and often more convenient
for both the child and the mother.
In the U.S., barely half of all mothers breast-feed; only 20% do so for a
full 6 months, and only 6% for the Surgeon General's recommended 12 months.
Breast-feeding is also declining in developing countries.
Gabrielle Palmer writes: "In Victorian England, famous for its prudery, a
respectable woman could feed openly in church, yet in contemporary industrialized
society where women's bodies and particularly breasts are used to sell
newspapers, cars and peanuts, public breast-feeding provokes cries of protest
from both men and women." Lisa Demauro notes that "our society is far
more at home with the idea of sexy breasts than functional ones." "Millions
of boys and girls have grown up never having seen a mother breast-feeding
her baby," adds Marsha Pearlman, the Florida Health Department coordinator
for breast-feeding. "This is a sad commentary on our culture."
Naturism is especially consistent with feminism and the struggle for women's
freedom.
78. The repression of healthy nudity, especially for females, has been one
of the chief means of mind and destiny control by the patriarchy. Breaking
this pattern shatters the invisible bonds of an inherited sex role.
79. Limitations on women's nudity, an acceptance of pornography, and demanding
fashion requirements may, individually, seem like minor issues. Taken as
a whole, however, they form a pattern of repressive male-oriented expectations.
Marilyn Frye explains: "Consider a birdcage. If you look very closely at
just one wire in the cage, you cannot see the other wires. If your conception
of what is before you is determined by this myopic focus, you could look
at that one wire, up and down the length of it, and be unable to see why
a bird would not just fly around the wire any time it wanted to go somewhere.
. . . There is no physical property of any one wire, nothing that
the closest scrutiny could rediscover, that will reveal how a bird could
be inhibited or harmed by it except in the most accidental way. It is only
when you step back, stop looking at the wires one by one, microscopically,
and take a macroscopic view of the whole cage, that you can see why the bird
does not go anywhere; and then you will see it in a moment. It will require
no great subtlety of mental powers. It is perfectly obvious that the bird
is surrounded by a network of systematically related barriers, no one of
which would be the least hindrance to its flight, but which, by their relations
to each other, are as confining as the solid walls of a dungeon."
80. Topfree inequality (requiring women, but not men, to wear tops) is demeaning
and discriminatory toward women, and reinforces patterns of male domination
over women.
In our culture, breasts may be exposed to sell drinks to men in bars, but
women may not be topfree on a beach for their own comfort and pleasure. Reena
Glazer writes: "The criminalization of women baring their breasts, therefore,
indicates that society views women's bodies as immoral and something to hide.
There is something potentially criminal about every woman just by virtue
of being female."
Herald Price Fahringer writes, "men have the right to cover or expose their
chests as they see fit--women do not. Men have the right to enjoy the sun,
water, and wind without a top; women do not. Few men would be willing to
give up this right. Then why shouldn't women enjoy the same advantage?
. . . Requiring women to cover their breasts in public is a highly
visible expression of inequality between men and women that promotes an attitude
that demeans women and damages their sense of equality. . . . For
centuries, men have held the power to generate these misconceptions. The
male view on the exposure of a woman's breasts is crucially influenced by
the need of men to define women. . . . This reaction stems from
a masculine ideology that has . . . doomed generations of women
to a secondary status."
Raymond Grueneich writes: "So what is really at stake is whether women will
be free to bare their own breasts in appropriate public places for their
own personal purposes on these occasions in which they feel free to do so,
or whether they will only be allowed to bare their breasts in public on an
occasion that can be exploited commercially and that reinforces the idea
that the sole function of the female breast is for the satisfaction of male
fantasy. It is as though it is a crime for a woman to be undressed in public,
unless she was undressed in the service of a corporation or a commercial
entrepreneur."
81. Laws banning exposure of female breasts do so in part because of the
reaction such exposure would supposedly cause in men. Such laws are written
entirely from the male point of view, and ignore the point of view of women,
who may want to go topfree for their own comfort.
82. By refusing to accept the need to "protect" themselves from men by covering
their bodies, women gain power, and shift the burden of responsible behavior
to men, where it rightfully belongs.
Reena Glazer notes that "male power is perpetuated by regarding women as
objects that men act and react to rather than as actors themselves.
. . . their entire worth is derived from the reaction they can
induce from men. In order to maintain the patriarchal system, men must determine
when and where this arousal is allowed to take place. In this way, the
(heterosexual) male myth of a woman's breasts has been codified into law.
Because women are the sexual objects and property of men, it follows that
what might arouse men can only be displayed when men want to be aroused."
This emphasis on women as temptresses "shifts the burden of responsibility
from men to women; because women provoke uncontrollable urges in males, society
excuses male behavior and blames the victim for whatever happens.
. . . To sanction the concept that men have uncontrollable urges
implies that violence against women is inevitable."
83. Patriarchal laws strip women of the right to control their own bodies,
but there have always been "exceptions" to obscenity laws which permit the
use of women's bodies in consumer seduction. Thus female nudity is considered
inappropriate on the beach, but is ubiquitous in advertising and pornography.
84. By enforcing arbitrary clothing requirements for women (requiring them
to cover their tops), the government acts in loco parentis, in the
role of a parent. This is demeaning to women. Like children, they aren't
conceded the ability or right to decide how to dress, much as they formerly
weren't allowed to vote, own property, or exercise other rights.
85. The repression of healthy female nudity fuels pornography.
Herbert Muschamp observes: "To object to the nude figure in a general interest
magazine while allowing it to remain in men's skin magazines is one way of
keeping women in their place."
86. Pornography, in turn, limits women's ability to participate in healthy
nude recreation, and to be casually nude in other ways. Naturism breaks the
power of pornography over women.
As mentioned earlier, in many places it is legal to display Penthouse on
drug-store magazine racks, yet it is illegal for a woman to publicly bare
her breasts to feed an infant.
Pornography seeks "freedom," particularly "freedom of expression." But an
acceptance of pornography restricts women's capacity to go topfree or nude
for their own enjoyment. It limits the freedom to control their own bodies,
and silences their own freedom of self-expression. Our pornographic culture
has contributed to attitudes which often discourage women from even trying
clothing-optional recreation, even though Naturism is in many ways the antithesis
of pornography.
87. The fight for freedom should mean civil rights for women--not license
for pornographers.
88. Clothing fashions and legal requirements have historically contributed
to the repression of women.
For example, in the mid-nineteenth century, a tiny waist was considered a
sign of beauty, and, in order to achieve this standard, women bound themselves
into corsets designed to constrict the stomach (and other internal organs)
inward and upward, creating the appearance of a tiny middle. In addition,
women wore up to fifteen layers of petticoats and crinolines under their
floor-length skirts. In the latter half of the century the wire hoop and
spring-like bustle were also added for the appearance of fullness. The weight
of this assemblage came close to 20 pounds. We now know that many of the
physical characteristics associated with the "frail sex" resulted from such
restrictive clothing, including "bird-like" appetites, a tendency to fainting
spells, and reduced physical activity. Thorstein Veblen has observed that
"the corset is in economic theory substantially [an instrument of] mutilation
for the purpose of lowering the subject's vitality and rendering her personally
and obviously unfit for work." A variety of respiratory and reproductive
ailments (including frequent miscarriages) from which women once suffered
have been directly linked to the unhealthy dictates of the "hourglass" fashion.
Many of the associations of female frailty which have their roots in the
nineteenth century remain with us today, though they are now unsubstantiated.
Corsets and, in modern times, cosmetic breast surgery also damage the internal
physiology of the breasts, often eliminating the capacity to breast-feed.
89. Naturism defies relationships based on a balance of power, and is thus
consistent with contemporary feminism, which seeks to break down power
hierarchies.
Naturism is more natural than clothes-compulsiveness.
90. Naturism, as a celebration of the natural human body free of the
artificiality of fashion, is highly compatible with the ideals of a natural,
simple, and environmentally friendly lifestyle.
91. As we work for the good of nature, we must also work for the good and
the freedom of our bodies, especially as they may be integrated with the
rest of nature.
As the Quebec Naturist Federation has observed, "Nature is not just the trees;
it is also our bodies."
92. The goals of Naturism and environmentalism are often parallel. Like
environmentalism, Naturism usually seeks to preserve the natural character
of landscapes, and opposes development and commercial exploitation. The greatest
risk to most beaches is not nudity, but development--the takeover of pristine
public areas by private resorts or hotels.
93. One feels much more a part of a natural setting in the nude than clothed.
94. The nudist is far more sensually aware, because nudity enhances
responsiveness and sensory experience.
95. Clothing cuts us off from the natural world, by inhibiting the skin's
ability to sense the environment. It in fact distracts from our ability to
sense the natural environment, by artificially irritating the skin.
Paul Ableman writes, "if primitives lost their culture [through being clothed
by missionaries], they also lost their environment. They lost the sun, the
rain, the grass underfoot, the foliage which brushed their skin as they moved
through forest or jungle, the water of lake, river or sea slipping past their
bodies, above all the ceaseless communion with the wind. Anyone who has ever
spent any time naked outdoors knows that the play of the elements over the
body produces an ever-changing response that may reach almost erotic intensity.
The skin becomes alive and responsive and a whole new spectrum of sensation
is generated. Clothe the body and this rich communion is replaced by mere
fortuitous, and often irritating, contact with inert fabric. It is a huge
impoverishment and its measure can perhaps best be judged by the reluctance
of the Indians of Tierra del Fuego, who live in a climate so harsh that Darwin
observed snow melting on the naked breasts of women, to adopt protective
clothing. They preferred dermal contact with the environment, hostile though
it was, to the loss of sensation implied by wearing clothes."
96. Clothes-compulsiveness is incompatible with the natural patterns of nature,
as expressed by every other member of the animal kingdom. Humans are the
only species to clothe themselves.
97. Some psychologists theorize that humans developed clothing, in part,
to set themselves apart from animals.
Fred Ilfeld and Roger Lauer write: "Man's major goal is superiority
. . . and one way that he strives for it is through clothing. Not
only do clothes protect and decorate, but they also give status to the wearer,
not just with respect to peers but, more importantly, in relation to man's
place in nature. Clothes make a human being appear less like an animal and
more like a god by concealing his sexual organs." Lawrence Langner
adds: "Modern man is a puritan and not a pagan, and by his clothing has been
able to overcome his feeling of shame in relation to his sex organs in public,
in mixed company. He has done this by transforming his basic inferiority
into a feeling of superiority, by relating himself to God in whose sexless
image he claims to be made. But take all his clothes off, and it is plain
to see that he is half-god, half-animal. He is playing two opposing roles
which contradict one another, and the result is confusion."
98. The physical barrier of clothing reinforces psychological barriers separating
us from the natural world.
In our clothing-obsessed society, we have distanced ourselves so much from
nature that the sight of our own natural state is often startling. Allen
Ginsberg writes: "Truth may always surprise a little, because we are creatures
of habit, especially in our hypermechanized, hyperindustrialized,
hypermilitarized society. Any presentation of nature tends to appear
shocking."
99. Lifestyles which are incompatible with the natural patterns of nature
(including clothes-obsessiveness) may be psychological damaging.
Robert Bahr writes: "Nakedness is the natural state of humankind; clothing
imposes a barrier between us and God, nature, the universe, which serves
to dehumanize us all." "Paradoxically," muses Jeremy Seabrook, "the
very presence of the westerners [on nude beaches] in the south is an expression
of some absence in their everyday lives. After all, whole industries are
now devoted to enabling people 'to get away from it all.' What is it, precisely,
they want to get away from, when the iconography of their culture is promoted
globally as the provider of everything? Many will admit they are looking
for something not available at home (apart from sunshine), something to do
with authenticity, a state of being 'unspoilt'. . . . They have
been stripped of their cultural heritage; and this is why they have to buy
back what ought to be the birthright of all human beings: secure anchorage
in celebrations and rituals that attend the significant moments of our human
lives."
100. A Naturist lifestyle is more
environmentally responsible. For example, the option of going nude during
hot, humid weather greatly reduces the need for air conditioning. Most air
conditioners use tremendous amounts of energy, and many use coolants which
are damaging to the stratospheric ozone layer.
101. Clothing is produced by environmentally irresponsible processes from
environmentally irresponsible sources.
For instance, synthetics are developed from oil; and cotton is grown with
intensive pesticide-loaded agricultural techniques. Cotton constitutes half
of the world's textile consumption, and is one of the most pesticide-sprayed
crops in the world. Clothing manufacture may also include chlorine bleaching,
chemical dyeing, sealing with metallic compounds, finishing with resins and
formaldehyde, and electroplating to rust-proof zippers, creating toxic residues
in waste water.
Accepted clothing requirements are arbitrary and inconsistent.
102. Clothing standards are inconsistent.
For instance, a bikini covering is accepted and even lauded on the beach,
but is restricted elsewhere--in a department store, for example. Even on
the beach, an expensive bikini is considered acceptable, whereas
underwear--though it covers the same amount--is not.
103. Clothing requirements are arbitrarily and irrationally based on gender.
Until the 1920s, for example, female ankles and shins were considered erotic
in Western cultures, though men wore knickers. The Japanese considered the
back of a woman's neck erotic, and contemporary Middle Eastern cultures hide
the woman's face. During the 1991 Gulf War, female U.S. army personnel were
forbidden from wearing t-shirts that bared their arms, since it would offend
the Saudi Arabian allies. Women (but not men) were forced to wear full army
dress in stifling heat.
104. Today in America, women's breasts are seen as erotic and unexposable,
even though they are anatomically identical to those of men except for lactation
capacity, and no more or less a sexual organ.
Medical experts note that men's breasts have the same erotic capacities as
women's. In addition, studies suggest that women are as sexually attracted
by men's unclothed chests as men are by women's.
105. The arbitrary nature of clothing requirements is reflected by different
standards in different cultures.
For example, a review of 190 world societies in 1951 found that, contrary
to the standards of our own culture, relatively few considered exposure of
a women's breasts to be immodest. Julian Robinson observes, "few cultural
groups agree as to which parts of our bodies should be covered and which
parts should be openly displayed. . . . Indeed, many people find
it difficult to comprehend the logic behind any other mode of clothing and
adornment than what they are currently wearing, finding them all unnatural
or even uncivilized. The thought of exposing or viewing those parts of the
body which they generally keep covered so frightens or disgusts them that
they call upon their lawmakers to protect them from such a possibility."
106. The arbitrary nature of clothing requirements is reflected by history.
Even in the same culture, taboos about what parts of the body could or could
not be revealed have changed radically over time.
For example, until statutes were amended in the 1930s, men were arrested
in the United States for swimming without a shirt. Many of the paintings
and sculptures today considered "classic"--for example, Michelangelo's Last
Judgment--were considered obscene in their day. The body taboo reached
its height in mid 19th-century England and America, when it was considered
improper to mention almost any detail of the human body in mixed company.
Howard Warren writes: "A woman was allowed to have head and feet, but between
the neck and ankles only the heart and stomach were permitted mention in
polite society. To expose the ankle (even though properly stockinged) was
considered immodest." On the other hand, in the early part of the 19th
century, women's clothing fashions in France were so scant that an entire
costume, including shoes, may not have weighed more than eight ounces. Lois
M. Gurel writes: "One must remember that clothing itself is neither moral
nor immoral. It is the breaking of traditions which makes it so."
The degree to which women's breasts may be exposed has varied especially
in Western cultures. At various times in history, women's necklines have
plunged so deeply that the breasts have been more exposed than covered. Historian
Aileen Ribeiro notes that in the early 15th century, "women's gowns became
increasingly tight-fitted over the bust, some gowns with front openings even
revealing the nipples." Breasts came back on display throughout the early
17th century, and again in the 18th century, especially in the Court of King
Charles II of England. Ironically, in this latter period, a respectable woman
would never be found in public with the point of her shoulders revealed.
Naturism is growing in acceptance.
107. Most world societies are much more open about nudity than the United
States. For example, many cultures, especially in Europe, are more open to
nudity on beaches and in other recreational settings.
A 1995 poll conducted by a French fashion magazine found that only 7% of
the population was shocked by the sight of naked breasts on the beach, and
that 40% of women had tried going topfree. A 1983 poll found that 27% of
French women went topfree on the beach on a regular basis, while another
6% went nude. A 1982 Harris poll found that 86% of French citizens favor
nudity on public beaches. In Munich and Zurich, topfree and nude sunbathing
are permitted in many parks. A Zurich municipal ordinance in 1989 officially
accepted nudity in municipal pools after a public opinion poll found only
18% opposition. Two separate polls conducted in the mid-1980s found that
68% of Germans did not object to nude bathing. A 1983 public opinion survey
in Greece found that 65% of the population favored legislative establishment
of four official nudist facilities. A 1984 poll found that 82% of a cross
section of Lisbon residents approved of nude beaches reserved for that purpose.
In Denmark, judicious nudity is legal on the seashore except on a few
specifically clothed beaches! Sweden's coastline is nearly as tolerant as
Denmark's. Beach nudity has also become the norm in inflation-stricken Romania,
where the average monthly wage is about $65 and a swimsuit costs from $4
to $20. Saunas are ubiquitous in Finland, with a sauna for every 3.5 inhabitants,
and are always used nude, commonly in mixed company.
108. Participation in nudist organizations is high in other parts of the
world.
In Holland, 1 in 422 members of the population is a dues-paying nudist. In
Switzerland, the number is 1 in 519; in France, 1 in 630; in Belgium, 1 in
890; in New Zealand, 1 in 1250; in the U.K., 1 in 2784; in English-speaking
Canada, 1 in 5200; and in the U.S., 1 in 6856. According to a French survey,
one in ten members of the nation's population have tried nudism at least
once, and an equal number are ready to give it a try.
109. Naturist vacations are a significant part of the tourist trade in many
countries.
As of 1983, about 2 million people vacationed at French Naturist clubs and
resorts each year. Before its devastating fragmentation and civil war, more
than one hundred thousand tourists visited Yugoslavian nudist camps and resorts
every summer. According to the president of the Naturism and Camping Department
of Yugoslav Tourism, Naturist vacations in 1984 accounted for 25% of the
foreign tourism income. And while American travel brochures make almost no
mention at all of nude or topfree beaches in other countries--essentially
lying to vacationers--foreign travel agencies offer opulent, uncensored
brochures, and openly advertise and promote Naturist resorts.
110. Nudity is much more common in foreign media.
For example, one of Brazil's most popular T.V. shows, "Pantanal," has featured
frequent nudity; a survey conducted by the local newspaper found that 83%
of viewers were "comfortable" with the nude scenes. A University of Sao Paulo
survey in June 1990 counted 1,145 displays of nudity in one week of television.
111. Public nudity, including clothing-optional recreation, enjoys growing
acceptance in North America.
A 1983 Gallup poll revealed that 72% of Americans don't think designated
clothing-optional beaches should be against the law, and 39% agreed that
such areas should be set aside by the government. One third said they might
try going to one. Fourteen percent said they'd already tried coed nude
recreation. A 1985 Roper Poll agreed, reporting that 18% of all
Americans--including 27% of those age 18-28, and 24% of college-educated
Americans--had already gone swimming in the nude with a group that included
members of the other sex; other studies suggest these numbers are on the
increase. A Psychology Today study found that 28% of couples under
the age of 35 swim in the nude together, 24% of couples age 35-49, and 9%
of couples 50 or older, and that such activities tended to correspond to
a higher level of satisfaction in the marriage. A 1990 Martini and Rossi
poll reported that 35% of Americans would "bare it all" on a nude beach.
A 1986 poll conducted by People Weekly asked people how guilty they
would feel if they engaged in any of 51 activities, rating their probable
guilt on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 represented the greatest feeling of
guilt. Nude sunbathing came in second to last with a rating of 2.76,
behind not voting (3.07), swearing (3.34), smoking (3.38), and overeating
(4.43).
In 1991, visitation at Wreck Beach, British Columbia on a nice day was estimated
at 15,000, and 90,000 beach users were recorded in one month on a single
access trail. A survey conducted by West Area Park Staff revealed that half
of those visitors go nude. When that option was threatened in 1991, more
than 10,000 people sent letters or signed petitions to protect the beach's
clothing-optional status.
Given the opportunity and license to do so, women do take advantage of the
option of going topfree. During the 1984 Olympics in L.A., Police decided
not to arrest European women who went topfree on local beaches. American
women, noting the double standard, took their tops off too, and feigned inability
to understand English when told to cover up. Police called it "taking advantage
of the relaxed rule," though it should more accurately be considered
"taking advantage of a more civilized custom."
112. Membership in nudist organizations is growing rapidly.
Membership in the American Association for Nude Recreation, for example,
topped 40,000 in 1992, up 15,000 in just five years! By 1995, the number
had climbed past 46,000. According to a study commissioned by the Trade
Association for Nude Recreation, participation in nudism is currently growing
by about 20% per year.
113. The tourism industry is discovering that it is in their economic best
interests to accept clothing-optional recreation.
When it became a favorite vacation spot for Europeans in the mid-1980s, Miami
Beach began permitting G-string swimsuits on its beaches, and ceased enforcing
its ordinance against topfree swimming and sunning. Dade County is the only
county in Florida that experienced an increase of tourism in 1991, a year
of deep recession. All other counties, and Disney World, had significant
losses in tourism. Nikki Grossman, director of the Ft. Lauderdale Convention
and Visitors' Bureau, acknowledges that "requests for nude or top-free beaches
rank among the top five priorities of international conventioneers,"
and Fodor's Travel Guide has observed that "nudism" is "tourism's fastest
growing sector." Nudism, in the United States, brings in about $120
million per year in direct revenues alone.
Constitutional support for Naturism.
114. In a free society such as the United States, one's lifestyle should
not be dictated by anyone else (majority or otherwise), especially if that
lifestyle does not infringe on anyone else's rights.
In the words of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor: "Our Constitution is designed
to maximize individual freedom within a framework of ordered liberty."
115. The Constitution was, in fact, written to protect the rights of minority
points of view. This principle alone should justify the right to recreate
peacefully in the nude without government interference.
Justice William O. Douglas, for a unanimous court in 1972, wrote: "These
amenities have dignified the right of dissent and have honored the right
to be nonconformists and the right to defy submissiveness. They have encouraged
lives of high spirits rather than hushed, suffocating silence."
116. The Constitution has been interpreted to protect individual freedoms
except where they are overridden by a "compelling state interest." It is
never the responsibility of individuals to justify their freedoms. It is
rather the responsibility of government to justify any restriction of freedom.
Justice Douglas enumerated three levels of rights: "First is the autonomous
control over the development and expression of one's intellect, interests,
tastes, and personality. Second is freedom of choice in the basic decisions
of one's life respecting marriage, divorce, procreation, contraception, and
the education and upbringing of children. Third is the freedom to care for
one's health and person, freedom from bodily restraint or compulsion, freedom
to walk, stroll, or loaf." Douglas would permit no state restriction
of the first level of freedom; only narrow restrictions on the second; and
in the third, "regulation on a showing of 'compelling state interest.'"
117. Naturism has always claimed that nudity offers "freedom from bodily
restraints." Such freedoms may only be restricted in the case of "compelling
state interest;" if none can be shown, the restriction is invalid.
Unfortunately, though the courts have "recognized as a protectible, if minor
interest . . . an individual right concerning one's own appearance
and lifestyle," especially where supported by tradition and custom, in the
case of public nudity such protection is not "fundamental" or directly
"constitutional" and thus can be overruled or limited by other
considerations, such as environmental concerns or "community standards."
Often the reference is to moral principles. These can usually be shown to
be "overbroad" by constitutional standards, because they prohibit innocent
behavior (such as skinnydipping) along with behavior of legitimate government
concern (such as lewd conduct).
118. The Constitution has repeatedly been interpreted to protect the right
of individuals to associate with others of similar philosophy, and also to
raise their children in the context of a particular philosophy. This principle
protects the right of nudist families to associate and recreate in the nude.
119. The First Amendment guarantees the right to freedom of expression. This
protects every other form of clothing, and should protect the right
not to wear clothing as well.
120. Recent court decisions in Florida, New York, and elsewhere have upheld
nudity as part of the expression of free speech.
Unfortunately, the courts have consistently concluded that mere nudity per
se (for example, nude sunbathing on a public beach), without being
combined with some other protected form of expression, is not protected
as free speech under the first amendment. The courts have distinguished between
protected First Amendment beliefs and actual conduct based on those
beliefs, arguing that going nude on a beach is "conduct" rather than merely
the natural state of a human being.
121. The "body language" of the nude human form has extraordinary symbolic
and communicative power which should be protected by the First Amendment.
Examples may be seen in painting, photography, sculpture, drama, cinema,
and other visual forms of communication throughout history.
122. The Supreme Court has ruled that people can't be forced to communicate
ideas they oppose (for example, saying the Pledge of Allegiance). It has
also ruled that clothes can be a protected form of free speech (for instance,
students and public employees had the right to wear black armbands to protest
the Vietnam War). It is unconstitutional to force Naturists to express conformity
to ideas of modesty and body shame that they disagree with, by forcing them
to wear swimsuits at the beach.
As attorney Eleanor Fink says, "If people are allowed to wear the clothes
of [Nazis], should they not also be allowed to wear the clothing of the
Creator?"
123. The courts have thus far permitted the publishers of pornography to
express attitudes which are exploitative of women, on the grounds that this
is protected free speech; but it has been unsuitably reluctant to grant the
same protection to the natural expression of body freedom through casual,
non-exploitative nudity on the beach.
124. Clothing is both publicly expressive and privately symbolic, connoting
identity in a particular cultural group. Restricting the state of dress of
nudists is no less restrictive than prohibiting any other cultural group
from wearing the clothing particular to their group. Preventing nudists from
going nude is equivalent to preventing a person of Scottish descent from
wearing the family colors, or preventing a priest from wearing his robes.
125. With the emergence of national organizations promoting nudism as a doctrine,
nude recreation may eventually come to be seen as a protected medium of speech
expressing that doctrine, and as an example of protected free association.
126. The Ninth Amendment makes it clear that no freedoms shall be denied
that are not specifically prohibited. Thus, mere nudity is not illegal except
where there are specific laws that prohibit it.
Most laws prohibit only lewd conduct, not nudity per se; and there is in
fact no universal legal prohibition against nudity on public land.
127. Many prohibitions against nudity stem, historically, from the political
climate of the early Christian church. Even today, much of the objection
to nudism is based on religious principles. The constitutional separation
of church and state should make this an invalid argument.
128. Extensive legal precedent suggests that laws requiring women, but not
men, to conceal their breasts are sexist, discriminatory, and unconstitutional.
For example, in 1992, the New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest
court, unanimously overturned the conviction of two women found guilty of
exposing their breasts in public. The ruling held that the state's anti-nudity
law was intended to apply only to lewd and lascivious behavior, not to
"non-commercial, perhaps accidental, and certainly not lewd, exposure." Herald
Price Fahringer, the women's lawyer, said that the ruling meant that women
in New York State could sunbathe topfree or even walk down the street without
a top, as long as this was not done in a lewd manner, or for such purposes
as prostitution. Judge Vito Titone pointed out that women sunbathe topfree
in many European countries, adding: "To the extent that many in our society
may regard the uncovered female breast with a prurient interest that is not
similarly aroused by the male equivalent, that perception cannot serve as
a justification for different treatment because it is itself a suspect cultural
artifact rooted in centuries of prejudice and bias toward women." This
ruling, however, is just one of many statutes and legal precedents nationwide
that uphold the position that breast exposure is not inherently indecent
behavior.
Additional legal support for Naturism.
129. Case history demonstrates that laws requiring women to cover their breasts
are not justified by cultural prejudices and preconceptions.
130. Laws requiring women, but not men, to cover their breasts are written
entirely from a male perspective, assuming that men's bodies are natural
and normal, and that women's bodies must be covered because they are different.
Reena Glazer observes that "under sameness theory, women can get equal treatment
only to the extent that they are the same as men." Physical differences among
the races do not justify discrimination, and neither should physical differences
between the sexes.
131. Laws requiring women to cover their breasts are not justified by claims
that women's bodies are significantly different from men's; nor by inaccurate
claims that breasts are sex organs; nor by the fact that breasts may play
a role in sex or sex play; nor by the fact that breasts are prominent secondary
sex characteristics.
It can't be argued that women have breasts and men don't, because both do;
nor can it be argued that women have larger, often protruding breasts,
because many women are flat-chested while many men have large breasts. Breasts
are not sex organs, for they are not essential to reproduction, and in fact
have nothing to do with it. A woman with no breasts can have a baby. Breasts
serve the physiological function of nourishing a baby--but this is a maternal
function, not a sexual one. Breasts may play a role in sex play, but other
body parts do too, and are not censured--particularly the hands, and the
mouth (which, incidentally, is veiled by Shi'ite Moslems, partly for
that very reason, though only on women). And while breasts are secondary
sex characteristics, so are beards, which are not restricted on men.
132. Mere nudity is not in itself lewd or "indecent exposure," a distinction
upheld by extensive legal precedent nationwide.
133. Mere nudity cannot be offensive or immoral "conduct"--for it is not
conduct at all, but merely the natural state of a human being.
It should be no less legitimate to be in this natural human state than to
be clothed. One's ethnicity is also a natural state of being, and discrimination
on this basis is illegal. It should be equally illegal to discriminate on
the basis of appearing in the natural state common to all humanity.
134. Given the challenge of defining modesty standards, which are by nature
ambiguous, legislators have often found it to be more complicated to prohibit
nudity than to sanction it.
For example, in the local anti-nudity legislation of St. John's County, Florida,
we find this painstakingly elaborate definition of "buttocks:" "The area
at the rear of the human body (sometimes referred to as the gluteus maximus)
which lies between two imaginary straight lines running parallel to the ground
when a person is standing, the first or top such line being a half-inch below
the top of the vertical cleavage of the nates (i.e., the prominence formed
by the muscles running from the back of the hip to the back of the leg) and
the second or bottom such line being a half-inch above the lowest point of
the curvature of the fleshy protuberance (sometimes referred to as the gluteal
fold), and between two imaginary straight lines, one on each side of the
body (the 'outside lines'), which outside lines are perpendicular to the
ground and to the horizontal lines described above, and which perpendicular
outside lines pass through the outermost point(s) at which each nate meets
the outer side of each leg. Notwithstanding the above, buttocks shall not
include the leg, the hamstring muscle below the gluteal fold, the tensor
fasciae latae muscles, or any of the above described portion of the human
body that is between either (i) the left inside perpendicular line and the
left outside perpendicular line or (ii) the right inside perpendicular line
and the right outside perpendicular line. For the purpose of the previous
sentence, the left inside perpendicular line shall be an imaginary straight
line on the left side of the anus (i) that is perpendicular to the ground
and to the horizontal lines described above and (ii) that is one third of
the distance from the anus to the left outside line. (The above description
can generally be described as covering one third of the buttocks centered
over the cleavage for the length of the cleavage.)"
135. A large portion of state and local government anti-nudity regulations
have been legislated by individual high officials or small groups, without
public review. This is undemocratic and contrary to the principle of due
process.
Florida, for example, closed most of its nude beaches in 1983 without public
review.
136. By extensive legal precedent, it is unquestionably legal to be nude
in private, on private property.
137. Many state or local governments have also explicitly legislated the
right to be nude in designated public areas, such as legally-sanctioned nude
beaches.
Legal nude beaches are rare but not non-existent in North America. British
Columbia, for example, currently has one legally sanctioned nude beach, and
Oregon has two.
138. There is no universal federal prohibition against nudity on public land.
In general, public land agencies view nude recreation--conducted with discretion
and sensitivity to the varying values of others--as "legitimate activity."
Many state and local governments (notably Oregon, Vermont, and the California
Department of Recreation and Parks) have followed the federal policy as well,
without conflict.
William Penn Mott, a former Director of the National Park Service, wrote:
"NPS must consciously seek to respect and accommodate wide ranging differences
among visitors and professional colleagues in lifestyles and values with
sympathy, dignity, and tolerance. I believe that parks are a place where
the human spirit is more free, more capable of permitting people to be
themselves, closer to a oneness with universal truths about humankind and
about our relationship to nature and the sacred truths by which we live.
. . . I believe it is too easy for government employees--all of
us--to think there is only one way to enjoy and use the parks and that when
the visitor enters 'our parks' they must 'do it our way.'"
139. The nude use of most federal lands is, in fact, constitutional
because there is no universal federal law prohibiting it. The Ninth Amendment
specifically says that no freedoms shall be denied which are not specifically
prohibited.
140. The mandate of public land agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service
provide for diversity of recreation. Historically, provisions have been made
even for extreme minority forms of recreation. Recreational diversity ought
to also include provisions for nude recreation.
A 1983 Gallup poll found that 14% of Americans occasionally enjoyed nude
recreation. How many activities does 14% of the American public participate
in, of any kind? Surely not hunting, snowmobiling, mountain biking,
or the use of off-road vehicles, all of which have designated areas set aside
for their use!
141. Clothing-optional recreation is less offensive to most people than many
other forms of recreation which are openly tolerated and even promoted on
public land.
A study by Dr. Steven D. Moore of the University of Arizona demonstrated
that encountering nude bathers on public land is five times more acceptable
to the public than encountering hunters.
142. Naturists certainly deserve at least as much consideration by land
management agencies as resource-damaging activities such as off-road vehicle
use.
As Pat O'Brien points out, "avoiding nude people in places where they're
expected to be is easy. That isn't true when it comes to other sanctioned
uses of our public lands and waterways. The roar and stink of a snowmobile
or other off-road vehicles can't be ignored, and you'd best not overlook
a jetskier in the water near you. Why then is it so objectionable for us
to ask to use a small amount of space on a non-exclusive basis, in ways that
do not pollute and do not drive others away?"
143. The Wilderness Act of 1963 defined wilderness areas as "lands designated
for preservation and protection in their natural condition." They are to
be managed in a manner that maintains them in as natural a state as possible.
It follows that human should be able to enjoy wilderness areas in their own
most natural state, free from the artificial constraints of clothing.
144. Public wilderness areas ought to be places where human freedoms, including
nude recreation, are observed more freely than anywhere else. Wilderness
should be our measure of carefully controlled anarchy, our refuge free of
any but the most necessary intrusions by government rules and regulations.
Do we not go to wilderness for these very reasons, and would it not be
compromised by undue outside interference, such as unnecessary clothing
regulations?
145. Recreation managers unfortunately often "solve" the issue of nude
recreation, not by managing it, but by ignoring it.
Thus managers "permit" nudity on remote beaches without facilities or lifeguards,
then point to litter, drug use, and other problems as a consequence of the
nudity rather than the lack of active management.
146. If public nude recreation can be widely accepted in societies considered
repressive by Americans (for example, formerly-socialist Yugoslavia,
once-communist East Germany, Orthodox Greece, or Catholic France), it ought
to be tolerated in democratic Europe and in America, "the land of the
free."
Lee Baxandall has reported that "almost every town [on East Germany's coast]
has an FKK [nude] beach, some 90 sites serving 200,000 campers/lodgers annually;
more FKK than textile beaches. A GDR poll found 57% of the population approving
of nude recreation, 30% had no opinion, and only 13% opposed."
Unfortunately, with the reunification of Germany, the West has exported to
the East both pornography and beach restrictions: now that East Germany is
"free," many of its beaches aren't. A June 1992 UPI dispatch from Ahlbeck
noted that "the controversy stems from the introduction of western German-style
regulations on traditionally nude eastern German beaches." Ironically,
authority for the new prohibitions of nudity stems from a Nazi-era regulation
carrying the signature of Heinrich Himmler.
147. Anti-nudity laws are demeaning because they replace individual
responsibility with state control.
148. It is inappropriate to use police resources to crack down on peaceful
bathers at a beach simply because they are nude, while taking valuable resources
away from other more urgent needs.
149. It is a cruel reversal of justice when the law frowns on innocent
skinnydippers, while gawkers on the fringe of the nude beach, who pervert
and fetishize the body, are accepted as "normal."
Historical support for Naturism.
150. Social nudity is part of a long historical tradition. Recent Western
civilization stands almost alone, in the entire known history of humanity,
in its repressive code against nudity.
151. Nudity was commonplace in the ancient Greek civilization, especially
for men.
By the Classical Period of ancient Greece, nude exercise and athletic competition
had become part of the way of life for Greek men, and a practice which separated
"modern" Greeks both from other, "barbarian" cultures and from their own
past. The original Olympic games were conducted in the nude. Plato described
nudity in exercise as a practical, useful, and rational innovation; Thucydides
promoted it as simpler, freer, and more democratic, a cultural distinction
between the Greek soldier who must be in shape, lean and muscular, not portly
and prosperous, and the "barbarians" who announced their status and wealth
by wearing expensive garments that gave a false impression of elegance and
authority.
152. Old Testament ceremonial washings, including baptism, were performed
in the nude. Christ, too, was probably baptized naked--as depicted in numerous
early works of art.
153. Roman citizens, including early Christians, bathed communally in the
nude at the public baths throughout most of the second through the fourth
centuries. Nudity was also common during this period in other parts of ancient
Roman society.
154. The writings of early Christians such as Irenaeus and Tertullian make
it clear that they had no ethical reservations about communal nudity.
Christian historian Roy Bowen Ward notes that "Christian Morality did not
originally preclude nudity. . . . There is a tendency to read history
backward and assume that early Christians thought the same way mainstream
Christians do today. We attribute the present to the past."
155. For the first several centuries of Christianity, it was the custom to
baptize men, women, and children together nude. This ritual played a very
significant role in the early church. The accounts are numerous and detailed.
Margaret Miles notes that "naked baptism was observed as one of the two essential
elements in Christian initiation, along with the invocation of the Trinity.
. . . In the fourth century instructions for baptism throughout
the Roman Empire stipulated naked baptism without any suggestion of innovation
or change from earlier practices." A typical historical account comes
from Cyril of Jerusalem, bishop of Jerusalem from A.D. 387 to 417: "Immediately,
then, upon entering, you remove your tunics. . . . You are now
stripped and naked, in this also imitating Christ despoiled of His garments
on His Cross, He Who by His nakedness despoiled the principalities and powers,
and fearlessly triumphed over them on the Cross." After baptism, and clothed
in white albs, St. Cyril would say: "How wonderful! You were naked before
the eyes of all and were not ashamed! Truly you bore the image of the
first-formed Adam, who was naked in the garden and was not ashamed."
J.C. Cunningham notes that "there is nothing in the present rubrics of the
Roman rite against doing this today. In fact, in the Eastern rites the rubrics
even state the option of nude adult baptism."
156. Nudity was common and accepted in pre-medieval (circa 6th century) society,
especially in places like Great Britain, which had been "barbarian" lands
only a few hundred years before.
E.T. Renbourn notes that nudity was widespread throughout Ancient Britain
and northern Europe, in spite of the climate. Even as late as the 17th century,
travellers such as Coryat and Fynes Moryson found the Irish people living
nude or semi-nude indoors. He writes that Moryson, in his Itinery
(circa early 17th century), found Irish gentlewomen "prepared to receive
visitors and even strangers indoors when completely unencumbered by
clothing."
157. Nudity was fairly common in medieval and renaissance society, especially
in the public baths and within the family setting.
Havelock Ellis records that "in daily life . . . a considerable
degree of nakedness was tolerated during medieval times. This was notably
so in the public baths, frequented by men and women together." Lawrence
Wright observes that nudity was common in the home, too: "The communal tub
had . . . one good reason; the good reason was the physical difficulty
of providing hot water. No modern householder who . . . has bailed
out and carried away some 30 gallons of water, weighing 300 lb., will underrate
the labour involved. The whole family and their guests would bathe together
while the water was hot. . . . Ideas of propriety were different
from ours, the whole household and the guests shared the one and only sleeping
apartment, and wore no night-clothes until the sixteenth century. It was
not necessarily rude to be nude."
The high-ranking nobles of Edward IV's court were permitted by law to display
their naked genitals below a short tunic, and contemporary reports indicate
that they did so. Chaucer commented on the use of this fashion in The
Parson's Tale, written about 1400. Many men's garments, he wrote, were
so short they "covere nat the shameful membres of man." Between the
14th and mid-17th centuries, and especially during the reign of Louis XIV,
women would often leave their bodices loose and open or even entirely undone,
exposing the nipple or even the whole of the breasts, a practice confirmed
by numerous historical accounts. The Venetian ambassador, writing in 1617,
described Queen Anne of Denmark as wearing a dress which displayed her bosom
"bare down to the pit of the stomach." Aileen Ribeiro writes that in the
early 15th century, "women's gowns became increasingly tight-fitting over
the bust, some gowns with front openings even revealing the nipples.
. . . In 1445 Guillaume Jouvenal des Ursins became Chancellor of
France and his brother, an ecclesiastic, wrote to him urging him to tell
the king that he should not allow the ladies of his household to wear gowns
with front openings that revealed their breasts and nipples."
158. Even in the Victorian era, before the invention of bathing suits, swimming
nude in the ocean was commonplace; and music halls often featured nude models
as living "sculpture."
159. Few people realize that swimsuits, as we know them today, are a relatively
recent concept. The idea of wearing special clothing to swim in is barely
a century old.
160. Skinnydipping, in the local river or farm pond, is well-documented as
an important historical part of our national heritage.
Skinnydipping and outdoor nudity appear in the writings of Walt Whitman,
Mark Twain, William Allen White, Lincoln Steffens, William Styron, Anne Morrow
Lindbergh, Herman Melville, James Michener, and Henry Miller, among many
others, and in the depictions of Norman Rockwell, Rockwell Kent, Andrew Wyeth,
Thomas Eakins, John Sloane, and Grant Wood.
161. Many YMCA, college, and high school male-only pools or swimming classes
were historically "swimsuit-optional" or nude-only until
federally-mandated "equal access" athletic programs (for the sake of women)
were instituted in the mid 1970s.
162. Today, there are still public locations where nudity is, by local tradition
or custom, the accepted practice.
Nudity is the norm, for instance, in natural primitive hot springs and on
nude beaches; and, almost universally, for models in art classes.
163. The few officially sanctioned nude beaches in the U.S. (for example,
Rooster Rock State Park, Oregon) and Canada (Wreck Beach, British Columbia)--and
most of the unofficial beaches as well--have existed for decades without
significant problems.
164. Many highly respected people, historical and contemporary, have espoused
and/or participated in Naturism to some degree.
Benjamin Franklin took daily naked "air baths." So did Henry
David Thoreau, who was also a frequent skinnydipper. Alexander Graham
Bell was a skinnydipper and nude sunbather. George Bernard Shaw, Walt Whitman,
Eugene O'Neill, and painter Thomas Eakins argued in favor of social nudity.
President John Quincy Adams was a regular skinnydipper. According to reports,
"each morning he got up before dawn, walked across the White House lawn to
the Potomac River, took off his clothes and swam in the nude. Then he returned
to the White House to have breakfast, read the Bible and run the country."
President Theodore Roosevelt frequently swam nude in Rock Creek Park in
Washington, once skinny-dipping with the French diplomat, Jules Jusserand.
President Lyndon Johnson occasionally swam nude with guests in the white
house pool, including evangelist Billy Graham. Senator Edward Kennedy has
been photographed skinnydipping at public beaches in Florida. At the White
House of his brother, John F. Kennedy, nudity had been common around the
White House pool. Many U.S. congressmen enjoy nude recreation, albeit segregated:
U.S. Senate members may use the Russell Senate Office Building Pool in the
nude (the few female Senators make appointments to assure there won't be
males on hand), and Representatives may use a clothing-optional steam room,
where President Bush was said by Newsweek to hang out sans towel with
his buddies. Congressmen also sunbathed nude on the Speaker's Porch until
one day in 1973 when Rep. Patricia Schroeder wandered into the gathering
inadvertently.
Billionaire insurance man John D. MacArthur frequently went skinnydipping,
and left a beach to the state of Florida, intending that a portion be designated
clothing-optional (a wish that has been spurned); word has it that MacArthur
went skinnydipping with Walt Disney at this beach in the late 1960s. World
Bank president and former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, and American
Civil Liberties Union founder Roger Baldwin, both have been regular
skinnydippers. Charles F. Richter, the co-inventor of the earthquake measuring
system, was a life-long nudist and Naturist. Actress Lynn Redgrave and her
family practice social nudism. Actresses Bridget Fonda and Brigitte Bardot
enjoy social nudity. The late actor Gary Merrill advocated nudism. Christy
Brinkley openly admits to frequenting nude beaches, and Christian singer
Amy Grant goes topfree on foreign beaches while on tour overseas. Even the
late Dr. Seuss published approval of a nudist philosophy, in one of his first
books.
165. Historically, a great many writers and artists have regarded Naturism,
or something close to it, to be part of the utopian ideal.
R. Martin writes: "Anthropologically, nakedness would seem to be the best
and worst of conditions. Involuntary stripping to nakedness is defeat or
poverty, but willed nakedness may be a perfect form." Nudity is also
consistent with the Christian utopian concept of heaven, in which, according
to biblical accounts, clothing is not necessary.
166. Nudity has often been used, historically, as a symbol of protest or
rebellion against oppression.
For example, the early Quakers, in mid-17th century England, often used nudity
as an element of protest. Historian Elbert Russell notes that "A number of
men and women were arrested and punished for public indecency because they
appeared in public naked 'as a sign.' George Fox and other leaders defended
the practice, when the doer felt it a religious duty to do so. . . .
The suggestion of such a sign came apparently from Isaiah's walking 'naked
and barefoot three years' (Isaiah 20:2,3)." The Doukhobors, a radical
Christian sect, used nudity as a social protest in Canada in the early 1900s.
Paul Ableman records that "In May, 1979, Emperor Bokassa . . .
a minor Central African tyrant, arrested a large number of children on charges
of sedition and massacred some of them. According to The Guardian
(London) of 18 May, 'Hundreds of women demonstrated naked outside the prison
until the survivors were released.'"
In the 1920s, as part of a widening rebellion against genteel society, the
size of bathing suits began to diminish. Nude beaches, reaching their height
of popularity in the 1970s, are the ultimate result of this process of social
emancipation. The free body movement in general in the 1970s fit this social
and historical pattern. Examples include casual nudity at Woodstock; "nude-in"
demonstrations; and a record-setting demonstration by Athens, Georgia university
students on March 7, 1974, when more than 1500 went naked on their college
campus. It took tear gas to make the students dress.
Historical origins of the repression of nudity.
167. Repressive morality was developed by the state and the Church as a tool
to maintain control over otherwise free individuals.
Paul Ableman writes: "A complex civilization has an enormous investment in
differentiated apparel. It is no accident that one of the first matters that
a revolutionary regime turns its attention to is clothing. The French Revolution
decreed classical grace and simplicity. The Chinese homogenized clothing.
The Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran returned women to the black chador and so
on. . . . Sexual energy is needed by the authorities of the world
to maintain order. . . . It immediately becomes obvious why the
true obscenity of killing and violence has always been of less concern to
those in power than the pseudo-obscenity of erotic acts. Death provides no
scope for a network of regulations by which society can be manipulated.
. . . But sex is a permanent fountain of dynamic energy, which
can be tapped for social purposes by regulations concerning marriage, divorce,
adultery, fornication, incest, homosexuality, bestiality, chastity, promiscuity,
decency and so on. All those who wield power intuitively perceive that in
the last resort their authority derives from the repression, and regulation,
of sexuality, and that free-flowing sexuality is the biological equivalent
of anarchy. All transferrals of power, all revolutions, are invariably
accompanied by transformations of the regulations governing sexuality."
Seymour Fisher writes: "The implications of nudity as a way of declaring
one's complete freedom have often elicited strong countermeasures from those
in authority. Nudity is punishable by death in some cultures. The Roman Catholic
church has taught in convent schools that it is sinful to expose your body
even to your own eyes. The wearing of clothes represents a form of submission
to prevailing mores. It is like putting on a 'citizen's uniform' and agreeing
to play the game."
168. Repressive morality has often sought to control not only nudity, but
sexuality in general.
Margaret Miles observes that "the regulation of sexuality was a major power
issue in the fourth-century Christian churches. Regulation of sexual practices
was a way to inject the authority of church laws and leaders into the intimate
and daily relationships of Christians. Analyzing the canons of the Council
of Gangra in AD 309, [Samuel] Laeuchli found that 46 percent of the eighty-one
canons were concerned with sexual relationships and practices." Philip
Yancey notes that "between the third and tenth centuries, church authorities
issued edicts forbidding sex on Saturdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and also
during the 40-day fast periods before Easter, Christmas, and Whitsuntide--all
for religious reasons. They kept adding feast days and days of the apostles
to the proscription, as well as the days of female impurity, until it reached
the point that, as Yale historian John Boswell has estimated, only 44 days
a year remained available for marital sex. Human nature being what it is,
the church's proscriptions were enthusiastically ignored." Don Mackenzie
notes that Christ and the very earliest church, in contrast, emphasized a
message of freedom--"from demonic powers, from tyrannical governments, from
fate. . . . [and] a prevailing commitment to the separation of
secular and ecclesiastical power. . . . [The Church] adopted
asceticism, not in obedience to its founder's teachings but as a bid for
support in the face of competition, offering spiritual solace to people whose
material world (the Roman Empire) was collapsing. Once the Church was officially
recognized, it promptly discarded Christ's dedication to poverty, but it
clung tightly to sexual asceticism as a disciplinary tool in a disintegrating
society."
169. Repression of nudity is still used today as a means to further a repressive
political agenda.
Regarding nude beaches, Patrick Buchanan, on PBS's "McLaughlin Report," said,
"I think we ought to let the liberals do it, if they want to do it. Then
take photographs and use them in attack ads." The right-wing Christian
Coalition uses blanket attacks on mere nudity and other matters of "morality"
to rally support for their cause. Their method, as described by ACLU Executive
Director Ira Glasser, is "to prey upon the fears of millions of people who
are all too willing to believe that sacrificing personal liberty will help
solve our nation's problems." A Missouri legislator, in 1993, introduced
a bill that would have made virtually all public nudity--and even some nudity
in the home--a felony punishable by up to ten years in prison! This bill
was fortunately defeated, though by a narrow margin. Similar bills have been
proposed all over the country in recent years.
170. Much of the origin of repressive attitudes toward nudity may be traced
to the political setting of the early church and church-state, though
not the teachings of Christ Himself.
The earliest writings of the Christian church show no evidence of the negative
attitude toward sexuality and nudity which so characterize later years. This
negative attitude grew slowly among some segments of the faith, but was by
no means universal. For some, asceticism represented a means of remaining
pure for the impending return of Christ. For others, it was a reaction against
the hedonism and homosexuality common in Greek culture, or against the sexual
excesses of the dying Roman Empire. For some, it grew out of a mixture of
Christianity with the legalism of traditional Judaism; and for many, it grew
out of preexisting personal and cultural prejudices. Clement of Alexandria,
in the late 2nd century, and Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus, in the mid 3rd
century, both condemned the nudity common in Roman public baths primarily
because it offended their personal ideas of female modesty. (In the same
era, Tertullian was condemning women as the "gateway of the Devil.") Jerome,
in the late 4th and early 5th centuries, also condemned nude bathing, especially
for women. He considered pregnant women revolting, and felt that virgins
should blush at the very idea of seeing themselves naked. On the other hand,
in the same period, Jovinianus, a Christian monk, campaigned actively in
favor of the public baths. In the end, the decisive actor in the controversy
was Augustine. He was a firm believer in the doctrine, introduced long after
Christ, that the body and sexuality are inherently sinful. (He applied this
doctrine to women's bodies and sexuality especially aggressively.) Augustine
was a shrewd politician. By aligning himself closely with the imperial court
at the beginning of the 5th century, he effectively ensured that his version
of Christianity became the dominant one. By the Dark Ages, with the collapse
of the Roman Empire, the Church became the last remnant of Western civilization,
with a monopoly on education, and tremendous control over ideas. Thus Augustine's
heritage of anti-sexuality became the predominant force in Christianity,
even though such ideas are impossible to find in the teachings of Christ
Himself.
171. The aversion of early Christian church leaders to casual nudity was
due in part to an association of nudity with paganism and homosexuality in
the surrounding cultures.
In many pre-Christian pagan religions, such as those practiced in western
Europe and Great Britain, nudity--especially female nudity--was a powerful
force, and played an important role in pagan worship and rituals.
172. The Church's aversion to nudity derived, in part, from its roots in
the cultures of the ancient Near East, where nakedness had signified poverty,
shame, slavery, humiliation, and defeat. Naked, bound prisoners were paraded
in the king's victory celebration, and slain enemies were stripped of clothing
and armor.
173. Before Western civilization, nakedness was a normal element of life
and considered acceptable in many circumstances. However, as Freud describes
in Civilization and Its Discontents, psychological repression of the
awareness of our natural being was a necessary step in building civilization,
by disciplining the masses into taking part in vast and self-abdicating social
projects.
Lee Baxandall notes that, by contrast, "the post-industrial, newly greening
era offers fresh options, a chance to integrate the natural human being with
post-industrial values, technology, and knowledge."
174. Nudity has often been censored primarily to avoid the more difficult
task of managing it.
175. Recreation managers often "permit" nudity on remote beaches without
facilities or lifeguards, then use nudity as a scapegoat for problems including
litter and drug use that inevitably appear in high-use recreation areas without
active management.
176. One of the greatest challenges faced by clothing-optional beaches is
that their popularity, combined with their scarcity, leads to intensive use,
which in turn conflicts with environmental and management concerns.
This has been a source of problems at several beaches across the country,
including Sandy Hook in New Jersey, and Cape Cod National Seashore, which
closed its traditionally nude beach ostensibly for environmental reasons
in the mid 1970s.
177. The "secondary effects" of an actively managed nude beach have in actual
experience proven to be less crime, less inappropriate behavior, no drug
dealers, an increase in parking revenues, and an increase in business in
the adjoining commercial area.
178. Nudity has often been repressed for economic reasons, not because it
was considered immoral.
Bernard Rudofsky writes: "In the 1920s, in some parts of Europe people used
to bathe in public without feeling the need for a special dress. At the height
of summer the beaches on the Black Sea swarmed with bathers who had never
seen a bathing suit except in newspapers and picture magazines; their holiday
was one of untroubled simplicity. . . . The idyll came to an end
a few years later when tourism reared its ugly head, and the protests of
foreign visitors led to making bathing suits compulsory." The same
thing has recently happened in the former East Germany, where traditionally
nude beaches are now being restricted to appease more conservative European
tourists.
179. We must never forget that for any freedom that is lost, we bear partial
responsibility for letting it be lost.
In the words of Frederick Douglass: "Find out just what people will submit
to and you have found out the exact amount of justice and wrong which will
be imposed upon them. . . . The limits of tyrants are prescribed
by the endurance of those who they oppress."
Christianity supports Naturism.
180. Genesis 1:27--The (naked) human body, created by God, in God's own image,
is basically decent, not inherently impure or sinful. The human body was
created by God, and God can create no evil. It is made in God's image, and
the image of God is entirely pure and good.
181. Genesis 1:31--God saw that everything, including naked Adam and Eve,
was good.
182. Genesis 3:7--Many scholars interpret the wearing of fig leaves as a
continuation and expansion of the original sin, not a positive moral reaction
to it.
Hugh Kilmer explains: "Man wanted to put his life within his own control
rather than God's, so first he took the power of self-determination (knowledge
of good and evil). Next, finding his body was not within his control,
he controlled it artificially by hiding it. After he was expelled from paradise,
he began to hunt and eat animals; then to gain complete control over other
people, by killing them (the story of Cain and Abel)."
183. Genesis 3:10--Many scholars believe that Adam and Eve's sense of shame
came not from their nakedness, which God had created and called good, but
from their knowledge of having disobeyed God.
184. An innate, God-given sense of shame related to nakedness is contradicted
by the existence of numerous indigenous societies in which nudity is the
rule and a sense of shame is totally absent, and by the lack of shame felt
by naked children.
185. Genesis 3:11--It was disobedience that came between Adam and Eve and
God, not nakedness. The scriptures themselves treat Adam and Eve's nudity
as an incidental issue.
Robert Bahr observes that "when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they grew ashamed
of what they had done and attempted to hide themselves from God, who was
not the least bit concerned with their nakedness but was mightily unhappy
with their disobedience." Herb Seal notes that God provided a covering
by slaying an innocent animal: the first prototype of the innocent one slain
to act as a "covering" for sinners.
186. Genesis 3:21--God made garments of skins for Adam, but the Bible does
not say the state of nakedness is being condemned. Because of the Fall, Adam
and Eve were no longer in Eden and were thus subject to the varieties of
weather and climate, and God knew they would need clothes. God loved and
cared for them even after they had sinned.
187. To assume that because God made garments He was condemning nudity makes
as much sense as concluding that because God made clouds which blot out the
sun He was condemning sunshine.
188. Genesis 9:22-24--Noah was both drunk and naked, but Ham was the one
who was cursed--when he dishonored his father, by calling attention to Noah's
state, and making light of it.
The shame of Noah's "nakedness" was much more than just being undressed.
It was his dehumanized, drunken stupor which was shameful. Ham's offense
was not merely seeing his father in this shameful state, but gossiping about
it, effectively destroying Noah's reputation, cultural status, and authority
as a father figure. In the story, Shem and Japheth were blessed for coming
to the defense of their father's honor. Rather than joining Ham in his boasting,
they reverently covered their father's shame.
189. Exodus 20:26--The Priest's nakedness was not to be exposed because it
would create dissonance between his social role, in which he was to be seen
as sexually neutral, and his biological status as a sexual being. The Priest's
costume represented his social role; to be exposed in that context would
be inappropriate and distracting.
Rita Poretsky writes: "Personhood, original sexual energy, and physical nakedness
may be either in synchrony with social institutions or in disharmony.
. . . Nakedness is a nakedness of self in a social context, not
just a nakedness of body." On the other hand, it was quite appropriate
for David to dance essentially naked in public to celebrate the return of
the Ark of the Covenant (II Samuel 6:14-23).
190. Leviticus 18:6-19--Here and throughout the Old Testament and Torah,
the expression "uncover the nakedness of" (as it is literally translated
in the King James Version) is a euphemism for "have sexual relations with."
The prohibitions do not refer to nudity per se.
191. I Samuel 19:23-24--Jewish prophets were commonly naked--so commonly
that when Saul stripped off his clothes and prophesied, no one considered
his nakedness remarkable, but everyone immediately assumed that he must be
a prophet also.
192. II Samuel 6:14-23--King David danced nearly naked in the City of David
to celebrate the return of the ark, in full view of all the citizens of the
city. Michal criticized his public nudity and was rebuffed.
King David was not strictly naked--he wore a "linen ephod," a sort of short
apron or close-fitting, armless, outer vest, extending at the most down to
the hips. Ephods were part of the vestments worn by Jewish priests. They
hid nothing.
193. Isaiah 20:2-3--God directly commanded Isaiah to loose the sackcloth
from his hips, and he went naked and barefoot for three years. The
prophet Micah may have done the same thing (see Micah 1:8).
194. Song of Solomon repeatedly expresses appreciation for the naked body.
195. Every Biblical association of nakedness with shame is in reference to
a sin already committed. One cannot hide from God behind literal or
figurative clothing. All stand naked before God.
196. Nakedness cannot automatically be equated with sexual sin.
Linking nudity with sexual sin, to the exclusion of all else, makes as much
sense as insisting that fire can only be connected to the destruction of
property and life, and is therefore immoral. Sin comes not from nakedness,
but from how the state of nakedness is used. Ian Barbour writes: "No aspect
of man is evil in itself, but only in its misuse. The inherent goodness of
the material order, in which man's being fully participates, is, as we shall
see, a corollary of the doctrine of creation."
Pope John Paul II agrees that nudity, in and of itself, is not sinful. "The
human body in itself always has its own inalienable human dignity," he says.
It is only obscene when it is reduced to "an object of 'enjoyment,' meant
for the gratification of concupiscence itself."
197. Nakedness cannot automatically be associated with lust.
It is not reasonable to cover the apples in the marketplace just because
someone might may be tempted by gluttony, nor is it necessary to ban money
because someone might be overcome by greed. Nor is it reasonable to ban nudity,
simply because an individual might be tempted to lust. Furthermore, appreciation
for the beauty of a member of the other sex, nude or otherwise, cannot be
equated automatically with lust. Only if desire is added does appreciation
become lust, and therefore sin. Even then, it is the one who lusts, not the
object of lust, who has sinned. Bathesheba was never rebuked for bathing,
but David for lusting (II Samuel 11:2-12:12). Pope John Paul II writes: "There
are circumstances in which nakedness is not immodest. If someone takes advantage
of such an occasion to treat the person as an object of enjoyment (even if
his action is purely internal) it is only he who is guilty of shamelessness
. . . not the other." Margaret Miles observes that "Nakedness
and sexuality or lust were seldom associated in patristic writings."
198. Many historical church leaders have
disassociated nudity with sexual immodesty. St. Thomas Aquinus, for example,
defined an immodest act as one done with a lustful intention. Therefore,
someone who disrobes for the sole purpose of bathing or recreating cannot
be accused of immodesty.
Pope John Paul II writes: "Sexual modesty cannot then in any simple way be
identified with the use of clothing, nor shamelessness with the absence of
clothing and total or partial nakedness. . . . Immodesty is present
only when nakedness plays a negative role with regard to the value of the
person, when its aim is to arouse concupiscence, as a result of which the
person is put in the position of an object for enjoyment. . . .
There are certain objective situations in which even total nudity of the
body is not immodest."
199. Through Christ, the Christian is returned spiritually to the same sinless,
shameless state Adam and Eve enjoyed in Eden (Genesis 2:25). There is no
question that their nakedness was not sinful. When God creates, nakedness
is good. It follows that when God re-creates, nakedness is also good.
200. The Bible says plainly that sexual immorality is sin. Healthy Naturism,
however, is entirely consistent for the Christian, who has "crucified the
sinful nature with its passions and desires." (Galatians 5:24)
201. The Bible calls for purity of heart. Anyone who thinks it is impossible
to be pure of heart while nude is ignorant of the realities of nudism, and
anyone who believe that it is wrong even for the pure of heart to
be nude has fallen into legalism, a vice which St. Paul repeatedly
denounces.
St. Paul writes: "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow
and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic
principles of this world rather than on Christ. . . . Since you
died with Christ to the basic principles of the world, why, as though you
still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: 'Do not handle! Do not
taste! Do not touch!'? These are all destined to perish with use, because
they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have
an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility
and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining
sensual indulgence. . . . Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy
and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility,
gentleness, and patience." (Colossians 2:8, 20-23; 3:2)
202. Clothes-compulsiveness creates an unwholesome schism between one's spirit
and body. A Christian morality should deal with the person as a whole, healing
both spirit and body.
203. Nudity has often been used in the Christian tradition as symbolic of
renouncing the world to follow Christ.
Margaret Miles writes: "In the thirteenth century, Saint Bernard of Clairvoux
popularized the idea of nudity as symbolic imitation of Christ; it took Saint
Francis to act out this metaphor. Francis announced his betrothal to Lady
Poverty [i.e. his renunciation of material possessions] by publicly stripping
off his clothing and flinging it at the feet of his protesting father" and
the local bishop. Several Christian sects have practiced nudity as part of
their faith, including the German Brethren of the Free Spirit, in the thirteenth
century; the Picards, in fifteenth century France; and, most famously, the
Adamites, in the early fifteenth century Netherlands.
204. Many other faiths also support nudity, both historically and in current
practice.
For example, the "Digambar" or "sky-clad" monks of Digambar Jainism have
gone completely naked as part of their ascetic tradition for 2500 years,
though nudity is rare in the dominant Hindu religion. Many other (males-only)
Hindu religious orders also practice ritualistic nudity or near-nudity, as
they have for hundreds or thousands of years. Tribal Hindus held an annual
nude worship service attracting 100,000 in Chandragutti, India until 1987,
when it was stopped by the police, in reaction to violence which had erupted
the previous year when social workers tried to force clothing on the
participants.
Personal experience supports Naturism.
205. One of the most important arguments in support of nudism is personal
experience. Personal testimonies in favor of nudism are too numerous to mention.
Based on my own experience, I find nudists to be more friendly, open-minded,
considerate, respectful, and sharing than non-nudists in general. Their children
are more active, and healthier, both physically and mentally. None of these
testimonies, of course, compares to personal experience. A single visit to
a nudist park or a nude beach will not cause permanent harm to anyone. On
the other hand, it may change your life. Experience the freedom for yourself!
Endnotes
Special Thanks
Special thanks is due The
Naturist Society and the
American Association for Nude
Recreation. Many of the ideas expressed in this document have their origins
in the philosophies, histories, and publications of these two organizations.
Thanks, especially, to Lee Baxandall, who contributed significant resources
to this research.
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